EPI-LOG ARTICLE on Beauty
and the Beast
review by Nina Johnson. Click
here for contents.
Episode 37 (Season 2, Episode 15)
The Watcher
The Watcher (airdate: April 7, 1989). Vincent comes to Catherine's balcony where she is lighting candles. It is a clear, moonless night and Vincent is extremely happy. It is the second anniversary of his and Catherine's meeting. Catherine asks Vincent to sit by the fire when the phone rings. Jenny has called her to tell her that she has had a bad dream about her. Catherine tells her she is okay and goes back to Vincent. Someone is watching Catherine and Vincent through a telescope. A hand picks up the phone and dials Catherine's number. She picks it up thinking Jenny has called back. An unknown voice says "I can see you, Cathy and I can see him, too." Catherine angrily slams down the phone. She tells Vincent that they are being watched and he should meet her downstairs. She is about to leave when the phone rings again. The voice tells her to open her drapes. She leaves the apartment. Catherine asks Vincent what she should do. The man called the day before and she thought it was some prank. She tells Vincent to stay away until it is safe. Catherine goes to work the next day and listens to her messages from the stranger. During one, an alarm goes off. Joe comes in to tell her she has missed a deposition. He wonders why she has ordered all her records be brought up and her excuse is that she is making sure they are in order. Jenny comes by and they go to lunch. Jenny tells Cathy the rest of the dream. There was flowers all over the place and someone was strangling Catherine. She believes it was more than a dream, more like a premonition. In the end, Catherine died. Catherine and Rita are talking over a case when she hears the same alarm sound again. She sees a man cleaning the water fountain. She stares at him until he comes by and says "Thanks, but I'm a happily married man." Catherine laughs at herself and goes back to her desk where a bouquet of roses waits for her. The card reads "You're starting to feel me with you, aren't you? Could you feel me in your room last night? I was there." Catherine goes to Joe and asks him very vaguely what she should do. He advises her to talk to Det. Hughs but Catherine doesn't want to involve the police or change her phone number. She has had a tracing unit on her phone and hopes that will be enough. He tells her to make sure she carries her gun at all times. Catherine meets Vincent later on that night and tells him about the flowers. Once again, she tells him he must stay away.
Catherine goes back to her apartment and takes a shower. The stranger is looking in her bedroom from the closet. He comes out and takes a nightgown from a drawer. Catherine hears him and makes her way to the bedroom. She is hunting for the gun but it is gone. She grabs a pair of scissors from the bathroom and goes to the living room. The wristwatch alarm goes off and she turns around and finds it on her mantle. Someone knocks at her door and she cries out "Who is it?" It is Joe. She lets him in and tells him about the intruder. He begins to search until Catherine tells him the man got her gun. Joe calls Det. Hughs and a locksmith comes to install a new deadbolt. Joe wants to stay the night but Catherine insists she will be okay. She paces her apartment thinking about the intruder until she can stand it no longer and leaves. The elevator takes too long and she runs down the stairs. The elevator doors open and Joe comes out with some coffee and a magazine. The phone rings and when Catherine doesn't answer it, Joe calls out for her. He finally breaks down the door and answers the phone. It is Jenny who has had another nightmare. She knows that Catherine is in trouble. Catherine meanwhile has been knocked out by the caller with an ether-soaked cloth. Vincent has been waiting on Catherine and he starts out after her. The abductor puts Catherine in his car and heads out of the garage. Vincent rushes in front of the car to be hit by it. Joe has run into the garage and is able to get the license plate. Joe gives Det. Hughs the information and Vincent begins to chase the car. Catherine is taken to the park and placed in the trunk. The man says something unintelligible about spending his childhood in the park. Now they can play together forever. He then pushes the car into the lake. Catherine comes to just as water begins filling the trunk. Vincent arrives at the lake but has no sense of Catherine. The abductor speak "You're too later." Vincent viciously kills the man. Catherine begins walking to a bright light. She sees two figures and calls to her mother. She walks to her mother but Vincent comes behind her and carries her back to the darkness. In Vincent's arms, Catherine regains consciousness. Vincent puts his cape around her and she tells him that she loves him. Joe and Det. Hughs arrive with an ambulance. They tell her that the police have a file on her abductor who has never done anything that drastic before. Then he asks her where she got the cape. Jenny is waiting for Catherine when she gets home and offers to stay with her. Catherine tells her she won't be alone and Jenny leaves. Vincent is waiting on the balcony and he gathers Catherine in his arms. He tells her "I felt you go." She asks him to hold her. She lights the candles again and comments that they may be watched by someone at that moment. Vincent answers "Perhaps. And perhaps someone is watching, and smiling on us." Catherine says "Whatever comes, I know - in the deepest part of who I am - that we will endure" as she gazes into his eyes.
Guest Cast: David Neidorf as the watcher, John Michael Bolger as Detective Hughs, Joseph Carberry as Detective Greene, Charlie Holliday as the locksmith, Terri Hanauer as Jenny Aronson, Carolyn Finney as Rita, Al Septien as the man in the loud shirt.
Writers: Linda Campanelli and M. M. Shelly Moore.
Director: Victor Lobl.