Okay, going to try to "clarify" and add more to my original post after reading the commentaries. Understand, I have previously called Season 2 of BATB a "beautiful train wreck" for a reason. Please understand, Arwenfan especially, that I was NOT trying to simply "give Catherine a pass" for her conduct over the course of Season 2. It is just that so many fans seem to level so much of the blame at Catherine during Season 2 rather than accepting that the writers chose to do what they did for a reason (which I can sometimes appreciate, even if I didn't like it--that happens. Still LOVE the overall theme of Season 2 that even after the worst of hardships, true Epic Love will find a way back to itself. And VinCat ARE stronger now. Still didn't like having to WATCH the hardships though. And felt that some of those hardships should have been further explored by the characters themselves.).
BOTH Catherine AND Vincent basically have the worst that can possibly happen to them actually happen to them. And rather than turning towards each other, both had to figure out their individual selves before being able to turn towards each other. Got that. Didn't like it, but got that. So each appears basically selfish at times in being so self-consumed by their own misery and trauma that unable to appreciate or see what the other is going through. So both make mistakes. Leads to a stronger VinCat as both characters find their own moral center, reclaim the best of what made me love them so in the beginning, and leads to them figuring out that together TRULY MEANS together and not just trying to think or plan for the other one.
Until one works through the trauma that has happened, the person cannot move forward. Believe me, I get that. I represented children in the foster system for ten years that had been abused and neglected. For children that had experienced sudden, life-altering horror and trauma, you knew that you would never get back the kid that had been born to this world and lived entirely differently prior to the things that led them to being taken into custody by the state. Adding tragedy upon tragedy, some of these traumatized children then acted out their frustrations on other children, sometimes doing worse or the same that was done to them. And you weep buckets for them, both victims and perps. And even try to defend them and appeal to the judicial system for mercy due to what happened to them in the past. You plead for treatment and things that the state either doesn't have or can't pay for. And sometimes, the poor parents just didn't know what to do when their child had something so awful happen to them and couldn't deal due to their own grief. So maybe part of the problem of this season was that it hit too terribly close to home to what I witnessed in my career for 10 years. Basically, after something so awful and life-altering trauma happens, you lose the ability to trust, even when all evidence points to law enforcement, social workers, therapists and others are actually TRYING to help.
Given the above, BOTH Catherine and Vincent had significant trauma. Which emotionally speaking, put them both to the emotional level almost of abused children until they could work through their trauma. For Vincent, he has NOTHING to pull from but scraps of memory that slowly come back to him. And he has had significant training (brainwashing) to make him kill without question, yet amp up his paranoia. So Vincent is beyond damaged. And he lashes out. Problem is, like so many abused children, he lashes out at another victim, Catherine. And he links up with a still more vulnerable victim, Tori. Worst possible decision-making. Understandable, yes, but worst possible position coming from someone able to really contemplate the future, especially with Bob around and trying so hard to ensure that neither Vincent or Tori has a future.
And Bob, like so many abusive adults, is deadly manipulative. Can make the vulnerable victim feel to blame for what has happened or that said person asked for it. The PORCH SCENE from 207 is therefore critical to how Bob can easily tear Vincent down in a moment and sew the seeds of doubt in his already vulnerable and fragmented relationship with Catherine. Ever the master manipulator, Bob knew Vincent still wanted to not be the cause of harm to Catherine and felt unworthy because of his beast qualities.
Add in the fact that Catherine has had JUST as much trauma, although different, happening to her for about the same amount of time as Vincent. And both have spent years virtually alone in their knowledge of the Big Bad responsible, yet helpless to do a thing about it. Catherine has now seen BOTH of the parents that raised her either gunned down or killed right in front of her. And nearly died in the process herself. Add to that the fact that she wasn't believed. It even made the newspapers about her claim that a "beast" had saved her. She was told to doubt what she saw. Then she finds out the truth is so much worse than even she thought. Catherine felt she had been lied to for years by her parents, and Catherine repeatedly gets confronted by the outcome to her biological father and mother choosing to play god with so many people's lives. Catherine almost has "survivor's guilt" for what happened to so many victims, particularly children like Gabe. Catherine tries to make right her parents' mistakes, which means she tries to "redeem" people and find the good in them, sometimes to her detriment (especially this past season). And we learn that Catherine's attempts to find redemption for lost souls actually goes farther back even from her trauma, as evidenced by her boyfriend choices in high school that we learned of in episode 205 (so yeah, the nuggets of Catherine's past that came out in 205 helped me find justifications for that episode which many don't like).
Catherine's support system has also had their own traumas (Tess and Joe and what happened to their precinct). Catherine saw how Evan died trying to protect her. And although Evan made his own choices, Catherine knows that he chose to work with Muirfield in order to try to "save" Catherine. So Catherine, already burdened by what her parents have done, has this added to her. And her closest support, Vincent, is taken. And Catherine thinks it is by Muirfield, so she spends 3 months thinking Vincent is being tortured non-stop or experimented on all because she can't find and rescue him. And Catherine would also have blamed herself for Vincent due to the whole Gabe incident. Catherine was the one to promote the relationship in thinking Gabe and Vincent could help each other. And Vincent takes the pills to try for a normal life with Catherine because he believes that is what she wants. Only to have Catherine have to inject Vincent to save his life and get him to beast-out again. So I can't even imagine Catherine's state of mind by the time that Vincent finally re-emerges. Plus, Catherine's father died AFTER ALL, right when everyone thought he would pull through, and Catherine semi-lost her sister in the process because she couldn't take time to grieve.
So
Catherine is a mess, and Vincent is a mess. Neither is able to really trust the other due to the whole "memory wipe" thing. And neither is able to REALLY be honest with each other because both of them are so wounded and unable to really grasp what he or she wants. That is why I appreciated "Liar, Liar." Catherine ends up admitting to Tess that even TESS saw that she just wanted her boyfriend back when Catherine thought she was looking out for other potential victims. SO THAT is, in part, why 207 (and 208 through 210) really rub me wrong. At least in episode 203 we get the characters revealing their insights, talking things out, etc. that can explain their rationale and actions. And Catherine can reach out to Tess while being emotionally unavailable to Vincent due to all that is going on. I get why Catherine pulls back and shuts Vincent out rather than trying to fake being all right when she clearly is not.
And Vincent is going through the same mess as Catherine and coming to realize what a burden has been placed on her. Vincent had not idea because he really had no memory or understanding of what Catherine had been through. So I get the "Reunion" episode covering that there are cracks and disconnects in the relationship that are going to come to a boil. Yet Vincent knows enough about Catherine by this time to see that she was trying to help him and that she loved him. Vincent realizes how much Catherine has had to cover up for him. And his humanity was returning. So the writers needed something to further derail and cause the disconnects and cracks to become fissures and volcanoes.
Enter Tori. An even more emotionally vulnerable victim. Add that you still have storyline to cover, and I get why so much got left uncovered or unsaid. Still, I would have liked to have seen so much more to explain the possibly "primal" pull and whether or not Vincent COULD resist. As I have said, I recognize that Vincent was at his most vulnerable, emotionally and memory speaking. While Tori later describes the attraction as primal, that certainly does not make it Epic. I have other posts covering why
I feel that the primal pull between beasts ultimately proved to be hollow and meaningless to Vincent and made him only more conscious of how right for him Catherine actually was. So little was actually done with Tori (due to time constraints, and let's face it, due to the immediate unpopularity of the character and the fact that the story just wasn't working) to justify Vincent choosing to just immediately hook up with her. All the warning signs were there about how vulnerable Tori was, the abuse/isolation she had obviously gone through, her freaking AGE, her inability to understand or control what was happening to her.
I DO understand that Episode 207 is actually VERY critical to the ongoing plot. Episode 207 shows us just how vulnerable Tori is through her plan to kill herself (without even guaranteeing a means of bringing herself back--she can't really think through anything), her pleas and demands/manipulation on Gabe to just "invite" herself into his life on Thanksgiving because she doesn't want to be alone, her inability to control the "pull" with another Beast that results in her literally overturning a table and running off, her then clinging to and kissing Vincent and making him "responsible" for her. Yet
despite ALL of these signs, rather than becoming a mentor to her, Vincent literally hops straight into bed and into living with her rather quickly. Yeah, blame Bob. But
no matter how traumatized he is, Vincent is still responsible for his own acts, both legally and morally. And although unwittingly, Vincent will help lead to Tori's death. While I can understand, in part, Vincent's actions, I can still find them reprehensible and can still wonder why he wouldn't even choose to question the whole "primal pull" thing. Or at least, I would have liked further explanations and conversations and introspection. While I would have liked "more," I get that one argument is that Vincent was so "riled up" by said primal attraction that he never comes down until holding the gem and then realizing he had misjudged Catherine in 211. From 211 forward, Vincent apparently begins questioning the wisdom of his acts and tries to distance himself from Tori (212), but her death ultimately provides the last necessary bucket of ice water to clarify for him that his choices and actions have led him down the wrong path, both for himself and Catherine.
So I understand why 207 is important. Not denying it. Also NOT denying that
it rubbed me wrong. I wanted VinCat to turn towards one another and seek answers together. Of course, I get why their current states of being necessitated other actions and why they questioned one another. Doesn't mean I have to like it or want to see it again. Hope that clarifies that I DO get where the characters are coming from, even if I wished for them to make other choices. Still felt sorry for Vincent while wanting to throttle him. Same with Catherine, at times.
I do give the writers their credit for making me both love and even hate the same characters. They certainly got me emotionally angry and sad and frustrated at what was happening on my screen while hanging onto every word and scene. The fact that we can all get so into arguing the minutia of each episode means that it had a powerful enough impact. As always, I love BATB and still see Season 2 as "a beautiful train wreck."
Just arguing that I still needed more on the whole "primal beast" pull, because really, Vincent seemed unable to even like Tori or relate to her most of the time. And YES, we need some answers, since VinCat have never really discussed these issues that we know of, and their uniting to try to save OTHER victims, some potentially beast-like, means that this whole "primal pull" thing could come up all over again in Season 3. So knowing whether or not Vincent CAN resist could come up all over again and bring the issues to the forefront. Hence why I tend to look back over Season 2 for potential VinCat issues not yet dealt with that could come up again.