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Beauty and the Beast is headed for a big showdown.
In The CW drama’s second-to-last episode, “Date Night,” Catherine (Kristin Kreuk) and Vincent (Jay Ryan) attempt to be a normal couple by going out on a date — but, of course, it’s anything but. When Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy) reveals some key information that could potentially help control Vincent’s beastliness, things get even more complicated.
“The audience will get to see Gabe in full-blown beast mode,” Ramamurthy tells The Hollywood Reporter of Thursday’s, May 9, episode. “We’ll find out what’s happening to Gabe.”
Ramamurthy talks to THR about Gabe’s beastly reveal and a “big” season finale showdown.
The Hollywood Reporter: What’s next for Gabe now that we know he’s just like Vincent?
Sendhil Ramamurthy: We’ve seen him have the shakes and he seems to be deteriorating, and we’ll find out he has corrupted DNA and he takes pills to help keep him normal. But the whole thing is killing him; he’s slowly dying. His hope is to meet up with Vincent and see if they can help each other and he obviously needs Catherine to do that. It becomes a situation where Gabe is trying to convince Catherine to facilitate this meeting and her first instinct is to always protect this man she loves. What it comes down to is Gabe telling her, “I know what’s going on, I know about Vincent, just please can we meet? I have no intention of hurting him. I think we can help each other.” When Catherine finds out about the pills, that overrides everything because that could be the answer to Vincent and Catherine having a normal life. That allows her to facilitate that. It sets up the big meeting between Vincent and Gabe.
THR: Describe that encounter between Vincent and Gabe.
Ramamurthy: Vincent doesn’t believe that there are other beasts out there. As far as he’s concerned, he and his battalion were experimented on, and all those guys are gone. When Catherine says, “There’s another beast, and he kind of beasted out in front of me. There’s another one and maybe you guys can help each other,” he’s like, “No, Gabe is using you. He’s not a beast.” When Gabe and Vincent finally meet, let’s just say Gabe isn’t quite himself. It’s a big reveal for Vincent. It’s just like whoa. It rocks his whole world order as far as where he stands and what he’s going through. There’s somebody else — at least one another person, maybe more. What Gabe is after, comes out in that scene. Of course, by the end, everything gets turned on its head, which sets up the finale. Initially, you think that this could all work out. But if it all worked out, there wouldn’t be a second season.
THR: They team up?
Ramamurthy: I don’t know about “team up.” We certainly have a conversation. We have a civil, non-beastly conversation — Vincent and Gabe. Both sides leave thinking, “This is going to be OK. We can manage this; we can do this; we’ll help each other out and then go our separate ways.” Gabe would love nothing more than to go off and actually just be a lawyer, be happy with Tyler and have a nice life. In the end, they both want the same thing. It’s just that there are real obstacles to that happening, certainly on Gabe’s side. Their two beasts are also not the same. Gabe is a much earlier version, beast 1.0, and Vincent’s beast is more like 2.0 or 3.0. Vincent’s is more advanced and more stable. He remembers everything that he does when he’s a beast. He’s fully cognizant. As we establish, Gabe isn’t. He wakes up and is like, “Whoa. What just happened? What did I do? Did I hurt myself? Did I hurt anybody else? Where am I?”
THR: More dangerous in a way?
Ramamurthy: Absolutely. He’s a danger to himself and to others. And he knows and is aware of that.
THR: What was it like putting on the prosthetics?
Ramamurthy: Prosthetics are not fun. It’s a pretty full-on process. When they first started out — before I joined the show, when it was just Vincent beast — the whole process took four hours, and it took about an hour to an hour and a half to take it all off. By the time it got to Gabe beast, it was two hours. Anytime you’re the beast, it’s very physical; you’re jumping or throwing people. That mask doesn’t breathe, at all, and you’re sweating underneath doing all these action things.
THR: How visually different are your beasts?
Ramamurthy: Everything. It’s more crude, animal. It’s an even less human-looking beast than Vincent’s beast is. And let’s face it, Vincent’s beast isn’t very human-looking. He could use his mind and be more strategic, as Gabe’s beast is full-on animal. Physically, Gabe’s beast is way stronger, but the mental aspect of Vincent being able to think and use his head more makes up for that and puts them more on an equal footing, as far as the giant, epic fight that we’re building up to for the finale.
THR: Showdown in the finale?
Ramamurthy: Oh yeah. We shot it over four nights. It’s big. There are helicopters involved, there are cars being flipped over, there are walls being punched through, there are boulders being thrown, there are people being thrown. The last 10 minutes of the finale are non-stop heart-pounding action. By the end of it, there are cliffhangers galore for all of the characters. You shouldn’t expect a happy ending.
THR: Is there going to be a body count?
Ramamurthy: I would not rule that out. I got to be careful when I say … people’s lives are definitely in danger by the end of the finale.
THR: What do you hope to explore in the second season?
Ramamurthy: I’m really grateful for season one right now. I haven’t even had the chance to focus on season two yet. We’re still doing ADR for season one. Who knows? I have no idea what the future holds, but it should be exciting, whatever it is.
Beauty and the Beast airs at 9 p.m. Thursdays on The CW.
E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com
Twitter: @insidethetube
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