After two weeks of setup, The Catch finally hit its stride and earned its #TGIT status with season 1, episode 3, “The Trial.”
Now that we have a decent understanding of the characters and the premise of the show, we are finally getting the twists and OMG moments that we expect from our Shondaland shows! This was my favorite episode of The Catch to date, if only because they’ve eased up on the weird split screens a little bit (they could definitely stand to lose a few more).
The show is moving along at a rapid pace. I asked earlier in the week if fans thought The Catch had revealed Ben’s betrayal too early, and the votes came out pretty split. Now, they’ve taken it one step further and Ben and Alice have already come face to face! I’m definitely nervous about how they’re going to keep the momentum going after these big reveals, but for now it’s great, so I’m going to stay cautiously optimistic.
A Thorne in Kaseem’s side
Yet again, the con artists were the obvious highlight of the episode for me. I’m not sure what it says about me that they’re consistently my favorite, but I’m going to choose to brush past it.
There was no new con from Margot’s angels this week, as they are still working on their previous targets: the princess and her handler, Kaseem. Ben is getting quite friendly with the princess while Reggie is stuck doing the dirty work (in more ways than one). Don’t worry about Ben getting too cozy with yet another girl, though, because he’s just talking her ear off about Alice.
The princess delivers my favorite line of the episode when she comforts him by saying, “If you’re thinking of her, I guarantee she’s thinking about you.” So does this mean Chris Evans is thinking about me right now, too? I like this wise princess character.
The grand scheme they’ve set up to steal all the riches of my new best friend the princess involves a fake condo investment. Reggie gets minimal information about the building because of his preoccupations, but Margot and the angels manage to play their roles flawlessly so the con is a success!
Unfortunately for Ben, Alice and Agent Jules Dao aren’t the only ones on to him and his multiple personalities. Kaseem sees through his game and is pretty clear with Ben about what he expects him to do: disappear, quickly.
There’s an interesting reason why Kaseem was able to figure Ben out though. In the first OMG moment of the episode, it’s revealed that Kaseem has actually been conning the princess and her family for years! Margot’s angels decide to take him down. Not because they have any sort of moral compass or anything, but because it will result in more money for them!
It looks like everything is going according to plan, but Kaseem isn’t going to go down without a fight after his lucrative con was derailed. He jumps Ben in the bathroom and the pair have a con vs. con fight. Ben forgot to eat his Wheaties that morning and he is going down fast, until his sweet and loving wife Margot shows up and executes one of the most straight faced murders ever. This girl knows how to take care of her angels. She is terrifying, but I’m kind of obsessed with her.
Vitamin C is the best medicine
Unlike the con artists, the AVI crew did have a different case this week. The case revolved around Valerie’s sister-in-law trying to get money out of a big pharmaceutical company because of some adverse effects she experienced during a clinical trial for an MS drug. There’s not much to note from the actual case, but it did highlight some cool things. Besides the fact that you should always choose apple juice over orange juice, the interesting developments include:
- Sophie and Danny were paired up in the field on this one and it was obvious that The Catch is thinking about hooking them up. I’ve already thought about their ship name and I think Sonny is the best option, but feel free to voice any other contenders, or just join with me in making Sonny happen. They’re setting Danny up to be kind of a player though, so it could be a while before anything serious develops, if it ever does.
- The AVI team has some cool spy gear, including the classic surveillance van! I had been questioning their investigative credentials, but this pretty much solidifies them for me. I can’t wait to see what else they have at their disposal.
- Jules Dao always knows how to show up at precisely the wrong time and The Catch, season 1, episode 3 was no exception. This time, he came with information about “the girl that Christopher murdered.” Whether Ben actually was responsible for the murder we still don’t know, but I’m not putting anything past him yet. What we do know is that Agent JD feels responsible for the murder of this girl that he knew (Natalie) since she was helping him with his investigation. As predicted, JD’s personal connection to the case along with Alice’s growing fear of
BenMargot led to Alice finally accepting JD’s offer to team up.
Remember to erase your call history
As I previously mentioned, Alice and Ben came face to face in this episode…kind of. Their faces were on opposite sides of a restaurant, but it’s still way more than I thought we would get this early, and their voices got even closer.
The talented Miss Sophie was tracking “Michael Thorne’s” credit card activity throughout all of The Catch, season 1, episode 3, so they were getting frequent updates on his whereabouts. Alice thought she had him when he used his card at a restaurant with the princess, but unfortunately, she drank the koolaid orange juice, so she wasn’t exactly on top of her game.
After witnessing a nonchalant murder, Ben casually exits the men’s room and sees his leading lady across the way. This is the stuff that fairy tales are made of, folks. Instead of running off into the sunset with her and living happily ever after, Ben calls her and tells her to get out for her own safety. This basically proves that his love for her is true. I mean, when was the last time somebody memorized your phone number? *swoon*
Alice does as he says, but not before witnessing Ben’s besties loading up Kaseem’s body. If she had any doubts about if she should fear him before, I’d say those have been put to rest. He was so charming in those flashbacks, though! He can’t be all bad, right?
Ben gets even more bold later when he calls Alice again while his true prize, Margot, is in the shower. Alice confronts him about killing Natalie, but he denies it and tells her she can’t trust JD! That’s a bit much coming from you, Ben, but I’m still going to keep my eye out for anything beyond JD’s normal levels of creepiness. The conversation is short with some cute jokes(?) about Alice ending up in the trunk of a car (don’t you just love pillow talk), so it was a little unsatisfying. I’m excited to see them interact when they’re a little less composed so we can get down to the real truth of where they stand.