Beauty and the Beast recap: 'Wrath of the Beast'

It's been nine years since her mother's mysterious murder, and Detective Cat Chandler finally gets a break in the case. He's tall and dark and has a bit of a temper problem.

Nine years ago, Catherine "Cat" Chandler was a bartender working her way through law school when one terrible night changed her life. After leaving the car's vanity mirror open and draining the battery, she called her mom to help her jumpstart the car. Under the streetlights of a deserted parking lot, two men drove up and shot her mother without uttering a word. They chased Cat into the woods where they were about to gun her down, when a wild beast jumped out and slashed them to death. She survived and convinced herself that the creature she saw was probably just a coyote and not a beast/man hybrid.

Today, Cat is a detective chasing down bad guys with her partner, Tess Vargas , and looking for any clue that might solve the mystery of her mother's murder. Working on her latest case, she comes across the fingerprints of Vincent Keller , which doesn't make any sense considering he's supposed to be dead. She follows a lead to the creepy digs of JT Forbes , an old friend of Vincent's, and soon discovers that Vincent is alive and that he may know something about her mother's case. It doesn't take long for her to realize that he's the beast who saved her that night nine years ago.

Vincent Keller, aka the Beast, is not actually all that beastly at first. In fact, he's such a beauty that even that large scar across his face is attractive. But don't let appearances fool you — he can turn into quite a monster when provoked.

Vincent used to be a doctor, but when his brothers died in the Twin Towers on 9/11, he enlisted in the military. He became part of a government experiment that was trying to make soldiers into human weapons. He was given injections that heightened his senses and made him super human . Too bad for everyone involved, the experiment backfired, and now Vincent is a scary beast who flies into Hulk-like rages and has to hide out in JT's weird warehouse and pretend he's dead. If the government finds him, it will kill him.

When Vincent's not trying to find an antidote with JT , he creeps around the city rescuing pretty ladies and slaying bad guys. Cat is definitely digging this rough-around-the-edges, heart-of-gold, bad-boy-hero thing he's got going on. She's barely even bothered when he unleashes his beastly wrath. I'd be shaking in my boots, no matter how dreamy his eyes are. But she's a big-city detective, so maybe she's seen worse.

Now, the Beauty and the Beast must join forces to stay safe from government agents and find an antidote for this DNA-altering catastrophe. It's pretty obvious right off the bat the two aren't interested in just being partners. But that's no surprise — I'm pretty sure the title gave it away.

Check out the Beast in action when he saves Cat's life from two deadly agents!

Photos courtesy of CW