[Warning: Some spoilers ahead.]
Things aren't letting up on Beauty and the Beast.
"Our final episode is bigger and much more of a fairytale," executive producer Jennifer Levin tells The Hollywood Reporter. "We totally go for it. It's huge. Sweeping things happen and it's a big cliffhanger. It feels even more epic than what we've done before."
In fact, something comes out before the May 16 episode that will effectively change the game. "It plays in a big way," Levin hints about the surprising development.
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The CW drama returns for the last five episodes beginning with "Heart of Darkness," which will see Evan (Max Brown) confessing his love to Cat (Kristin Kreuk) and admitting that he was the one who notified Muirfield of Vincent's (Jay Ryan) whereabouts. To say Evan complicates matters for Cat and Vincent is an understatement. Levin talks to THR about the new wrinkle, chances of a renewal and what to expect in the season finale.
The Hollywood Reporter: What should we expect in the return episode?
Jennifer Levin: After he’s seen Vincent and Catherine making out on the fire escape in the last episode, Evan leads Muirfield to Vincent, and when Catherine finds out, she’s obviously upset but feels a bit of culpability because he proclaims his feelings for her. “I love you,” basically. She realizes that maybe she led him on a little bit. We explore that. Through the episode, Evan realizes that maybe he might have been wrong about Vincent, yet he put things in place, so he has some big decisions to make. We get to go inside Muirfield and see what's going on.
THR: How does Evan's profession of love affect the Cat and Vincent of it all?
Levin: Vincent’s pissed: “You say you love her but then you did this whole thing.” It does bring up a lot of issues between them. Now, Muirfield knows about Vincent, so they can’t just talk about their relationship. They have a problem they really have to solve.
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THR: Is it safe to assume that not everybody will survive or there may be major shifts by season’s end?
Levin: Big things, big decisions are made. Evan realizes he’s made a mistake and there are definitely consequences.
THR: How successful does he get in terms of redeeming himself?
Levin: He does. Catherine is a really compassionate person so I think she gets it. She understands why Evan did what he did. From the point of view of the characters, he does redeem himself in Catherine and Vincent’s eyes. As far as the viewer, that’s for you to decide.
THR: What conflicts will Gabe (Sendhil Ramamurthy) continue to stir up?
Levin: He’s trying to find the vigilante and find Vincent. He gets a sense that Catherine has something to do with it. He tries to pull Catherine in and get closer to her, so that’s an issue in Catherine and Vincent’s relationship. But it’s not necessarily in the way that you would think; [Gabe affects it] in a surprising way.
THR: Going back through the season, have there been story lines or arcs that you thought would play that didn’t quite match expectations?
Levin: The whole arc with Alex (Bridget Regan) played out the way I thought it would. People were really mad at Alex but we kind of knew that. We thought, “Oh that’s good! They don’t want anything between Catherine and Vincent.” We knew people were angry but we thought that was a good thing; it indicated a concern for our couple. The arc of Tess (Nina Lisandrello) finding out -- Tess and Cat having a friendship dilemma -- I wish we could have spent more time on that. We haven’t been able to explore J.T. (Austin Basis) as much as we wanted to and we intend to. There hasn’t been anything where we’ve been “Gosh, that really was a bad idea,” so far – luckily.
THR: How are you feeling about a second season?
Levin: I'm very confident about it. That doesn't mean I know anything, but I feel like it's such a good show and our fan base is so incredible. I don't know how they would say no to us. We're hoping!
Beauty and the Beast airs at 9 p.m. Thursdays on The CW.
E-mail: Philiana.Ng@thr.com
Twitter: @insidethetube
