Beauty and the Beast's Sendhil Ramamurthy Teases Big Bombshell and Feral Finale Face-Off
Tonight on Beauty and the Beast (The CW, 9/8c), in the series’ penultimate freshman episode, Gabe shows his true colors to Catherine — and they’re a yellow-green (depending on how the light hits his beastly peepers). That reveal sets in motion a chain of events that feed into what Sendhil Ramamurthy calls an “intense” and “torturous” finale featuring a beast-on-beast brawl. Here, the Heroes/Covert Affairs alum speaks about what drew him to the drama and shares the secrets behind his “Beast 1.0.”
TVLINE | You took a flyer of sorts when you signed with Beauty and the Beast, because at the time the show was still finding its legs. What gave you the comfort level to say yes?
They called me, like, two days before Christmas to say, “We’re bringing this character on. What do you think?” I hadn’t seen the show, so they sent me a bunch of episodes and I was like, “It’s good but I don’t see where this character fits in at all.” It’s not like Law & Order where you’ve got the law and the ADA comes in and does the order part. Then they filled me in on how the show was actually moving away from the procedural element and that they were going to serialize it more, and they told me the arc that this character was going on. Then I was like, “Oh, OK. That could be really cool.” Usually showrunners don’t like to give out too much information, but I think in my case they were just kind of like, “We’ve got to tell him where it’s going.” And I’ve been enjoying myself a lot.
TVLINE | Gabe and Cat have bonded some, namely at the cemetery last week. What percent of that do you think was genuine coming from him?
I think most of it. Most of it was genuine. She doesn’t trust him fully and she shouldn’t. He doesn’t trust her fully either. That’s why this week’s episode is so interesting, because she just carries on trying to put that out there. Like, “I don’t know [the vigilante],” and he’s like, “Stop it right now.” They released a clip of that moment, but they cut it right before we really get into it.
TVLINE | Is that when his eyes go yellow for her?
That’s the scene. And actually, though Jay Ryan and I wear the same color contact lenses, because of the natural color of my eyes, mine look green. But that’s the scene where I’m just like, “I know he’s your boyfriend…. All I want to do is meet him.”
VIDEO | Beauty and the Beast Sneak Peek: Cat Has Bad News, Good News for Vincent
TVLINE | But to what end? Now that we know that Gabe’s a beast, it raises a whole new layer to the question: Why is he hunting Vincent?
As it turns out, Gabe has a medication that Catherine’s mother was instrumental in developing that helps him stay normal, but he has to keep taking these pills that give him about four to six hours of “normalness.” And once Gabe tells Catherine that, it piques her interest immediately. Because even though she’s completely against bringing Vincent to Gabe, the fact that maybe he could be normal for a bit is an overriding thing. And that’s what allows Vincent and Gabe to finally meet.
TVLINE | Is it like a lion and a jackal circling each other in the jungle?
A little bit — but I’m fully beasted when I meet him. [After that confrontation] is when we actually establish something that’s really important for this character: the difference between Gabe Beast and Vincent Beast. I’m like “Beast 1.0,” so Vincent is a lot more advanced in the sense that he can remember everything when he’s a beast. But when I wake up, it’s like I totally blacked out. Yet I’m much, much stronger than Vincent, and in a totally animal, uncontrollable way — and that will come into play in the finale.
TVLINE | Is there a lot of action and stunt work in the finale?
There’s a lot. We shot for four days at the location that is Gabe’s mansion — Casa Loma in Toronto. After the public was done roaming around the house, we would take over and shoot all the way through the night. So, there are massive stunts going on, and the last 15 minutes are really intense. It’s “beast-on-beast,” a big, big fight…. I flip a car, and it goes over Vincent and Catherine’s head…. There are helicopters…. It should be fun. This next episode sets all that up, when in the very last scene a big piece of information is released. It’s been established that Gabe wants to meet Vincent because he thinks that he might be able to help him cure himself, but because it’s TV and we need to have some conflict, that isn’t quite how things work out! The way the finale ends certainly is torturous.
Want more scoop on Beauty and the Beast, or for any other show? Email insideline@tvline.com and your question may be answered via Matt’s Inside Line.
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