Ben Mark Holzberg/The CWThere's a new beast in town!
Beauty and the Beast pulled its biggest twist yet when it revealed that Vincent (Jay Ryan) isn't the only Beast out there as assistant district attorney Gabe Lowen (Sendhil Ramamurthy) is also one! But let's just say he's a different kind of beast.
We chatted with Ramamurthy about what's next for Gabe, including his first interaction with Vincent, and how he found out he was a beast. Plus, he reveals the three things fans will need to get through next week's finale!
How did you find out that Gabe was a beast and what was your reaction?
It was a surprise! I found out I think on my second day on set. I was talking to Kristin, we were in between scenes, and she's like, "Yeah, so when does Gabe-Beast comes out." And I was like, "Sorry, what? What did you just say?" She's like, "Gabe-Beast." I'm like, "Who the hell is Gabe-Beast?" And that's when she was like, "Well Vincent-Beast and Gabe-Beast. You know you're a beast." And I was like, "I am?" And she's like, "Oh, I thought you knew!" And I'm like, "No, no, I really didn't know that. How interesting!" So that's how I found out, it was actually through Kristin!
So you didn't have any suspicions at all that Gabe might be a beast when you took on the role?
I had no suspicions, cause it was literally on the second day of shooting. It was on the day that I had actually just found out that I was being made a regular character, like an hour or two before. I showed up on set all wonderful, and then I found out I was going to be a beast. I had already seen Jay going through prosthetic makeup, and it's tough. I quite frankly had been kind of making fun of him a bit, and I should have known it was going to come back to bite me in the butt, because now it was me sitting next to him and being beasted up. But I have to say that, the prosthetic guys did such a great job, and my beast looks so cool and scary, and I'm really into it.
How does Gabe-Beast differ from Vincent-Beast?
Well, obviously Gabe is an earlier version of the beast, so this was when Muirfield really didn't know what they were doing. He's just very unstable and I think he's more animal than Vincent beast. Gabe-Beast doesn't remember anything when he's the beast. Like, he doesn't remember what he does, and we actually see that. We'll see how when he comes out of being the beast, he has no idea where he is, he has no idea what he's done—if he's done anything. And that's always his concern when he wakes up, It's like, "What did I do? Did I do something? Did I hurt somebody? Did I hurt myself? What's happened?"
But he has the pills that help him control it, but it seems like they might stop working.
We'll find out his DNA is so corrupted, and the pills that he's taking to keep him "normal," they're actually killing him as well. He's dying because of the medication he needs to take to stay normal, which is why he wants to meet Vincent. He wants to see if there's some way they can help each other, and this information comes out that he's got these pills that the takes that keep him normal. When Catherine and Gabe meet and she finds out that he's a beast, she's curious as to how he controls it, cause he's an ADA [assistant district attorney], he's in courts and high pressure situations. How does he not just beast out and start killing people? And he's like, 'I got medication.'
That obviously hooks Catherine and opens up the possibility that her and Vincent could have a normal life. That's something we explore in the next two episodes for Vincent and Catherine is what's the possibility of that? How great or not great would that be? Gabe being there and taking these pills opens up a lot of questions for them as a couple, which is really interesting to kind of watch. That's where we explore over the next two episodes, but we don't by any means answer it.
Fans are really excited for Vincent and Gabe, the two beasts to finally meet. Can you tease their first interaction?
When they meet it's pretty cool because Gabe is not feeling quite himself when Gabe and Vincent meet, and Vincent is feeling himself. So I think that when they meet, and it's Gabe beast meeting human Vincent, it really floors Vincent cause he's incredulous at this point. He doesn't know that there's any more beasts out there, and he doesn't believe that Gabe is really a beast, he thinks that there's some other motive there.
Can we expect a beast vs. beast face-off?
When they come face to face as Gabe as a beast and Vincent as a beast, that whole scene is really cool. The way it's done, I think the fans will really dig it; they'll really be into it.
After Evan's death, we learned that no one is really safe on the show. Can we expect to see another major death by finale's end?
There are reasons to be concerned for characters in the show between [tonight's episode] and the finale. I sent out a tweet that said, 'You'll need oxygen, and a blanky, and a hanky,' for the finale. There's a lot that goes on and people's lives are in danger, absolutely, and I'll leave it at that!
Beauty and the Beast airs tonight at 9 p.m. on the CW.