The Catch Review: The Princess and The I.P. (Season 1 Episode 4)

The Catch is becoming one of few shows that I truly look forward to each week.

So far, it’s been consistently fun and entertaining, and I’ve been invested in the main characters right from the start.

On “The Princess and the I.P., the team takes on a complicated client, while Ben continues to con Princess Zara in hopes of getting enough money to pay off the benefactor. This episode also gives us a chance to get to know Danny and Sophie a little more — two members of the Anderson Vaughan team who will apparently be our “will they, won’t they” couple.

Alice has a few surprises up her sleeve for Ben, and ultimately, what she does in this episode looks like it will have a major effect on the rest of the season. She’s one step ahead of him in a con, surprising him by posing as a possible client for a charity — where Ben hopes Zara will invest a large sum of money that he can then use.

Not only is she proving to him that she refuses to give up, but also that she can beat him at his own game. That is, if she wants to badly enough. What’s clear from their interaction, though, is that these two people are drawn together. In Alice’s mind, she just wants to bring him down, but her heart is already starting to tell her something different.

He calls later wanting to meet, which is also unexpected. Of course, she takes the meeting, but she’s wearing a wire, and finds herself in the perfect position to take Ben down.

But as he insists that he loves her and that their relationship was real, reminding her of that moment when he asked her to run away with him, she makes the decision to let him get away. Ben tells Alice that he loves her, and she quietly reveals the wire so he won’t incriminate himself.

It’s been obvious from the beginning that Ben is a good guy, at least deep down. It’s also been clear that his feelings for Alice are real. That’s one of the reasons this particular scene is so satisfying to watch. He actually seems to convince her, and she reciprocates her feelings.

My concern about this is the pacing. Everything that’s happened with Ben and Alice has felt too fast, even from the very first episode. Surprises are revealed before it seems they should be, and the moment where she has him and let’s him get away feels like a season finale rather than a fourth episode.

From the previews, it looks like the two of them are going to start working together, which also feels like something that would happen later in the series. The idea of them working together from two different sides does seem like it makes sense for their characters. They may be on different sides of the law, but they actually have a lot in common.

What did you think of this episode of The Catch? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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The Catch airs Thursdays at 10/9c on ABC.

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Ashley Bissette Sumerel

Ashley Bissette Sumerel is a television and film critic living in Wilmington, North Carolina. She is editor-in-chief of Tell-Tale TV as well as Eulalie Magazine. Ashley has also written for outlets such as Rolling Stone, Paste Magazine, and Insider. Ashley has been a member of the Critics Choice Association since 2017 and is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic. In addition to her work as an editor and critic, Ashley teaches Entertainment Journalism, Composition, and Literature at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.