The Catch Review: The Trial (Season 1 Episode 3)

The Catch continues to give the audience a reason to feel invested in both Alice and Ben on “The Trial.”

There’s a LOT going on in this episode, with Alice still tracking Ben, an upsetting case-of-the-week, an elaborate con, and some more insight into Agent Dao’s motivations. If that weren’t enough, Qasim is on to Ben, and things get much more dangerous.

But what’s most significant about this episode is the relationship between Alice and Ben, which isn’t entirely over. Ben/Christopher may be a master of deception, but it’s clear that Alice is becoming his Achilles heel.

His priority when he realizes Alice is in the restaurant after Margot kills Qasim isn’t to hurry up and get the heck out of there, but to call Alice on the phone and tell her to leave because it isn’t safe.

Doing so puts Alice hot on his trail, and puts her closer than ever to figuring out who he really is.

Their phone call later proves his feelings for her further. He wants to know if she’s okay, and while it would serve is his own best interest if she stopped trying to find him, he also knows that it’s dangerous for her to come after him. The scene shows them both alone in bed, with Alice on the right and Ben on the left — each with an empty space net to them where the other belongs.

I’m continually struck by how likeable of a character Ben is. Yes, he’s a con man, but it seems like he’s a good person deep down. That makes me curious to know exactly how he fell into this life to begin with.

The case-of-the-week is an emotional one that Valerie has a personal connection to. It involves a clinical trial that her sister-in-law was a part of for MS treatment, which caused some terrifying side effects.

The actress who plays Susan is Amanda Foreman, by the way, who not only appeared on several episodes of Parenthood, but also appeared on several episodes of another Shondaland series, Private Practice.

The team gives everything they have to help, and Alice gets a little too close. Because of course, the best way to get her hands on the drug being used in the trial is to become a part of the trial herself. She gets injected with the drug for just a moment, then accepts the juice offered to her when she leaves.

That juice turns out to be the problem all along, and its effects don’t strike until Alice is just about to catch Christopher, snapping photos of him with the princess.

Alice is a character we can’t help but feel invested in already, and that’s one of the strongest parts of this show so far. Both she and Ben are characters we already want to root for and can’t wait to learn more about. Sure, that means we don’t much care about any of the other characters at this point, but I think it’s better that way. Rather than trying to focus on the supporting characters too much in the beginning, we’re given the opportunity to truly focus on Alice and Ben.

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.

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.