For Swayze and The Beast, A Fitting Finale

It’s the final season 1 episode of A&E’s The Beast (Apr 23, 10pm ET, 9 CT) , so we asked for a review copy. Of course, there’s more to it than that.

It might represent the last work of Patrick Swayze, who stars as a grizzled and morally ambiguous FBI agent with a checkered past. Knowing that Mr Swayze’s health is severe—he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer prior to filming The Beast last year—every viewer in America will be looking for scenes that presage the 56-year-old actor’s unfortunate fate, which by nearly all accounts is bleak. Will there be a scene or two where Swayze can break character—almost—and deliver lines that could be taken in the context of the show and also apply to his real-life situation?

There are precedents. The final scene in the 1967 classic, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, comes to mind. It was Spencer Tracy’s last film and the tears his co-star, Katharine Hepburn, shed during a dramatic Tracy monologue at the picture’s end were perfectly in character with her part as his on-screen wife, but they were also said to be personal. She knew Tracy, her longtime collaborator, was dying. He did so 17 days after the film wrapped.

There are no heavy Tracy-like moments in tonight’s The Beast finale. That’s not in the nature of this hard-bitten series, which has suited Swayze’s talents well. While we hope Swayze has many more years of life ahead of him, the odds are that he does not. That said, there are a few moments tonight that could count as his valedictory.

There’s a scene toward the end of tonight’s program when Swayze’s normally staid character, Charles Barker, is allowed to let down his guard as he makes sure a college-age co-ed, whose life he disrupted nearly 15 years ago, is safe. The irony is thick. This unfortunate youth has lost her father, mother and a doting nanny, who raised her after her parents died when she was a child. People close to her have a way of disappearing, she tells Barker. “You won’t disappear, will you?” Barker assures her he won’t, but his facial expression signals he doesn’t believe what he just said.

A moment later we see Barker and his youthful FBI sidekick, the unfortunately named Ellis Dove (Travis Fimmel), in a brief car scene. Barker, for reasons that will become clear in tonight’s episode, must abruptly cut his ties with Dove. Barker delivers that message with his usual charm. “Now, get out,” he tells Dove. Adding, “I will be in touch.” Dove gets out and stands on a rainy Chicago street corner, forlornly watching Barker drive off in a black van. With the electric guitar playing in the background, the scene seems to be the modern equivalent of a cowboy riding off into the sunset.

But this isn’t quite the end. I won’t provide those details except to say that Swayze’s physical merits are soon tested. He passes that exam handily. Shouldn’t be a surprise. His ability to withstand the rigors of chemotherapy while filming The Beast will be talked about in Hollywood and at A&E for years.