It was the moment "Beauty and the Beast" fans were waiting for all season long - Catherine Chandler and Vincent Keller finally kissed on Thursday night's episode of The CW drama.
"They don't just kiss each other for the first time, they say, 'I love you!' It's just a huge moment for those characters and I think it's just the first time that they're like, 'All right, we're in this 100 percent,'" Nicole Gale Anderson, who plays Catherine's little sister, Heather, told AccessHollywood.com .
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Nicole said when she read about the smooch in the script, she was beyond delighted.
"I am, personally, like a huge like fan of the whole Vincent and Cat relationship, so when I read the script and saw it in the end, I squealed like a little girl," she laughed. "I went to work the next day and I was like, 'Yes! It finally happens. I'm so excited.'"
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As for the reaction of her co-stars - Jay Ryan, who plays Vincent, and Kristin Kreuk, who plays Catherine -- they too were thrilled.
"Jay and Kristin, their relationship at work is so [professional], but they just have this comfort-ability with each other that's really nice to see between two co-stars that have to be in love with each other on screen, so they were definitely excited that the kiss finally happened," Nicole said.
But, Thursday's episode also introduced a darker tone to the drama. In beast form, Vincent killed Heather's new boyfriend Darius, who was about to shoot Catherine's unconscious little sister. That act is going to create some serious conflicts.
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"It's a huge game changer for everyone, starting off with Heather going through that experience again," Nicole explained. "After the loss of her mom, it was just a huge hit to her... So I think that going through this a second time is definitely damaging for her, but it's also a huge thing for Catherine because essentially, her boyfriend killed her boss' brother.
"It completely changes everything at work for Catherine and they start this huge manhunt for The Beast," Nicole continued. "And yeah, it just throws the show into a whole crazy direction and new characters will be introduced because of the death of Darius... It totally changed everything."
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Among the newcomers heading to "BATB" are former "Heroes" actor Sendhil Ramamurthy, who will play Assistant District Attorney Gabriel Lowen.
"After Vincent has killed somebody... it will galvanize a certain group of people on the show against the vigilante and motivate their need to destroy him," "BATB" Executive Producer Brian Peterson told reporters at a recent screening for The CW show.
But, look out for Evan (Max Brown) to look after Catherine, who he continues to have feelings for.
"Evan will have a big story too. [His] goal is to protect Cat," the EP said.
"It's kind of this situation of, 'Why is this person I care about doing all these dumb things?'" he continued. "So he's in the position of, 'I need to protect her from herself.' He's going to kind of continue to protect her in ways and get more and more involved in things he never should be getting involved in."
"BATB" returns with an all new episode, airing March 14 at 9/8c on The CW.
-- Jolie Lash
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