How Far Parents Will Go

Critic’s Rating: 4 / 5.0

4

After a couple of slow episodes, The Beauty picks things back up and answers more questions.

We get to see more of Cooper and Jordan working together, and we learn a little more about The Assassin, giving us a little humanity to an otherwise deplorable character.

At the same time, The Beauty Season 1 Episode 7 shows us just how far parents are willing to go to save their children, even if they know what they’re being asked to do is wrong.

Jordan Declares Her Love

The last time we saw Cooper and Jordan was midway through The Beauty Season 1 Episode 5, before the story started to slow down.

They got back to Cooper’s apartment, which had been broken into, and found Nate’s body cut open on the bed.

Well, it’s not surprising that the two have gone underground. Sort of.

They head straight to some sort of safe house, but it’s one that Jordan doesn’t seem to know about.

Is this some sort of hidden apartment that Cooper has? That could make sense as an FBI agent, but it would have benefited from some explanation.

It’s easy to overlook this flaw in the writing, though.

After all, we don’t necessarily need to know where this apartment is, as long as we know that Cooper understands the danger that they are in.

And he does. He will do whatever it takes to protect Jordan while they figure out this virus and how to stop its combustible side effects.

That’s if they even get to that point.

They know people are after them, and that someone with a lot of money and power can find them.

There just doesn’t seem to be enough fear between them, considering the full circumstances being thrown at them.

Cooper has had people try to kill him while he was in Italy, and he’s just had someone break into his apartment.

Where is the tension and intensity?

He’s just so calm. I know he’s an FBI agent, so he’s been trained to remain calm, but even the best FBI agents can break.

As Jordan tells Cooper she loves him, there doesn’t seem to be the weight to this conversation as there should be.

It also doesn’t help that I don’t believe it, as they just haven’t had any chemistry all series.

There is a disconnect in the FBI part of the story, and it’s only as we get to the lab that there finally seems to be a real threat.

The Assassin finally catches up to Cooper, and his protege, Jeremy, has Jordan.

There is no escape for them, and just like any sort of tropish TV show, Cooper uses this chance to tell Jordan that he loves her.

There is something in his smile in the van, though. Does he have a plan to get out of trouble, or is he at the point where he’s done with the cat-and-mouse chase?

This is a man who managed to escape people trying to kill him, and he’s seen the craziness of the virus, so he knows that he has to be one step ahead with whatever they’re dealing with.

So far, he’s not come across as a dumb man, and it feels like he planned on getting caught.

In a way, not being able to tell what Cooper’s motivation is behind that smile is a flaw, but it also has me looking forward to the next episode of The Beauty to see what he’s up to.

The Assassin’s Backstory Explained

Finally, The Beauty Season 1 goes into The Assassin’s backstory.

He’d already told us that he was 65, but now we get to see who he was before he was injected with the serum.

More importantly, we see what happened to his eye, which brings the flaw in The Beauty to light once more.

We’ve already seen that The Beauty doesn’t fix everything via Byron, who still had his third nipple, and now we learn that The Assassin — or Anthony, as we learn his name is — will always have a damaged eye due to the acid that was thrown at him.

Considering The Assassin has been an emotionless character up to this point, getting to see his story play out was somewhat heartbreaking.

He’s not pure or even likable, even in the past, but there is a part of him that yearns for that life with his son again.

He is a father, and he misses his boy, but he can’t ever go back to that life. 

There’s a weight added back to that conversation during The Beauty Season 1 Episode 2, when he’s on the phone to, presumably, his wife.

He is choosing to sacrifice his time with his son, knowing it’s better for his son. It’s a sacrifice that other parents can’t make, and it’s no wonder that he’s taken to Jeremy.

In fact, Jeremy and The Assassin have found something in each other that they need right now — Jeremy is like a son, while The Assassin is like a father.

That doesn’t take away from the real father and son they have both lost, and Anthony Ramos and Jeremy Pope do a wonderful job of portraying that through minimal dialogue.

You can read their expressions as they think about missed opportunities, lost pasts, and their wishes.

There’s even a look at regret for who they were becoming, especially from Jeremy, as he realizes that being an incel wasn’t good.

It’s not always easy to humanize a villain, but The Beauty has done so effortlessly with a single shared scene.

The Fear of a Parent

At first, it took me a while to figure out what was going on with the Williams family, and I don’t remember John Carroll Lynch’s character, Meyer, ever mentioning his daughter.

That’s not surprising, though. This is a man who clearly tries to keep his private life private, and not out of shame.

He’s dealing with a child who has a genetic condition, and she is going to die without some sort of cure.

As a strong leader, he’s not going to “burden” others with what he’s going through, because, like so many men in his position, that’s what he likely feels he’ll do.

He’s also dealing with questions about what the future holds and whether all of this suffering is right.

While he wants his daughter to be able to have some sort of peace, his wife is against it, holding onto hope that there is some sort of cure or way to help her.

The Beauty Season 1 Episode 7 gives us a look at every parent’s fear, and how the two parents want completely different things.

Neither thing is really wrong, depending on your view of suffering and life.

Of course, when they’re offered the chance to save their daughter, Meyer’s wife jumps at the chance.

This isn’t for selfless reasons, though, as Byron quickly plays to her own vanity and fear of death.

She’s had a breast cancer scare, and she knows that she’s getting old, so she’s scared of what’s to come.

Meyer doesn’t jump at the idea of The Beauty at first, and that’s because he’s seen what it does.

Well, he’s seen what a form of it does, and The Beauty Season 1 Episode 7 continues to raise questions about the differences between the virus and this injectable serum.

Is the latter a safer version, because it’s purer?

Part of me thinks Meyer should have questioned things a little more, but he’s a desperate parent. If we all put ourselves into that situation, would we ignore the red flags and just go off hope?

I’ll also give props to Byron. He could have chosen to just inject Meyer’s daughter, but he offered it to the entire family.

That doesn’t make him a likable character, though.

His emotional storytelling worked for the Meyers, but we know there’s more to his plan.

He wants to prove that he’s able to cure any sort of genetic disorder and illness, and by getting this family by his side, he can rule the world.

He clearly views himself as a god, and that’s the way he is going to market this. He doesn’t even need to say it in the episode.

The Beauty Season 1 Episode 7 certainly picked up the story, and I’m back to being excited for another episode.

Now that we’ve gotten through the slog of the past part of the story, we can hopefully just focus on the present and get more answers to our questions, like whether Jordan and Jeremy can be saved from what looks set to be an explosive end.

The Beauty airs on Wednesdays at 9/8c on FX and Hulu.

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