‘Before’ Is A Little More Coherent In Episode 5

I was a bit better disposed towards Episode 5 of Before. Not sure why. I think it might be because it has a more coherent throughline and it feels as if it’s making an actual point, offering some real explanation for what we’ve been seeing. The conclusion of “Folie à Deux”, which implies that Eli is just bonkers and imagining everything, won’t do as an explanation for an entire series. “It was all a dream” didn’t work for Grotesquerie, did it? But it’ll do as a starting point.

There’s still more to come, obviously, particularly as regards Noah’s connection to Lynn, her drawings, and – it turns out – her ex-boyfriend. But I think it’s safe to say that Eli is imagining at least some of this and that one of the show’s underlying takeaways is going to be that he is, in fact, nuts. I can live with that.

Noah’s Condition Is Contagious

Episode 5 of Before begins with worms. Noah imagines them crawling beneath his skin. The show’s sound design – which I haven’t mentioned until now, but is very good – creates an audible version of that very specific sensation that had me itching a little. Noah says “worms” out loud. It’s something of a theme.

Another theme: Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World”. We first hear it playing in the hospital, where Eli spots that bizarre cancer patient again, who I suspect isn’t really there (it’s too much of a coincidence for Eli to see her everywhere, right?) We’ll come back to it.

Anyway, following on from the connections between Noah’s drawings and Lynn’s that Eli discovered in the previous episode, he presses Noah on the sketches of the farmhouse. Noah is visibly shaken by the photograph of the farmhouse, and especially the initials “BW” written on the back. It’s the same with Lynn’s sketch of two kids in the forest surrounded by tentacles. Noah recognizes the figures in the drawing as himself and Eli, and they’re apparently looking for a friend. When Eli asks Noah about Lynn outright, he collapses.

This is where things get weird (as if they weren’t weird enough.) Noah shows possession-like symptoms but when Noah asks the nurse if she saw that, she says, “Saw what?”, which implies Eli is embellishing some of this in his mind. But the collapse is real. And the other patients all collapsing at the same time is real, too, since various hospital staff members discuss it with Eli.

Paralyzed By Fear

Despite initial suspicions revolving around some kind of environmental cause, since how else would it affect all of the kids at once, Eli is adamant that the issue is in Noah’s mind. He posits a theory of mass psychogenic illness, which was funnily enough explored fairly recently in an episode of Brilliant Minds.

Billy Crystal in ‘Before’ | Image via Apple TV+

Eli is determined to explore this theory since he can’t help but notice that he triggered Noah with the photograph, and Noah subsequently triggered everyone else. He’s terrified of something related to the farmhouse, and the fear is so strong that it’s contagious. But figuring out what requires further examining Lynn’s drawings. Cleo suggests she might have some rough drafts, which she does, though they all highlight a horror slant that was uncharacteristic of her work.

They also reveal a new clue – the initials “BW” stand for “Benjamin Walker”, Lynn’s ex. There’s a note in the drafts about “Benjamin’s Tapes”, and his dreams. Eli explains to Cleo that Lynn used to record her errant thoughts and observations on cassette tapes, but unfortunately, they’re in storage at her mother’s place. Her mother is suffering from dementia – or something similar – and, it turns out, never liked Eli much in the first place. But needs must.

The Worm Has Turned

After his ordeal, Noah is now suffering from something called “Locked-In Syndrome”, which funnily enough was also recently explored in an episode of Brilliant Minds that was very good and romantic. Before Episode 5 is, needless to say, not romantic, but Eli does dance with Lynn’s mother a bit.

Or does he? During this sequence, Lynn’s mother, Ruth, goes to dig out the tapes but misunderstands and starts playing music. What’s the song, you ask? Louis Armstrong’s “What A Wonderful World”. She asks Eli to dance, and he indulges her, but it’s quickly revealed that he’s dancing with himself. The tape was playing a recording of Benjamin’s dream instead – he’s crying and babbling about worms.

The implication here is that the worms have the power to cause hysteria on a mass scale, I suppose. Anyone who hears mention of the worms seems to be affected – when Noah was going on about them in the hospital, all the kids collapsed, and when Eli could hear Benjamin talking about them, he imagined an entire sequence of events. So, Eli does what any self-respecting children’s doctor would do – he plays the tapes for Noah.

It seems very much like the worms in Noah’s head respond to this. Eli hits on an idea. Suddenly being allowed access to surgical equipment, he slices his way into Noah’s forehead with Denise looking on in panic and manages to grab one of the wriggly worms with a pair of tweezers. But once his excitement settles down, he realizes the truth – there is no worm. Eli has just cut up a kid for no reason. Before Episode 5 ends with him collapsing in shock, as well he might.

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