Summary
The Beauty uses “Beautiful Billionaires” to provide some clarity on Byron Forst, with a fun guest-star helping to sell the transition, while Cooper and Jordan’s relationship digs into some of the show’s underlying ideas.
Of course it’s the billionaires! If you were going to sell an experimental trial drug that radically rewrote your DNA for an unfeasibly large amount of money, it’d make complete sense to pitch it directly to people with more money than sense, those to whom small matters like FDA approval – you know, the rules that the plebs are bound by – are small concerns. The Beauty has been a pretty scathing critique of facile beauty standards since the beginning, but in Episode 5, which doubles as Byron Forst’s origin story, it becomes more of an eat-the-rich satire. If the shoe fits.
The obvious hook here is the presence of Vincent D’Onofrio, who plays Forst pre-transition in a brilliantly bitter turn that explains why the Ashton Kutcher version was inexplicably married to a much older woman whom he obviously hated (and who, let’s be clear, hated him just as much, if not more, in return.) D’Onofrio isn’t in “Beautiful Billionaires” much, but his presence is felt, and the extra clarity around Forst helps to solidify him as a proper villain, not just a greedy businessman.
Beyond this, the bulk of the episode lingers on Cooper and Jordan, after the latter suddenly turned up at the former’s apartment at the end of the previous episode. After determining that the new Jordan is who she says she is, Cooper has to tentatively work with her to make progress on the case, while – as predicted – trying to stave off her advances lest he risk infection himself. I still think that’s probably where the story is going, but it’s not happening yet.
These scenes do get to the core of what The Beauty is about on a personal level, though. Jordan didn’t intend to get infected, but her path to infection weaved through her own insecurities. She saw a man she was attracted to, who was attracted to her in turn, and that was enough. And in the aftermath of the changes, she has to grapple with enjoying how she now looks, knowing it’s a malady that will ultimately kill her if it isn’t treated. But treatment will mean abandoning her new “perfect” form and returning to her old self, presumably, and will that be easy to do? Is it better to live on a short timer, but in a way you’re totally and utterly happy with, or to deal with your anxieties and imperfections long-term?
I still feel this doesn’t totally take, since Rebecca Hall is very attractive anyway, so the idea of Jordan being leered at by creepy men suddenly being a new development doesn’t ring entirely true. However, the point is that a lot of these feelings are internal. Even people who are outwardly beautiful by any conventional metric can still harbour a lot of internalised dissatisfaction. And those are the people most susceptible to something like The Beauty, which isn’t just a fountain of youth but a catch-all solution to every perceived physical ill.
The Beauty Episode 5 allows this idea to take root while also building up the looming threat over Cooper – The Assassin and Jeremy are still actively hunting him, though we see them track down and kill Nate, leaving his chest cavity splayed open as a chilling warning. These two aren’t “likeable” – that’s certainly not the word – but their dynamic is very compelling, especially as Jeremy’s personality continues to evolve with his new circumstances.
But the key information comes in the back half. This is where we see how Forst lured a bunch of billionaire chums into close proximity to become the guinea pigs of The Beauty, the product of a doctor, Ray, on his way to his third Nobel Prize. Of course, they’re compelled, despite the risks. There’s something alluring about them being the only people who know about it, who can afford it, about going behind the backs of the FDA and the world at large to become the only people who can live forever. For people who have everything, the most pressing problem is that their bodies will expire before their fortunes. The Beauty will solve that.
But this is all a ruse by Forst. Once the transformations have taken place, he guns down all the other billionaires, kidnaps Ray, and burns all traces of what happened. His ruthlessness enabled him to become the sole custodian of this miracle drug. And if he can only keep word of its ill effects from spreading, thanks to the hard work of Antonio and Jeremy, he’ll be free and clear to reap the rewards forever.
