Abhiroop Das
Co-created by Ryan Murphy and Matt Hodgson, FX’s ‘The Beauty’ tracks the spread of a sexually transmitted treatment turned disease that turns people into a conventionally attractive, fitter version of themselves. With this comes the complete erosion of their original bodies, often violently, and complete with a list of potentially lethal side effects. FBI agents Jordan Bennett and Cooper Madsen are tasked with figuring out this disease, known as the Beauty, from the inside out, but soon find themselves separated. The first three episodes of this sci-fi body-horror show detail the many ways the Beauty pierces through daily life around the world, but in the end, it is Jordan herself who is infected. As the Beauty makes its way to America in bulk in this episode, titled ‘Beautiful Chimp Face,’ Cooper has to get a grasp on things as quickly as possible. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Cooper Screens Through a Cafe’s Worth of Infected People
‘The Beauty’ episode 4 begins with Cooper reminiscing about a memory that happened not so long ago, back when Jordan was still with him. As they stand by a wishing pond, Cooper drops in a coin, revealing his only wish to be that Jordan does not fall in love with him. The irony here is that it is Cooper who is now love-stricken, and with zero updates on Jordan’s whereabouts, things are only shaping up to be worse. Still, his job requires him to be back in the US, as the person who perhaps knows the most about this quickly spreading disease. Everyone involved in the cafeteria explosion from the previous episode appears to have been rounded up for an interrogation, and Cooper learns that nearly all of them have tested positive.
Cooper is scheduled to talk to Ashley Sanders, the one person who has not been infected, but seemingly knew the woman who exploded, Harper Rose. Ashley explains that she was only recently introduced to the fashion world, and while the duo had hung around a lot at the start, nothing romantic came out of their time together. Still, when Ashley reveals that they had sex often, Cooper immediately alerts the authorities, knowing that the disease is sexually transmitted. From there, he heads to Manny, Harper’s friend, who was the closest to her at the time of the impact. To Cooper’s horror, Manny already shows symptoms typically associated with the disease, namely an extremely high body temperature. Any attempts to fish information out of him, however, prove to be futile, and soon it’s too late.
Manny Undergoes a More Violent Transformation Than Ever Seen Before
In a flash, Manny’s body begins to violently contort as he tears his own arm out of the chains, tackling Cooper and escaping the lab. From there, he seemingly goes on a frenzied rampage, attacking anything and everything in sight as he slowly burns from the inside out and begins bleeding from every opening. While Cooper manages to catch up to him numerous times, Manny is almost supernaturally too strong at this point, and the scaly outgrowths on his spine only make him all the more threatening. Ramming through several layers of the building, Manny ultimately ends up at a restricted corner, where preserved bodies are stored for skin grafts. Here, he enters the cocoon stage of his transformation, which finishes surprisingly quickly. What’s left is a brand new version of his body, both more attractive and more powerful.
Cooper realizes that he can no longer win against Manny in hand-to-hand combat and instead switches to dosing him with an anesthetic. Soon, the police surround Manny, giving Cooper a perfect opportunity to sedate him. Still, the anesthetics have seemingly no effects on the man, and it is only after he is tasered that things come under control. Far away from the CDC, in Italy, Jeremy and the assassin are now officially a team, and the first of their team-building exercises is the selection of an assassin-worthy wardrobe. The second, as it turns out, is to teach Jeremy the ground rules of having sex, as fluid exchange is no longer allowed. While Jeremy has trouble adjusting to this new lifestyle, the prospect of killing more people wins it over, and with that, the duo is set for its next target: the CDC, and presumably Manny.
Cooper and Jordan Reunite Under Trying Circumstances
Elsewhere, we are reintroduced to Byron Forst, the mastermind behind the Beauty, who runs a gigantic lab where the treatment is produced en masse. It appears that the only way to get rid of Beauty’s side effects is a series of booster shots that need to be administered monthly. Without these, however, the crew has no way of holding back the side effects, but that can hardly stop Forst from taking the next step in his plan. Ready to mint money from his invention, Forst decides World Beauty Day to be the date of his product launch, even when the treatment is far from adequately tested, researched, and reworked. Worse, he intends to dilute the booster shots and convert them into weekly dosages, such that people remain addicted and profits keep soaring.
While the scientists at Forst’s factory warn him again and again about the potential horrors this can induce, he refuses to budge from his commitment to the launch day. Elsewhere, Cooper jogs through the city before coming across the back of someone who appears to be Jordan. When she turns around, however, the face is revealed to be hollowed out and grafted, before all of this is confirmed to be nothing but a dream sequence. Things are about to intensify, however, as an aggressive series of door knocks reveals none other than Jordan on the other side, now completely transformed into a new person. Whether Cooper recognizes, or more importantly, believes Jordan’s new form can make or break this dynamic going forward.
Read More: Is The Beauty a True Story? Is the Beauty Based on a Real Drug or Virus?
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