Beyond - No Es Bueno - Review

After last weeks lacklustre opener ‘No Es Bueno’ was an improvement. Still very slow, but at least the story moved forward a bit.

The show may have started out as being about Holden Matthews waking from a coma with abilities, but the writers seem to have taken last seasons cliffhanger as an opportunity to expand the shows mythology. The premiere laid the seeds of introducing Edgar, and ‘No Es Beuno’ introduces us to Diego. He like Holden wakes from a coma, but in Argentina and he doesn’t get the smoothest introduction to post-coma life. He seems to be haunted and his parents attempts to help him wind up with him killing them, before hot footing it into a taxi for the airport. The most interesting thing about this is in the aftermath of killing his parents in a car crash, he ends up injured and Holden in the aftermath of his own incident looks down to see he has the same injury.

Luke is doing pretty well at work, even in line to possibly get a promotion, which he’s pretty excited about. That is turned on its head when his ex-girlfriend who got him kicked out of college pays a visit. Luke plays it cool at first, but it’s not long before they’re hooking up and he’s soon talking himself into joining her on a trip to recover some pills. The fact their hook-up happens after Willa pays him a visit at work I don’t think is a coincidence. She hasn’t seen or spoken to Holden since their argument and is trying to work out whether giving him space is the right thing to do or not. Luke gives her some advice to help her let off steam, which Willa finds to be surprisingly helpful, and when she pays him a visit at work to say thanks, she’s left disheartened to find he’s not there. I would absolutely love if this relationship was kept platonic, but something tells me that’s not going to happen.

To add to what is shaping up to be a love square, Charlie is still set on returning to Fort Read to deal with Arthur. Her adopted/foster sister tries to dissuade her and throws in a Holden mention, but Charlie is insistent she’s only interested in getting revenge on Arthur. Annabelle thinks wanting to see Holden would be a better reason. What Charlie’s issue with Arthur is exactly is still unclear. During her conversation with Annabelle some hints are dropped, but nothing specific.

Holden is still struggling with his nightmares and they’re very much starting to affect work life. He gets told off by his father for being late, and when Steven continues to goad him Holden loses it. He does correctly point out that he was in a coma which he had no control over, and Steven’s gripe isn’t really with him, but then Holden has an episode which leads to chaos and Holden having to save Steven from being badly injured. It’s in the aftermath of this that Holden notices the strange injury that he has mysteriously procured.

There isn’t a lot of screen time for Tom and Diane this week. He is seen at the beginning when he tells Holden off for being late and chats to a woman at work. Diane meanwhile goes to visit Pastor Ian in an attempt to rekindle their relationship. Unfortunately for her and somewhat surprisingly, Pastor Ian rebuffs her advances. Their conversation is then interrupted by Jeff, who is annoyed that Helping Hand are offering support to Christine and her child. Diane manages to stop him strangling Ian to death, and later visits Jeff to reveal that she’s working with the FBI to get information. Jeff thinks that will only end with a target on her back, but Diane’s words get through to him enough that he apologizes to Christine for his reaction to Helping Hands assistance.

The man in the yellow jacket also makes an appearance in this episode. He is called in to see Tess and lies to her that Charlie is dead. He wants to know the plan moving forward in Frost’s absence. Tess refuses to give him any real concrete information, and makes a phone call when the man in the yellow jacket departs that doesn’t bode well for him. It seems to be that Tess knows he is behind the break-in at her house, and may even know that he has her medication.

Beyond is juggling a number of plots and it seems to be that these early stages of season 2 are all about setting them up, so they can be explored further as the season goes on. That is fine in theory, but it feels as though Beyond is trying to manage one too many a plot than it’s actually capable of at the moment.

You can watch the next episode of Beyond on Freeform next Thursday. So what did you think of Beyond? Let me know your thoughts and theories in the comments below!