Week by week Beyond’s second season is improving ever so slowly. Unfortunately, the emphasis is very much on slowly. We’re now on episode 5 and it still feels like the show is setting up this season’s storylines.
One of my main gripes with this season so far has been screen time wasted on storylines that aren’t particularly interesting. Last week seemed to bring the end to Holden’s work place drama, and this week hopefully brought the end to Luke’s problem with Riley’s drug dealer Jay. She wasn’t a particularly interesting character last year, it was obvious from the get go that her return spelt nothing but trouble, so discovering she’d lied to Luke wasn’t a surprise at all. Last week he tried to persuade Holden to tag along in confronting Jay but he rightfully said no. This week, Willa witnessed a meeting between them outside the coffee shop. It didn’t go at all well for Luke so Willa tracks Jay down and beats him up. Luke later turns up at her place to reveal Jay has told him to forget about the debt, and Willa invites him in for tea.
Each episode so far has featured at least one scene between Willa and Luke. This episode upped the ante by having Luke mention a conversation he had with Willa to Holden, before realizing his slip of the tongue and covering. It would be really nice if they were kept as confidants, but if the writers do take them past that, I wouldn’t be against it.
From their very first scene Jonathan & Dilan have been playing off each other rather well, and make the scenes between Willa & Luke flow more naturally than those between Willa & Holden. At the beginning it felt as though the show was trying to build them as being some kind of epic love, but I just don’t feel it. Their relationship is laden with communication issues, bond stemming from their time trapped in the realm, and now they’re back in the real world, their lives couldn’t be further apart. Where Luke & Willa talk about their issues so easily and without much prompting, Willa has to call Holden out on how self-absorbed he is before he’ll even ask what’s going on with her. Holden also has more of a natural bond with Charlie. The opening scene last week between Willa & Holden I feel was supposed to show the passion between them but it just felt flat, whilst Charlie coming into Holden’s room at the end of this episode and lying next to him on the bed was quite cute. Beyond isn’t the first show in history to have such a mismatch between its leads, and hopefully before the season ends that will be rectified one way or another.
Holden’s storyline this week involved a little bit of sleepwalking and some brotherly bonding with Luke out in the woods. Holden keeps having nightmares, and they took him to a place in the woods where a freezer belonging to Edgar was buried. He doesn’t know what exactly is in the freezer, but judging by the vision he had when he touched the lock, it’s obviously nothing good. The brotherly bonding was nice at first, until of course it all turned sour once again. Luke thinks that he’s doing the good that Holden should be doing with his powers. Holden points out he still can’t control his powers, and only seems to cause harm with them. It really feels as though Luke on the whole is envious of Holden and the life he has, and that’s to an extent understandable. Their family fell apart when Holden fell into the coma, their dad seems more interested in Holden than Luke, and Luke just doesn’t have much going for him.
Diane received a very much surprise visit from Pastor Ian this week, and it very much feels as though he is onto her. She may have gotten out of inviting him into the house, but she’s still been talked into a weekend away with him and I don’t think that’s going to work well for her at all.
The Man in the Yellow Jacket after disposing of his former friend paid a visit to Tess this week. Both of them were expecting him to go through with killing her. However after discovering that her wife is pregnant and considering the fact she is already dying, The Man in the Yellow Jacket decided to just let nature take its course in exchange for a more active part in Hollow Sky. This led to a cameo from Lochlyn Munro aka Riverdale’s Hal Cooper. In Frosts absence, Tess is still selling the idea of being reunited with loved ones in the afterlife. Lochlyn Muro’s character is one of many who is still very much buying this, only to actually be put into a coma. The Man in the Yellow Jacket isn’t exactly happy to discover this and accuses Tess of straying from Frosts vision. He wants to continue work on the technology to make the idea a reality. Tess however isn't interested in this and orders him to find a bigger place to store all the bodies.
There is absolutely no way that this isn’t going to come back and bite Tess, and dare I even say Holden in the bum. Diego is fast making his way to Fort Read, and with that comes the revelation he along with many others have been inadvertently freed from the realm by Holden. He is promising carnage as cities burn and a new society is made. The funniest thing about this scene was the charming old lady declaring at first that she wasn’t afraid of death, and quickly clutching her cross when Diego began prophesying.
The absolute best part of this episode though was Charlie. When she opened her motel door to find Holden standing she wasn’t pleased at all. He attempted to press her with questions, like why she hadn’t told him she was back and she just did not care at all. After slamming the door on his face, Charlie then escaped out the back window with Holden still calling for her.
She then later arrived at Arthur’s house intent on killing him which is the second funniest scene of the episode. As soon as she was revealed I was expecting a dramatic scene as she confronted him, and aired her grievances. Instead what we got was her tiptoeing behind Arthur’s back as he roamed around searching for an intruder or Willa. When the time finally came to shoot him, Charlie couldn’t bring herself to do it and fled to the lake when she had absolutely no problem shooting the gun.
I haven’t seen Eden Brolin in anything outside of Beyond, but she is proving herself to be a fantastic actress. She switches between the comedic and more serious aspects effortlessly, and really works those one liners that the writers just keep handing down to her. Because of all of this Charlie is my favorite part about Beyond, and as said earlier the end scene between her and Holden was really cute. Not a lot of words were spoken but they didn’t need to be.
What did you think of Six Feet Deep? Let me know your thoughts and you can watch the next episode of
Beyond next Thursday on Freeform.
