'Beyond' Recap: 'Ties That Bind'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

We are now three episodes into Freeform's new series Beyond and the show outright continues to impress. Every standard storytelling device when it comes to a show like this, where someone discovers they are in possession of incredible powers, are being thrown out the window to give us a raw and visceral story and to top it all off, the show is wasting no time in advancing the plot as well because last night's episode, 'Ties That Bind' explored where Holden's mind went during his twelve year coma. 

But before we get to discussing that, let's talk about what finally drove him to explore his past, because up until this point, Holden was doing anything and everything to avoid learning about the truth and understanding his abilities and it took the discovery of one giant lie to make Holden realize that he's holding onto a concept and a life that simply no longer exists and what was it he learned that finally opened his eyes? The fact that his idyllic family life was anything but and his parents had been separated for quite some time now, and despite the fact they put on a show for Holden to provide continuity the fact that his parents lied to him completely and utterly broke him, allowing for him to finally turn to Willa.

After all, with the real world collapsing around him, it only made sense to return to the only stability he had known for the past twelve years and with Willa's help she introduced him to the place that his mind went to while he was unconscious, a place known as The Realm. It was within this world that Holden was privy to incredible sights that were reminiscent of the coolest dreams our brain can muster, but that was merely an illusion, this place features real danger and on several occasions, Willa had to pull him out of The Realm to keep him safe. What purpose this place serves, or why it's so important to Holden, Willa and Arthur we still don't quite know, but it was pretty awesome to see Holden explore such an important place this early on in the series.

However, while it was cool to see Holden return to this place and slowly uncover his lost memories, the show was quick to remind us that there are still some incredible threats out there waiting for Holden because this episode also featured what Yellow Jacket had to do to atone for his mistakes, he had to 'deal' with Kevin. That meant chasing poor Kevin down and outright kidnapping him in order to learn exactly what he knew about Holden and who he had potentially spoken to about that fateful night in the parking lot...and for a moment there, it seemed as though Yellow Jacket actually had some good left within him, because he softened his stance when Kevin pointed out he was going to be a father and YJ even took Kevin to see his family, and I'm certain we all thought that he was going to let Kevin go...but that was simply not the case and unfortunately, Kevin was 'dealt' with in the worst way imaginable. 

When all is said and done however, this was quite the fascinating little episode. Sure it didn't outright give us all the answers to the questions set up in the pilot a couple of weeks ago, but it gave us just enough to keep us hooked and it did just enough to keep the story moving in the right direction because let's be honest...I think we all want to know more about The Realm, and its purpose and why its so important for Holden to remember his time there, plus I fully appreciated the fact that the series added a new twist to the story, in that Arthur and Willa's conversation demonstrates that it seems everybody wants something from Holden and that's unfortunate because he's simply trying to put his life back together. Either way, it looks like the trouble is about to find Holden again since Kevin's brother Jeff has some questions about his brother's whereabouts, and it's only a matter of time before Yellow Jacket returns to complete his mission...until next time.

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