'Beyond' Recap: 'Celeste'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

In order to truly be successful, a book series, movie franchise or television series has to find a way to connect with its audience on a deep and personal level. Often times that's done with a particular character that everyone can relate to, but sometimes a story is so big and so large that something such as that just isn't possible. Instead, the story has to inject something familiar into the mix to reach us on that fundamental level and thus far, the ability to truly relate to the audience is something that Beyond has been sorely lacking.

Now that's not a bad thing, after all, this is quite the entertaining and fascinating show, but it is indeed a far sweeping and far reaching story, which has made it difficult to find a way to reach us at our core and connect us with the characters and their plight. But thankfully all of that changed thanks to this week's episode because 'Celeste' once more peppered in some answers to the burning mysteries the show has set up and it finally found a way to reach all of us, by giving us a down to earth storyline, that focused on the power of loss and betrayal and by adding those kinds of emotions into the mix, we were treated to one beautiful episode.

The power of loss was explored at first, by way of Holden and his new 'friend', Charlie. That's right, she finally caught up with Holden in the hopes of wooing him to work with Hollow Sky, but the fact that both of them lost years of their lives to a coma, and emerged with incredible powers allowed for these two to instantly relate to one another and form a common bond thanks to their power and their pain. Because those lost years haunt them, and they both feel out of place in a world that has passed them by and that newfound connection allowed for Charlie to be honest with Holden about why she was there...and that she was no longer willing to do Shoemacher's bidding because finding someone just like her, was far more important than making a shady corporation happy. But the show didn't stop exploring loss with just those two characters, it went deeper by showing us how badly Jeff is dealing with the death of his brother, to the point where he reached out to Holden's dad to enlist his help in dealing with the nightmare that is Hollow Sky.

However, the most surprising revelation of the night, that also dealt with the theme of loss, was the fact that the show not only showed us the face of Frost, but it explained why he is obsessed with Holden and people that have powers like him. It turns out that years ago, Frost and Arthur brought Frost's wife, Celeste, back from the Realm and she more or less confirmed...that an Afterlife does exist just beyond the Realm. But unfortunately, Celeste's return was temporary, and whatever injuries put her in a coma...resurfaced and took her life, forcing Frost to quit his research to found Hollow Sky, which we now know is a religious organization, firmly grounded in the belief that death is just the beginning...and how does Holden play into all of this? Well it's clear now that Frost believes that Holden....holds the key to bridging the gap between our world and what lies beyond...

As for betrayal however, that was dealt with via Willa, who suffered some serious pain this episode. Not only did she have to step away from Holden because of his actions in destroying the Realm related gear...but she also found out, while she tried to dig deeper into her grandfather's research, that Frost had a daughter and he abandoned her in his quest to understand and reach the afterlife and Willa...was the little girl that he left behind, and well...you really have to feel for her at this point. She's taken one devastating blow after another in recent weeks and one has to wonder how this latest revelation will affect her further. Either way, what a wonderful episode. We've all been betrayed and lied to by people close to us, and we've all felt like the outcast, or that we're lost in this universe with no one to understand us, and we have all suffered our share of loss, and the fact that Beyond made that the central way to reach its audience is downright brilliant, because now more than ever...we want to see these characters made whole again. Until next time.

---