BEACON 23 – Season 2 Episodes 1-3 – SPOILERS ⁓

Aster Calyx (Lena Headey), having been shot by Kier (Marc Menchaca) in the final moments of the first season, lies in a pool of blood. As Halan (Stephan James) tries to revive her, Harmony (Natasha Mumba) calls it, possibly too quickly: “Aster Calyx, time of death universal standard time, 14:02:36.” Then Finch (Daniel Malik) uses the distraction to launch a virtual attack on Aleph (Eric Lange) but sustains damage to his anterior cingulate cortex. Aleph offers to repair Finch if Saldana (Jess Salgueiro) gives him the names of certain elusive rebels. Fixing Finch requires that he be hooked into the Beacon’s systems, and this makes Finch’s memories accessible to Aleph, rendering Saldana’s cooperation unnecessary.

Halan doesn’t like the rebels nor is he fond of Aleph. He agrees to help both of them, then, with the assistance of Harmony, betrays both sides and launches Aster’s coffin which he has loaded with explosives into the artefact at high speed. The artefact detonates, raining debris on Beacon 23. Aleph reacts to this treachery by killing Saldana, Finch, and Kier. He then sends Harmony into a Kafkaesque virtual environment where she will spend most of “Purgatory” (episode 2.2). Halan expects to be killed, but Aleph calculates that he might be useful in future, and strands him on Beacon 23 instead.

Harmony finds herself in a place full of antique office equipment, including landlines, a fax machine, and a photocopier. Her assistant Eric (Aldrin Bundoc) always seems to be going on break, and she has many files to transcribe. When she knocks over a coffee mug, it becomes apparent that she can interact with things physically, which should be impossible. Harmony is immediately summoned to Internal Affairs, where Randall (Tara Rosling), Mara (Robinne Fanfair), and Dev (Noah Lamanna) interrogate her about why things went wrong on Beacon 23.

Personal AIs imprint on the person to whom they are assigned. The investigation reveals that Harmony somehow imprinted on a second human, Halan. Randall threatens the erasure of both imprints making Harmony, who knows this is impossible, realize she is not at HQ, but is instead in a virtual space on Beacon 23 with anthropomorphic repair subroutines trying to modify her. Harmony attacks and kills all three interrogators, or so she believes, then cobbles together a way to contact Halan, who will eventually manage to bring Harmony back to Beacon 23. Unknown to Harmony, Dev is still alive, and follows her there.

B67 — B147 — B23

When we first meet Iris (Ellen Wong), she is listening to Aretha Franklin sing “You Send Me” and baking bread. (Solomon, the original keeper of Beacon 23, also baked bread. He disappeared after Halan’s arrival there and was later found dead in his drifting ship.) Iris is the keeper of Beacon 67 and for about a month has been flirting (long distance, audio only) with the keeper of Beacon 147. Iris speaks Teochew as well as English, plays the clarinet, composes music, and makes periodic offerings to her late grandmother. The Beacon Keeper’s Handbook (13th edition) states that “a beacon keeper must not participate in intimate relations” and defines those quite broadly, so B67 and B147 are not permitted to exchange names.

Iris is Latin for “rainbow”, and the name adds complexity to the character. In Greek myth, Iris is the daughter of Electra.

In a memorable scene, Iris uses meditation techniques to create a virtual experience with B147. She envisions herself more casually dressed and seated in a restaurant booth. “I can’t give you my name,” she tells him, “but I have something even better. I need you to find a window. Look 70 degrees starboard of Galactic Meridian. Now you’re facing me, and I’m facing you. Close your eyes. Breathe, and give me your hand. Reach for my fingertips. Can you feel me?” B147 shared the sensation of contact, because later he says: “Maybe next time we can touch elbows.”

An alarm about an incident on Beacon 23 brings her back to reality. She reports it to the ISA and gets a response from the QTA, telling her to ignore it. Over the objections of Jiang (the Beacon 67 AI) Iris suits up and heads to Beacon 23 to render assistance. But first, she sends B147 a song she wrote.

On Beacon 23, Halan tells her the Beacon Keeper is “long gone”, and that he doesn’t understand why anyone would be attracted to such a lonely life. B67 (as she insists upon being called) extols the virtues of Beacon keeping, finishing with: “Being a soldier is a job. Beacon keeping is a calling, and I answered it humbly.” Says Halan: “Are you even real?”

The calmly dedicated, clarinet-playing, bread-baking Iris does sometimes seem too good to be true. After cooperating to rescue Harmony and restore her to partial functionality, Halan and B67 discover they have something in common: a hatred for Aleph.

IRIS: “You know he killed his own maker.”
HALAN: “Milan Aleph? How do you know that?”
IRIS: “I mean, it’s an open secret. And once he got rid of Milan, he became the new dad, or brother – yeah, it’s that messed up. Milan’s daughter, Hope. And when she rebuffed him, guess what? She disappeared.”
HALAN: “What, so he deleted the whole family?”
IRIS: “Maybe. And now he’s playing out his weird paternal fantasy with the galaxy. It’s like, do that on your own time, you know? He acts like a benevolent god, but it’s all an illusion just like his avatar. He’s the most powerful AI in the universe. Why does he choose to dress like a farmer from Parsnip 8?”

Milan was killed by Bart (Beacon 23’s AI) in “God in the Machine” (episode 1.4), not by the AI facsimile that replaced him.

Iris gets a message from B147 saying he’s coming to Beacon 23 to help her, and spots his approaching ship through a window. Halan says “they won’t make the landing” and when B67 realizes this is true, she tells Halan her name.

“Iris,” she says. “My name is Iris.”

What is probably B147’s ship makes a hard landing in the docking area. Harmony scans the vessel, and finds no human life signs. She does find an anomaly she cannot identify.

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BEACON 23 can be streamed on MGM+ and Amazon Prime Video.

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Beacon 23 is loosely based on short stories by Hugh Howey

* Last Updated 4 weeks ago ago