Beyond 2x08 "I Scream, You Scream" Review

There’s only 2 episodes to go now until the finale and in “I Scream, You Scream”, rescuing Edgar took center stage.

Holden, Jeff and Charlie joined together to break into the hospital, with Charlie posing as a delivery woman to free him. On arrival the patients were vocal in their complaints over lack of ice cream, and seeing the Doctor wearing a parka, it didn’t take Charlie long to realize they were keeping Edgar in the freezer.

It wasn’t exactly nice, but given his power is setting fires, keeping him on ice was a smart move. The Doctor attempted to play nice at first, claiming she was just concerned for Edgar, but questioning soon turned to Holden and Edgar realized she wasn’t asking Doctorly type questions.

As Edgar came mightily close to freezing to death, Jeff picked a fight with a security guard to distract long enough for Charlie and Holden to break into the freezer and free Edgar. Jeff got his butt mightily kicked, but all's well that ends well, as they were successful in their mission.

Leaving the freezer it was Holden’s turn to put his powers to good use as the Doctor and her entourage attempting to block their escape. Edgar was soon stepping up to the plate again, and threatened to boil them alive but Holden managed to talk him down. Edgar then led them to his freezer in the woods, where to their surprise, he explained that Holden was the one going into the realm.

This was greeted with much disapproval from Holden, Charlie and Jeff, but Edgar held his nerve, explaining he could guide Holden on how to get into the realm, but the actual journey was his privilege and his alone.

To be honest I found their surprise at this ‘revelation’ a bit silly. Since the season, and Holden’s dreams, began he’s been quite set on going back into the realm to fix whatever he broke. His dreams led him to the fridge and Edgar courtesy of Edgar using their psychic connection, but this has always been about Holden.

Willa didn’t really get much screen time this week, which seems to be a recurring theme of this season and I don’t really like it. Willa is to an extent is really cut off from the main plot, which considering her grandfather and father’s ideologies are the centre point of it? Doesn’t really make a lot of sense. It could be that the writers are trying to show how distant Willa and Holden are this season, given neither has spoken to each other since the bowling showdown 2 episodes ago. That also strikes me as being odd, since Charlie informed Willa of Holden’s confrontation with Diego and yet despite showing concern during that conversation there’s been no follow up.

Instead Willa’s screen time this week was limited to 2 scenes. One of which I don’t think we can really call a scene, since she was just reacting to Luke ringing the doorbell and practicing his speech to her. After she lets him in and shows him Arthur’s machine, Luke reveals all about his meeting with the FBI Agent. It seems that everyone is in agreement that something about the realm has to be done, but they all have their different ideas on how exactly to rectify it. Holden, Charlie & Jeff want to use Edgar’s freezer, whilst Willa wants to use Arthur’s machine, but he and Luke believe it should be destroyed before anything else crosses over into our world.

The damage has already been well and truly done on that note, with the people who last week awoke and broke out of their cold freezers, storming the station to rescue Diego. He had an extremely interesting conversation with Tom across their two cells, proclaiming that he would hurt Holden and there was nothing Tom could do to stop it.

As I said last week, Oscar Camucho is a really good actor and Freeform truly struck gold casting him as Diego. He absolutely nails the creepy, villainous facial expressions, and I do feel scared for whatever he and his crew are going to bring down on Fort Reed and Holden.

Another person feeling scared this week is Pastor Ian. He approaches Diane in the parking lot to apologise for his actions, and Diane in no uncertain terms tells him where to go. He continues to be apologetic, Diane tells him if he really means it, he’ll join her for the meeting with the FBI Agent.

Unfortunately Pastor Ian is stopped from attending by the man in the yellow jacket, who sends his associate to crash into Pastor Ian’s car and kidnap him. How exactly Hollow Sky knows about Holden’s parents meeting with the FBI is left to interpretation. Best guess is we’re supposed to believe Pastor Ian has informed the man in the yellow jacket of that, or they have a spy working in the organisation since Hollow Sky have people everywhere. The man in the yellow jacket confronts Pastor Ian at gun point over his secret cameras. Pastor Ian again tries to play dumb and begs the man in the yellow jacket not to kill him, claiming that he’s a devoted follower of Frost’s teachings. Calling his bluff, the man in the yellow jacket points out if that was really the case, he wouldn’t be afraid of dying because he’d believe in the life beyond that.

As he’s now in management, the man in the yellow jacket decides that killing is now beneath him. Pastor Ian is a relieved man for a moment believing he’s going to live another day. The man in the yellow jacket’s associate very much disagrees with that, shooting Pastor Ian and his fate is now somewhat up in the air. Has the show really killed him, or did the associate shoot him somewhere else as a warning?

Finally on the FBI front, Luke meets up with the agent in the morning. She informs Luke that the FBI know all about Hollow Sky, their machines, and that people who wake from coma’s tend to wake up with unexplainable abilities. She asks Luke whether he’s noticed any changes with Holden, and it’s very much an affirmative on that.

This show has a lot of faults, but I have to give them credit for not making the FBI really dumb. In most shows dealing with superpowers and the like, authorities such as the FBI are completely oblivious to it, with elaborate explanations being used to justify events. This FBI Agent here though is extremely smart and another pleasant surprise! Seems to actually want to bring Hollow Sky to justice. No secretly playing for the other team. No conspiring against the Matthew’s to get her own hands on Holden. Just a nice simple Agent wanting to do her job and stop Hollow Sky.

Shoemacher was also back this week, surveying the damage left behind in the facility. Her plan was to do a simple clean up job and move Frost somewhere else, since strangely enough he’s the only person who hasn’t woken up. She also had to deal with questions from her wife, who knows she’s hiding something. Shoemacher admits that she has cancer, but assures her wife that she’ll be fine, and once she’s tied up some loose ends at work, they’ll be free to live their lives. I can’t help thinking that Shoemacher’s version of living life involves entering the realm herself. It’s an understandable solution to her situation, given she clearly loves her wife, they have a child on the way and she very much isn’t in remission.

“I Scream, You Scream” wasn’t the most interesting of episodes, which is something that can be said for the majority of Beyond’s second season, but it still moved the plot forward. As much as parts of this season have been extremely torturous to watch due to the slow pace, I am intrigued to see how the show wraps everything up. I’m also hoping the season doesn’t end on a cliff-hanger, as judging by the ratings, a third season isn’t a guarantee.

You can watch “F.G.B” next Thursday at 8pm on Freeform