Co-created by Ryan Murphy and Matt Hodgson, FX’s ‘The Beauty’ follows two FBI agents, Jordan Bennett and Cooper Madsen, on a globetrotting adventure that slowly turns into a horror show. Chasing after a strange series of bodily transformations, the duo realizes that this is the work of a human-made beautification treatment, which just so happens to be sexually transmissible. As the disease spreads like wildfire, global conspiracies erupt, with everyone’s quest to become magically attractive leaving a mountain of casualties in its wake. The first three episodes of this sci-fi body horror, titled ‘Beautiful Pilot,’ ‘Beautiful Jordan,’ and ‘Beautiful Christopher Cross,’ lay the foundation for this narrative, simultaneously birthing and answering questions along the way. SPOILERS AHEAD.
A Model’s Inexplicable Explosion From the Inside Out Summons the FBI to Paris
‘The Beauty’ opens with the buzz and hue of a high-profile fashion show in Paris, where one model appears a bit too agitated while on the ramp. When she notices someone in the audience drinking water, all hell breaks loose as she lunges at them. What follows is a violent outburst that leaves a trail of bodies, with the model’s unquenchable thirst for water seemingly at the root of it all. As she races out of the show and slams into the oncoming traffic, no injury seems to stop her from chugging water, even if it is from a restaurant toilet seat. By the time she is surrounded by the cops, it is already too late, as the model explodes into smithereens from the inside out, leaving everyone well beyond perspective.
When Jordan Bennett and Cooper Madsen wake up one morning after having sex, the latter notices that something is different. As it turns out, Jordan did indeed get implants, and that springs a larger conversation about surgeries and bodily modifications at large. Cooper believes augmentation to be an unnatural element in modern life, in no small part due to what he learnt as a soldier in Japan; the famed concept of kintsugi, which involves rejoining broken pottery using gold, celebrating the cracks instead of obscuring them. Their philosophy talk has to wait, however, as not long after, they are summoned by the French intelligence. As it turns out, Jordan and Cooper are esteemed FBI agents, and they are in The City of Light to investigate the model’s carnage and subsequent explosion.
Given that the case has mostly been kept under wraps so far, the model’s blowing up comes as a shock to both Jordan and Cooper. That is not the most concerning part, however, as the French police have only now connected the dots between similar cases all over Europe, and even America. People have been spontaneously blowing up for no reason, and a closer look at the model’s remains shines a better light on the why. Even after days of the incident, her remains are still hot enough to melt steel, making it likely that she was looking for water out of desperation. Still, what scares Cooper the most is her toxicology report, which confirms that she is positive for some viral infection, although it is not known which one, existing or newly invented.
Jeremy’s Metamorphosis Shows the Beauty’s Miraculous Prowess
Enter Jeremy, a person with obesity who leads the life of a shut-in, watching pornographic livestreams day in and out. Extremely conscious of his appearance, he refuses to exit his house under any circumstances, but with diminishing social connections in life, he yearns for something more. A breakthrough seemingly comes through an anonymous chat window, which guides him to a mysterious plastic surgeon all the way in Indianapolis. Back in Paris, Cooper appears to have found some sort of a breakthrough and reveals it to Jordan. As it turns out, many of the exploded people were models, but the most surprising thing about them is their images from two years ago. None of the models looks anything like their previous selves, and the transformation is simply too drastic for a run-of-the-mill surgery.
Cooper suggests that the extreme transformations were the result of an entire medical industry’s worth of output and might just be the reason for these deaths. At the plastic surgeon’s facility, Jeremy has to sit through an agonizing lecture about his own status as an “incel” before the shady doctor subjects him to a bone-smashing surgery. The result is a sharp-edged, comically artificial look that attracts more ridicule than praise. Jeremy reaches his tipping point when he is tricked by a group of girls into paying for their drinks, and in a fit of rage, he storms back into the surgeon’s office and guns down the assistants. Desperate to stay alive, the surgeon then promises him an experimental, but bona fide, transformative treatment, for which the duo heads to a hotel. There, instead of surgeons, Jeremy is met with an attractive woman, who proceeds to have sex with him, before going away.
As the hours follow, he begins exhibiting symptoms: excessive sweating, dehydration, and nose bleeding. This then led to a full-blown skeletal restructuring, as bones, ligaments, and muscles crack and arrange themselves anew, till he is ultimately covered in a fleshy cocoon. What comes out is not the Jeremy we have seen so far, but a completely different physique, with toned muscles, a chiseled face, and more enhanced features, marking the first on-screen showing of what all the dead models likely went through.
The Beauty’s Creator and His Assassin Come Out to Play
In episode 2, Jordan and Cooper head from Paris to Venice, where they find that the situation has worsened quite a lot. It has been a few days since the original incident, and the model’s virus has been confirmed not to be airborne, but fluid-based. What the FBI duo finds at a Venetian hotel room, however, is not an exploded body, but a mutilated one, likely by a human torturer-killer. The victim is none other than the girl who had sex with Jeremy, and it appears that she didn’t survive for much longer after. On one of the room’s walls, a hieroglyph, representing the Egyptian word for “Beauty,” is etched out, signaling clear intent. In the next season, we are introduced to the man behind the violence, an assassin working for what appears to be the creators of the sexually transmitted beautification treatment.
From the assassin’s conversation with someone who appears to be the creator of the virus, it is clear that the sexual transmission is not a feature, but a bug, and it is in their best interest to kill everyone who has been transformed out of line. This adds context to the dead girl’s ambiguous final video, where she seems to be advising against doing “it.” Jordan and Cooper are unable to make heads or tails of the video, and as the day goes by, they hardly come up with anything of value. That night, the duo discusses going a step beyond their sexual relationship, and while the sparks are clearly there, both pretend that it is not the case. While Cooper heads for the hotel, Jordan stays and is courted by an attractive Italian man.
Jordan Becomes One of the Infected
On his way back, Cooper is ambushed by two hitmen, likely sent by the creator of the treatment under investigation. While the duo nearly takes Cooper out, the seasoned FBI agent soon gains the upper hand and makes a run for it. The two men, however, appear to be somewhat superhuman and refuse to back down, no matter how intense an attack Cooper throws at them. Ultimately, he wins by stabbing one and hanging the other to death, but none of this translates to what went on with Jordan. It appears that the man she had sex with had used the treatment, meaning that she was now infected. We see the effects slowly take shape in the coming hours, as she begins to sweat profusely, before the crackling of the bones ensues. As her body begins contorting beyond recognition, a fleshy, slimy pupa takes over her body and stays that way for what appears to be the entire day.
As sunrays hit the cocoon, what comes out is no longer Jordan, but a younger, more well-built version of her. It appears that the process worked for her as well, but whether or not it has affected her mind remains to be seen. Elsewhere, Cooper is unceremoniously chained down due to suspected infection. Worse, the investigators don’t believe that he acted purely out of self-defense, and the situation stays this way till a senior intelligence officer comes onto the scene. Luck doesn’t seem to be in Cooper’s favor, however, as the officer’s plan is to forcefully quarantine him until he is cleared. As he is chained once again and carried off by boat, Cooper only has one thing to scream, for the officers to ensure Jordan’s whereabouts.
Cooper Returns to the US, While Jeremy Joins the Dark Side
In New York, a group of friends from the fashion industry sit down to have brunch, only for one of them to exhibit strange symptoms. By now, we know what is to follow, and expectedly, the woman goes into a violent fugue, demanding water and throwing people away with superhuman strength. When she explodes, however, the blood splatters all over the few dozen people around her, meaning that the virus has effectively spread beyond anyone’s control. Meanwhile, the treatment’s creator rings up the assassin right when he is in the middle of a kill. They have tracked down the girl’s connection to the plastic surgeon, which means that he is to be their next stop.
For the assassin, it is routine to enter establishments, kill those who need to be killed, and fish out information about the rest of the chain. With the surgeon, he does the exact same, learning of Jeremy’s present whereabouts before pulling the trigger on the surgeon. Jeremy is in the showers when he is ambushed by the assassin, and despite the odds being stacked against him, he holds his own relatively well. This buys him enough time to tell the assassin who he had sex with: a lone girl who has already started showing symptoms. As the duo heads into her house, they are already too late, as she appears to be aggressive from the onset, charging at and nearly killing the assassin before Jeremy bashes her head in with a frying pan. Having killed multiple times in a few days, Jeremy realizes at last that this is his true, nefarious passion, and as it so happens, the assassin is in need of an apprentice.
Without second thought, Jeremy takes up the assassin’s offer, while also learning more about this drug, named the Beauty, which changes a person’s physique on a cellular level to give them what is essentially a superhuman body. The episode ends with Cooper back in America, having been cleared of the virus. The entire infected New York group has been put into quarantine, and Cooper is in charge of interrogating a select few, not knowing that his own closest ally is now one of the infected, stuck somewhere far away, all by herself.
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