The Beauty began in explosive fashion, quite literally with the death of that drugged-up model, and it ends much the same way too.
But what else would you possibly expect from a show created by Ryan Murphy? Especially one with a premise as wild as this?
For those catching up, Murphy and co-creator Matthew Hodgson adapted a comic book of the same name which premiered back in January. The story, originally written by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley, follows the spread of a sexually-transmitted virus known as “The Beauty” which transforms people into perfect, idealised versions of themselves. The catch is that you’ll eventually die, which is far from ideal.
FBI agents Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall) have been on quite the journey to stop the virus from spreading. Both ended up getting infected, except Cooper was accidentally transformed into a much younger version of himself. This was also far from ideal.
By the end of the penultimate episode, Byron Forst (Ashton Kutcher) had made The Beauty public, selling it through his corporation without any concern for how this might change society. Spoiler alert, it doesn’t go well, although the full extent of the horrors this treatment can bring aren’t revealed until the final episode.
The Beauty ending explained: What happens to Cooper Madsen?
The finale begins with Byron’s two deadbeat sons dancing with their mother to the sound of Sweet Child O’ Mine by Guns N’ Roses. It turns out these kids aren’t so sweet, however, when they stab Franny (Isabella Rossellini) with the serum against her will.
Later, they tell Byron that they have a special surprise set up for him, one that will bring them closer together as a family. Yep, Franny is young and unbearably hot now, which makes sense because Isabella Rossellini was already the hottest woman on the planet. And she’s even hotter because she’s wearing almost the exact same beaded top that Rossellini famously wore in the classic ’90s film Death Becomes Her.
This one’s for the gays, and we’re not mad about it.
Franny is mad about it, however, and understandably so, because her awful dumbass kids just changed her entire body without her consent.
“I feel like a prisoner trapped inside a body that is not mine.”
In a rare moment of wisdom and clarity for this show, Franny then describes how her scars, her stretch marks, “the age I owned,” have all been taken from her. This is the message this show should be conveying, and for once, it actually resonates.
Isabella Rossellini as Franny Forst in The Beauty. Philippe Antonello/FX
Byron tries to reassure Franny, reminding her how much he loves her and always has. She doesn’t care though, because let’s face it; Byron has always been a fool.
Franny starts smashing up antiques to make the point that “their beauty comes from their age”.
“I was a goddamned work of art,” she continues, “and one thing you never bothered to notice is some people are perfect just the way they are”.
Wishing she could go back in time to speak with the girl she was before she ever met Byron, Franny grabs a broken shard and suddenly slices her own throat with it.
The Beauty then reintroduces a teenager named Bella who we first met in the previous episode. She’s at a resort this time, meeting a very cute boy, and they both seem nervous.
Bella is surprised the hottie feels that way though. It turns out he’s not used to talking with girls because it wasn’t so long ago that he weighed 345 pounds, “addicted to anything considered edible”.
Ashton Kutcher as The Corporation, Isabella Rossellini as Franny Forst in The Beauty. FX
Nothing helped him until he tried The Beauty. “It was the easiest choice I’ve ever made.” And now? “I want to help give other people that same feeling.”
Bella won’t be receiving an injection though. Not in the traditional sense.
“A version of The Beauty can also be spread through bodily fluids,” reveals the boy. Bella discloses that she’s a virgin, so she’s a little nervous, but she did stuff she wasn’t proud of to get the money and she needs to see this through to completion.
The boy mentions that he took an extra injection of The Beauty beforehand to ensure she gets the “strongest dose of this miracle of science”.
“Whatever small chance there is of something bad happening, it’s worth it to me,” says Bella.
And that’s how you know something real bad is about to happen. After she pays up and they do the nasty, Bella returns home to receive a nasty welcome from her mother. She ignores it and runs to her room, super sweaty all of a sudden. The convulsions begin to take hold, but Bella smiles through them, knowing that this will all be worth it in the end.
At 12:43 the next day, Bella’s mother returns home from her shift to catch Bella out from skipping school. It turns out Bella had good reason to call in sick though. If anything, she should have called an ambulance, because when the mother arrives home, there is blood and slime everywhere.
Yes, you read that right. Slime.
Rebecca Hall and Evan Peters in The Beauty. FX.
Oh, but that’s just normal when The Beauty kicks in, right? The infected go through convulsions and then form a weird slime cocoon where all those perfect genes brew and transform.
Not this time.
Bella’s mother follows the slime trail to her daughter’s closet where she finds Bella hiding, or what remains of Bella.
The Beauty has often been compared to Demi Moore’s The Substance these past few weeks, but nowhere is that comparison more clear than in the mutated monstrosity that now sits before us.
Bella has become a grotesquely deformed creature, crying and screaming and bleeding from weird holes where holes should not exist. She is essentially The Substance in all but name, presumably because that double dose she got messed with the process somehow.
She’s not the only one suffering from hideous side effects though.
We then cut to a board meeting where Byron is told that there’s been an 83 per cent success rate out of the 6 million doses given so far. 450,000 incidents of mutation, including “cranial breast fusion,” have been reported, and it appears that the sexually transmitted variant is the worst offender.
With several class action lawsuits building and multiple investigations led by local federal agencies, things aren’t looking good. Even the President is no longer backing Byron’s company after the secretary of defence was accidentally turned into a 9 year old.
The FDA has revoked its approval of the drug and plans to ban it shortly. Byron is way ahead of them though in the sense that he actually agrees and already plans to shut down the clinics. Boosters will be kept flowing free of charge to help those already infected, and he plans to cut cheques for those adversely affected.
Byron’s son arrives then, enraged that his father is going to give away all their profits. Byron has never exactly cared for his children though, and his personality has turned a complete 180 after what happened to his wife.
“No, this isn’t about optics,” says Byron. “It’s about fundamental change, fixing everything and everyone. We will pay and provide resources to those affected and restructure our company so our resources can be focused on antidotes and cures. We need to fix the things we have broken and hopefully bring my wife back to me, in whatever form, whoever, however she wants, because she is and always has been the one person on this planet who can open my eyes and help me see.”
Franny is stable for now thanks to the best surgeons Byron could find. And it looks like Rossellini might even come back in a potential second season now that efforts are being made to reverse engineer The Beauty.
We then return to agents Madsen and Bennett one last time along with Antonio (Anthony Ramos) and Jeremy (Jeremy Pope) who have turned their backs on working for Byron.
Together, they meet Byron’s son and his associate where plans are made to kill Byron in a coup. The son claims that he’s developed a cure to pull the world back from the brink. Can he be trusted? Madsen doesn’t care either way. He’s so desperate to transform back into an adult that he’ll do whatever it takes. And that includes taking an untested cure.
“Don’t do this for me or anyone else,” says Bennett. “I’ll always love you, no matter what.”
Once the cure is injected, dark veins appear on Madsen’s face and he starts to scream.
The show then cuts ahead to him in a cocoon, transforming. A hand breaks free and then so does Madsen. But did it work? Is he back to his original adult self? Or has Madsen become a mutated horror story like Bella did?
No one knows, except maybe Murphy and Hodgson because the credits roll in just as everyone reacts to the new Madsen in shock. We don’t get to see what they see, leaving things nice and open for a potential second season.
There’s been no word yet on whether a renewal might actually happen, but people have certainly been talking about this show a lot. In fact, The Beauty might be the most well-received Ryan Murphy show in years, critically speaking, and it’s not like the cure has taken full effect just yet…
The Beauty is available to watch on Disney+.
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