DISCLAIMER: This recap of Beacon 23 Season 1 Episode 2, “Wreckers,” contains spoilers. Proceed at your peril.
Sometimes, you must join forces with an enemy to take out a more malicious, ultraviolent foe. Aster and Halan do just that in “Wreckers,” which ups the ante on the action front. While it feels a little pointless to include characters that die within the span of an episode and that we spend so much time with them, I believe there’s a reason. Firstly, it allows Aster and Halan to trust each other. Secondly, it introduces us to the outer ring and why the beacons are essential for supply delivery to the colonies.
Thirdly, we could very well see Chick again in a later episode. He knows about Solomon’s rocks and could ensure they fall into the wrong hands. Plus, we learn that Aster has lied about who she is. Beacon 23 brings more questions and loose narrative threads into the equation with very few answers to show for it. I hope the series doesn’t become bogged down by all these mysteries.
I found the performances from the Wreckers to be a bit too over-the-top. However, our leads continue to deliver grounded, layered portrayals of characters with an intriguing dynamic.
Ready to delve into “Wreckers”? Let’s get to it.
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We open with a group of Wreckers boarding Beacon 23: Battle (Paulino Nunes), Big Face (Dani Klupsch), Minister Kaneddy (Marnie McPhail-Diamond), Chick (Jaeden Noel) and their resident techie (Cyrus Faird). Bart (Wade Bogert-O’Brien) warns the intruders, which they ignore. Halan (Stephan James) tries to hide in the airlock while Aster (Lena Headey) and Harmony (Natasha Mumba) watch the invasion from afar.
Harmony tries to identify the Wreckers while Bart suggests they cut off the air supply in the lower levels of the beacon. Of course, this would kill Halan. We know Bart is no fan of his, though. Suddenly, the Wrecker techie locks Bart in his memories, preventing him from taking action against the Wreckers. Harmony attempts to bring Bart back online but to no avail. Meanwhile, the techie identifies the other beings in the beacon and shows Battle, the leader, live footage of Aster and Harmony.
We learn the Wreckers had been hiding in the debris field for months and planned to raid Beacon 23 for supplies. Chick, the youngest of the group and Minister Kaneddy’s son, spots Halan in the airlock. He brings Halan out, where the latter takes a beating from Big Face as Battle interrogates him. Halan strikes a deal with Battle. He’ll lead them to where there’s a cache of cubits. He’ll give them access to the whole supply. In return, Halan wants the picker so he can leave this place. Oh, and he wants a few minutes with Aster to give her the business for holding him captive. He and Battle forge the deal with a handshake. Halan’s making deals left and right today.
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Battle orders Chick to watch over Halan. Kaneddy isn’t a fan of Battle pushing Chick so hard. Battle believes Chick still needs to prove himself, and he’ll do that when he draws blood. Next, the Wrecker techie locks Harmony out of the system. Chick watches while Halan looks for an exit through the walls that’ll bring them to the cubit supply. Suddenly, Halan pushes Chick aside and escapes hastily, breaking his deal with Battle.
Then, the Wreckers watch while Halan falls through a door in the ceiling and approaches Aster. Aster blasts him with those cool high-tech brass knuckles. Halan tosses her behind the kitchen counter. The Wreckers can only see Halan’s arm rise and fall behind said counter. However, he’s trying everything to stop her from attacking him. Why? He wants to join forces to kick out the Wreckers. He asks Harmony to scramble the feeds so the Wreckers can’t see them. She does this as requested. At this moment, Halan also tells Aster he didn’t kill Solomon despite what Bart says.
Next, our trio learns more about their visitors. Dr. Rojan Kaneddy was the Minister of Equity of the Elau Colony. The Elau Colony was a settlement in the outer ring that didn’t receive much-needed supplies, leading to death and destruction. Kaneddy and her son had to escape with her son, leaving her husband and two daughters behind. Battle’s real name is Timur Ondi, and he was dishonorably discharged from the military for his violent crimes. As for Big Face, her real name was Madanchi Tritujuma, a member of the mining camps in the outer ring. The techie dude boasts a cable on his body, enabling him to hack any system. It’s gross.
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Meanwhile, Aster and Halan search for weapons to defend themselves. Halan reveals he’s the weapon. A cable extends from his arm, which he hooks up to a charger. Just like charging a phone. Aster realizes he’s superhuman, possessing implants in various body parts. I imagine he got the mechanical updates while serving in the military. Aster finds a weapon with a blade to her liking, arming herself with it.
Later, the Wreckers gain access to the lower levels of the beacon, where there’s no gravity. Battle sends Chick to search for Halan, to Kaneddy’s dismay. She doesn’t want her son tracking down an ex-military superhuman. Battle gives her flak for protesting, claiming Chick must spill blood to prove he’s trustworthy. Kaneddy decides to go with him while Big Face saunters off in another direction to track down Halan.
Next, the door that separates the different levels shuts behind Kaneddy and Chick. Aster wants to chat with Kaneddy but not with Battle around, hence the separation. Kaneddy persuades her son to look for something other than the cubits. Why? Because she has a feeling there’s an invaluable item on this beacon. Otherwise, why would the QTA send them here? Chick argues with his mother, believing they shouldn’t stray from Battle’s orders. Aster reaches out to Kaneddy, hoping she’ll listen. Aster can arrange for Kaneddy and Chick to get away. Surely they don’t want to keep hanging around a violent man like Battle?
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However, Kaneddy finds Solomon’s mineral deposits. She urges Chick to grab a bag. They can take this back to the QTA headquarters for compensation. Meanwhile, Halan is done charging. He storms out of the room and attacks Big Face with all his superhuman strength. They proceed to battle it out in the zero-g lower levels. Battle trains his weapon on Halan; however, his shots miss the latter. Finally, Halan kills Big Face. Then, he murders the Wrecker techie. A while later, Aster pulls the weird cable out of the techie, severing the connection to Beacon 23’s system.
Then, Aster runs into Kaneddy and Chick. Kaneddy brandishes her gun at Aster. Aster convinces them to ditch the bag of Solomon’s rocks, claiming it won’t help them blackmail the QTA. Oh, and Aster’s actually part of the QTA, not the ISA. So many acronyms in this show. Anyway, Aster has a better deal for them. Kaneddy orders her son to return to their ship sans the mineral deposits. While heading back to the vessel, Chick runs into Battle. Battle demands he retrieve ammo, which Chick seemingly obliges. He doesn’t say anything in response.
Next, Kaneddy remarks on how terrible it was on Aster’s home colony, Menelaus, which faced the same fate as Elau. Aster gives Kaneddy plenty of cubits to get her and Chick as far away from this universe as possible. Elsewhere, Halan wakes up after his fight with Big Face. He runs into Chick and Kaneddy, where he learns that part of Aster’s deal with Kaneddy included Halan joining the mother-son duo on the getaway ship. Aster kept her word from the first episode — he’s getting out of here. However, he refuses to go with them.
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Elsewhere, Battle chases Aster through the beacon, claiming he “just wants to talk.” He finds Aster standing in another room, with him on the other side of a door. He shoots at it repeatedly until the glass shatters, only for Aster to transform into Harmony. Huzzah! Meanwhile, Kaneddy and Chick argue about what transpired on Elau. Unfortunately, Chick shoots his mother, killing her. Well, he drew his first blood and committed matricide.
Then, the real Aster stabs Battle in the gut. He dies on the stairwell. We see him drop his weapon, which falls through the lower levels of the beacon, inevitably floating once it hits zero-g. Chick flees with the cubits his mother dropped once he discovers Battle is dead. He unlatches from Beacon 23’s docking bay and flies away.
Meanwhile, Harmony finally gets through to Bart via the latter’s memories. She pulls him back to reality, getting him online. Earlier, Halan passed out after becoming inundated with visions from his time in the military. It was seeing Solomon’s rocks that triggered them. Halan wakes up and reunites with Aster, who sits beside the staircase with bloody hands. Halan plops down next to her. She figured he would’ve fled with Kaneddy and Chick. He claims he wants to stay and apologizes for leaving her to fight Battle. Halan also admits that he can’t be alone anymore. So, they’re stuck with each other.
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Do you think Chick will tell the QTA about Solomon’s unidentified (and mysterious) mineral deposits? What is the QTA? If Halan didn’t kill Solomon, who did? Only time (and more episodes) will tell.
Beacon 23 drops new episodes every Sunday on MGM+.
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