Brave New World Season 1, Episode 7 recap: Monogamy and Futilty Part 1

Brave New World Season 1, Episode 7 recap: Monogamy and Futilty Part 1

Brave New World‘s seventh installment opens with John and Lenina lounging in bed together as they continue making up scenarios about their dream oasis away from New London. Lenina returns the music player to John, prompting him to drop the big L-word.

Lenina is shocked for a moment, wondering if she’s supposed to say it back. John assures her she only should if she feels it, to which she immediately says it to him. I’m not sure this can end well, can it?

Brave New World: John and Lenina try to navigate monogamy in New London.

John returns to Bernard, who is confused about where he goes during the nights. Since John is still refusing to wear a contact lens and Lenina removes hers when they’re together, they go off the grids in the evenings.

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Switching gears, Bernard tries to cajole John into coming to one final party with him, for reasons undisclosed. John is hesitant at first but eventually agrees, under the condition that this really is the absolute last party.

Unlike the other parties we’ve seen, this one takes place outdoors.

It’s basically all about a high-stakes game of hide-and-seek, with the Alphas chasing the Betas and then having sex. John is not enthused, especially not now that he’s in love with Lenina (although, isn’t it a bit soon? Not too long ago he was super into Madysun).

Wilhelmina notices something is different about John. She can sense his ardor even if she cannot put a finger on it. She attempts to coax him into spilling all his secrets to her, but he resists, and Bernard returns to start the game.

In the woods, John tries to explain to Bernard why monogamy and dating is so appealing to Savages. Bernard thinks it’s absurd.

Cut to John in the shower with flashes showing what he witnessed in the woods. As is usual for the New Londoners, everyone wound up having a crazy orgy in the mud, including Lenina. John begs her to stop sleeping with other people. She can’t, she’s too scared of what could happen to her if Indra found out she was resisting conditioning.

Ultimately, they come to an uneasy agreement to continue things as is, with Lenina acting normal during the day and being with John at night — on the condition that she doesn’t let him see her sleeping with others or tell him about it, ever.

Brave New World: Bernard enters the ring for Lenina’s affections.

Lenina and John might have feelings for one another, but Bernard is slowly beginning to realize his own affections for her. He summons Lenina to him for a counseling session and proposes that they attempt to try the Savage way of dating that John told her about.

He thinks they have a special bond given everything they’ve shared together and their bond. Ironically, of course, Bernard doesn’t realize John is his prime competition. Also somewhat ironic is that Bernard wants to try something distinctly Savage, such as dating, and it doesn’t work out when Lenina tells him she only sees him as a friend.

It’s obvious Bernard feels rejected and also jealous because he’s watched Lenina go out and sleep with tons of people to keep her cover. Then the bombshell moment occurs when Lenina accidentally starts humming the song from John’s music player, a song Bernard recognizes since John let him listen to it earlier.

As he realizes this, Bernard decides to keep Lenina around for longer, extending the date. He tells her they’ve reached the point in the night where they should decide whether they find the other worthy of sexual connection and tells Lenina he finds her worthy.

Lenina says she does too, wanting to please him, but it becomes increasingly obvious that she’s extremely uncomfortable. Realizing this, Bernard tells her to stop and screams at her to get out. He dispenses a handful of soma, but instead of taking them, he drops them on the floor and succumbs to his emotions by letting himself cry.

Elsewhere, a teary-eyed Lenina returns to John and says their typical refrain, “tell me about my day.”

“Today you came home,” he says, as they embrace.

Brave New World: John ignites something in the Epsilon workers.

Meanwhile, John grows increasingly upset when Lenina doesn’t show up to their usual nightly appointment, as she’s out with Bernard. Overcome with jealousy, he visits one of the feelies and tries to find her there.

Even though he can’t see her,  John’s rage increases, assuming she’s out there somewhere, with another guy. He visits the Epsilon bar to drink, and CJack60 approaches him, obviously burning with curiosity.

He notices a small frowny face tattoo on John’s forearm.

“I  feel that way,” he says.

“Sucks, don’t it?” John responds.

Then he starts to vent his frustrations, throwing a glass because he can’t get a beer and yelling at all the workers for simply being the “garbage men” to the Alphas above them. At first, all the Epsilons stare at him, stupefied.

But then CJack60 breaks his glass, and all of the other workers follow suit. John walks out of the room as the wreckage occurs behind him, a soft smile forming on his features.

Brave New World: Mustafa is down for the count, but not yet dead.

After Indra attempts to kill Mustafa via flooding an underground tunnel, she slowly wakes up and leaves, entering an old soma pharmaceuticals building that has been completely overrun with weeds and ivy. It looks like a building straight out of a post-apocalyptic video game.

Inside, an old, eerie recording of Elliot preaching the importance of their new world plays in the background. Indra pays her “mother” and creator a visit while she peers through the system in search of an answer for the machine’s increasingly disturbing decisions.

Indra has realized that all humans have a strange disposition for unhappiness, despite the world being seemingly perfect. She believes the answer could be suicide, to keep people happy…forever.

Later, Henry goes to meet World Controller Mond for a meeting and discovers her acting in an extremely erratic manner. She starts babbling about them not really being in control of anything at all, with Indra turning the wheel for her final directive, which is death.

The first season of Brave New World is now available to stream on Peacock TV.