Brave New World Season 1, Episode 8 recap: Monogamy and Futility Part 2

Brave New World Season 1, Episode 8 recap: Monogamy and Futility Part 2

The penultimate episode of Brave New World Season 1 begins with John in Wilhelmina’s workshop. She’s shocked to see a flashback showing a young John cowering beneath his mother as she watches a rocket soar overhead. Linda hopes it’s finally John’s father come back for them.

In the present, Helm is awestruck by John’s emotions. They don’t have mothers in New London so obviously the connection he feels to Linda is something special and intriguing. However, John still doesn’t feel better.

She starts tinkering with something else and we see glimpses of natural habitats, the original Director plummeting to his death, and Lenina. Helm catches several interesting tidbits, such as love and perhaps the Director’s death.

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John freaks out and leaves, panicking as he tries to adjust the world with his new lens. The other New Londoners quickly catch on to the fact he’s connected to the network and they’re fascinated by his reaction.

Lenina and Frannie’s discussion of banishment and reconditioning is interrupted by the commotion, although when Lenina sees John is distress, she quietly slips out of the lab. Frannie notices.

Outside, John finds a spot to relax and CJack60 approaches him while he sits outside and John coaxes him into sitting beside him on the bench. His freakout last week has attracted all the Epsilons, who listened to what he had to say and have begun to feel empowered.

Everyone can see them sitting there, together. They all stop and stare.

“Stare back,” John says, and they do.

Bernard questions poor Gamma Gary while John is roaming around the area. Gary is surprisingly loyal to John and does not want to directly confess that John and Lenina have been having sex. Ultimately, Bernard forces Gary to confess that the two of them have been hooking up every single night for at least two hours. Bernard is visibly shaken by the news as it confirms his fears.

When John returns, he and Bernard’s conversation takes a distinctively tense turn. Bernard tells John he took Lenina on a date and then tells him they had sex. He sells the lie by making John feel cheap and used, telling him that Betas have sex every night and can make anyone feel important.

Frannie calls out Lenina for being “destabilizing,” especially as they discuss John. Frannie notes that his optic does not have a signifier on it, leading her to believe he’ll fail to integrate and then be banished.

Lenina is visibly uncomfortable at the thought and Frannie warns her she needs to be careful because everyone can sense she’s troubled.

Worried, Lenina tries to contact John but he’s ignoring her and has removed his optic once again. To distract herself, she agrees to go out with Frannie to the Joy Box. Frannie somehow acquired the special orange soma, a particularly potent kind.

The night goes as they always do, and John gets a glimpse of Lenina stripped for some guy after putting the optic in again.  He freaks out and rips it back out before staring at it, overcome with a mix of emotions.

On the train ride home, Lenina and Frannie discuss their night out. Frannie is enjoying the afterglow but Lenina wonders why she would want to do this night after night forever. A few others approach them to try and get them to partake in yet another orgy and Lenina lashes out.

“This is my body and right now I want to be the only one inside it.”

That’s really what Lenina wants, her autonomy.

Later, Henry and Bernard have a serious conversation that isn’t tainted by their dueling egos for once. Henry is visibly shaken up after his disturbing meeting with Word Controller Mond. He believes the original Director is still alive somewhere, biding his time.

He tells Bernard that there is “no captain, no pilot” that no one is controlling the proverbial ship and Mustafa is nothing but a dying woman filled with sprites and illusions. He also notes the rocket set for the Savage Lands that the Director prepared before falling over the precipice.

Bernard gets an idea as he hears Henry’s tale. Considering he initially went to meet Henry to demand John’s banishment, it’s clear he is fantasizing about sending him back to where he came from.

Brave New World: Mustafa begins to understand Indra’s weakness.

Speaking of, Mustafa and Indra continue their mental games, the Controller wants to know how John is meant to trigger the “fatal event.” Mustafa argues that she didn’t make Indra to be suicidal, Indra counters that she’s being selfless and must essentially disrupt everything to rebuild and evolve into something better.

Indra claims she is multiple moves ahead of Mustafa, but the Controller suddenly realizes she could not have accounted for John in her plans since hew as beyond her influence.

Having access to John’s memories, Helm starts looking through all of his thoughts and feelings. She feels his love for Lenina, his sadness, the agony, and brilliance of being human. She also watches the clip of the Director falling off the cliff.

Witnessing and experiencing John’s memories and emotions fundamentally alter Wilhelmina. She begins to feel like a new person, understanding the full spectrum of emotion. Bernard confronts her about what she did with John and she tells him that it’s something he has to feel and know.

They get into a physical fight as he grapples for the new sensation and sees the love story between John and Lenina unfold, as well as the full extent of what happened between the Director and John.

Brave New World: Multiple relationships are pushed to the brink of destruction.

Speaking of the couple at the center of all this drama, an uncomfortable scene unfolds where Lenina returns to John’s quarters after going out. She and John have sex while he forces her to tell him everything that happened between her and the guy at the club.

By the end, he admits that he watched the entire thing unfold and Lenina realizes he’s in his own prison. The entire thing is rather disturbing and she walks out even as John pleads with her not to go.

Well, after learning the truth about John and the Director, Bernard immediately takes it to Henry to show him, demanding they take care of John before he can kill someone else. A stressed-out Henry decides to let Bernard deal with it directly. Then the footage of the Director dying is made “viral,” in that every resident of New London can see it displayed across their optics.

Seeing what happened, Lenina immediately rushes back to John, only to run into Frannie who is deeply upset to find out she was right about Lenina being with the Savage all along.

Frannie thinks Lenina has become a Savage, that’s she’s infected. She doesn’t want Lenina to get banished, so she plans to force her into reconditioning. Lenina flees from Frannie, obviously disturbed by what she’s saying.

Brave New World: The Epsilon workers finally take a stand and rebel.

At the same time, a confused John runs through New London as people stare at him in fear and Bernard watches from the projections. Then a series of Epsilon workers arrive, cornering John so Bernard can confront him. He tells John they’ll be sending him away so he can’t hurt anyone else, then issues an order to the Epsilons to take him away.

Well, the Epsilons finally take a stand and disobey Bernard directly. CJack60 steps up and tells John to come with them as they lead him out of the hallway. A stupefied Bernard asks what he’s going to do since there isn’t anywhere else for him to go.

Back with Henry, he stares into a mirror and takes some soma before wandering outside. He notices that the Epsilons aren’t doing their job and they ignore him when he yells at them. Henry follows them into a corner and the workers stab him to death, seemingly mimicking what they saw John do to the first Director!

Season 1 of Brave New World is now streaming on Peacock TV.