Beacon 23 season 1, episode 2 recap: “Wreckers”

On the second episode of MGM Plus Beacon 23 season 1, a crew of Wreckers have forced their way on board the lighthouse and are looking for something that they’ve been told is a special item in the lighthouse. Since they’re also searching for anything of value to steal and are willing to brutalize the people on board to get it, Aster and Halan must work together if they are to repel the boarders.

Heavily armed and already broken through the beacon’s docking port, 5 Wreckers force their way onto the station. It’s revealed that they’ve been staying in the debris field for months raiding hapless passing ships, but then have decided to try their luck ransacking the beacon.

They hack into Bart, the beacon’s onboard AI and get on to the system, taking control of the cameras and security protocols. Halan is still trapped on the airlock on the same level as the Wreckers.

The boarders have, however, identified Aster and her personal AI Harmony. When they discover Halan, the Wreckers first try to get him to talk.

Halan, however, makes a bargain with the raiders: he’ll get them the cash stashed at the other end of the beacon, 5 hatches away in under 5 minutes. All he needs in exchange are two things: the personal transport and two minutes with Aster.

Ostensibly, so he can express his feelings after she locked him up in the air lock.

Beacon 23 season 1, episode 2 recap — Halan strikes a deal

The deal is struck. The Wreckers’ hacker turns off all the screens on Aster and Harmony’s level, so they won’t see the crew coming.

Halan double crosses them though, as he dodges into a hidden entrance and into a ladder tunnel, losing his guard. When he gets up to Aster’s level, they have a bit of a struggle to work out their animosity but then come to their senses.

They need to work with each other if they’re going to get the Wreckers off the beacon. Harmony finds out that the crew is likely from the fringe colony Elau, a place that was located on the Outer Rings and was recently in crisis.

Apparently one of the beacons near them had malfunctioned horribly, which left the colony unable to be resupplied for a year. The colonists of Elau faced civil unrest and a complete breakdown of civilization because of this.

In fact, one of the Wreckers was a former elected official on Elau, a minister. Though neither Halan nor Aster trusts each other, they need to team up.

Halan suggests they get his weapons, stashed one level down.

Beacon 23 season 1, episode 2 recap — I am the weapon

Halan reveals that he is the weapon. He has implants from when he was in the military that make him faster and stronger.

Only thing is, he needs to charge up at a special port. With Harmony’s help, they split up the Wreckers just as Halan finishes charging his bio-implants.

Meantime it’s revealed the Wreckers have their own drama. The woman who was the former Elau minister and the youngest on the crew, are actually mother and son.

Because of the political decisions she made back on the colony, her son doesn’t get along with her. When combat finally comes, Halan uses his superior speed and strength to take out two Wreckers.

To further divide the raiders, Aster works on the mother and son. She gives them enough cash to flee and leave behind the leader of the Wrecker crew.

One level below, the pirate leader gets a lucky shot when he’s turned and Halan is knocked out. When the former minister encounters a newly woken Halan, she tells him Aster cut him a deal and that he can go leave with the mother and son.

But he refuses. Aster and Harmony execute their plan and lead Battle, the Wrecker leader, into an airlock.

Harmony disguises herself as Aster and distracts him as Aster sneaks up behind him.

Beacon 23 season 1, episode 2 recap — Spilling red

With the nano knife from Halan’s military charging trunk, she stabs the Wrecker leader dead. There’s drama unfolding below them too.

The mother and son Wreckers get into an old familial argument where the son ends up shooting his mother. The credits spilled out from the bag beside her, are a testament to her one last ditch effort to save her son.

It didn’t work and now the son has chosen the life of a Wrecker raider. He picks up a few credits and then leaves, now the lone Wrecker on the ship that once contained a crew of 5.

The two things I liked about this episode, slow and offbeat at parts though it was, was the nifty use of the changing gravity in the middle of the station and the way the invaders and the defenders interacted with a changing dynamic as the story ran on.

Beacon 23 season 1, episode 2 recap — Very cool sci-fi elements

Droplets of blood and a spent force gun lay suspended where the gravity changed in the middle tunnel of the beacon. As well as some battle sequences that made good use of this gravitational quirk.

There’s also the fact that, towards the end, the boarders seemed like they were the ones trapped inside the beacon and wanted to leave, as the defenders turned the tables on them. This episode also does a cool job of depicting how lonely and distant the fringe colonies near the Outer Rings beacons are.

They are like far flung civilizations the central government of the galaxy don’t care much for or have forgotten. Either way with neglect comes crisis and even the deaths of thousands, if a resupply mission simply goes awry.

Beacon 23 is now streaming on MGM Plus.