This post contains spoilers from The Beauty season 1 episode 1 from this point forward.
Prepare for one wild journey with The Beauty, the brand-new sci-fi body horror series from Ryan Murphy and Matthew Hodgson based on the comic book by Jeremy Haun and Jason A. Hurley. The series kicks off in Paris during a runway show where we meet Ruby (Bella Hadid). She appears uncomfortable in her skin under the lights and runs to the sidelines.
She rushes into the crowd and grabs water from a spectator, snapping the woman's neck when she's finished. Ruby grabs another bottle of water and throws the man into the crowd. When she leaves the building, photographers are waiting for her, but she beats them up and races away on a motorcycle. A car runs into her and she lies lifeless in the street, her leg cut up and bloody.
However, she stands up and hobbles into a nearby cafe, again to steal water and attack people. In the bathroom, she throws toilet water on her face, which appears to burn her as she screams. The police arrive and try to shoot her, but she's uninjured and takes out the officer. Outside the cafe, she surrenders to the police. Her eyes tear with blood just before she explodes into a bloody mess.
Cooper and Jordan investigate Ruby's explosive death
After Ruby's memorable introduction, we meet Cooper Madsen (Evan Peters) and Jordan Bennett (Rebecca Hall), FBI agents who have an intimate personal relationship. They talk about her breast implants and his date the night before. Even though they don't seem to have an actual relationship, their connection is obvious. Cooper tells Jordan a story from his past in Japan as a Navy SEAL, which only deepens their bond. Instead of staying at their hotel, they go out to a club.
The morning after dancing at the club, Cooper and Jordan are back to work as FBI agents to get their briefing on what's become known as "Catwalk Carnage." There's an odd connection to other models spontaneously exploding after having meltdowns over thirst. The story cuts to a basement in New Jersey, where a man pleasures himself while watching a cam girl who ultimately turns down his request. He then argues with his mother and returns to the basement to get high.
He appears to have low self-esteem, as he gripes in a chat room. Another member sends him a phone number that will provide the solution to make girls like him. Meanwhile, Cooper and Jordan continue their investigation and speak with a medical examiner, who's beside herself about Ruby burning from the inside out. The reports suggest an unknown virus like nothing they have seen before. We might be finding out what it is soon as the man from Jersey arrives at a plastic surgery center
Jeremy consults with the doctor, who diagnoses him as an incel and promises to turn him into a "Chad." Back at the FBI, Cooper pulls dental records for the blown-up models and discovers that they looked completely different in the past. They all suddenly had some kind of plastic surgery and became models. They had no social media and cut off their family. The truth still eludes them, but the clues are starting to stack up.
Jeremy receives the virus as another victim is discovered
While sitting at a bar, Jeremy's new face appears to get the attention of some girls, who send him a drink and ask him out to a club. Jeremy throws up in the bathroom and returns to find the girls have left him. He returns to the plastic surgery center with a gun and kills people in the waiting room. He holds the doctor at gunpoint as the doctor pleads to try one more "tool." The doctor takes Jeremy to a hotel, who tells him to lie naked on the bed, but Jeremy simply wants to kill them both.
A mysterious figure wearing all black arrives at the hotel room. A woman named Claire enters the room and the doctor leaves. They have sex, and when they're finished, Jeremy falls asleep and wakes up sweating. He's disoriented and struggles with a high fever, but the transformation begins. His body shakes and contorts on the bed. He loses teeth, spits up blood, and tears off his face. Jeremy emerges from a sack, reborn in a new body — from Jaquel Spivey to Jeremy Pope.
He celebrates his new look as Cooper and Jordan receive new information from genome testing the virus. They appear to discover that the brand-new disease is sexually transmitted and extremely dangerous as some combination of HIV and rabies. Their boss (John Carroll Lynch) is sending them to Venice to check out a new crime scene, in which the perpetrator tested positive for the virus.
The Beauty releases new episodes Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FX and Hulu.