This post contains spoilers from The Beauty season 1 episode 4 from this point forward.
Last week's three-episode series premiere of The Beauty sure delivered some unexpected moments, none more shocking than the end of episode 3's revelation that a potential spread of the virus in New York City has been contained. Not to mention, Jordan's still missing after getting infected, which Cooper doesn't know yet. Episode 4 begins with Cooper and Jordan making a wish at a fountain and sharing a kiss, but that was long before she went missing.
Back in New York, Cooper interviews Ashley Sanders, a staffer from the magazine who was in range of the human explosion. Ashley explains what he knew about the three individuals involved in the blast, Harper, Brittany, and Manny, and he breaks down crying when he admits that he loved Harper. When Ashley admits that he had sex with Harper, Copper realizes he's been exposed to the virus. Suddenly, gas masked individuals pull him out of the room and tranquilize him when he runs.
Cooper suits up in one of the uniforms in order to approach Manny (Ben Platt), who's infected with the virus. Manny begs to be released, but Cooper attempts to get more information from him and calm him down. When he seems calmer, Cooper asks him again about who might have infected Harper, but he doesn't get any information before Manny begins to writhe. He bleeds from his eyes and throws up on Cooper's helmet. Manny pulls himself from he wrist holds and fights off the doctors.
With some sort of super strength, Manny kills one of the doctors and throws him through the glass doors, running off through the hospital. His body begins the change, but he continues running. Cooper, now without protective gear, chases after Manny. He charges into an operating room during a surgery and steals the body. He charges into another operating room during some kind of facial reconstruction procedure, and Manny follows him into a chilling room full of bodies in tubes.
Cooper finally reunites with Jordan (well, the new Jordan)
The doctor creepily explains the bodies in the tubes as Cooper holds out his gun looking for Manny to pounce. He's now completely naked (and played by Isaac Powell) and fights Cooper, blaming him for turning him into someone else. Cooper struggles to get his gun from Manny, who shoots one of the tanks and spills water all of the floor. He runs out of the room, and Cooper pursues him with a needle provided by one of the doctors. Manny's now surrounded by a full SWAT team.
But he's not backing down. He charges Cooper, but he's able to pin him down and inject him with the needle. Manny finally passes out, but within seconds, his naked body gets back up for another fight. Cooper swipes one of the agents' stun guns and shoots, getting Manny down for good. That was truly quite the struggle, and hopefully The Beauty will explain why all of that was so important to see and what it will mean in the context in the overall story.
In Rome, Antonio and Jeremy go on a shopping spree to get Jeremy some fancy clothes for his new role as Antonio's mentee. He walks him through a sexual encounter to keep him from exchanging bodily fluids with his partner, which is a very strange part of Jeremy's training. But his first real mission comes with their services are summoned. We don't find out where they're head because we catch up with Byron heading to his office barking about World Beauty Day.
Byron gets injected with a needle while being assured by doctors that progress is being made on the science behind the beauty drug. He wants to power through and avoid further testing in order to make the launch for World Beauty Day. He doesn't care about risks when he's giving everyone a real-life Instagram filter. What could go wrong? He's extremely greedy and careless. Meanwhile, Cooper learns that his cat died two months ago. After waking up from a nightmare, the new Jordan (played by Jessica Alexander) is at his door.
The Beauty releases new episodes Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on FX and Hulu.