After watching the first 3 episodes of Beacon 23 season 2, I can definitely say that season 1 had a much better pace. Each episode just brings one new revelation to the screen and then beats around the bush for 40 minutes or so just to drop a cliffhanger in the end. It isn’t interesting anymore. [Spoiler Alert] Episode 3, titled “Iris,” revolves around the same character who is the caretaker of Beacon 67. Iris is an Asian woman who loves to cook and talks to her grandmother’s spirit to feel connected to her roots. Her duties and responsibilities as Beacon 67’s caretaker are the same as everyone else’s. However, what’s intriguing about Iris is the fact that she has a secret lover, with whom she has been talking for a month now through Beacon Communications.
How Did Iris Arrive on Beacon 23?
As explained at the end of the episode, Beacon communications were not regular ISA communication channels but an interconnected network that connected all the Beacons operating in space. So Iris had been in touch with this mysterious Beacon keeper of B174 but hadn’t revealed her real name so far because of the rules and regulations mentioned in the Beacon handbook. It was quite evident that she wanted to, but Iris didn’t want to jeopardize her position, as she aspired to become an admiral someday. Nevertheless, while doing her scheduled discussion, Iris found out about a transport ship re-directed towards B67 from B23. The pilot informed Iris about the QTA mothership present near B23, which caused his vessel to be suddenly re-routed. Iris, being a curious soul, could smell something fishy going on and decided to investigate further. Moments later, she received an incident report from Beacon 23 and tried to inquire about the same on the Beacon communications, only to find out something really surprising. QTA had been reposting internet ISA messages, which was quite strange.
Finally, Iris decided to take matters into her own hands and arrived at B23, only to find the titular lighthouse on the verge of destruction. She docked her spaceship and stepped into the lighthouse, where she finally met Halan, who explained the ongoing situation and how he had been trying to revive Aster’s AI, Harmony. Iris, who also happened to have been the intelligent one at school, helped Halan fix the lighthouse’s AI and finally brought back Harmony, though she was extremely weak and needed to power up for some time.
Why did Aleph imprison Halan?
In the meantime, Iris helped Halan fix the Beacon as well and did a hard reboot to bring the system back online. While doing so, the two talked about Milan and his personal AI, Aleph, who was accused of killing his master and making his daughter disappear. Well, as much as I remember, it was Milan who wanted to get rid of his human body so that he could outlive his natural cycle and help humanity find answers to the unknown. However, he later realized that an AI couldn’t see or feel the presence of the artifact that Milan had been obsessively seeking all his life. It was a dumb plan, to begin with. Nevertheless, as soon as Aleph came into power, he took charge of the QTA and directed all its resources toward finding people who could see, touch, or activate the artifact, and that’s how he came across Aster and Halan. We know how the rest of the story goes.
The entire conversation between Iris and Halan is just another unnecessary reminder that Aleph, the AI, is the big baddie here, and he needs to be dealt with in case anyone wants to save the world. It also laid down one of the reasons why Aleph imprisoned Halan and Harmony on Beacon 23. As implied, an AI couldn’t kill or take part in the killing of a human being. Isn’t that the case? If you remember, Bart had blabbered about it a million times. But Aleph, on the other hand, crossed the line and killed the rebels of Column, i.e. Keir, Finch, and Saldana, by suffocating them in the lighthouse. Now, Aleph didn’t want this information to leak, but he couldn’t harm Halan either, as he was the only surviving person left who had been able to interact with the artifact.
Who is the Mysterious Anomaly?
At the beginning of episode 3, Iris’ lover, B174, asked her to watch out for a phenomenon near the Galactic Meridian, which, as a viewer, looked familiar. Maybe it was the same artifact explosion that took place in episode 1 after Halan nuked the formation in outer space. However, the important thing here is the fact that Iris, too, could experience such a strange phenomenon, which her secret lover probably wanted to check. It further established the fact that Iris, just like Aster and Halan, was the chosen one. Perhaps that was the reason why the mysterious B174 came looking for her after she arrived on Beacon 23.
At the end of episode 3, an unknown vessel arrived at the lighthouse, but Harmony couldn’t bring up the footage. Iris speculated that it must be B174, but Harmony further revealed that there wasn’t any lifeform on the spaceship. Instead, she detected an anomaly. This particular information brings up a series of questions that are most likely going to be answered in the next episode of Beacon 23. Is Iris’ secret lover real? Or is it just the artifacts and the rocks playing with her mind as they have chosen her, just like Aster, to accomplish a mission with Halan? It couldn’t be a coincidence that only Iris, who could see the artifact, arrived on Beacon to help Halan, right? So, whatever or whoever this anomaly is, it is indeed connected to the artifact, and whatever their motive is, it will soon be out in the open. But as of now, we can safely assume that the anomaly means no harm to Halan or Iris. It just wants their help to save humans from Aleph.
