'The Beauty' Season 2 Theories: Will Dr. Starling’s Turn Cooper Into A Robot?

[Spoiler Alert] To be honest, I really didn’t expect that Ryan Murphy’s The Beauty would continue for another season. The reason being, I have read the comic books, and seriously, there isn’t enough story to stretch it over 2 seasons. However, when they started introducing new characters in the finale (I mean, who does that?), I got a pretty good idea where this is all headed. So the first season was about the creation and spread of the virus, and it’s likely the second season would be about the vaccine and global efforts to contain the chaos. The richest man in the world, Byron Forst, had a change of heart after his wife, Franny, tried to take her own life, following which Byron decided to develop an antidote so he could give his wife her former body back. Furthermore, Byron’s sexually transmitted virus started mutating in the wild, causing uncontrolled synthesis, which led to age anomalies and catastrophic deformities. In short, it was ravaging the whole world. So it’s obvious that developing and testing the antidote is going to be the main conflict of Season 2, the production of which hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, but that cliffhanger in the end does suggest that this story is going to continue further. And while we wait for the confirmation, I have a few theories that I want to discuss with you all. These are a few plot points that I expect to see in the next season, so let’s jump straight into it.

The Antidote

While the FX Hulu show isn’t particularly faithful to the original source material, it is, however, following the same progression of events as the comic books. In the comic books, a woman explodes on a subway train, which starts an investigation into the Beauty virus, bringing in two cops who soon figure out that the woman’s mysterious death is connected to a few other recent events of a similar nature, though each of these cases has been buried by a senator to protect his rich friends. More or less, that’s how things pan out in the TV show, where Byron pays off government officials to keep their mouths shut, but now that the extent of his madness is out in the open and people are dying because of it, even the President doesn’t want to help him. So he has no option but to develop the vaccine so he can keep himself out of prison. But the conflict here is: Byron has shot his chief scientist, Dr. Ray Lee, dead. This means the man who created the virus is no more, and even the greatest minds on the planet cannot help Byron create an antidote in time. Even if he assembles a robust team of scientists, they will have to start their research from scratch, and it could take months, or even years, to develop a vaccine that is safe for human trials. And you can already imagine the damage the virus would have caused by then. Now, we know that Dr. Starling and his team dived into Dr. Ray’s computer system and found out that he might have discovered a way to reverse the infection, but don’t get too excited about that. We still don’t know if that antidote is going to work or not. It hasn’t yet been tested.

In the finale, Cooper volunteered to take the vaccine, but, as said earlier, we don’t know how it is going to react with his body. A similar thing had happened in the comic book, where a bunch of rogue scientists created an antidote, but unfortunately, it didn’t give the desired results, so it’s possible that Cooper may not return to his original body, with things turning out much worse than before. If you want to know what happens in the comic books, you can read my article. Anyway, there are two possibilities here. Either the vaccine is going to work, or it isn’t. If it works, the story will end then and there, but that’s not what the showmakers are aiming for, so you know what’s going to happen next. And in that case, Cooper’s partner, Jordan Bennett, and her new rogue team will have to find a cure so they can save the world before it’s too late. It’s also possible that they join forces with Byron himself, as they both have a common goal right now. But we will find more about that next season.

Byron vs. The Team

We know that Cooper and his gang want to get rid of Byron, as they’ve been told he’s the root of all evil, but what if he isn’t the most crooked guy in the show right now? Remember how close Byron’s eldest son, Tiger, and Dr. Starling have become? It’s likely that they are planning a coup together. Now, we know that Tiger isn’t so smart that he can come up with a plan to oust his father from his own company, which makes me believe it is Dr. Starling who is pulling the strings from the shadows. It’s likely that she has turned Tiger against Byron by convincing him that he’s responsible for his mother’s condition. And I won’t deny the possibility that it could be Dr. Starling who told Tiger and his brother, Gunther, to inject their mother with the Beauty virus in order to impress their father, as she was well aware how Franny was going to react to her transformed form. The show has so far dropped numerous hints that Dr. Starling wants to destroy the Beauty program because Byron stopped the funding to her robotics division to make way for his transformative drugs. So in order to restart her dream project, she has planned a coup with Tiger and Cooper’s gang to remove Byron from the equation. And once he’s gone, she’s going to put Tiger on the throne and take full charge of the corporation. All she wants is to mass-produce her synthetic robots, also known as Deacons, to revolutionize the human race. But what do you think about it? Is Dr. Starling going to be the big bad villain of the next season? Let me know in the comments below.

Dr. Starling’s Deacons Can Save the Day

Okay, so if we are entertaining the possibility that Dr. Starling’s vaccine isn’t going to work, then there’s one more way Dr. Starling can save Cooper’s life if things go south. Remember in episode 9, she introduced the team to her army of synthetic children, the Deacons. She told Cooper and his new gang that there are too many variables and flaws in organic matter, which is why she created the humanoid machines that will take humanity a step forward. But here comes the most interesting part. Dr. Starling said that she was working on uploading human consciousness to a synthetic. So if the vaccine fails to achieve desired results, that’s what she’s going to do to save the planet. And I believe Cooper’s going to be the first person whose consciousness will be transferred to a robot that will most likely be a clone of his former self. However, it needs to be mentioned that Dr. Starling’s character has been created solely for the TV show, and none of this synthetic crap happens in the comic books. When she and her deacons were first introduced in episode 9, I was quite confused about where all this was headed, but if you connect the dots, it may make sense.

The Fate of the World

So now we have two ways through which Byron, Dr. Starling, and Cooper’s gang can save Franny and the rest of the world. One is the vaccine route, and the second is synthetic bodies. However, the question here is: how many of these infected individuals are going to choose either of these options. The vaccines haven’t yet been tested, and no one knows what side effects they may have in the future. And I am not sure how many of them will want to leave their human bodies behind to forever be trapped inside a machine. If we speak about Franny, she isn’t going to take the second option, which means she will most likely kill herself if Byron or Dr. Starling fails to create a potent enough vaccine. And my guess is there will be millions out there who share the same sentiment. So Cooper and his team will really have to find a way to make the vaccine work, because there’s no other possible way to save the world.

Byron’s Death

I think this one’s inevitable. It doesn’t matter whether the vaccine will work or not, or if Franny’s life is saved; in the end, Byron’s going to bite the dust. The man set loose an untested infectious virus onto the world just to fill his coffers. I mean, he was already the richest man in the world, so how much money would have actually satisfied this devil? Like they say, there’s no end to greed, and even though Bryon wants to rectify his mistakes after his wife’s attempted suicide, I think that ship has sailed for him. The man really needs to be thrown into a cell, but we all know he’s untouchable, so the only way left to get rid of this monster is to kill him in cold blood. And it’s likely that it’s his own assassin who’s going to do the job. The Assassin seeks revenge after Byron’s decision to betray him, and it’s likely that after he has taken down his boss, he’ll be able to return to his family to lead a peaceful life. As far as the rest of the team is concerned, I think after things go back to normal, Cooper and Jordan will take an early retirement from the agency and spend the rest of their lives together. In the finale, they finally shared their feelings for each other, and I think it’s time for them to start a family. Jeremy, on the other hand, will most likely return to his hometown to mend his relationship with his mother. He will stop wasting his time on online forums and will get a decent job like his mother wanted him to do. Yes, I am kind of seeing a happy ending for each one of them, but it’s a Ryan Murphy show; we all know that’s not going to happen. Well, these are my thoughts and theories on the next season of The Beauty, but if you have anything to add, please be my guest.

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