Before is Apple TV+'s newest psychological thriller drama miniseries, which looks promising with its premiere. The show is written by Sarah Thorp, and the first two episodes premiered on October 25, 2024, on Apple TV+.
The show focuses on the story of a child psychologist who has recently lost his wife. How he meets a troubled boy, with whom he seems to have a strange connection while reeling with the aftermath of his wife's death.
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The series stars Billy Crystal as Eli, Jacobi Jupe as Noah, Maria Dizzia as Barbara, Ava Lalezarzadeh as Cleo, Rosie Perez as Denise, and Judith Light as Lynn.
Before will be released weekly and will be available on Apple TV+. Here is the complete recap of Before Episodes 1 and 2.
Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers for Before Episodes 1 and 2. Reader discretion is advised.
Eli Adler's grief and guilt in Before series
Eli Adler is a recently widowed child psychologist. He is a man consumed by grief and guilt after his wife Lynn's suicide in the bathtub of their house. Eli is guilt-struck because even after being a trained psychiatrist who can detect the signs of mental instability in a patient, he fails to recognize the same in his wife, and she eventually dies.
This has taken a toll on his mental health as he sees Lynn's apparition through their house, and he even talks to her. He has also not been able to enter their ground-floor bathroom, where he discovered Lynn's body. Eli has also not shared these details with his therapist.
Apart from this, he is also haunted by a recurring dream where he sees himself. In the dream, he finds himself at the top of a jumpboard, ready to plunge into an empty pool. After the landing breaks his bones and severely injures him, he drags his body back to the board, only to jump once again.
He has also not confided in his therapist about these dreams because he doesn't want her to have access to his mind. Being a psychiatrist himself, he knows the tricks of this profession.
Eli finds a strange connection with his new patient, Noah in Before premiere
Eli has a strange encounter with a strange boy who knocks on his door with bloodied fingernails and sneaks into his house through the dog door. While following him, Eli discovers he lives in a foster home with Denise.
The following day, Eli gets a new case of a boy with no family history. He has been in many foster homes and suffers from vision/hallucinations, which has also led to him stabbing a classmate at school. The boy, Noah, turns out to be the one who knocked on Eli's door.
It is later revealed that Noah sees a dark, watery figure on the wall floating towards the floor. It appears to have tentacles ready to pounce on the people around it. Noah has not revealed this to anyone.
During their first sessions on Before, Noah attacks Eli and speaks something in a foreign language, which the latter discovers to be archaic Dutch. Eli visits Noah in the hospital and communicates with him in Dutch. Eli decides to take the child's case because he feels a connection with him.
Are there supernatural elements in Before?
While Eli's dreams about his death seem to be a projection of his guilt toward Lynn, Noah's visions or hallucinations can be seen as supernatural or sinister.
There is also a strange event when Noah gets out of hand at the end of episode 2. To open him up, Eli tries to play with Noah using blocks and asks him to list things that make him angry. While Noah starts with general things, he suddenly starts speaking in Eli's voice and accuses him of his wife's death (which the physiatrist never mentioned to him once).
Noah also accuses Eli of lying about the truth of his wife's death, which shocks him. After this incident, he soon gets a nosebleed. This is one of the key episodes in the story, which might hint at supernatural elements at play. However, the truth is yet to be discovered.
Apart from this connection, Noah also draws a log cabin in almost every sketch he draws. Eli has the same log cabin picture on his fridge but doesn't remember where it is from.
While the Before premiere episodes establish a relationship between Eli and Noah beyond a Doctor-patient one, the details will be revealed in the future.
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