Warning: This article includes SPOILERS for Before episode 9 and all previous episodes!
Beforeepisode 9 provides only a small number of reveals, but the significant moments push the story toward its climactic ending. TheStephen King-approved thrillerfollows the supernatural connection between a child psychologist named Eli and his troubled patient named Noah. Critics have panned the series, but the viewers have a very divided response to the slow-paced show. Some viewers love the Billy Crystal psychological thriller, while others agree with the critics, expressing that the show is boring and redundant.
After nine episodes, the miniseries will finally come to an end next week.Noah and Eli are finally headed back to the farmhouse together as Noah’s on the brink of death. The finale could be a make-or-break episode, either saving the show or cementing it as one of the worstApple TV+ original showsever made. Either way, the events and reveals ofBeforeepisode 9 will be essential to remember going into the finale.
6Eli Is Confined To The Psychiatric Ward
The Hospital Believes Eli’s Infection Caused Psychosis
The dramaticending ofBeforeepisode 8shows Eli getting rushed into a psychiatric facility after having a breakdown at the farmhouse. Episode 9 explains what really happened during his hallucinations. He uncontrollably ripped open his hand using a pen. Eli had a break from reality where he couldn’t hear or respond to Cleo. Because she struggled to handle the situation, Cleo contacted the police so they could assist her in getting Eli to the hospital for treatment.
Because he’s labeled a danger to himself,the hospital admits him on a 72-hour involuntary hold and places him in the same psychiatric ward to which he previously administered care. This is a particularly vulnerable position, as he’s put through the same forced care and testing he previously participated in. Given his erratic behavior throughout the series, it’s surprising it took nine episodes to get to this point.
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Eli also has different expectations from reality. He thinks that he can use his charm, medical vocabulary, and position of power to manipulate the nurses on the ward. However, the medical professionals seem impervious to his influence. This shows their caliber as professionals. Ultimately, the involuntary detainment creates tension throughoutBeforeepisode 9, increasing Eli’s desperation to save Noah. It also contributes to the climactic episode ending, which sets up a dramatic finale.
5Noah And Eli Have The Same Abnormal Symptoms
The Duo Both Are Freezing Cold Despite The Hot Weather
Back inBeforeepisode 4, Eli’s breath becomes visible and his lips turn blue just like Noah’s had earlier. Eli also starts hallucinating the worm after Noah did a few episodes later, which is another odd connection between the two. This episode continues the trend of Noah and Eli exhibiting similar symptoms that a simple diagnosis can’t explain away. Even transference countertransference, which is suggested multiple times, is a stretch.
At the start ofBeforeepisode 9, Eli is shivering, freezing cold, and his lips are blue. The medical professionals claim that the symptoms might come from Noah being arrhythmic. When Denise goes to visit Eli at the hospital, she finds him bundled up in a blanket, wearing a beanie, and shivering. She’s shocked because the weather is sweltering hot, making it odd that they are both cold.
At this point,Beforehas all but confirmed that Eli, Noah, and possibly Lynn existed together in a past life that involved them walking through a snowy and icy forest. It hasn’t suggested another explanation for the supernatural occurrences, and it would be foolish for the show to introduce an alternate explanation in the final episode of the show. As such, the symptoms can be taken as a psychic imprint from the past life.
4Eli Finally Explains The Truth About Lynn’s Death
Eli Killed Lynn In The Bathtub As An Act Of Mercy
From the start,Beforemakes it abundantly clear that Eli harbors guilt for his wife’s death. The big question spanning the miniseries is whether he feels guilt because he didn’t prevent it or he feels guilt because he killed her. At theend ofBeforeepisode 3, Eli has a flash of him strangling Lynn. Because Eli is an unreliable narrator who experiences nightmares and hallucinations, it was easy to write off the visual. However,Beforeepisode 9 reveals what truly happened to Lynn.
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The account he told the therapist was true. He did go out to the pool and get Asian food, only to come home to Lynn bleeding out in the bathtub. Eli conveniently left out the fact that Lynn wasn’t dead when he came home. She was on the brink of death and reached out to him, begging him to help her die. In an act of violent mercy,he strangled her so that she could die on her own terms instead of continuing to fight a losing battle with terminal cancer.
Later inBeforeepisode 9, Barbara reveals that Lynn wanted to go through euthanasia over a year before her death, but Eli wouldn’t support this. She even asks him why it took so long for him to help Lynn. This paints Eli in an entirely different way, making him seem less loving and more controlling. The question of whether he redeemed himself by helping Lynn is ultimately up to the viewer.
3Denise Can’t Take Noah Home
Noah’s Foster Mom Signed Her Parental Rights Away
One of the saddest moments inBeforeepisode 9 occurs when Denise tries to cancel Noah’s transfer to Ithica and take him home. The audience learns that she’s no longer considered Noah’s foster parent. She signed away her rights as his guardian, thinking it was necessary for him to get proper care.This means she has no control over his care anymore. It is particularly hard to watch, knowing just how much she cares about her foster son, especially since other foster parents previously failed him.
At the same time, it’s hard to hate the doctors in this situation, despiteBefore’s efforts to paint Jane as a villain. The connection between Noah and Eli defies existing science and medicine, and there’s no reason for Jane to believe anything Eli’s saying about Noah’s situation, because he spends so much time hiding his personal motives underlying Noah’s treatment. If he’d been more forthright about his theory, he would probably have been taken off the case, but she might have at least respected his thoughts.
Ultimately, it’s unfair forBeforeto portray the doctors as enemies, as every individual in this show has Noah’s best interest at heart. Denise loves her foster son and wants nothing more than his health and happiness. The doctors and nurses genuinely try to help Noah recover from whatever is going on, looking at multiple possible explanations. Eli thinks he knows the right way to solve Noah’s issues.
2Eli Reveals His Past Life Theory
Eli Finally Admits To The Explanation That The Audience Guessed
Though many viewers caught onto the past life plot twist half a season ago,Beforefinally has Eli reveal his theory about his and Noah’s past life when Denise visits him in the psychiatric ward. Initially, he’s hesitant to share his thoughts, realizing how delusional he will sound. It doesn’t help that he’s on a mental health hold when he finally confesses his true thoughts about Noah’s case, drawing into question the reliability of his statements in the minds of otherBeforecharacters. They don’t have the context the audience does to know there’s probably truth in Eli’s statements.
However, he finally opens up when Denise gets desperate.Eli thinks that he, Noah, and Lynn are three interconnected souls who have repeatedly crossed paths in their reincarnated lives.If he’s correct, Noah previously experienced a traumatic incident at the farmhouse, which is why he, as Benjamin, wanted to take pictures of the building. Essentially, Noah keeps fixating on the place where he experienced trauma, and it’s now having a psychic impact on him in the present day.
Thus far, three possible incarnations of Noah: his current self, Benjamin, and the little girl in Lynn’s book. It’s unclear whether the little girl is the one who experienced the trauma in the farmhouse based on Eli’s theory or if there’s another past life involved. Ultimately, fans will have to wait until the finale to find out whether Eli’s correct about Noah’s past life trauma.
1Eli Kidnaps Noah In An Ambulance
Eli And Noah Are Headed Back To The Farmhouse Together
Like previous episodes,Beforeepisode 9 ends with a massive cliffhanger. This one is the most active in the plot, rather than serving as exposition. After a visit from Denise, Eli realizes that Noah is in danger if he gets transferred to the hospital in Ithica; however, he’s stuck in the psychiatric facility with the inability to see his former patient. The character spends time contemplating how to help with the sound of a clock ticking and a patient clicking a pen in the background.
Eventually, he decides the best way to get to Noah is to slam his hand onto the pen that the woman is clicking.Eli recognizes that they will have to take him to the Emergency Room for medical care, and the ER is where the transport ambulances depart from.In one of the most unrealistic scenes, he manages to get to the ER at just the right time, escape all the nurses and doctors without detection, and get into the driver’s seat of Noah’s ambulance when nobody else is in the vehicle.
Noah asks Eli if he’s taking him home, and Eli replies that they’re both going home. Based on his assumptions about the past lives, they’re presumably going to the farmhouse. Hopefully, theBeforefinale will offer answers as to what happened at the building and why Noah, Eli, and Lynn all felt pulled toward that location.
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“The Power of Belief”
