After eleven episodes of goopy insanity, FX and Hulu‘s The Beauty has wrapped up Season 1 in absolutely wild fashion… And would you expect anything less from a Ryan Murphy production? With so many twists and turns on the final two episodes, “Beautiful Beauty Day” and “Beautiful Betrayal,” your head is probably about to explode harder than Bella Hadid’s ha-did in the season premiere. So allow us to do a little bit of the ol’ ending explained.
First of all, spoilers past this point, but with two episodes on finale day we’ll only go in depth about the actual, final episode. The cliffhanger last week on “Beautiful Evolution” was that Cooper (Evan Peters) decided to get The Beauty by boning down with Bennett (Jordan Alexander), in order to sneak close enough to kill Byron Forst (Ashton Kutcher) during his Beauty Day announcement. Only problem? He turned into a 12-year-old kid, played by Hudson Barry. Oops!
Moving into the first of this week’s episodes, things took an even more surprising turn. While trying to figure out their next move, Baby Cooper, Bennett, Antonio (Anthony Ramos) and Jeremy (Jeremy Pope) discover they’re out of moves, as Byron has jumped the gun and released The Beauty to the public 24 hours early.
One Week Later, The Beauty has taken over the world, and we’re now in a high school following Bella (Emma Halleen), a teen obsessed with — you’re not going to believe this — beauty. When her rich friend gets “the jab,” she also finds out about a back alley way of getting The Beauty for those not quite as rich… And though Bella’s parents don’t approve, she considers it anyway.
Okay, that brings us up to the finale! Let’s get into it.
The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 11 “Beautiful Betrayal” Recap:
Kicking off with “Sweet Child of Mine,” aka not a bad way to start, Byron’s Beauty-ized sons Tig (Ray Nicholson) and Gunther (Brandon Gillard) dance with their mother, Franny (Isabella Rosselini)… Only for them to inject her with The Beauty as a surprise for their dad, against her will.
Now played by Nicola Peltz Beckham, she’s furious, and thinks it’s Byron’s fault. He’s thrilled, because she’s “so f**king hot.” But for Franny, everything she’s achieved over her long life is lost. And so she slits her own throat, almost dying in Byron’s arms (we later see she’s on life support).
Over to Bella, she meets up with Conor (Carson Rowland), the guy who gave her friend The Beauty and is offering his black market services. Those services? Consensual sex in order to infect people with The Beauty as an STD. We know that version is more unstable and has a shorter shelf-life. But for Bella, she wants it so bad, she robs her parents and loses her virginity to make it happen. Conor, of note, has given himself a double dose, which surely will have no poor side effects, right? Just kidding, she turns into a horrific Monstro Elisue, hiding in her closet and only discovered the next day by her terrified mother (Maria Dizzia).
Before you can say “boy this episode is all over the place,” we’re done with Bella and over to Byron, who is meeting with his board. Unfortunately, as we’ve just seen there are some terrible side effects (Bella is used as an example). Specifically, The Beauty only has an 83% success rate when administered correctly; the STD version is even worse. There have been 450,000 incidents, and more – and more lawsuits — to come.
With the Secretary of Defense having turned into a nine-year-old, and a Senator’s daughter getting institutionalized, the President turns against The Beauty. And Byron does, too. He decides to shut down the clinics, make the boosters free, and pay whoever asks for it. Which leads us into our endgame…
The Beauty Finale Ending Explained:
Enter Tig and “robot girl,” aka Dr. Diana Sterling (Ari Graynor), the creator of a race of androids called Deacons, because this show doesn’t know when to not put a hat on a hat. The two of them have teamed up and are pushing back against Byron’s “quitting.” Tig wants Byron to go to prison and not pay a dime. Byron, though, has had a change of heart after his wife’s attempted suicide and won’t back down.
Turns out Sterling thinks she can help… Her AI is analyzing The Beauty to try and see what’s going wrong, so she can help stabilize the effects. And she gets what she wants: unlimited resources to make it happen. Tig, on the other hand, gets attacked by his dad in the lobby and throws a fit.
But wait, there’s more. In a pretty good Matrix parody, Bennett, Cooper, Antonio and Jeremy, now the Men in Black I guess, meet with Tig and Sterling. They decide to manipulate the heroic (?) foursome, lying about that Byron was the one who dosed Franny, and proposing that they eliminate Byron so Tig can take charge. To sweeten the deal, Starling reveals that she’s come up with a cure for The Beauty.
Cooper, who I will remind you is a child, is interested in reversing the process; everyone else, not so much. So Tig reveals he has perfected the Boosters and will keep them flowing if they work for him.
They give the first “cure” to Cooper, who proceeds to go through the whole seizure/Gremlins/sack deal. Did the cure work? Is Evan Peters back as Cooper? A hand emerges from the sack. We don’t get to see who comes out. But based on the horrified expression on Bennett’s face, and the shocked looks on Antonio and Jeremy? Ummm… Maybe not.
So, will Evan Peters be back for The Beauty Season 2? Given the expressions, it seems likely there’s some unexpected twist here. But that could be Peters with a deformity, a second head, or Kuato-style. It could also be someone else as Cooper, likely another Ryan Murphy faithful. But as it, we won’t really know until the show returns. Speaking of which…
Has The Beauty Been Renewed Or Canceled By Hulu And FX? Will The Beauty Return For Season 2?
As of now, The Beauty hasn’t been renewed or canceled for Season 2. That’s not out of the ordinary for either an FX show or a Hulu show. Though we don’t have any real ratings info for the series, the key thing here is “FX” and “Ryan Murphy.” Given this comes from the FX side of things, Murphy often has carte blanche to continue shows if he wants to with the network… They just have that sort of relationship. And given the cliffhanger ending, it’s likely Murphy wants to continue. Unless this show was a secret ratings disaster, it’s likely The Beauty will return for Season 2. Also on note, though this has less to do with the TV show: the premiere on Hulu bumped up sales for the comic, so there’s clearly interest.
As for when it will be back for Season 2? The first season filmed through the end of 2024 into 2025, and came out early 2026. It’s possible it could turn around quickly and film this year for a 2027 premiere, but more likely given the level of star power involved that it would film end of this year, into next year, and come out in 2028. As is, we’ll wait to see if things get ugly with The Beauty, or if we’ll be seeing more of Coop and Benns (my nickname for them) some time in the future.
The Beauty Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of The Beauty premiere Wednesdays at 9 pm ET on Hulu, and 9 pm ET/PT on FX. The season will premiere with three episodes on January 21, followed by a staggered release schedule until the Season 1 finale.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in The Beauty Season 1, with premiere dates.
- Wednesday, January 21, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 1, “Beautiful Pilot”
- Wednesday, January 21, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 2, “Beautiful Jordan”
- Wednesday, January 21, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 3, “Beautiful Christopher Cross”
- Wednesday, January 28, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 4, “Beautiful Chimp Face”
- Wednesday, February 4, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 5, “Beautiful Billionaires”
- Wednesday, February 11, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 6, “Beautiful Patient Zero”
- Wednesday, February 18, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 7, “Beautiful Living Rooms”
- Wednesday, February 25, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 8, “Beautiful Brothers”
- Wednesday, February 25, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 9, “Beautiful Evolution”
- Wednesday, March 4, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 10, “Beautiful Beauty Day”
- Wednesday, March 4, 2026: The Beauty, Season 1, Episode 11, “Beautiful Betrayal” *Season Finale*
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