Beacon 23 - Season 2, Episode 5 - Song of Sorrow

This week's episode obliquely gets Aleph and the AI back into the mix as the cliffhanger from last episode resolves.

The person coming out of the membrane is revealed to be Dosto (and not B174 as I was guessing) a person on the run from the tragedy of the Sybarran systen as Aleph is hunting any and all members across star systems. He was trying to escape from impending doom onboard an escape vessel when he was sucked into a mist, blackhole or vortex and kept alive until he got to beacon 23.  It was not clear how he got outside of the ship but the escape vessel he was on also had Sybarrans on it trying to escape from the AI onslaught.

The Sybarrans are ultimately a professional salvage crew who can strip down and build ships. They were presumably betrayed by a "mole" worker (though previous episodes show Aleph obtaining this information directly from column members) who told the AI where to find the column members. Needless to say the Sybarrans either were or feel gravely betrayed by The show has an interesting short story/detour with some insight into the Sybarran culture and they trick Halan and Iris with some food and sad song so that they can take Dosto by force. The show ends with another cliffhanger as Halan and Iris are tied up and appear to be ejected from the air lock.

AI significance this episode

Harmony notes that she is able to see the anomaly for the first time.  She would be the first AI able to do this.

The side story between Harmony and Dev is somewhat annoying but continues on, it probably will cause some weird interference in a future episode as Dev is willing to sacrifice lives or foil a plan for the selfish desire to imprint.

Analysis and predictions

After this episode we have three remaining. This episode veers the storylne back to the matter of the AI, the column and our main characters who no longer seem so secluded. As mentioned by B331, the Sybarran have tracker biotes in their blood and their presence will alert Aleph who will show up with military force, not to mention the whole conversation being monitored on subspace communication.

The anomaly may be a gateway to a "pocket universe." However, what is not clear is if the rocks that are able to speak to Aster, Halan and others are from the pocket universe or a different universe altogether.

The Sybarrans will likely die in the next episode as Aleph shows up and takes notice that Harmony is still alive and able to see the anomaly. My guess is that Dev will die quickly in the next episode as well and we'll be back with Halan and Iris, having to deal with Aleph. I believe we'll meet new characters next episode but ultimately the last two episodes will contain their own set of characters along with Halan, Iris, Aleph and Harmony.

Acrnoyms, Trivia this episode

• MC - military command
• Sybarran system destroyed, had over 100 planets and 1.2 billion people after being purged of the Column by the AI.
• Sybarra 82, a gas giant and has 47 moons which are used as bases for ship breaking. 
• Sybarra 47, was nuked. 
• New Ganymed's moon was turned half into glass by MC.
• The anomaly may be a gateway to a "pocket universe"
• Kandu on Torbilian are very tasty
• Vyzinti's kabbas is also tasty
• Myrthin Stagg who plays Tajiriki was also in Star Trek Discovery

Characters of interest this episode

Mysteries and questions...

• The same symbol on Aster's pendant is in the rocks as seen under microscope. How are they connected?
• How and in what way does Aster's pendant affect Aleph (and only Aleph)?
  
• Why and how is imprinting on multiple (or infinite) humans a big deal? It seems to be related to an inherent programmed need within the AI. From an audience/outsider perspective, it does not seem to be important at all.
• How many column members are left? How many star systems are involved? How many total beacons are there?
• Are the rocks coming back?