Beacon 23 - Season 2, Episode 2 - Purgatory

This week's episode, aptly named purgatory is about the place that Halan and Harmony find themselves. Halan has been alone on the Beacon for about two and half months and Harmony has spent similar time in her office space prison. The episode shows links between the office space and Beacon 23 where actions in one seem to be reflected in the other.  Harmony seems to be connected to the Beacon computer system and is able to communicate to Halan mostly through the beta series floating droid that was previously controlled by Bart. The episode centers around Harmony as she is set up to be interrogated by Alpeh's AI minions in an office space like setting. She overcomes her captors and is able to communicate with Halan and the show ends.

Analysis

This episode showcases the isolation and torture that Halan and Harmony separately go through after betraying Aleph. It also shows the immense power that Aleph has as well as display more about the AI diaspora. The concept of emotion seems to be a foreign concept to the AI, individually, though they all seem to show it.in various forms. The episode does have a bit of virtual reality aspect to it and sort of reminds you of the early Matrix movie from the 1990s where people were placed into the corporate rate race and made to do pointless daily tasks as part of daily life. 

The idea of multiple imprinting was made to be a big deal in this episode, hopefully this is expanded upon in later episodes.

The show does a good job of showing the dreary existence that both characters go through. I felt a little dreary watching and experiencing it as well which I believe was the purpose of the episode. This will hopefully give us the payoff later as these characters will likely make some choice that

Trivia

• Sybarra office closed down, 4million displaced personal AI
• UGMC Adrenalon was the name of the phantom ship that turned out to be an asteroid
• 68 days on Beacon 23 and no ship has come by
• the AI hive is revealed to be members who fully and loyalty support Aleph
• emotions felt by Harmony (likely more): anger, love

Characters of Interest

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)?
  
• What is QTA Class C mission? likely a fancy term that will not be explained further that probably means a highly important and dangerous mission.
• Is Harmony ultimately loyal to QTA? During her dying moments, Coley calls out to Harmony expecting the AI to help her. Harmony herself says she is legally bound to QTA. She does seem to help Halan to betray Aleph and ultimately pays the price.
• Did the wreckers work for QTA? likely...
• What is Okun? is it like the column's bible? likely...
• What is quantic AI that Aleph is described as being? likely a fancy term that will not be explained further, Aleph describes him self as an algorithm without a singular purpose.
• Was that Aster trying to reach out to Halan or was it an image evoked by Harmony?
  
• the AI beings in the office space refer to the AI hive, is this all the AI or just a select few that believe they are evolved? 
• Why and how is impriting on multiple (or infinite) humans a big deal?