Warning: This article includes SPOILERS for Before episode 9 and all previous episodes!
Before Episode 9 only provides a small number of revelations, but significant moments bring the story to its climactic ending. The Stephen King-approved thriller follows the supernatural connection between a child psychologist named Eli and his troubled patient named Noah. Critics have panned the series, but viewers have a very divided response to the slow-paced show. Some viewers love Billy Crystal's psychological thriller, while others agree with critics, expressing that the series is boring and redundant.
After nine episodes, the miniseries will finally come to an end next week. Noah and Eli are finally returning to the farmhouse together, as Noah is on the verge of death. The ending could be a defining episode, saving the show or cementing it as one of the worst Apple TV+ original shows ever made. In any case, the events and revelations of Before episode 9 will be essential to remember the arrival at the end.
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Eli is confined to the psychiatric ward
The hospital believes Eli's infection caused psychosis
The dramatic ending of Before episode 8 sees Eli being rushed to a psychiatric facility after having a nervous breakdown in the farmhouse. Episode 9 explains what really happened during his hallucinations. He uncontrollably opened his hand using a pen. Eli had a break from reality where he couldn't hear or respond to Cleo. Having struggled to cope, Cleo contacted the police so they could help her take Eli to hospital for treatment.
Because he is labeled as a danger to himself, the hospital admits him to an involuntary 72-hour stay and places him in the same psychiatric ward where he previously administered care. This is a particularly vulnerable position, as he has been subjected to the same forced care and testing that he previously participated in. Given his erratic behavior throughout the series, it's surprising that it took nine episodes to get to this point.
Eli also has different expectations than reality. He thinks he can use his charm, medical vocabulary, and position of power to manipulate the nurses on the ward. However, medical professionals seem immune to its influence. This shows their caliber as professionals. Ultimately, involuntary detention creates tension throughout the entire process. Before episode 9, increasing Eli's desperation to save Noah. It also contributes to the episode's climactic ending, which sets up a dramatic finale.
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Noah and Eli have the same abnormal symptoms
The duo is freezing despite the warm weather
Back Before episode 4, Eli's breathing becomes visible and his lips turn blue, just like Noah's before. Eli also starts hallucinating the worm after Noah a few episodes later, which is another strange connection between the two. This episode continues the trend of Noah and Eli showing similar symptoms that a simple diagnosis can't explain. Even transference countertransference, which is suggested several times, is an exaggeration.
At the beginning of Before episode 9, Eli is shivering, very cold and his lips are blue. Medical professionals say the symptoms could be due to Noah being arrhythmic. When Denise goes to visit Eli in the hospital, she finds him wrapped in a blanket, wearing a beanie and shaking. She is shocked because the weather is extremely hot, which makes it strange that they are both cold.
At this point, Before pretty much confirmed that Eli, Noah, and possibly Lynn existed together in a past life that involved them walking through an icy, snowy forest. It suggested no other explanation for the supernatural occurrences, and it would be foolish for the series to introduce an alternative explanation in the series' final episode. As such, the symptoms can be considered a psychic impression from a past life.
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Eli finally explains the truth about Lynn's death
Eli killed Lynn in the bathtub as an act of mercy
From the beginning, Before makes it very clear that Eli feels guilt over his wife's death. The big question that runs through the miniseries is whether he feels guilty because he didn't prevent it or if he feels guilty because he killed her. At the end of Before episode 3, Eli has a flash of him strangling Lynn. Since Eli is an unreliable narrator who has nightmares and hallucinations, it was easy to dismiss the visual. However, Before episode 9 reveals what really happened to Lynn.
The story he told the therapist was true. He went to the pool and bought Asian food, only to return home to find Lynn bleeding in the bathtub. Eli conveniently left out the fact that Lynn wasn't dead when he returned home. She was on the verge of death and reached out to him, begging him to help her die. In an act of violent mercy, he strangled her so she could die on her own terms rather than continue to fight a losing battle against terminal cancer.
Later in Before episode 9, Barbara reveals that Lynn wanted to undergo euthanasia more than a year before her death, but Eli wouldn't support it. She even asks why it took him so long to help Lynn. This paints Eli in a totally different light, making him seem less loving and more controlling. The question of whether he redeemed himself by helping Lynn is ultimately up to the viewer.
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Denise can't take Noah home
Noah's adoptive mother signed away his parental rights
One of the saddest moments Before episode 9 occurs when Denise tries to cancel Noah's transfer to Ithica and take him home. The audience learns that she is no longer considered Noah's adoptive mother. She renounced her rights as his guardian, thinking it was necessary for him to receive proper care. This means she no longer has control over his care.. It's particularly difficult to watch, knowing how much she cares about her adopted son, especially since other adoptive parents have failed him previously.
At the same time, it's hard to hate doctors in this situation, despite Beforeefforts to paint Jane as a villain. The connection between Noah and Eli defies existing science and medicine, and there is no reason for Jane to believe anything Eli is saying about Noah's situation because he spends so much time hiding his personal motives underlying Noah's treatment. If he had been more open about his theory, he probably would have been removed from the case, but she could have at least respected his thoughts.
Ultimately, it is unfair to Before portraying doctors as enemies, as every individual on this show has Noah's best interest in mind. Denise loves her adopted son and wants nothing more than his health and happiness. The doctors and nurses genuinely try to help Noah recover from what is happening, looking at various possible explanations. Eli thinks he knows the right way to solve Noah's problems.
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Eli reveals his past life theory
Eli finally admits the explanation the audience guessed
Although many viewers caught the Past Life plot twist half a season ago, Before Finally Eli reveals his theory about his and Noah's past lives when Denise visits him in the psychiatric ward. Initially, he is hesitant to share his thoughts, realizing how delusional he will appear. It doesn't help that he is in poor mental health when he finally confesses his true thoughts about Noah's case, questioning the reliability of his statements in the minds of others. Before characters. They don't have the context that the audience has to know that there is likely truth to Eli's statements.
However, he finally opens up when Denise becomes desperate. Eli thinks that he, Noah and Lynn are three interconnected souls who have crossed paths repeatedly in their reincarnated lives. If I'm correct, Noah has already experienced a traumatic incident at the farmhouse, which is why he, like Benjamin, wanted to take photos of the building. Essentially, Noah continues to fixate on the place where he suffered the trauma, and it is now having a psychic impact on him in the present day.
So far, three possible incarnations of Noah: his current self, Benjamin, and the little girl from Lynn's book. It's unclear whether it was the girl who experienced the trauma in the farmhouse based on Eli's theory or whether there is another past life involved. Ultimately, fans will have to wait until the end to find out if Eli is right about Noah's past life trauma.
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Eli kidnaps Noah in an ambulance
Eli and Noah are heading back to the farmhouse together
Just like the previous episodes, Before episode 9 ends with a huge cliffhanger. This is the most active part of the plot, rather than serving as exposition. After Denise's visit, Eli realizes that Noah is in danger if he is transferred to the hospital in Ithica; however, he is trapped in a psychiatric clinic and is unable to see his former patient. The character spends time thinking about how to help with the sound of a clock and a patient clicking a pen in the background.
Eventually, he decides that the best way to get to Noah is to slam his hand on the pen the woman is clicking. Eli recognizes that they will have to take him to the emergency room for medical care, and the emergency room is where the transport ambulances leave. In one of the most unrealistic scenes, he manages to arrive at the emergency room on time, escape all the nurses and doctors without being detected, and get into the driver's seat of Noah's ambulance when there is no one else in the vehicle.
Noah asks Eli if he's going to take him home, and Eli says they're both going home. Based on your assumptions about past lives, they will probably go to the farmhouse. Hopefully the Before finale will offer answers about what happened in the building and why Noah, Eli and Lynn were drawn to that location.
Before release schedule |
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Episode |
Title |
Release date |
Episode 1 |
“The Impostor” |
October 5th |
Episode 2 |
“The scientist” |
October 25th |
Episode 3 |
“The Liar” |
November 1st |
Episode 4 |
“Symbols and Signs” |
November 8 |
Episode 5 |
“Folie à Deux” |
November 15th |
Episode 6 |
“Feverish dream” |
November 22 |
Episode 7 |
“The Power of Belief” |
November 29th |
Episode 8 |
“When We Wake Dead” |
December 6 |
Episode 9 |
“And the darkness was called night” |
December 13 |
Episode 10 |
“Before” |
December 20th |