Before: Season 1 Episode 1 “The Imposter” – Recap and Review
Apple TV+ introduces a new mystery show to its lineup, and like most, “Before” starts strong, but does it have staying power?
Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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| Originally Aired | October 25, 2024 |
| Network | Apple TV Plus |
| Director(s) | Adam Bernstein |
| Writer(s) | Sarah Thorp |
| Character | ACTOR’S NAME |
| Eli | Billy Crystal |
| Lynn | Judith Light |
| Noah | Jacobi Jupe |
| Gail | Sakina Jaffrey |
| Drake | Itzhak Perlman |
| Eli’s Therapist | Julia Chan |
| Jackson | Robert Townsend |
| Denise | Rosie Perez |
Storyline Recap
I’m The Imposter – Eli, Jackson, Lynn, Therapist
Not too long ago, child psychologist Eli lost his wife Lynn to suicide. It isn’t clear why she did it, but with Eli being a psychologist, he questions how he didn’t see the signs and why he didn’t do more, and rather than tell this all to his therapist, he tells one of his friends since college, Jackson.
A Fated Patient – Noah, Eli, Drake, Denise, Gail
But, while on a sabbatical, trying to process his wife’s death, Eli meets Noah. To say the least, Noah is a weird kid. Never mind that Noah initially meets Eli after scratching something into Eli’s door, his home, to be specific, but then he decides to go into Eli’s house through the dog door.
This is a bit off-putting, but it seems fate for them to meet and Eli to get invested. Why? Well, on top of seeing kids in need of therapy, Gail, who is a lawyer, would use Eli to do psych evaluations, and she needed one for Noah. Now, thankfully, Noah’s latest foster mother, Denise, is in it for the long haul, even as Noah attacks people, and with Eli having a recording of Noah speaking and his friend Drake helping him discover Noah speaks Dutch, Eli is locked in.
Now, it isn’t clear what he can do for a kid seeing supernatural entities, especially since Eli doesn’t believe in that, but we’ll find out over the course of the series.
New Character Descriptions
Sakina Jaffrey as Gail
Judith Light as Lynn
Eli
Eli is a man who has been a child psychologist for most of his professional career and has been reeling over the sudden and traumatic death of his wife recently.
Lynn
Lynn is Eli’s wife, who was an artist with a focus on making books for children, who committed suicide for reasons unknown as of the series premiere.
Noah
Noah is an 8-year-old boy who has bounced from foster home to foster home due to seeing shadowy figures about to attack people and him pouncing – thus hurting the person rather than the shadow.
Gail
Gail is a lawyer with a professional relationship with Eli, who she uses to do psychological exams.
Drake
Drake is a professor and friend of Eli, whom he goes to when he is trying to decipher what Noah was saying after he attacked Eli.
Eli’s Therapist
While Eli has friends, he recognizes the power and use of a therapist, so he sees one voluntarily weekly. However, it seems that in most of his sessions, he avoids talking about Lynn and focuses on everything else in his life—almost to the point of appearing to want to talk to someone who doesn’t know him as Lynn’s husband.
Jackson
Jackson is one of Eli’s closest friends, whom he has known since college.
Denise
Denise is Noah’s foster mom.
Review
Highlights
A Male Hero Whose Empathy Is His Strength
Increasingly, we’re finding diverse depictions of a would-be male hero or protagonist. In the case of “Before,” Eli isn’t a first responder of some kind; he is a psychologist who has made a career out of helping children. This is very different from what we’re used to since psychology is usually pushed to be a maternal thing. It often deals with emotions, and if you see a male psychologist, they operate on logic and generally are couples therapists.
As a child psychologist, Eli might be able to use logic in diagnosis, but in terms of interactions, he has to focus on feelings. These conversations are based on fantasy, and with Noah, he has to pursue a level of understanding and maybe mental gymnastics you don’t often see men have – especially for children that aren’t theirs. And it is in that rare depiction that you can see, even if this is a mystery, fantasy type of show, a representative of men being as capable and willing to help children and be there for them, without there being something sinister behind it.
The Question Of Why Lynn Killed Herself?
Noah is a real person; others see him, so we can assume they aren’t Eli’s inner child, or maybe a kid he had with Lynn that died or got killed by them. So, with that in mind, and usually everything is connected in mysteries, there is the need to question what Noah’s sudden appearance during Eli’s grieving process explains regarding why Lynn killed herself.
Yes, part of the purpose of establishing Lynn’s death is showing that Eli, for all his experience and education, does have blind spots. But it could also push something else there. Establishing Eli’s friendships with Jackson and Drake shows he can relate to people his age and not see them purely as people with whom to network. However, could there be a duality to Eli? Could it be wholly something Lynn had going on that Eli wasn’t an influence over? What we’ve seen from Judith Light is that she doesn’t pick bland characters to play, so I’m interested to see what comes from Lynn.
On The Fence
Like With All Mystery Shows, The Question Of Will It Pay Off?
M. Night Shyamalan, probably one of the most recognized people in mystery writing, has me under the impression that if the build is good, the payoff is going to be terrible. So with “Before,” which has ten episodes in its season, I’m wondering if, when it comes to the reveal of why Lynn killed herself and what’s going on with Noah, it will be the case of one mystery evolving into another to tease a second season, or will we get answers?
On top of that, will the answers be something the show builds upon, or will it decide to give us a twist? Will that twist be something completely out of left field or the kind where, because we were being misdirected, that’s why we didn’t see it coming?
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