In the sixth episode of Beacon 23, the origin story of Beacon 23 introduced us to Dr. Ree Avalon, the first beacon keeper and the one who gave Bartholomew the nickname Bart. Avalon was the first human from Earth to see the artifact, created by the space silicates swimming around a light. Avalon tried to unravel the mystery surrounding the artifact, which caused her severe hallucinations. It even led Avalon to leave the space station to embark on a journey into infinite space to decode the source of this miracle. However, Avalon lost her life in the process. After Avalon, when a couple became the keepers of Beacon 23, they accidentally became pregnant and chose to give birth to the child, keeping it a secret from ISA. This child, named Parsim, grew up to be Aster Calyx, whose parents had to escape from the space station in order to evade the capture of ISA. In these latest episodes of Beacon 23, we witnessed the dark side of artificial intelligence and how it is completely dependent on human beings who have control over their functions.
Spoilers Ahead
Why Couldn’t Bart Recognize Aster Or Keir?
Episode 7 opened with Solomon’s first appearance in Beacon 23 after Grisha and Farut escaped the station. As soon as Solomon arrived at the station, it was apparent that he was not a generous person, and a strict follower of the rules and regulations prescribed by ISA. Solomon had an interest in all things culinary, just like Sofie was interested in designing clothes made of space fabrics, but there was a significant personality difference between these two beacon keepers. Solomon took over the space station and informed Bart that he had not adhered to the ISA guidelines and had kept a significant piece of information from the organization. Bart tried not to disclose anything to Solomon, who revealed that, while escaping, Farut had been caught on a transport ship a few years ago. The authorities had arrested him for breaking the rules of the ISA. Solomon had arrived at the station to make sure that Bart would be more reliable than before. Bart asked Solomon not to take any drastic steps, but Solomon didn’t listen to him. He reset Bart’s memory, completely erasing all the data he had regarding his previous keepers. Bart’s data was permanently wiped, which was why he couldn’t recognize Aster Calyx.
Back in the present timeline, Aster and Halan were working in shifts to check on the artifact as it was suddenly disappearing from space. Neither Harmony nor Bart could catch a single glimpse of the lightning, so they were unable to explain why it disappeared. As artificial intelligence, they could only recognize a pattern created in space by this artifact. Meanwhile, Harmony showed Halan his spaceship, Amboyna, which Solomon had previously taken. As the ship was already approaching the drone perimeter, Bart thought it might be Solomon who was coming to Beacon to take his revenge. Or perhaps it could be QTA, ISA, or any other military organization approaching Beacon 23. In the cupola, Aster hallucinated a child looking at the artifact. The hallucinations brought a wave of memories into Aster’s mind, so wasting no time, she hurried downstairs to find the diaries and journals written by Dr. Avalon and later studied by Farut. As Halan asked her, Aster finally revealed her story, saying that she had grown up on this space station, playing with Bart, who once used to be her best friend. Harmony and Halan struggled to believe Aster’s story and believed that the relics were probably causing Aster to create a delusion in her head.
While scanning the vicinity, Harmony found a commercial ship out of Vega with unknown occupants approaching Beacon 23. The ship was occupied by the terrorists from Column, from which Keir had come to bomb Beacon 23 in episode 6 before being arrested by ISA. The ship approaching Beacon 23 had Keir in it. Keir sent some transmissions to the space station, saying that he needed to speak to Parsim. Hearing that name, Aster permitted Keir to come into the space station, but upon his arrival, Harmony alerted Aster about Keir’s identity as a terrorist from Column, which was against QTA, but Aster wasn’t afraid of him; rather, she wanted to know why Keir had cone here. However, Halan couldn’t trust Keir, so he tied him up. Keir was in Beacon for the artifact. He asked Bart if he could remember Keir from when he appeared at the station to destroy it, but Bart couldn’t remember anything. Surprisingly, when Aster asked him to recall her times with her parents in Beacon, Bart couldn’t remember that either. Harmony looked into Bart’s memory and found his previous data had been deleted by Solomon.
Did Bart Restore His Previous Memory?
Meanwhile, Keir’s two accomplices, Saldana and Finch, entered Beacon 23. While Keir and Aster tried to remind Bart of their previous arrival at the space station, Saldana and Finch attacked Halan and Aster. Keir and his team held Aster and Halan captive. Saldana stole the key from Halan and opened the main room. Finch looked around the system to look for any clues regarding the artifact. He seemed to be a military man, like Halan, who also had some implants in his body. He unlocked the system and got access to the data.
From what he had learned from Bart on his previous arrival on Beacon, Keir sensed that Aster had some important connection with the artifact. He knew that the relics were trying to communicate with Aster to tell her something about their existence, which only she could figure out. However, Keir’s accomplices didn’t have any faith in his theory. Therefore, without paying attention to what Keir was saying, Saldana tried to gain access to Beacon and all the data Bart had regarding the artifact. Meanwhile, Keir tried to communicate with Aster, who further attacked him. Bart, meanwhile, was going through a severe internal conflict. As he wasn’t able to remember anything about his previous keepers, he could sense an absence in the information in his system. Initially hesitant, Finch finally gave Bart permission to restore his data, but analyzing the absence, Bart concluded that his memory had been permanently erased by Solomon.
Did Halan Leave Beacon 23?
Bart couldn’t restore the lost memories, but he trusted Aster as well as Keir, who had previously been at the space station. Bart analyzed the given data and discovered that when Aster witnessed the relics creating the artifact, it changed its nature and reaction. After Aster’s mother struck the artifact with a spaceship and damaged it, the artifact’s nature was altered. At this time, Bart couldn’t predict if an artifact would return to space, but there were chances of its reappearance in those particular coordinates of space.
Saldana came to unlock Halan’s handcuffs, only to find out that he had already freed himself. Halan had military experience, plus he was an adept pilot, so Saldana asked him to join Column, as their organization needed more military personnel like Halan. However, Halan had no interest in joining a terrorist group, so he decided to leave the station. Halan met Aster and asked what she had planned to do about Keir’s team. Aster stated that all they needed to do was play along. However, Halan didn’t actually want to leave; rather, he wanted to stay with Aster to protect her, but Aster didn’t stop him, saying that she was not the kind of person who’d hold somebody back. Halan finally decided to leave the station and hop on a spaceship with Bart’s help. As Halan approached Amboyna, he discovered Solomon’s dead body inside.
Keir and Saldana continued arguing while Harmony spotted a ship approaching the station. It seemed to be QTA, which was trying to find a weakness in Beacon 23, raising its ambient temperature. The temperature within the space station became unbearable, and Aster realized that the rising temperature in Beacon wasn’t caused by any approaching ship but that it was Bart who was causing self-harm and trying to destroy himself.
Why Did Bart Want To Kill Himself?
When Bart was talking to Harmony about his forgotten existence, the Bart who he used to be, Harmony advised him to focus on his present, but Bart was growing immensely angry and frustrated by the fact that he had an absence in his system. This absence was causing him depression, which seemed to be darkness causing him discomfort. Bart might be an artificial intelligence, but from the start, we have seen him as capable of feeling human emotions like joy, sadness, and anger. But despite having these emotions, Bart was under the control of a human being. Solomon had erased his memories, which he couldn’t get back. Therefore, realizing that his existence would never be complete without a human presence, Bart lost the purpose of his existence. He couldn’t find any reason to continue operating the system in this endless void. Therefore, he tried to kill himself by raising the temperature. Aster tries to convince Bart not to destroy himself, saying that Bart can trust nobody but Aster, who used to be his play buddy. But Bart was on the verge of giving up, realizing that he couldn’t even remember those moments he had shared with Aster. He realized that he was a mere AI who didn’t have any story to tell his future generation. The burden that Bart carried for this long finally caused him to lose his sanity. Bart destroyed himself, and Aster couldn’t do anything to prevent this from happening. Harmony comforted Aster’s aching soul, telling her that no one could escape the space station with their sanity intact, so this would eventually happen to every beacon keeper, even with Aster and Halan.
But, accepting this truth, they would still have to move on because, without Beacon, they were all adrift. In the concluding scenes of Beacon 23 episode 7, Harmony motivates Aster to continue her journey, while on the other side, the Columns continue arguing with each other. The episode concluded with Aster going to the cupola, where she found the artifact in space. Meanwhile, we saw Halan’s ship continue its journey in Amboyna while other spaceships approached Beacon 23.
