Netflix's 'Beef' Episode 8 shows you can never outrun the ghosts from your past
Spoilers for episode 8 of Netflix's 'Beef'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: No matter what you can do, you can not change your past. And this is one of the most prominent themes in Netflix's 'Beef'. Amy Lau (Ali Wong), one of the show's lead characters, is shown grappling with some serious trauma from the past. Amy is seen repressing her anger, feeling extremely tired and being depressed to boot. She seems to evade anything even mildly upsetting and her repressed emotions explode all at once in the road rage incident involving Danny Cho (Steven Yeun), a failing contractor, who has gripes of his own.
Amy is well aware that she has problems but believes strongly that having more money will solve them. Even while visiting a therapist with her husband, George (Joseph Lee), Amy opens up about her past and acknowledges her problem openly. Amy has resented her traumatic past and strongly fears passing her bad qualities to her daughter. And it is because of this fear that Amy starts lying to her husband about every mistake she makes. However, Netflix's 'Beef' handles the topic of confronting the past and its consequences in the eighth episode, titled, 'The Drama of Original Choice'.
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Ghosts from the past
Though Amy's troubled past has been teased up to this point in the series, this is the first time we take a deeper look at her unsavoury childhood. We are shown a young Amy, who catches her father cheating on her mother, and how she witnessed her parents fighting about Amy's birth being a mistake and so on. This leads to Amy hallucinating and seeing a ghost whenever she is trying to do something wrong. At this point in the series, Amy has everything she has ever dreamed of — a vacation home, money and leisure time with her family. But she has no peace, forever thinking of her mistakes as her guilt drives her bananas. Amy blames her parents for her present "bad behaviour" so a meeting with her parents gives her an idea. She decides to get rid of her past and grow up. Amy starts to take the blame for her mistakes but the result is not what she expected.
The past never leaves
In order to get rid of her past ghosts, Amy opens up about almost every single mistake she has made. Amy's intention is to come clean, get rid of the ugly parts of her past and move on to the next chapter in her life. Amy owns up to her mistakes, admits that she is a bad person and was solely responsible for her bad behaviour. Amy also admits that she tried to hide this bad side of her from her husband because he is a good person. Though Amy finally faces her fears, it does not end well. All her past "truths" make George mad and he leaves the house with their daughter Junie/June (Remy Holt).
On one hand, Amy gets rid of her past ghosts and on the other hand, she welcomes a new ghost in the form of loneliness.
All episodes of 'Beef' are available to stream on 'Netflix'