"Beautiful Chimp Face" picks up from last week's horrifying ending—the Beauty-triggered explosion of a Condé Nast editor following her murderous cafeteria rampage. R.I.P. Meghan Trainor's character. Episode 4 sends Cooper deeper into the investigation, and this time, it gets physical.
The episode's title comes from a disturbing moment in the fashion magazine investigation, and the episode lives up to its unsettling name.
Cooper's Fashion Magazine Investigation
Cooper's search for answers leads him to the aftermath of last week's explosion. Two assistant editors survived the blast—they had the bad luck of being in the editor's blast radius and are now quarantined in a lab.
The Interview: Cooper's interview with the survivors is the episode's emotional centerpiece. These are women who watched their colleague explode. They're traumatized, infected by proximity, and facing the same fate. The questions they have for Cooper are ones he can't answer: How long do they have? Will they blow up too? Is there any way to reverse it?
The scene showcases Evan Peters at his best—a man who genuinely wants to help but has nothing to offer except the truth, which isn't comforting.
The NSFW Fight Sequence
The episode's most talked-about scene: Cooper's brutal fight with another Beauty victim in mid-transformation. This isn't a clean action sequence—it's messy, desperate, and disturbing.
Peters talked about this fight being one of the main reasons he signed on to the project: "I thought it was going to be so fun to do all those." Fun might not be the word viewers would use—the fight is intense, physical, and ends in a way that will haunt Cooper (and us) for episodes to come.
What Makes This Fight Different: The victim isn't a villain. They're a person losing control of their own body, terrified of what they're becoming. Cooper has to stop them, but there's no satisfaction in it. Just survival.
Byron Goes Wide
Meanwhile, Ashton Kutcher's Byron (The Corporation) is making moves. His "refined" version of The Beauty is ready for expansion beyond the ultra-wealthy.
The Business Pivot: Byron sees the FDA crackdown coming and decides to go global before US regulators can stop him. International markets, looser regulations, bigger profits. It's pharmaceutical capitalism at its most ruthless.
The Question The Show Asks: Is Byron a villain, or just a businessman giving people what they want? The Beauty doesn't make it easy to answer. Everyone who takes his product does so willingly. They know the risks. They just don't care.
Antonio's Apprentice
Anthony Ramos's Antonio begins training an apprentice this episode—someone who wants to understand the street-level Beauty trade. It's a quieter storyline but an important one.
The Ground-Level Perspective: While Cooper investigates from above and Byron operates from penthouse suites, Antonio shows us how The Beauty moves through regular communities. The black market version. The desperate version. The version for people who can't afford Byron's "refined" product.
This training montage—if you can call it that—is less inspirational, more cautionary. Antonio isn't building an empire. He's managing chaos.
Episode Verdict
Grade: A-
"Beautiful Chimp Face" delivers The Beauty's most visceral episode yet. The fashion magazine investigation grounds the cosmic horror in relatable human fear, while the fight sequence announces that this show isn't afraid to get its hands dirty.
- The virus's explosion trigger still isn't understood
- Byron's international expansion raises the stakes
- Cooper is in deeper than he realized
- Antonio's street-level perspective adds crucial texture
Standout Performance: Evan Peters in the survivor interview scene—finding humanity in an impossible conversation.
Next Episode: Episode 5 airs Wednesday, February 4 on FX, streaming Thursday on Hulu.