Review: ‘Beef Season 2, Episode 4 “Oh, the Comfort, the Inexpressible Comfort”

Austin and Ashley are in the emergency room. Ashley is in really bad shape, with blood all over her face and her knee busted. The ER is stereotypically full, and they have to wait for hours. After Austin checks Ashley in, he leaves her in the waiting area to get her something to drink. His phone then buzzes. Ashley decides to text Eunice, pretending to be him, to see if she can get any answers out of her. She doesn’t really succeed as Eunice doesn’t say anything, but Ashley says that the two of them are at the hospital. Austin comes back and Ashley deletes everything.   

The couple continues to wait for hours. Then, Josh shows up, which surprises the both of them. Josh tells Ashley that after Chairwoman Park told him that she was in the hospital, he rushed over to her right away. Austin then tries to talk to one of the nurses to see how much longer the wait is, which really irritates her. Josh then presents Ashley with a list of doctors from the club that could get her seen right away. All she has to do is delete the video of him and Lindsay from any backup accounts. He wants to clean the slate. When Ashley tries to explain that no backups exist, Josh tells her that he knows she’s milking the job for everything. Ashley brings up how Josh tried to bribe her first. Ashley refuses his help, and he gets up and leaves.

After waiting for even longer, Ashley gets a pain in her stomach; it could be her ovaries acting up. The nurses don’t believe her, so Austin takes her to a different nurse that they haven’t seen yet. Ashley suddenly  collapses and wakes up on a gurney. She’s put in a room and is connected to many machines. She doesn’t feel well, but the doctor tells her that the ultrasounds aren’t picking up anything abnormal and that everything looks fine. This can’t be correct. Ashley is lost in her thoughts as her and Austin have been in the ER for even longer at this point. Austin steps out and calls Eunice. She explains the string of texts, and Austin blatantly says that he feels as if he doesn’t know Ashley anymore.

Ashley’s symptoms get worse and she screams in pain for a doctor. She’s rushed into surgery and is told that her ovary may need to be removed if they can’t save it. After surgery, she wakes up with Austin next to her. Austin tells her that her theory was correct about her ovaries, but they were able to save it just in time. Ashley wants to be a mother, so she’s very happy to hear this news. Austin’s phone begins to ring; it’s Ashley’s mom. She takes the phone only to  hear Lindsay’s voice. Then Eunice is in the hospital room. Ashley gasps and wakes up as  it was just a dream. This time, Austin tells her that one of her ovaries was removed. She is absolutely devastated by this news. Then, a man named David enters  her room and hands her his business card. He tells her that he could’ve seen her right away and probably saved her ovary. He was sent by Josh. 

Ashley is depressed and bedridden while she recovers. She cries herself to sleep every night as she knows that having kids will be much more difficult from now on. She gets a text from Josh regarding David; he tells her “you’re welcome.” This sets her off.

Ashley drives to Josh and Lindsay’s house and waits for the two of them to be gone. Only their weenie dog Burberry is in the house. Ashley gets into Josh’s work bag and takes pictures of all of the embezzled documents. She then goes into their fridge and drips droplets of her blood into their orange juice. When she hears a car pull up, she quickly runs out of the house. The door is cracked, and Burberry follows her! Cut to black. 

This episode was very interesting due to the fact that most of it took place in one location: the hospital. In previous episodes, there was much more back and forth between the two couples, but this episode mostly focused on Austin and Ashley, and Ashley’s big health scare. It was devastating to learn that Ashley’s health is deteriorating because she just got health insurance, and we know that she wants to be a mom. This works very well, though, as a setback usually opens a character up for growth. The dog getting out was a great cliffhanger for the next episode as Josh and Lindsay see him as their son. Karma is going around like crazy.  

8/10