🤐 SPOILER ALERT 🤐

Before diving into BEEF, you’re probably asking yourself, “Why is this show called BEEF?” As we come to find out in the first four minutes of Episode 1, strangers Danny (Steven Yeun) and Amy (Ali Wong) cause a ruckus on the Los Angeles streets with their road rage incident. From there, their feud unravels into a mess of vicious revenge and wonderful pettiness throughout the 10-episode series. 

Your next question is probably, “What’s up with these episode titles?” There’s a reason they’re all so despairing, and if some of them sound familiar, chances are you might recognize them as part of a famous quote. BEEF creator and showrunner Lee Sung Jin referenced influential texts and films to help describe the unhinged behaviors of his characters. Want to learn more about each episode title? Read on to find interpretations of them, but remember, it’s up to you to find your own meaning in each one. Prepare to feel very intellectual. 

Episode 1: “The Birds Don’t Sing, They Screech in Pain”

“The trees are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don’t think they sing. They just screech in pain… Taking a close look at what’s around us, there is some sort of harmony: It’s the harmony of overwhelming and collective murder.” — Werner Herzog

The pilot’s title is inspired by a quote from German filmmaker Werner Herzog in Les Blank’s 1982 documentary Burden of Dreams, about the making of Herzog’s film Fitzcarraldo. Like the birds that Herzog references in the quote, Amy’s and Danny’s characters seem like ordinary people when they’re introduced. Amy is a successful businesswoman but still loves her signature bucket hat. Danny is your average contractor who’s struggling to find his footing. After their road rage incident, we realize these two characters harbor pain and serious issues underneath the surface.

Episode 2: “The Rapture of Being Alive”

“I don’t think the meaning of life is what we’re seeking. I think it’s the experience of being alive… so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive.” — Joseph Campbell

What does it mean to “feel the rapture of being alive”? In the famous 1988 televised interview with Bill Moyers, American writer Joseph Campbell presented this answer when asked about his thoughts on the meaning of life. It’s fitting for Episode 2 since Amy and Danny are becoming increasingly obsessed with seeking revenge. Their feud taps into the most primal parts of their psyche and allows them to act on their hidden impulses and emotions — or, you could say, feel the rapture of being alive.

Episode 3: “I Am Inhabited by a Cry”

“I am inhabited by a cry. Nightly it flaps out. Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.” — Sylvia Plath

In her poem “Elm,” Sylvia Plath writes about a dark thing inside of her that cries at night for love. Amy and Danny hope that when they get the thing they’ve been coveting in life, they’ll easily get rid of the dark thing inside of them. The title also alludes to Episode 7 when both characters finally achieve their dreams but still feel empty on the inside. 

Episode 4: “Just Not All at the Same Time”

“You can have it all, just not all at the same time.” — Betty Friedan

When asked during a conference if women can have it all, feminist author and activist Betty Friedan gave this honest response. The reply parallels Amy’s storyline in Episode 4 when she’s onstage for a Q&A in Vegas. Amy’s fans know her as someone who has it all — a beautiful family, a picturesque home and a successful career. She assures her fans at the event that it’s possible to follow in her footsteps. But, as we see in Vegas, it’s not easy for Amy to balance her marriage, parenthood, career and personal fulfillment.

Episode 5: “Such Inward Secret Creatures”

“We are such inward secret creatures, that inwardness the most amazing thing about us, even more amazing than our reason. But we cannot just walk into the cavern and look around. Most of what we think we know about our minds is pseudo-knowledge. We are all such shocking poseurs, so good at inflating the importance of what we think we value.” — Iris Murdoch

Inspired by this quote from Iris Murdoch’s novel The Sea, the Sea, Episode 5 reveals the shallow values BEEF’s characters try to mask. We see this in Fumi’s (Patti Yasutake) prideful concern for her son, George (Joseph Lee), as well as in Naomi (Ashley Park) asking Amy for a special favor. Each character takes their ego very seriously — to the point of self-obsession — and tries to hide their ulterior motives.

Episode 6: “We Draw a Magic Circle”

“We draw a magic circle and shut out everything that doesn’t agree with our secret games. Each time life breaks the circle, the games turn grey and ridiculous. Then we draw a new circle and build a new defense.” — Ingmar Bergman 

This extract from Ingmar Bergman’s film Through a Glass Darkly describes building a wall around what you want to believe when your life starts to veer off track. Amy is trapped in a hole of lies of her own making. She’s desperate to convince herself that the series of unfortunate events — from the road rage incident to her mother-in-law’s fall down the stair during the robbery — isn’t her fault at all. 

Episode 7: “I Am a Cage”

“I am a cage, in search of a bird.” — Franz Kafka 

Franz Kafka’s line from his Die Zürauer Aphorismen describes humans as empty vessels who are constantly looking for meaning. In a search for purpose, Danny runs to church after being consumed by the feud. Amy, on the other hand, tells George that she’s always had a feeling in her chest that “feels like the ground.” Both characters’ lack of direction leaves them grasping.

Episode 8: “The Drama of Original Choice”

“Moral choice is free, and therefore unforeseeable. The child does not contain the man he will become. Yet, it is always on the basis of what he has been that a man decides upon what he wants to be. He draws the motivations of his moral attitude from within the character which he has given himself and from within the universe which is its correlative. Now, the child set up this character and this universe little by little, without foreseeing its development. He was ignorant of the disturbing aspect of this freedom which he was heedlessly exercising. He tranquilly abandoned himself to whims, laughter, tears, and anger which seemed to him to have no morrow and no danger, and yet which left ineffaceable imprints about him. The drama of original choice is that it goes on moment by moment for an entire lifetime, that it occurs without reason, before any reason, that freedom is there as if it were present only in the form of contingency. This contingency recalls, in a way, the arbitrariness of the grace distributed by God in Calvinistic doctrine. Here too there is a sort of predestination issuing not from an external tyranny but from the operation of the subject itself. Only, we think that man has always a possible recourse to himself. There is no choice so unfortunate that he cannot be saved.” — Simone de Beauvoir

In her book The Ethics of Ambiguity, feminist author Simone de Beauvoir discusses the idea of being trapped in a domino effect where the choices we make today are predestined by our pasts and the environments we grew up in. Episode 8 dives into Amy’s and Danny’s pasts, from birth and childhood to adulthood. This look into their upbringing offers more clarity into how they’ve become trapped in their own darkness.

Episode 9: “The Great Fabricator”

“Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be obtained only by someone who is detached.” — Simone Weil 

In her first publication, Gravity and Grace, Simone Weil explores the thought that in order to fully accept reality, you must experience a form of loss. Episode 9 sees both characters lose the person closest to them. Danny tells Paul (Young Mazino) to leave him after revealing he threw away his brother’s college acceptance letters in an effort to have him stay at home. George leaves Amy and takes their daughter, Junie (Remy Holt), with him after a failed heist jeopardizes the family’s safety. With their loved ones gone, perhaps they’ll finally see the mess they’ve created.

Episode 10: “Figures of Light”

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” ― C.G. Jung

In Alchemical Studies, Volume 13, C.G. Jung writes about how in order to move forward, we must first tap into our darkness. Amy and Danny finally reach the end of their rope in the finale. After driving off a cliff, the two enemies are now trapped together in the desert. Throughout the series, they’ve both displayed the most horrible parts of themselves to each other. From peeing on floors to vandalizing cars, Amy and Danny’s beef brings out the worst in them. And yet they’re both comforted knowing that the other person is similarly broken inside. They’re each just as bad as the other, and this epiphany allows both characters to be fully themselves and move on with their lives.

BEEF Season 1 TrailerRevenge is best served raw.

BEEF is now streaming on Netflix.