Netflix Beef season 1 recap guide: All episodes explained

Beef episode 8 recap: The Drama of Original Choice

Beef episode 8 is a little bit of a quieter episode that takes a second to pause and show us how Danny and Amy became such damaged, angry people before things really get crazy in the final episodes of the season.

The eighth episode starts with a version of Amy having anonymous sex with men she meets in online chatrooms. It’s a little unclear whether this is happening in the past or present. Then she sees a creepy, witch-like character reflected in the mirror. We learn that the person she’s seeing is a character from a storybook Amy read as a child.

Growing up, her parents often left her to her own devices as they were constantly arguing, her father was cheating on her mother, and no one ever talked about anything. She would hear her parents arguing behind closed doors, and they were never shy about the fact that they had never wanted kids and Amy was more or less a mistake.

At one point, Amy read a storybook with the creepy witchy character in it, and she started seeing that woman as a manifestation of her conscience. This “character” sees Amy during all her darkest moments and promises to never tell Amy’s secrets because if she did, no one would ever love her. Since Amy has grappled with being loved “unconditionally” throughout the season, we can see that it stems from her parents. Even as an adult, when she returns to visit them for the first time in years, nothing has changed.

After Paul’s confession, Amy finally comes clean with George about everything: Danny, the road rage thing, her affair, etc. It’s too much for him, and he asks for a divorce. Amy accepts that but just pleads with him not to take Junie from her.

On the flip side, everything in Danny’s life is also falling apart. Like Amy, he had a complicated childhood, though his trauma was more from being bullied and ostracized as a kid. He also always wanted Paul to stay on his level and never outperform him, which is why he threw all of Paul’s college applications in the trash to keep him close. He never told Paul.

Danny really wants the house thing to be arson because then he can cash in on the insurance money. He sees Edwin drive away from the house and follows him home one night, confronting him in his garage. A panicked Edwin confesses to pulling little pranks on Danny because he’s jealous of him. Apparently, his wife, Veronica, never got over Danny (they grew up together and had a thing as teens), so Edwin’s become resentful and bitter. But not to the point of starting a fire.

In fact, the fire investigator discovers that the reason the house burnt down is due to faulty wiring. He says whoever installed the electrical system was an idiot, and we know that Danny built the house, so it’s actually his fault.

But instead of accepting that, Danny tries to pin the whole thing on Amy. He tells Paul they found a woman’s glove and a gas canister at the scene, and then Danny plants the evidence to frame her, including going to George and Amy’s house to plant a matching glove in her bathroom cabinet. But now that George knows who Danny is, he doesn’t want to let him in the house.

Ultimately, George relents and lets Danny use the bathroom, but when Danny opens the door, George has pulled their family gun on him. They get into a fight that ends with Danny knocking George unconscious and driving away in his car, only to discover that Junie is in the backseat and he’s just accidentally kidnapped her.

Written by Maddy Lennon