The episode starts off with a flashback. We are in the laboratory of Zachariah Webb, and he is testing his electrical device—the one everyone in the present day is after. It’s what Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett) is calling the “Unlimited Energy Device.” Webb attaches it to a cage with a bird inside and fires it up. The bird does not fare well and soon lies dead in the bottom of the cage. But old Zach is not to be defeated—and PETA isn’t around—so we see him try the same thing with a cat. Epic fail again; he kills the cat. I’m sure no actual animals were harmed in the filming of this episode.
Just when we are about to see him try it on a dog, the device disappears. In its place is another machine made of what looks like mismatched parts and a handwritten note from Dirk Gently. Cue mysterious music. We’re brought back into present day, where we have already guessed that there is some sort of time travel going on in the show. But we’re not sure how it works or how Dirk’s device works with the one that Gordon Rimmer (Aaron Douglas) is using to swap souls.
This episode brings a lot of people in the show up to speed and closer to each person’s end goal. Officer Estevez (Neil Brown Jr.) has lost his partner, and the chief wants him to stop investigating. He accuses the chief of being corrupt and working with the bad guys and, no surprise, gets fired. He finally figures out that the Corgi is Lydia Spring and goes to confront Todd (Elijah Wood) about it. Our cop now knows where Lydia is: inside the body of a cute little Corgi.
Our holistic assassin, Bart (Fiona Dourif), finally finds Dirks Gently, the man she’s supposed to kill. But when she stands in front of him with a gun, she can’t pull the trigger. They start to talk at the same time, saying the exact same thing. Recall that in previous episodes they each said the exact same thing but not to each other. There is a strange kinship between these two, the holistic detective and the holistic assassin. When Farah (Jade Eshete) gets there and stabs Bart to save Dirk, Bart is actually hurt. If you also remember from previous episodes, Bart never gets hurt. She is very much shaken up by this and questions her mission. Our assassin realizes maybe she isn’t supposed to kill Dirk.
At Dirk’s prodding, Todd admits to his sister, Amanda (Hannah Marks), that he never had Pararibulitis. He tells her he faked it to get money from their parents and only said he was cured when she came down with the disease. Amanda is understandably mad and wants nothing to do with her brother, so she flees with the Rowdy 3. Amanda now knows Todd lied to her for 6 years.
Farah and Dirk head to the Spring mansion to meet Todd and figure out what to do with the Unlimited Energy Device they’re carrying around. Farah decides to call the FBI agent to ask for help, not realizing that he is one of the soul-shifting bad guys. He shows up, knocks out Farah, and kidnaps Dirk and the machine. Farah and Dirk now know the FBI guy is not on their side, albeit the hard way.
The whole episode culminates in our final scene at the zoo—or the Temple, as Rimmer is calling it, since it’s where they use their Soul Exchanger. By the way, Rimmer now thinks he’s the Supreme Soul and is calling the shots. Seems he got someone named Rainey out of the way to take on this role, but we have no idea who that is.
Dirk and Todd are confronted by Rimmer in his fur coat, the one that we just know will be worn by Todd at some point. Dirk is super excited that Rimmer is going to explain everything, but instead Rimmer starts interrogating them and asking what the heck is going on, who are they, yada yada yada. He doesn’t have a clue, sigh. Dirk’s hopes for an explanation are dashed.
But fear not! The boys manage to get free. After Todd struggles with Rimmer, he is—get this—wearing the coat. Now we’re getting somewhere. Dirk and Todd take the Unlimited Energy Machine, plug it into the other whoozy-whatsit thingy, and presto, they’re zapped away. We have to wait until next week to find out where, but we know the hotel is in their future. Or their past. Or their present. Anyway, you get the idea: we still have to witness Todd seeing himself from the elevator.
Well, that’s all we have this week. Even though a lot of things happen to bring all of the loose ends together, it wasn’t one of my favorite episodes. Can’t quite lay my finger on why; maybe because all of the big surprises are out … or so we think. What’s left is to tie everything together and link the things we’ve seen—since everything is connected. Only two more episodes left, so it will be interesting to see how everything is wrapped up.
See also: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency 1.05: “Very Erectus” Episode Review
Kerry Hammond loves all types of mysteries. She is a Book Reviewer and Blogger for Mystery Playground. Follow her on Twitter @kerryhammond88.
One post showed a video of an Uyghur man overcome with emotion, saying his three children had not eaten for three days.
It was really useful and a lovely experience.
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The nostalgic and aesthetically pleasing visuals of Retro Bowl transport you to another era. It is not necessary to go to the stadium to watch football matches; instead, you can watch them from home and participate in the game.