Dirk Gently S1E6 Recap and Review: Fix Everything

Based on what happened by the end of the episode, I’m not sure if everything will be fixed.

Recap

Prologue 1886

Zachariah Webb (Julian McMahon) experiments with the machine that Dirk (Samuel Barnett) and Todd (Elijah Wood) put together last week.  By cranking too many times on his generator, he kills his pet bird and cat.  The dog is spared when he cranks it only once and the machine disappears, then reappears with the same symbols that were drawn around the animal transfer unit and a note from Dirk.  Here’s what the note says:

Sorry

Went bad

Tried buy (spelling Dirk darn) same way

Wrote this last time? (hard to read that last word)

SHIT

Dirk Gently

Present Day

Detective Estevez (Neil Brown Jr) is still reeling from his partner’s death.  The Captain (Eric Keenleyside) however, doesn’t seem to be that upset about Zimmerfield’s demise and wants to go by the book before going back to the animal transfer unit, even though he has a dead cop on his hands and his other detective is saying there are a lot of dead bodies.  Estevez even goes so far as to accuse the Captain of being involved somehow.  That gets him fired. Estevez leaves pissed of course.  Proving Estevez right, the Captain calls Gordon Rimmer (Aaron Douglas) saying they have a problem. Bastard!

Todd and Dirk arrive back at his place.  Dirk suggests that Todd tells Amanda (Hannah Marks) now instead of later his secret and meet him and Farah (Jade Eshete) at the Spring mansion.  Todd goes in just as Farah is going out. They catch each other up on what’s been happening. Todd also gives her the theory that Rimmer switched Lydia’s (Alison Thornton) spirit with his dog Rapunzel’s.  Todd will bring Amanda with him to the Spring mansion.  Farah gives him silver knuckles to defend himself and the keys to her SUV.  Farah and Todd go their separate ways, hopeful they can save Lydia.

These are my Confessions

Amanda walks in excited to tell Todd what’s been going on with her and her night with Farah.  Todd blurts that he didn’t have Pararibulitis.  As expected, Amanda didn’t take it too well.  Todd even offers her the lottery ticket to help make up for his lies but she takes it the wrong away.  Amanda is understandably upset.  When Todd then tells her that they need to leave, she closes herself in the bathroom.

Estevez, tipsy on that whiskey, figures out that Lydia must somehow be the corgi.  Lydia/Rapunzel confirms by barking appropriately to his questions.  The corgi also confirms that Todd and Dirk helped her escape from Rimmer.  The former detective has more questions for Todd, so goes to his apartment.

Amanda and Todd reminisce about a night that Amanda thought she ruined because of Todd’s “disease.” Amanda doesn’t know her brother anymore.  Todd still insists that his place isn’t safe anymore so they need to meet Dirk and Farah.  Some people are after them but Amanda thinks he’s referring to the two CIA operatives.

Estevez comes knocking just when Amanda has another attack, this time thinking she’s drowning.  Todd tries to keep Estevez calm by answering his questions but when Amanda starts kicking on the door Estevez starts to lose it.  He punches Todd but Todd insists on getting into the room.  The dog is barking like they need to get into the room quick.  Estevez finally opens the door and takes Amanda out wondering what’s wrong with her.  Todd explains that she is “drowning.” They go outside to try to help her but get ambushed by Ed (Christian Bako) and Zed (Michael Adamwaite).  The Rowdy 3 (Michael Eklund, Osric Chau, Viv Leacock and Zak Santiago) come to the rescue again, helping Estevez escape with Lydia/Rapunzel.  While Ed and Zed are temporarily out, they suck the disease energy out of Amanda so she can breathe again.  Todd tries to hug her but she gives him the cold shoulder. Amanda doesn’t want to see Todd again, so she leaves with the Rowdy 3.  This leaves Todd at the mercy of Ed and Zed, who recover enough to kidnap him.

 A moment

Farah makes sure that they are not being followed. Stuck in traffic, Dirk in his own way recruits her into his agency.  Super excited that they are close working everything out, he yells, much to Farah’s chagrin, his name and stands up in his seat.  Just then Bart (Fiona Dourif) gets on the hood of the Jeep with a gun aiming at Dirk.  Fortunately, she misses and Dirk runs away.  Farah follows.  Bart keeps shooting Dirk but the bullets don’t hit him.  He runs up a set of the steps to a dead end.  Farah orders Bart to stop but Ken (Mpho Koaho) pushes her down so Bart can finish her mission.  Farah kicks Ken’s butt and gets her knife out.

Bart has reached the top of the stairs as well and explains to Dirk that she’s supposed to kill him.  They both eventually say “everything is connected.”   They both talk at once saying mostly the same thing about how they are one of the others, they are different, yet the same. Farah interrupts the moment by stabbing Bart in the leg and throws her over the stairway.

Bart and Ken manage to get back to their hotel room.  It’s a wonder considering how Bart was screaming in pain!  She thinks the universe is broken because she got injured and she’s unable to kill Dirk.  Ken points out how the universe is still working in their favor considering the crowd nor the hotel noticed her screaming in pain and her with a stab wound.  He also saw a news report about the guy that got hit by the car last week had kidnapped women holed up at his house.  See, the universe still wants her to kill bad guys.  She’s determined to go after Dirk again, even though Ken believes that maybe that’s not what they need to do with him.

Back to Dirk and Farah.  Thank goodness, the machine was still there when they made it back to the Jeep.  Farah calls Agent Weedle (David Lewis) thinking he will be able to help them.  While waiting in the middle of the woods Farah gets concerned that Todd hasn’t checked in yet.  Dirk thinks that’s her way of indicating that she “likes” Todd.  Dirk shows her the machine when she turns it on by flipping some switches there are three dates:  08/03/16 when Patrick Spring dies, 07/17/01 when Spring’s wife died, and 08/23/96.

Just then Agent Weedle arrives.  When he starts talking weird, Dirk realizes too late that he’s one of Rimmer’s goons. Weedle knocks out Farah and kidnaps Dirk.

Being Supreme

Rimmer and the Captain meet each other by the river.  The Captain thinks it was a bad idea that Rimmer betrayed Rainey, their leader.  He also warns that Estevez will still be going after Rimmer.  Now that Rimmer has the other machine, he’s the “Supreme Being” now. There was nothing ever spiritual about what they were doing, it was about power and being in control.  He orders the Captain to get any lingering followers to meet him at the temple.

Back at the animal transfer unit, both Todd and Dirk are brought into a room with cages and pet carriers.  Dirk doesn’t know where Farah is, and Todd tells Dirk that Amanda is gone.  Todd is starting to sport a shiner.  Dirk believes that when Rimmer walks in with his dirty fur coat on waving a gun at them, that they will finally get answers.  However, it’s Rimmer who has even more questions for the two of them.  Todd is honest about answering four of those questions. As Rimmer is going on about the machine and them being around at the same day Patrick Spring died Dirk starts putting the pieces together of what the machine is.  He tells Todd that they can get out of there.  Someone has driven up to the building.  Rimmer gets Zed and Agent Weedle to find out what’s going on.  Todd makes his move and attacks Rimmer getting the gun away and punching him with Farah’s silver knuckles Dirk runs into the next room with the soul switching machine and he has the other machine.  Todd barricades them in the room.  Dirk wants him to touch the machine. He solved the case, they are going to fix everything.  The machine wirs, lights up and they disappear.  That’s the end of the episode!

Thoughts and Theories

There were two times in this episode where I was like:

via GIPHY

The first time was when Farah called Agent Weedle.  That talking to that he gave her left an impression for some reason that he could be trusted.  The red flags he raised got eliminated in the face of Agent Weedle hitting her vulnerabilities.  Unfortunately, it was too late for Dirk to even say anything because she was knocked out.  I’m hoping she’s not in the same situation we saw her in at the beginning of the series, especially considering how awesome she was when she beat up Bart and Ken earlier in the episode.  Hopefully Weedle left her with the Jeep.

The second time I wanted to yell at the screen “What are you doing?!” was when Amanda tore up the lottery ticket.  That was $10,000 she just let go to waste! Todd should’ve kept that ticket in the picture frame.  Sigh…

The way that the universe worked in this episode it was probably a good thing that Amanda didn’t go with Todd.  I’m glad the Rowdy 3 rescued her again.  I don’t blame her reaction to Todd’s news at all.  What made Todd and Dirk think that Amanda would want to go with him after confessing a big lie like that I don’t know.  How could she trust whatever he told her after that?  At least the secret is out now and not dragged out.  Great scenes between Marks and Wood.  At least the Rowdy 3 could protect Amanda and help her if she shows symptoms of her disease.

I felt so bad for Estevez because he has no one to really turn to except maybe Farah at this point.  It was a good thing that he escaped with Lydia in tow.  I’m hoping he gets closure as well for his partner’s death.  It was cute and sad at the same time that he was confiding with the Corgi, especially when he got the dog to confirm that it was really Lydia.  I wonder how long it took to do that scene?

I wasn’t expecting Bart and Ken to finally catch up with Dirk so soon but I’m glad that it happened.  Their conversation was adorable and I wish they had more time with each other.  I’m hoping that Ken can convince Bart that maybe her mission isn’t to kill Dirk Gently, since when she does, she’s vulnerable to getting hurt. I’m also glad that Ken will stick with her.  It was pitiful seeing Bart so defeated and thinking the universe failed her.  Ken had a good pep talk with her so she can get back on track.  Dourif killed it in those scenes!  Maybe they will meet up with Amanda and the Rowdy 3 at some point, or even  Riggins and Friedkin.   I’m wondering if Bart and Dirk seeing each other will happen once or twice a season.

Rimmer is a little more pragmatic than I gave him credit for.  I understand him a little better now that I know he’s been pretty much used for years while their original leader has been taking advantage with him and the drones.  I did think it was funny considering Dirk’s expectations when Rimmer asked them all kinds of questions instead!

The scene with Dirk and Todd is obviously set to go back in time to the day of the murder.  From Rimmer’s questions, it sounds like both Dirk and Todd where there when Patrick Spring died. I hope this means that we get to finally see what happened that day in gory detail and that moment again when Todd sees himself in the next episode.  From the note we saw in the prologue, the struggle is real to get back to their own time. I wonder if they will see what happened to Edgar Spring and Patrick Spring’s wife as well?

The prologue has made me realized how much the animals have been treated like crap for Webb’s and Rimmer’s cult experiments.  Webb got on my bad side when he got the cat killed.  It was bad enough that the poor bird was the first to go.  Even Patrick Spring has memorialized his rhino’s spirit as a guard to a door in a secret tunnel.  How messed up is that? At least we have an idea through Webb’s experiments how the spirit initially leaves the body in spiritual attack mode.  I’m still worried about the kitten. Can we make sure that the kitten is okay? I don’t like the feeling of it being lost in the woods somewhere.

What did you think of the episode?  How do you feel about Bart and Dirk finally meeting?  Sound off your thoughts about the show in the comments!

Photos courtesy of BBC America/AMC Networks