There’s some body switching, soul sucking, coincidences happening in this week’s episode! I find it clever that the tv screens featuring the characters doing various things provide a clue as to what will occur right before each episode starts.
Recap (which seems to be getting longer)
Let’s first start with Ken (Mpho) and Bart (Fional Dourif). They start bonding over a Backstreet Boys song playing on the radio when they get ambushed by the crew of the biker Bart killed in last week’s episode. Tied up, in his underwear, in the middle of a field Ken understandably gets frustrated and worries that he’s going to die. He does have a little bit of hope until Bart goes through the different scenarios where whatever happens, she survives. The bikers come back. The leader believes they killed his friend and want revenge. Ken tries to save himself but just makes his death more imminent until the leader throws a baseball which hits the rock on top of the post which lets loose the fence area Bart was taped to. Bart is then able to make quick work of the bikers. Ken is in awe. He finally believes that Bart may be who she says she is, that he’s a part of it somehow, and that they need to find Dirk Gently. They change clothes and ride away on one of the motorcycles the gang had with the side car.
We discover why Gordon Rimmer (Aaron Douglas) acts like he’s superior. The real Gordon Rimmer was body-switched fifteen years ago with singer Robert Wayne Teerio aka Lux Dujour, the same singer that Dirk saw posters of at Rimmer’s house in last week’s episode. The woman Rainey, who forced the switch, seems to be very acquainted with Lux’s former selves. Their objective was to find Edgar Spring’s other machine and that hasn’t happened in years. Her excuse for “re-designating” Lux’s spirit was because it would be good for their cause. Lux was understandably not happy about the switch. Flash forward to three days earlier, we have Lydia Spring (Alison Thornton) showing up at Rimmer’s doorstep with a letter he wrote. She demanded answers about her grandfather Edgar, who killed her mom, and a Zachariah Webb. Rimmer lures her in by saying he’s got answers about her mother.
Farah (Jade Eshete) goes back up to the room where she was captured, seeing the hole that saved her life. She then goes to Rimmer’s burned house. Todd (Elijah Wood) hides behind the same bush Dirk hid last week. She awkwardly thanks him for saving her. Farah calls Rimmer using Dirk’s (Samuel Barnett) phone demanding he return Lydia. Rimmer wants in exchange the “other” machine. Because Farah doesn’t know what he is referring to, Rimmer refuses to negotiate. Farah wants to stop by the Spring estate to get her clothes and guns. She did observe that the bullet that saved her was military grade and was curious how the military could be involved. Todd doesn’t want to be a part of it but Dirk wants to tag along.
Farah arrives at Patrick Spring’s estate with Dirk. We get a little background on Farah and the house. Her father was head of security before her. Patrick loved animals to the point where he had a pet Rhino named Pepe. The estate was built in the 1880s and owned by inventor Zachariah Webb, who disappeared one day. The house went into disrepair until Patrick Spring bought it in the 1990s right before his wife died. Dirk is then introduced to the lawyer John Darrow. John was instructed to give Farah an envelope if she was with Dirk. The envelope has a map with the time 10:01 on it.
They search the house until they get to the laundry room. One of the walls looks like it’s hiding something. Farah takes an iron and whacks the plaster until a hidden door is revealed with a clock on it. Dirk winds the clock to the time on the map. That opens the door, revealing a room with a few machines. That’s some timey-wimey stuff right there! Farah figures the room was there when Webb owned the house and he may have invented the gadgets. Dirk notices that one of the light bulbs lights up when he touches it. There is a note on the machine in Patrick Spring’s handwriting that says: It starts here, it ends, here, please save her.” Dirk thinks Patrick is referring to Lydia. Both Dirk and Farah realize that Patrick was expecting to die. Farah also notices a map.
Rapunzel the corgi/Lydia shows up at the police station acting like the policemen will know that she is really Lydia Spring in a dog’s body. Detective Estevez (Neil Brown Jr) recognizes the dog from the hotel. When he checked the address on the corgi’s tags they realize it’s the same house that burned down yesterday. Things get even more interesting when Todd shows up. He tells them about seeing Lydia and exchanging the corgi for Farah. Detective Zimmerman (Richard Schiff), brings up Todd’s past when he sold his old band Mexican Funeral’s music equipment and reported it stolen. Zimmerman and Estevez also know about the Pararibulitis after talking with his parents. They start to imply that he may have burned Rimmer’s house down since he was there. They also know about him stealing his money back from his landlord. Amanda calls him while at the police station in a panic. Fortunately, Todd is free to go so he can help her. Estevez feels like Todd is guilty of something, but Zimmerman is wondering what Todd would be guilty of considering the crime scenes he’s connected to. I wonder if Estevez took Rapunzel home?
Speaking of Amanda, she goes to the grocery store. The Rowdy 3’s (Michael Eklund, Osric Chau, Viv Leacock, Zak Santiago) van follows her. Just as she is starting to check out with her groceries, she has an episode where she sees her hand on fire. Her struggle in getting the medication causes her to drop the bottle and pills spill out. Amanda does manage to reach Todd just as she runs outside where the hallucination has escalated to her thinking her whole body is on fire. Some jerks start filming her meltdown when the Rowdy 3 come to the rescue in whacking their car. As soon as the Rowdies scare the guys off, Rowdy 3 leader Martin (Michael Eklund) brings the others over to surround Amanda. They start doing their weird mojo of sucking up energy. Amanda though is starting to get several flashes of different images. She then wakes up in her garage again with her groceries next to her.
Todd rushes into Amanda’s garage out of breath because he ran, took the bus, and ran some more to get to her. Amanda reassures him that she’s okay after her flare-up. When Amanda is vague about why she wants to talk with Dirk, Todd wonders why, but goes on the defensive as to what secrets he’s keeping. He wants Amanda to stay with him for the time being until her symptoms are a little more controllable. They make it back to Todd’s place where Farah and Dirk are looking over the map found in the room. Amanda identifies the map as a utility one that shows the power lines. The utility map happens to show the power lines for Todd’s apartment building.
Todd is followed into the hallway by Dirk where he pleads for Todd’s help again. Todd finally starts to believe that Todd may be who he says he is (parallel storyline at work). He agrees to help. He starts by admitting that his neighborhood is called Springsborough, named after Edgar Spring.
Colonel Riggins picks up Corporal Hugo Friedkin (Dustin Milligan) so they can secure Dirk. Friedkin didn’t read the file so Riggins gives a little background on their objective. He was head of a CIA project called Black Wing created in 1988. As described by Riggins, the mission was “to seek-out, codify, and collect individuals with sensory – perceptive abilities beyond the normal human scale.” Riggins finds Dirk back at Todd’s apartment building right after that bonding moment with Todd. He calls him Icarus, then Slvad. Dirk doesn’t want to go with Riggins to give a debriefing on the project. He feels like his life is finally starting to get on track with friends and an actual case. Riggins will honor his wish to be left alone for the time being but will work on another angle.
Rimmer goes to an Animal Transfer Unit where there are several dead bodies with strange symbols on the walls. He’s talking to someone indicating that the machine still works and for the other person on the line to bring “him” there and a mouse. Lydia/Rapunzel is in the back seat alive at least. Rimmer gets upset when he hears over the radio that they found the body of Lux DuJour in his yard.
And that’s the episode ladies and gents!
Thoughts and Theories
There’s so much stuff happening in this episode! Everything is slowly starting to connect. Regarding Lux Dujour I would probably be irritated too if I was a singer at the top of my game suddenly thrust into an average joe. I’m thinking that when Lux was switched, that was also the night of Lydia’s mom’s murder. Could “Rainey” be in Lydia’s mom’s body? That would be freaky. Could that be who Rimmer was talking to in the last scene and last week at his house? And what is up with the dead bodies, could there be another player we don’t know about or did Rimmer kill all those guys? I was also curious as to how long the body switching has been happening. I wonder if it started with Zachariah Webb considering he also disappeared. I still think Patrick is also switched with an animal. We did hear Rainey refer to Lux as Pollux, is that his original name? She is also the Supreme Soul? Who decided that? I’m kind of on Rimmer’s side at this point. There are apparently a group of original souls who are body switching from body to body. Is this some twisted sense of immortality? And the fact that they are screwing with people still living is messed up. What happens to their souls? Do theirs get put into animals? When Rimmer mentioned on the phone bring him and a mouse I got immediately concerned that some poor soul is about to go into a mouse. They couldn’t find a cooler animal than that?
Is it just me or does Todd have a crush on Farah? I think a part of it is guilt because he didn’t let her in and realizing how close she was the entire time. His awkwardness with her is just too adorable. When he said, “My clothes look good on you.” I was wondering if he was implying that he would like to see her in his clothes as his girlfriend. Also, I was surprised to hear about what Todd did to his old band. That was very rude man!
Patrick, you only left Farah an envelope with a map on it? Since there was nothing she could’ve done to prevent your death, you didn’t leave her some money? Especially considering she’s been part of the family for so long. Maybe that’s being held off until they switch him back into another body or something?
I love detectives Estevez and Zimmerman! When they interrogate Todd it’s in a twisted way hilarious. While they are off track about Todd being responsible for several deaths I do appreciate that they have a feeling that there’s some weird stuff happening. I don’t know how they will react to the whole body switching scenario though.
I was so rooting for Amanda to have a successful trip to the grocery store and not have any symptoms but alas, it wasn’t meant to be. I did find it ironic that the destructiveness of the Rowdy 3 helped someone vs just creating chaos. The images that Amanda saw intrigued me. Here are my thoughts on some of the images in no order:
- Amanda looking like a glittery alien – don’t know what that means but maybe she develops powers?
- Friedkin with blood on his hands and fire looking like the devil – another image shows him saying he’s just doing is job and blood coming down his face. I’m like is he going to kill someone by accident again or has this already happened when he shot that guy that held Farah?
- Bart shooting someone – please don’t let this be Dirk! She has a different hair style and she could be shooting at anyone at this point. She does look happy to be shooting this person so it could very well be Dirk.
- Dirk looking afraid – I hope it’s not when he sees Bart.
- Map with two X’s and a trail appearing on a room full of TV screens – could this be referring to the map Dirk and Farah were looking at before with the utility lines around the city?
- Lux DuJour – makes you wonder when the Rowdy 3 met up with the singer. However, the fact that his image appears coincidentally around the time his body was found at Rimmer’s house may mean something.
- Todd with a mask – could this be referring to his doppelganger? Could there be a body switch in his future? Another interpretation could be a darker side he hasn’t shown yet.
- Animals – We see bats and the hammerhead shark. We know that per the medical examier’s report, Patrick Spring was killed by a hammerhead shark. It wouldn’t surprise me considering that we found out that Pepe was a pet Rhino of Patrick’s that he also owned a shark. Could the bats be a reference to vampires?
- Clowns in the field – Kids in clown costumes in a field in the middle of nowhere. WTH? Could this be a round-about way referring to project Black Wing?
I’m hoping that Amanda reveals to Dirk her experience with the Rowdy 3. It would be fascinating for them to compare notes.
After hearing Ken and Bart bond over the Backstreet Boys song, “As Long As You Loved Me”, I was seriously tempted to brush off that album and play the whole thing. I may still do that. I thought it was extremely rude for the bikers to interrupt that moment. Something tells me that Ken will be needed to operate the machine that Farah and Dirk found at the house. I’m also thinking that the machine is what Rimmer was referring to that Patrick was going to provide in exchange for Lydia. The transfer unit building must be where those guys hired Ken to get more electric juice for. Also, while there is an improvement on the clothes, both Ken and Bart still need to shower, and fast.
The parallel story arcs with Bart and Dirk strike again when their partners finally realize that they are legit. We also saw innocence and vulnerability between the two characters. Bart was sheltered to the point that she never understood that the songs played on the radio were recordings. She has never listened to the radio or a song enough times to remember the lyrics. How sad. Dirk’s conversation with Riggins seemed to indicate that he never got normal so the few relationships he has developed, especially with Todd, are precious to him and that he feels like his gift has a purpose in helping to solve a relevant mystery. What Riggins needs to do is collect the other Black Wing subjects and circle back to Dirk.
What is up with Friedkin? How can someone be soo dumb? Someone must really not like Riggins for him to be partnered up with that guy.
I’m looking forward to next week’s episode. What are your thoughts on the different coincidences happening? Sound off below in the comments!
