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TV Review: Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency 1.8 (Season 1 Finale)
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Dirk Gently Todd and Dirk in a cell

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
Episode 1.8 “Two Sane Guys Doing Normal Things”
Created by Max Landis
Directed by Paco Cabezas
Starring Samuel Barnett, Elijah Wood, Hannah Marks, Fiona Dourif, Jade Eshete, Mpho Koaho, Dustin Milligan, Miguel Sandoval, Neil Brown, Jr., Richard Schiff, Aaron Douglas, Alison Thornton
BBC America
Air date: Saturday, December 10, 2016

SPOILERS for Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency

Last week on Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, holistic detective Dirk Gently (Samuel Barnett) and his sidekick Todd (Elijah Wood) finally solved the case of Patrick Spring’s murder after they came face-to-face with a time-traveling younger version of the man. They’re in a time loop! Todd realized Dirk was lying the whole time about not knowing anything, while Dirk feels what he did was not so terrible. Holistic assassin Bartine (Fiona Dourif) and her sidekick Ken (Mpho Koaho) were absent last week, but we know they’re planning to continue their search for Dirk Gently, but this time perhaps not try to kill him. Todd’s ailing sister Amanda (Hannah Marks), also absent in Episode 1.7, had previously left with energy vampires the Rowdy 3 after learning that her brother had lied about having had Pararibulitis, a debilitating genetic disorder she’s currently suffering from. Farah (Jade Eshete) escaped captivity yet again, and took out the droned Agent Weedle (David Lewis). The nefarious Gordon Rimmer (Aaron Douglas) escaped from Detective Estevez (Neil Brown, Jr.), who still has Gordon’s corgi Rapunzel (Bentley the dog) that has Lydia Spring’s (Alison Thornton) soul in it. Inside Gordon’s temple, Dirk was shot by Gordon’s drones, who then also zapped Todd.

Here’s a recap of what happened this week on the Season 1 finale, Episode 1.8 “Two Sane Guys Doing Normal Things”…

The Season 1 finale opens with Amanda in the van with the Rowdy 3, who sense that something bad has happened somewhere.

At Gordon’s Temple, Todd and Dirk are down after the attack. Gordon runs in, being chased by Detective Estevez, but he gets away. Farah then shows up, and the detective thinks she is in on everything with Gordon. He gets her to drop her weapon, and then cages her in with Todd and Dirk, who try to explain that they’re not the enemies.

At the hotel, Bartine is still recovering from her leg wound. She’s watching the television, which shows a princess saying “Everything is connected.” Ken comes in with clothes for her — the only thing he could find was a bellhop uniform! Bartine says she only has 2 bullets left, and perhaps they should stay put, but Ken encourages her to continue in her mission.

At the temple, Dirk and Todd are injured and weak. Todd admits to Farah that he was behind the door she knocked on the day of the murder, but she’s already deduced that. Dirk uses this scenario to tell Todd that he too kept something secret, but Todd says it’s not the same. Dirk says what he did was’t exactly lying, but rather “Strategic no-truthing.”

Estevez comes in and we learn that he shot up the time machine so many times that it’s now broken. Farah escapes and disarms the detective, who at this point, just wants to know what the hell is going on! Todd then tells him the very involved details of what’s been going on all this time, with the time machine, Patrick Spring being both Edgar Spring and Zachariah Webb, the soul-swapping, everything, including the Kitten-Shark weaponized soul.

Meanwhile, Gordon and his drones make their way to the police station to see Captain Doyle, who’s in on everything. Doyle says that all of their fellow Men Of The Machine are gone, but Gordon still wants to get the other machine back.

Dirk Gently Gordon and drones

Todd, Farah, Dirk, Estevez, dog-souled Lydia, and Lydia-souled Rapunzel make their way to the Spring Mansion to take the second machine there to plug it in. Dirk and Todd are both very weak, and Dirk is bleeding.

Farah pulls out the heavy artillery, which is hidden in wine barrels. Estevez, understandably, thinks he can use the machine to go back in time to save his partner, Zimmerfield, who was killed in the line of duty by Gordon’s men. But Todd says it doesn’t work that way. They make it down to the basement to Webb’s laboratory and are able to switch Lydia and Rapunzel back!

Farah is relieved to have Lydia back and safe, and Lydia is thankful to Farah and Estevez for saving her. To Todd and Dirk, she looks with scorn: “These guys threw me off a bridge,” she says, referring to when she was in the corgi. They then hear gunfire.

(Back when Todd and Dirk threw the corgi with Lydia’s soul inside it off the bridge as part of a bargain maneuver against Gordon, although it was really more out of shock at seeing Lydia’s soul pop out of the dog…)

Outside, Gordon and his drones, along with armed police, are getting ready to storm the mansion, but the Rowdy 3 (including new member Amanda) show up and kick their asses! Gordon, though, does make his way inside, where he exchanges gunfire with Farah and Estevez.

Dirk Gently Todd floor

Downstairs, Lydia is saying that they should destroy the machine, but Dirk and Todd explain that they need to fix it and then send it back to the past to her father to close the time loop, or else she’ll never exist. “Your dad did all of this to save you,” they tell the girl, “he died to save your life.” Lydia says she’ll do whatever they need her to, and takes the time travel tube from them, but before they can do anything, Drones show up! Todd attacks them, but they shoot Dirk again.

Lydia grabs the machine and threatens to break it if the Drones don’t stop. This is when Bellhop Bartine and Ken arrive, and Bartine kills the drones. “Sorry about earlier,” she tells Dirk, referring to when she tried to kill him. “I’ll do it right this time.”

When Ken sees the Drones, he reveals that those are the guys who had hired him. And the machine is the one they hired him to build! But can he fix it? “Yes,” he says, “it’s my destiny.”

Upstairs, Farah calls over Rapunzel. When Gordon finds them, he says he’s going to shoot Farah in the head and take back his dog. She then tosses him the dog, and Estevez throws her a gun, and she shoots Gordon in the head! YES!!!

In the lab, Ken gets the machine to work! Bartine realizes that this is why they were meant to be there. She then shoots her gun a few times at Dirk, but there’s no bullets. “Weird,” she says, realizing that the universe really didn’t want her to kill him as she originally thought. “Ok, bye Dirk,” she says, and turns to leave. “Let’s get outta here,” she tells Ken, “these people are nutjobs.”

Dirk, Todd, and Lydia then send the machine back in time, where we see it arrive to Webb along with the bloodied note from Dirk.

Back in the present, Dirk, who’s now lost a lot of blood and is near collapse, smiles and says, “Solved it.”

Next thing we see is Todd waking up in his apartment at the Ridgely building, with Amanda standing over him. She says that she and the Rowdy 3 had gone to the mansion and kicked everyone’s ass, and then saved Todd and company. It’s all the last time the Rowdy 3 is going to save him, she says. Estevez took the injured Dirk to the hospital, and Farah’s left a note for Todd to meet him at 6pm. Still mad at her brother for lying about having Pararibulitis, she goes to leave, but he doesn’t want to her to. “Sometimes when you fall down, you fall all the way down,” she tells Todd. “You blew it, that’s just the way it is.” She then goes on to tell him that although he’s mad at Dirk for keeping stuff from him, Dirk came into his life for a reason: Todd previously was a 33-year-old lying bellhop with no money and no friends; now, he’s the badass partner of a psychic detective, he’s honest, and he saved a girl’s life — this is what really matters, she says. Todd asks if she’s really going to leave with the Rowdy 3. “They already gave me a jacket,” she says to Todd, referring to her new, very cool matching R3 motorcycle jacket. (Jackets were a theme throughout the season, with Amanda particularly fixated on them and how they elevated one’s coolness.)

Ken and Bartine sit on the hood of a taxi overlooking the water. Ken says that she was never supposed to kill Dirk Gently. “You were supposed to protect him,” Ken says.

Dirk Gently Ken Bartine finale

Bartine, though, worries that now that Ken has fulfilled his destiny, he’ll leave her, and she doesn’t want him to go. “I’m not going anywhere,” he tells her, and she hugs him tight. She’s every happy and excited.

As for Lydia, Farah is sending her to Belize for her own safety, since they still don’t know how many of the Men are left. It turns out, Lydia knew the story about the time machine and her family — these were the answers she had been seeking when she initially went to see Gordon, who she also knew was really the rock star Lux DuJour. Farah says she feels like she let Lydia and Patrick down, but Lydia says, no, there was a time loop and this was the most ideal ending. Farah saved her and is an inspiration to her. She says Farah hides that she’s a “freak” (in a good way) and how cool it was that she showed up to save her with “an army of weirdos.” “It was perfect,” Lydia tells her bodyguard, “you are perfect.” As the girl goes to leave, she quickly transfers $4 million to Farah. “Have fun with your new friends,” Lydia tells Farah, “they seem insane.” (Again, all said as if she’s impressed.)

CIA guy Riggins sits with a sleeping Dirk in his hospital room. He says that in the beginning it was just an idea and that he wanted to believe there was a bigger pattern and meaning. And then he met Dirk and realized that he’d “found it,” it was real and Dirk was proof. “You are what you say you are,” he tells Dirk, “and I am so proud of you.” Dirk then opens his eyes, but there’s no one there anymore.

Dirk is then released from the hospital, and much to his surprise, Todd is there to pick him up, and he has Dirk’s yellow jacket and a Mexican Funeral (Todd’s old band) t-shirt to wear. Confused, Dirk asks Todd why he’s there. “I’m here because I’m your friend,” Todd says. Plus, he doesn’t want to miss out when the next case starts, which obviously makes Dirk very happy. They then leave to go meet up with Farah.

At a restaurant, Dirk, Todd, and Farah agree not to tell anyone about the events of their case, especially the time machine, but they are worried about getting arrested, since a lot of people died. Farah then says she wants to invest in Dirk’s detective agency, which sets Dirk off on a tangent about the bronze “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” plaque that he wants for the door. While Todd thinks maybe his name shouldn’t be the only one on it, Farah prefers to keep her name out of it. Dirk then says he’s promoting Todd from assistant to ward, which sparks some bickering.

Over at the police station, Riggins’ young partner Friedkin, who’s now tasked with bringing in all of the old Black Wing subjects for the CIA (including Dirk and the Rowdy 3), is there. He’s shot Doyle, and then shoots Estevez. As the detective bleeds out, a hyped-up Friedkin reveals that he’s killed everyone who knew about what happened with the soul-swapping, and that he torched the Spring Mansion and the Temple at the zoo. He says he wanted to be in charge, because he was so bored before, but once he was, there was all this top secret stuff involved. He talks about rounding up the “psychics,” which was what Riggins was supposed to do originally. Estevez tries to convince him that he doesn’t know anything, and when he reaches for his gun, Friedkin shoots him a few more times, killing him. “I’m just doing my job,” Friedkin says.

Back at the restaurant, Dirk says they’ll “feel” what their next case will be, but Todd feels nothing, so he excuses himself to use the bathroom. Seconds later, Dirk gets a feeling and excuses himself, too.

Somewhere else, the Rowdy 3 sense something. Martin tells Vogle to get Amanda out of there, as something comes for them in the distance. It’s the military, who’s also caught Bartine and Ken at a roadblock, and as they’re surrounded, Bartine picks up a rock. (We’ve seen what happens when she uses something as a weapon – she never misses.)

Outside the restaurant, Dirk steps on a flyer. He picks it up to see it’s for a one-night-only Lux Dujour tribute show on Friday, September 13th that reads “We’ll never let you go.” This is when Friedkin shows up. “Not now,” Dirk says when he sees the man.

Inside the restaurant, Farah senses something is wrong, since Dirk hasn’t returned. She goes outside, but he’s nowhere to see seen. Meanwhile, Todd is washing his hands in the bathroom when he gets a frantic call from Amanda saying “They’re coming!” Todd tells her to stay where she is, he’ll find her, but then he looks down at his hands — they appear to be burning. He’s having his very first and very real attack of Pararibulitis. As he screams and falls to the ground, Amanda shouts to him, “What’s happening!?” as we hear the song “First Things First” by Neon Trees: “First things first, you get what you deserve.” Oh man, Todd, you had this coming, unfortunately.

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1 Comment »

  1. great review, thanks!

    Comment by Firefly0707 — December 16, 2016 @ 9:48 am

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