The last three episodes of Dirk Gently have been a roller-coaster ride through Wendimoor that it has been impossible to separate them into their own reviews since my last review. It makes sense, since on Twitter Max Landis said before episode 7 that episodes 7-10 were written to flow like a single movie. So this review is of the last story arc and the finale of season 2 of Dirk Gently.
At least the Brotzmans are talking again…
Nearly being cut in half at a scissor guillotine allowed Amanda and Todd to finally have a talk where they revealed their fears. Todd told Amanda about how his desire to find her and Dirk was driven by his pararibulitious attacks. Amanda told Todd about how much he hurt her, and wants to have her brother back.
When Todd has his attack, it was Amanda who helped him through it and gave him the strength to turn the power around and use it. I loved this scene, showing how the tables on the siblings have turned. In season one, Amanda was the weak one and Todd was her hero. Now, Todd gets to look up to his sister – the strong woman she has become in learning to control her disease and make it a power.
And it’s the sibling teamwork that helps open up the portal into Blackwing for Dirk to head back to get Project Moloch. They then take a nice little mind trip to the backstage of reality where they get freaky eyes while hiding from the pain of the portal pool. Sometimes I wonder just how many drug trips these two went on while being a part of Mexican Funeral.
Todd steps up to defend his sister from Suzie, telling Amanda to keep the portal open no matter what. Even as he’s trapped in a magical vice, he keeps his focus on her, willing her to keep it open. Thankfully he holds Suzie off long enough for Dirk to return and the boy to make things right.
Amanda, repeating a line from Bart in that she is a leaf in the stream of creation, is now taking her cue from the universe to use the Rowdy 3 (with six members – Welcome Beast!) to find others like Dirk and help them. I’m certain there is going to be a lot of contract work from the Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency heading to the Rowdy 3 in the coming future.
The siblings leave each other this season on a much better footing. Todd still may have a bit more to do in ways of re-earning Amanda’s trust, but at least they have reached a point where she will let him, and not just push her brother away. It’s a good ending for them, with room to grow for next season.
With Great Power…
The Mage, having literally seen the way his story goes, decided to stay behind in the regular world to find a way to have power there. He plans to destroy the pathway to Wendimoor, but Farah instead blows him up with the dynamite he was having Hobbs load up. His story is over, and our mighty police department of BergsBerg gets to recover from their wounds after nearly bleeding to death in the quarry.
Meanwhile, the wand has completely corrupted Suzie Boreton’s soul, and she is all out for power. She destroyed Wakti’s pool, ordered to knights to kill the Trosts and Dengamors, and send Lord Badevil to kill the boy in Blackwing. All of these deaths are a way to give her ultimate power over Wendimoor, and put her in a position where she will never be looked down upon again.
However, it’s not an easy takeover for her once Team Dirk gets involved. The Rowdy 3 are the front line, and while Suzie eventually overpowers them, their feeding off the wand takes a toll on her power that she is lucky to escape from.
Then there’s Todd defending Amanda, and big brother doesn’t go down easy, but just long enough. Of course, Todd has a great line on how a mom from Montana is even a part of all of this story, and that no one understands why she is screwing everything up for everyone, how many people she’s killed, and if she has any concept on what she’s done.
“Taking control of your life is about changing you, not everything else. It isn’t some instant magic wand that you can just wave around and make everything the way you want it.”
Todd should know, after all. That’s what he’s been learning all season. Hopefully, Suzie will get to understand that in her lifetime up in the prison train where she has been stripped of all her magic and returned to her state before she met the mage – a fitting sentence to put her back to that place she tried to run away from and causing all the death and destruction in the process.
“DONE! Did It!”
Dirk managed to figure out that his friend in Blackwing, Project Moloch, is the boy they have been looking for, and all they need to do is bring the boy back to Wendimoor to save them. Of course, it’s going to be hard for them to get back into Blackwing.
But thanks to Amanda and Todd, he is able to appear through the portal and get shot out of Martin’s holding tank to find himself facing… Rapunzel. Nope, Dirk isn’t even going to try and figure out how that is connected. Lt. Assistant then leads Dirk to Mona who is so excited to see him she turns into a cannon. They then go to find Moloch who has a very freaked out Friedkin guarding him. After convincing Friedkin not to hurt them and helping the man realize he doesn’t have to be the bad guy in this story, they are able to get back to where the portal is.
When Ken arrives and locks the room down, Dirk has to make a choice on how to proceed. He could let himself get captured, especially when he realizes that while Ken won’t kill him, he will shoot him to hurt him, or he can take control and finish the case. Thankfully he does, and in doing so saves Wendimoor.
The biggest revelation though is in Dirk asking Francis about what and why he is the way he is. Francis tells Dirk that they are the tools to help fix the broken universe, and that Dirk’s role is putting people in the right places. Most of the season Dirk has spent trying to figure out his place, and doubting himself at times. This information, along with solving the case and knowing he can do the dangerous work, has given him a renewed sense of confidence that he will be able to do the right thing moving forward.
“In my world, there are no good guys”
It is obvious that the leadership of Blackwing has shifted from Friedkin to Ken, sorry that’s Supervisor Adams now. I have to say, seeing that I decided to watch Dirk Gently originally to support Mpho, seeing Ken turn to the bad guy side is a horrible betrayal that I’m taking personally.
Ken should know better that you can’t control and bring order to the holistic subjects. He knows that the universe doesn’t work that way and even told Friedkin so much when he was trapped in the secured room inside of the cab.
But it’s when Ken shoots Dirk that we know for sure he’s no longer one of the good guys. Now, the scary thing is that Blackwing is in the hands of someone super competent, has the respect of Mr. Priest, and a mission goal. Where it used to be a joke of an organization, Blackwing just became very dangerous for our heroes next season all because of Ken taking over in his desire to bring control to the universe.
The universe isn’t going to take it sitting down, though, as Bart warns Ken that the universe is wanting her to kill him now. I guess we’ll see how long it takes Bart to fulfill that promise, because Ken was her first friend, but he is far from the Ken that she knew now.
“What’s more important, Mr. Friedkin: being in charge, or doing the right thing?”
I was cheering at seeing Friedkin choosing to do the right thing for the first time in the whole season and coming out with the tommy gun to kill the knights. So to see Friedkin stand… well, sitting on the ground bleeding out but still holding his gun up but still finding the energy to protect Dirk, Mona and Moloch
I’m going to be interested to see where Friedkin goes next season now that he’s been to the backstage of reality and apparently “gets it”. Has the “idiot” gained some level of supreme knowledge that the universe plans to use him to spread? How is he going to get out of there, and will he ever be the same? Time will tell, I guess.
“I thought I was a leaf in the stream of creation…”
And then there’s Bart, who spent a great deal of the season trying to figure out her spot in the universe and was happy while she was with Panto and the thought of getting back to Ken until she learned he was at Blackwing. But seeing Panto get killed and then killing the entirety of the Kellum knights has broken her in a way. I’ll admit, seeing her sitting upon a massive hill of dead knights is justice for the deaths of Panto and Silas, but losing that spark of happiness in Bart wasn’t worth it.
She believes that in messing up with Suzie, she made all of this happen, and that she ruins everything. She won’t even give herself the chance to stay in Wendimoor and make a happy life with Panto and Silas, and instead actually asks the boy to send her back to Blackwing.
She has given up on being herself, and willing to let herself become Ken and Mr. Priest’s weapon, and that fact makes it more difficult in theory for the prospects of the opening of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency to get itself off the ground, or the safety of any of the other subjects still out in the world.
And They All Lived Happily Ever After…
In the hospital, Hobbs and Tina are recovering with Farah. Hobbs and Farah both point out to Tina just how much she has grown and become a real cop through all of this. I have loved the growth arcs of all the characters, but I wasn’t expecting the jump of growth for Tina in the last two episodes. She got the strength to be a real cop, something that Hobbs always knew she could be. Bergsberg is going to be a safer place once they are out of the hospital, and Farah gets to keep her deputy badge to probably come back and help as needed.
Silas & Panto FOREVER!!!!!!!!!!!!! The boy has fulfilled his promised and fixed the world, a world where the Dengamors and Trosts are friends, Farris is hanging out with the treasure trolls, and Wakti is back! However, the portal between the realms in the farmhouse has not been closed as far as we know, so this may not be the last we see of our Wendimoor friends.
Especially since Dirk makes the observation about the Beast staying in their reality will “eventually connect to something in some way that eventually becomes an enormous problem… well that’s obvious.”. Plus, with Todd keeping the gun, Amanda having the wand, Ken having all the crazy stuff the knights brought in, and who knows what happened to the Mage’s wand since that was not on his burning corpse… I think we’ll be seeing them again one day in some capacity.
So what else can we expect? According to Max Landis’ V-Blog, there are plans to make things even crazier next season. BBC America hasn’t announced yet a season 3, so take a moment to tweet @BBCAmerica and @DirkGentlyBBCA and thank them for an amazing season, and let them know you want a season 3 as your “insert winter holiday/birthday here” present. Also, I totally want a soundtrack for this season because there are some amazing songs this season.
So what are your thoughts about the season as a whole? Hit me up in the comments and let’s talk about what we liked, what could have been better, and anything I may have missed that you think is important and may show back up in season 3.
Also, if you’re in need of something to keep you tided over until next season, head over to Amazon or your local comic store and grab one of the many graphic novels out with continuing adventures. Mind you, they are based more off the novels, so expect a few differences from the tv series.
Until then, remember: Don’t Panic!
