Episode 4 of Reverie aired June 20th, on NBC.
Reverie keeping us on our toes this week with a mysterious newcomer and a “client” who’s not really a client.
Onira-Tech Has an Enemy
If you recall, Episode 3 ended with Mara going back to the house where her sister and niece were killed. Brynn appeared and said that Mara was there for a reason, right before the walls started caving in. So when Episode 4 starts Mara finds herself in the middle of a road about to be run over—when out of the blue some guy pushes her out of the way and saves her life. Meet Oliver Hill. He knows Mara’s name, and why she’s standing in the middle of the street, and he wants to talk. But first he has to get something to eat.
While The Great Pretender plays in the background (talk about a hint) and Oliver eats, he tells Mara that he was the cofounder of Onira-Tech, and then Oliver drops a bombshell, he warns Mara that she’s in danger of losing her mind. He says that he has experienced the derealization, too, and that it doesn’t get better, it actually gets worse. Oliver wants Mara’s help to stop Onira-Tech from releasing 2.0 to the public.
Mara confronts Charlie and Alexis who don’t tell her the whole truth, and she knows it. She’s no dummy. Charlie scolds Alexis for not being more truthful with Mara, but he assures Mara that he has her back. Paul also offers some comfort by showing her Oliver’s brain scans, his were off the hook even before he ever entered 2.0. Later, Alexis finally comes clean. Oliver, it turns out, was her boyfriend. And she knew he had problems, but she fell for him anyway. When he blamed his issues on the program, they had a fallout and Oliver tried to burn her house down. Charlie had his BCI disabled, fired him, and got a restraining order.
Charlie pays Oliver a visit and warns him to stay away from Onira-Tech and it’s employees. Oliver promptly ignores Charlie’s warning and sets up a meeting with an Onira-Tech security guard to purchase a BCI so he can “get the girl that got away.” I’m guessing this means Alexis.
I don’t know … something about this bugs me. When Charlie went to see Oliver, the guy really seemed to be sincerely worried about the release of 2.0 to the public. He called it a “massive disaster”. I wonder if there’s more to this whole thing than what Charlie, Alexis, and Paul are telling Mara.
Dark Reverie
Mara’s job is to bring the lost ones home, but the show departs from its structure this week in that the “client” isn’t exactly lost. In fact, the client isn’t really a client at all. There’s been a breach, Onira-Tech has been robbed. A BCI (Brain Computer Interface) is missing, along with a tablet and an injector. Charlie and Paul explain to Mara that there is a thing called Dark Reverie, where people go who don’t want to play by the rules. They feel that they should be able to do whatever they want in their Reverie, no moral boundaries, but there are certain things that the program won’t do. And as Charlie and Paul are explaining this to Mara, I got the feeling that these two are at odds over this very idea. I think Paul may be on the side of no moral boundaries, while Charlie disagrees with that.
Inside the Reverie, Mara catches our thief red handed trying to steal drugs from MRL, a company that develops treatments for respiratory and circulatory diseases. Mara confronts him but before she can get anywhere he says “Exitus” and escapes. Putting together a few clues from his Reverie, Mara is able to track him down in real life—our thief is Glenn Maybach, suffering from severe OCD. He never leaves his apartment during the day, and he doesn’t like the color blue.
Mara can’t figure out why this man would want to steal, but after meeting Glenn’s neighbor and her child, Quincy, who is sick, it clicks and she understands he’s not doing it for himself, he’s doing it for Quincy. The kid is dying and there’s an experimental drug that could save him, but it’s given out in a lottery, and Quincy didn’t get picked. So our guy is using the Dark Reverie to figure out how to steal the drug. Only problem is, his OCD makes it difficult for him to complete the mission, as it involves him going outside. Mara makes a deal with Glenn—she’s going to help him steal the drugs.
Mara meets him early in the morning, before the sun comes up and drives him to MRL where he manages to break in and get by all their security stations and steal the drugs. He then exits the building, but struggles once outside. Using Mara’s helpful suggestions to focus on a dice in his hands and on thoughts of Quincy, he manages to leave the building and make it to the car where Mara is waiting—but then they’re busted by Charlie. “Did you really think we were gonna help you commit a felony?” Charlie asks. Darn.
But the story isn’t over there. Monica Shaw shows up with the CEO of MRL, and asks Glenn to give him the drugs back. Monica says that she explained to the CEO that they were using Reverie to test the company for security weaknesses, and that Glenn’s “theft” was a demonstration. I had my doubts about Monica in the beginning, but I think she just won me over. The CEO is very grateful—grateful enough, in fact, to make sure that Quincy gets the drugs to save his life. In exchange, Glenn provides Onira-Tech with info on the Dark Reverie. Oh, and Glenn is finally able to walk out of his apartment with Quincy’s very happy mother. What a nice ending to this story.
This episode brought up some interesting and relevant questions: Is it okay to break the law if you have an honorable reason for doing so? What about moral boundaries? If Reverie truly existed, would you want a version of the program where you could play out your darker fantasies? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
Reverie returns June 27th, 10/9 C, on NBC.
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