Episode 6 of Reverie aired July 11th, on NBC.
After a break last week, Reverie is back with a bang—a tissue worthy story, an old flame, and a big shock at the end that I guarantee you nobody saw coming.
Pas de Deux
The show returns to its structure this week, with Mara racing against the clock to save a client who has been in Reverie too long. Holly is a ballet dancer who had a bicycle accident and is now confined to a wheelchair with no hope to ever walk, or dance, again. She’s been in the Reverie for 16 hours, and with the paraplegia she’s at a greater risk for medical emergencies. It’s easy to see why she would want to stay in her Reverie, in there she can dance, but as usual, there’s more to this than meets the eye.
Mara is filled in on the case by a newcomer—Chris Condera (played by Sam Jaeger) is Holly’s therapist, and also happens to be Mara’s ex boyfriend. We’ll get back to that in a bit.
As usual, Mara’s first attempts don’t work. She meets Holly, dancing away in her Reverie, but Holly escapes into a locked room. Mara tries a new approach, showing up as a dancer and asking Holly for dancing lessons. Holly knows what Mara is up to, but she plays along and teaches Mara, who picks up ballet rather quickly (me thinks Mara has danced before). But again, Holly escapes into the locked room, this time after a mysterious knock on the door.
Mara does her usual digging, speaks to Holly’s sister and finds out that she had been in a relationship with another dancer who left her after the accident. She also finds a music box with a little ballerina. There’s an inscription inside–‘To My Dearest Love’-and the music is the same music that Holly is dancing to in her Reverie. A connection, for sure. Mara then pays a visit to Zeke, who tells her he didn’t break up with Holly, she broke up with him.
After Holly develops a pulmonary embolism, Mara hurries back into her Reverie and discovers a door that leads to a beautiful cottage where she finds a little girl. Turns out, when Holly had her accident, not only did she lose the ability to dance, but she was also pregnant and lost the baby. So her Reverie is important to her not just for the dancing, but because she gets to be with the little girl she lost. Mara tells Holly that she’s dying in the real world, and she has to come out, but she refuses. She wants to spend every moment she has left with her daughter.
The team at Onira-Tech struggles with the moral decision of what to do, honor Holly’s request to die, or pull her BCI, which could cause brain damage. Before they make a decision, Mara goes to see the sister again, who is a teacher at a ballet school for children. While she’s there, the sister reveals that she has been diagnosed with MS.
Mara goes back into the Reverie and tells Holly the news. She says that her sister needs her, and it’s a gut wrenching decision for Holly, but she eventually agrees to leave Reverie so she can help her sister. She wants one last thing, though, a dance with her daughter. A beautiful, sad, heartbreaking dance. And yes, I cried.
Unfinished Business
So, remember I mentioned that Holly’s therapist was Mara’s ex boyfriend? When Jamie and Brynn died, Mara shut down, she pulled away. Chris tried to stay in touch with her but she wouldn’t see him and didn’t return his calls. So now this case has brought them back together. There are some tender moments between them, but it’s awkward and it’s clear that Mara isn’t ready. In the end, she tells him that, and I think he already knew that anyway. Honestly, I don’t think he was ready, either. But I do wonder if we’ll be seeing more of him in the future. I’m secretly hoping that’s a no, not because I didn’t like him, but I kind of want Paul and Mara to get together. Paul seemed a little jealous, by the way.
And Now For the Shocker
After saying goodbye to Paul at his office in LA Metro Medical, Mara goes into the hospital. She walks down a hallway and into a room where a patient is on life support, and you will not believe who it was—Ray. Yes, that Ray, the guy who shot Jamie and Byrnn and then turned the gun on himself. Apparently, he survived, if you can call being hooked up to life support surviving. I did not see that coming, and I wonder what the deal is. It is not lost on me that the client’s story this week involved the moral decision of whether to honor her choice to die or not, so I’m wondering, is Mara the one keeping Ray on life support? Or are there other family members involved? If Mara is the one who is in control of that situation, why is she choosing to keep him alive? And what does she plan to do now? She clearly has something in mind here. Maybe she’s going to put him in a Reverie so she can finally confront him for what he did? That would make a very emotional episode. They did it with one patient, I don’t see why Mara couldn’t do it with Ray.
I’d love to hear your comments—do you think we’ll see Chris again? What about Paul, a possible love connection? What do you think Mara’s plans are for Ray? And what about Oliver, how come we haven’t heard back from him yet?
Reverie returns July 18, 10/9 C, on NBC.
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