Dirk Gently 204: The House Within the House
*Warning: Review Contains Spoilers
Amanda and Vogel’s magical disappearing act finds them in Wendimoor. It’s all beginning to come together as indicated by Pinky Panto’s jailhouse rant last episode which basically laid out the details of the prophesy. Before long they’re both in the clutches of the mage’s knights. Although the knights aren’t the brightest bulbs in the light socket there is no denying their loyalty to the Mage. It turns out that the Mage is the one pulling the strings on the civil war between the Trosts and the Dengdamors.
The missing ladies of the book club pulls Farah and Tina out of the office leaving Pinky Pinto and Butch to their own devices. Pinky and Butch bond over a box of donuts and Sherlock and Todd track down Dirk who has taken off on his own to the abandoned house. After poking around for a bit, Dirk literally falls down a rabbit hole (actually it’s a slide but it serves its purpose) and ends up in another version of the house but with garish Christmas decorations. The house yields some interesting reveals and the sequences where Dirk is lost is reminiscent of the old Scooby Doo cartoons. Thankfully we’re spared the goofy music and and sped up camera tricks.
The House Within the House unlocks a few mysteries only to present the audience with a few more. Amanda’s capture and Todd’s attempt to rescue Dirk leads to an unexpected manifestation of their condition. The Mage is toying with Susan but instead of taking back the book and her wand he obviously has bigger plans for her. Apparently the Mage has read his fair of Star Wars novels and subscribes to the Sith rule of two with a master and an apprentice. There’s also the visual of the scissors sticking out of a bleeding table. It’s a disturbing sight and may have some connection to one of the murder victims the gang has stumbled upon.
Dirk’s crisis of confidence rears its ugly head once again but it’s short lived after Todd reveals that he may know where Amanda is. They set off to the Cardenas’ house again but this time with Pinky Panto in tow. Ken finally gets out of the taxi and begins to pull the intel off the disks Hugo gave him access to. Blackwing’s program to create super powered individuals amazes Ken and he offers Hugo a solution to his problems. Even with all of the help in the world one can’t help but think that Hugo will find a way to mess things up.
Power, the quest for it and the struggle to hang onto it is quickly becoming one of the main threads of this season. The Mage, Susan, Amanda and even the Blackwing subjects are all on related narrative journeys. While the Mage benefits from discord in the magical realm, Suzie and Amanda are searching for ways to control their new abilities and to make sense of their new place in the world. Like the discovery of the drawings in the Cardenas house the picture of their personal arcs is becoming clearer. What’s not quite clear is just how the boy is connected to it all but if you look at what has been uncovered so far the answers are all there.
