Dirk Gently: Weaponized Soul Recap

Synopsis of 1×07: The penultimate episode of Dirk Gently is upon us. We’ll take a trip down memory lane and find out exactly what a weaponized kitten can do. 

Dirk Gently seems stuck in a loop. Each episode starts off strong and quickly devolves into something else. This episode attempts to tie everything together, but it leaves more questions than it answers. And with one episode left, I’m not sure how it will wrap up everything. 

After traveling back in time, Dirk and Todd get a glimpse of what happened before they met. Essentially they witness the mass murder of everyone involved in the soul switching scheme. Turns out the only people left behind were Gordon and Ed/Ned/Zed/Red, etc. And who went on said killing spree? None other than the steam punk armor-wearing Patrick Spring. 

But Patrick Spring is not Patrick Spring. He is a time-traveling Zachariah Webb. Zachariah has been time-traveling since the 1800s, in search of the better half of his machine. During his travels, he meets Rainey. Their rivalry, and the subsequent murder of Patrick’s wife, is what kicks off this whole mystery. 

There’s body-switching, time-travel, time-looping, and more than one Spring family member in this episode. I can’t even begin to explain exactly what happened. We, as an audience, learn a lot and make connections back to the first episode.

We find out why there was a gorilla mask, how the lottery ticket got there, and how the murder of Patrick Spring actually took place. But what we also get is that after all this adventure, all this vulnerability and friendship, Dirk was really stringing Todd along from the beginning. Dirk always knew that it was a time loop, that the mystery couldn’t be solved, and that Todd was going to be a destined to relive this over and over.

Todd on the other hand is feeling wildly betrayed. He accuses Dirk of being a monster, because now Todd maybe forever stuck in a time loop. And after talking to Patrick Spring, he finds out that he’s not on a mission from a genius. Patrick is just as crazed as the cult members who swap souls. Both groups seemed to be waging an endless war over power and the machines. 

Time travel is a hard sell this late in the show. The rules of time travel haven’t been established yet, and I watch too much Doctor Who for this time travel to work. Especially when Dirk meets Dirk and reveals to him the secrets of the future. But there was so much happening, this is an episode that might get better on the re-watch.

What did work in this episode was tying together all the pieces from episode one. Todd goes from terrified to ecstatic that time travel might actually be the answer to all of his problems. He’s excited; he’s babbling. As Dirk says, Todd is acting like Dirk.  But eventually, after realizing that Dirk has been stringing him along the whole time, Todd reverts back to himself. That’s how we found him the first time, yelling at Todd in a fur coat as the elevator doors opened. 

The episode focused almost exclusively on Todd and Dirk. There was some Gordon Rimmers, some Lydia Spring, a touch of Estevez, and some Farah being her fierce self. But nothing from Bart, Amanda, or Friedkin. With one episode left, we’ll have to wait and see how all of these people are connected.