Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency Season 2 Episode 7 Review: This Is Not Miami

This Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency review contains spoilers.

Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency Season 2 Episode 7

This week’s episode of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency gave us much cause for hope and even more reason to despair. Although the reunion between Todd and Amanda wasn’t as joyous as we might have hoped for, Dirk moved towards a resolution despite (or perhaps because of) Todd’s absence, and even as Suzie Boreton and the Kellum army killed some beloved new characters, the self-appointed queen’s rise to power was amazing to behold. With three episodes to go, it appears the show is building to a war between chaos and order that could affect both our world and Wendimoor.

The pending war is at the heart of Wakti Wapnasi’s warning to Amanda that “there are greater things to fear than death.” One can only assume that when the witch-a-coo-coo tells Amanda to “gather the tools” and unite those like her who are connected to something deeper, she’s referring to the various Blackwing subjects still at large, including unknowns like Project Moloch. Hopefully Bart will be among the group!

There are other hints that are starting to come together as well, including the prologues from this episode and the last, which gave us a glimpse of the Cardenas family in Bergsberg in the 1960s. The crying baby in the fallen boat and the nightmares of the flying purple people eater point towards what we thought we knew: that young Arnold Cardenas created the house within a house and the entire land of Wendimoor out of his own mind. But could there be something else at play here?

Dirk seems to think there were two boys based on the drawing in the ruins where the murphy bed portal dropped him and Todd. The details aren’t entirely clear, but even Dirk indicates there’s still something missing, which gets the audience off the hook for not completely understanding what’s going on. Honestly, the enjoyment of Dirk’s realization is less about what we learn and more about watching him squirm under the attentions of the red-haired boogle, who is surprisingly helpful as a non-judgmental listener.

It was refreshing in a way to watch Todd leave Dirk to his sulking, shouting, “I am sick of pep-talking you into your own bullshit.” Having Dirk on his own allowed us to learn that his reticence isn’t just about protecting those he loves but also about feeling one step behind on this whole case. Despite what he said, Dirk wouldn’t have been content with life as a “uniquely elegant macho lumberman.”  What’s most impressive about his scenes with the boogle is that her speech could have easily come across as silly baby talk, undermining his epiphany, but to hear her talk about the drawings that have supposedly always been there felt oddly insightful for such a feral creature.

What was also unexpected about this episode was its level of violence and death! Viewers could be forgiven for forgetting about Lord Triangle Bedevil, the tattoo-faced general of the Kellum army who ruined Farsen’s appeal for peace by killing him and making it appear to be Trost treachery. But perhaps even more surprising was Wakti Wapnasi’s shocking demise after appearing so unafraid and defiant when Suzie Boreton showed up with her death-dealing wand. Is there some way all of this could be undone?

Surely, Suzie doesn’t even care about pitting the Trosts against the Dengdamoors the way the Mage did, and with the apprentice’s wand in hand, Suzie appears to be accepted by Lord Triangle and the Kellum army as the one who’s in charge now. No matter what our opinion of the new queen may be, her wondrous Maleficent makeover was certainly quite a spectacle! It’s no wonder that Amanda saw so much death in her visions with all the destruction the self-appointed queen has brought with her.

And speaking of Amanda, it was disconcerting to see her immediately at odds with her brother after their long-awaited reunion. She still has a lot to forgive, of course, but the tension seems to be more about their difference of opinion over the importance of Wendimoor than their personal history. Although Todd’s not wrong that “there’s a good chance that this is all just a drawing,” there’s clearly something more to this strange world than meets the eye.

So although this episode left plenty of questions in its wake, the sheer unexpected nature of much of what happened makes this episode of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency another winner. While there’s plenty to be upset about, the end result of all the death and destruction is an audience dying to tune in to the next episode to find out how it all shakes out. And isn’t that the mark of a truly compelling story?