Episode two of BBC America’s Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency opens with a quick leap back to two days prior. Farah’s (Jade Eshete) friend calls and says she’s in trouble, and Farah quickly heads out to help her. Farah arrives at the apartment complex, gun drawn, taking down her first attacker before knocking on Todd’s door and asking for help. He ignores her plea and Farah fights off another attacker before finally being taken down by a taser. Fast forward to current circumstances and she’s still incapacitated and on the floor after her kidnapper was killed by the random bullet that first ricocheted around Todd’s apartment in episode one. She comes to and a flock of weird bald men stand around her, looking down.
Detectives Zimmerfield (Richard Schiff) and Estevez (Neil Brown Jr.) visit the coroner to look at Patrick Spring’s headless body (the head is being kept separate). They tell the coroner that the death has some connection to their missing person’s case because Lydia Spring is the daughter of the murder victim. The other two bodies from the crime scene were sent to an FBI lab for testing, because of the murder weapon. The bite marks apparently match those of a Great Hammerhead Shark. And, yes, you read that correctly.
Todd (Elijah Wood) looks like he’s talking to a bush but actually Dirk (Samuel Barnett) is hiding behind it as he spies on the house across the street (the house where Todd delivered the lost Corgi). Todd admits he saw Lydia Spring when he dropped off the Corgi which means he’s connected to Dirk’s investigation, even if he still doesn’t understand what it is Dirk’s doing to solve the case. Todd also reveals he found a winning lottery ticket in the hotel and he can use the $10,000 to pay for his sister’s meds, fix his car, and put his life back together. Dirk is completely convinced this win is the universe congratulating Todd for helping Dirk solve the murder case. Just then a station wagon pulls into the garage of the house they’re surveilling. Dirk grabs Todd’s winning lottery ticket and runs into the house, forcing Todd to chase him.
Bart’s (Fiona Dourif) car stops running in the middle of a side road and she thinks it will turn on again when it wants to. Ken (Mpho Koaho), her reluctant passenger who still has his hands taped together, is freaked out about this whole adventure. Bart wants to know why no one is looking for him and she wants to know who she killed at the power station. He explains he was hired to do something illegal; he was building a power convertor to leech off a network.
Dirk looks around the garage and Todd is incredibly upset Dirk’s dragged him into this mess. Unfortunately for Todd, he has to follow Dirk or else Dirk won’t give him back his lottery ticket.
Todd’s sister, Amanda (Hannah Marks), takes her pills, applies some makeup, and heads outside in the rain. Down the street, she spots the Rowdy 3’s van and makes a run for it back inside her house.
Dirk and Todd sneak into the Corgi’s house from the garage. The owner of the house, Gordon Rimmer (Aaron Douglas), is on the phone talking about the two guys from the hotel being in on it and saying something about a giraffe and a gorilla trying to kill him. Todd crawls toward the lottery ticket which is wadded up on the floor where Dirk tossed it, while Lydia Spring (Alison Thornton) – who seems to believe she’s a dog – crawls toward him and licks his face. A bit freaked out, Dirk and Todd hide in the bathroom and Dirk finally seems to admit he’s in over his head, but he’s also ecstatic to see Lydia. Dirk thinks it’s possible they’re going to die.
Farah is tased once again by the bald men who call themselves Ed, Zed, and Fred. She tries to get them to say what they’ve done with Lydia and Patrick, and they tell her Patrick is dead. Farah was hired to protect Patrick and now these guys want to know what happened to the kitten. (What’s the deal with the kitten and are the bald men aliens?!) Farah’s not talking so they “expose her” to the light and she begins thrashing on the bed.
Two FBI agents investigate Dorian’s house (remember, he was running a drug ring along with his landlord duties) and aren’t happy to see Detectives Zimmerfield and Estevez show up. Todd is a mutual person of interest in both their cases, so they both have reason to want to know more about his comings and goings. Zimmerfield wants to know what happened to the bodies of the dead men from the hotel crime scene, but the FBI agents say the FBI did not have anything to do with moving those bodies.
A mechanically-inclined stranger who just happened to ride up on his motorcycle works on Bart’s car and Ken tries to drop hints to him that he needs help. It doesn’t work. Ken asks Bart about Dirk Gently and she says it came to her in a dream. The world will lead her to him and then she’ll kill him. Bart wants to kill the guy helping them with the car, but Ken convinces her not to.
Meanwhile, Todd and Dirk are still stuck in the bathroom. Lydia the dog person and the Corgi roam the hallway. Dirk apologizes for taking Todd’s lottery ticket in the first place and just then Lydia crawls into the bathroom with a chew toy. Dirk throws the toy as the Corgi bites at Lydia’s leg, and Todd tries to open a bathroom window to escape. Unfortunately, Todd failed to silence his phone and it begins ringing at the most inopportune time. Todd makes it out through the window but Dirk doesn’t. Gordon tries to shoot Dirk as the house goes up in flames. (When Dirk tossed the dog toy it knocked over a candle and set the house on fire). Dirk grabs the Corgi and makes a run for it while Lydia and Gordon are still inside.
The ringing phone was Amanda calling Todd to tell him about the van outside her house. She starts to leave a message but then decides not to mention the Rowdy 3’s van. She runs outside, grabs something to throw, and launches it at the van. Her medical condition makes her believe her hands have turned to ice, so she runs back inside and takes more pills. She huddles on the floor in the bathroom shaking and crying and then hears something crash through her window. It’s the rock she threw with a note attached that simply reads, “Hi.”
Zimmerfield and Estevez show up at the coroner’s office again but the guy they spoke with earlier is gone. There’s another coroner there and he has no idea who could possibly have been there earlier. They figure out someone is screwing with them.
The bald men place Farah, unconscious, in the back of a truck. The two FBI guys working on the Dorian crime scene contemplate calling the cops but decide against it, even though it’s very suspicious activity.
Todd runs down the street still wearing the shower curtain like a cape. Why? Who knows. As he’s about to call 911, Dirk runs up with the Corgi. Todd’s confused as to why Dirk grabbed the dog, and Dirk explains it’s important as there are lots of animals involved in this particular case – the dog, the shark, the kitten. Todd wants to know how Dirk knows about the shark and then decides never mind, he’s done with this case. But Dirk just keeps going on and on about clues, believing Gordon is up to something. He also remembers that Gordon called Lydia “Rapunzel” which means the Corgi is Lydia Spring. The dog tells Dirk she is (or at least that’s Dirk’s interpretation of the answer to his question) and so he believes they’re dealing with a group that hypnotizes people into believing they’re animals and animals into believing they’re people. Todd just wants to go home and cash in his lottery ticket.
When Dirk asks what Patrick Spring could have done to anger dog hypnotists, Todd yells, “They’re not dog hypnotists!” Todd thinks Lydia wanted to be there and she seemed happy there, and Todd now just wants Dirk to call the police. He walks away and is completely done with this whole mess. Dirk tries to explain that he always gets dragged into horrible things and the world just leads him to these things. If he doesn’t solve these cases, no one does. Dirk gets a text saying they have his friend (the text includes a picture of Farah, who really isn’t his friend) and they’ll kill her if Dirk doesn’t give back the dog. Dirk’s happier now because this is proof the dog is important.
Todd, Dirk, and the Corgi whose name may be Rapunzel meet for the exchange at night on a bridge and Dirk, not realizing the saying is actually bad, brought a knife to a gunfight. The FBI agents watch the exchange from a distance as Gordon walks toward Dirk and Todd. Gordon has Farah kneel and then it’s a very confusing exchange between the two opposing sides as Gordon asks for the dog and asks about the kitten, while Todd says he doesn’t know this woman Gordon thinks is their friend. Gordon wants to know why Dirk burned his house down and Dirk has no idea why Gordon would believe he did that. Todd keeps asking about Lydia and Gordon keeps demanding the dog. Todd wants to know why he wants it, and Gordon keeps asking why they took the dog. This is getting nowhere, and the FBI agents listening in are totally confused. One of them calls the group on the bridge the “stupidest goddam people alive,” which based on this conversation is a true statement.
Gordon continues threatening Farah so Todd walks forward with the Corgi. Then Todd acts as if he’s going to throw the Corgi off the side of the bridge, telling Gordon to let the woman go or else. As Todd keeps threatening to drop the dog, he hears, “No, help me!” coming from the animal and sees a flash of a woman’s face. That shocks him and he does, accidentally, drop the Corgi off the side of the bridge. Farah takes that opportunity to hit Gordon and a sniper fires at Dirk. One of the FBI agents shoots the sniper. All hell breaks loose as more bald guys attack the FBI agents, Farah makes a run for it, and Todd tries to explain he saw a human face on the dog. Dirk, Farah, and Todd drive away while Gordon and the bald guys search for the Corgi. They’ve killed one of the FBI agents and the other is badly injured. Meanwhile, the Corgi watches from her hiding place.
Back on the lonely side road, Ken tries to tell the man to run but then the stranger, who has now finished fixing Bart’s car, tells him he’s going to shoot him in the head and take the car. He’s done this at least 10 times before which means Bart was right when she thought she had to kill this man. Ken continues to warn the guy that he’s in danger and then finally gives Bart permission to kill this helpful, homicidal stranger. She beats him to death with his own gun. The stranger got off a few shots but none hit Bart, and she tells Ken she can’t be hurt; the universe won’t allow it. She proves her point by putting the gun to her head, pulling the trigger, nothing happens, pointing the gun away, pulling the trigger, and it fires. She does this a few times until Ken finally is convinced. He wonders why she hasn’t killed him yet and she says that must mean he’s special, too.
With just five minutes left in the episode we finally catch up with Colonel Scott Riggins (Miguel Sandoval). He’s called in for a meeting with the oversight committee investigating Blackwing, the operation Riggins is working on. The operation isn’t going well according to the committee and now there are multiple subjects on the loose. Riggins reminds them there’s only enough funds in the budget to surveil one: Dirk Gently. Riggins says the subjects can’t be contained and that’s why he hasn’t brought any of them in. There are too many threats to deal with and the committee leader tells Riggins if he doesn’t bring them in, they will all be eliminated, starting with Dirk Gently.
Amanda’s still watching the van but now she’s in her garage doing it while banging on the drums.
Dirk and Todd bring Farah to Dirk’s place which is nicer than Todd’s. Todd tells her they saved her and he tells Dirk that he’s brave but also surprisingly incapable, and Dirk says that’s why he needs Todd. Todd thinks all the deaths are connected and just as he’s about to talk about the human face on the dog, the kitten meows. Dirks explains it’s the kitten from the crime scene that everyone’s looking for. Farah finally sees Dirk and says his name and that’s when Todd attacks Dirk for lying about not knowing Farah.
Amanda pounds away on the drums and the van starts rocking…
- Season 1 Episode 1 “Horizons” Recap
- Season 1 Episode 3 “Rogue Wall Enthusiasts” Recap
- Season 1 Episode 4 “Watkin” Recap
- Season 1 Episode 5 “Very Erectus” Recap
