"Fans of Wet Circles" is an episode of the series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, the second episode of season 2.
Synopsis[]
Dirk, Todd, and Farah are happily reunited and begin to investigate what Dirk believes is the case. They follow strange clues and discover the body in the car that fell out of the tree connects to one of Sheriff Hobbs’ cold cases, which concerns a missing couple and their missing son.
Plot[]
A hand holding a candle shines light on a mural. It depcits a tree with a skeleton tangled up in its roots beneath the surface.
In the Dengdamor's castle in Wendimoor, Silas Dengdamor and Wygar Oak are summoned before Silas' mother Frija. Silas claims that he killed Panto Trost, but knowing her son's lack of skills in battle, Frija easily deduces that he is lying. She derides the Trost clan for holding onto their land, believing it to be sacred and preventing the Dengdamors from mining on it, believing that they killed her other son Farson in retaliation. Silas insists that Farson's fate is not yet confirmed and Oak covers up Silas' affair with Panto by claiming Silas fought him bravely but lost. Frija orders the Trost's farms burnt and Silas begs her to reconsider, insisting that she is only doing what The Mage wants by fighting and that they need to join forces to stop his Kellum knights as foretold in the prophecy. Frija interrupts him, remindng him that the prophecy is not real and that "there is no such thing as Dirk Gently."
Todd Brotzman and Farah Black watch the red car fall on its roof and they investigate it, Todd finding a decaying skeleton in the front seat. Farah examines the body and identifies it as an adult female, the cause of death being blunt force trauma. She notes that the car is a model from the 1960s, the key is still in the ignition, the gear is in drive, and the odometer has only clocked forty-two miles. They hear banging coming from the trunk and open it, Dirk, his upper body wet, tumbling out. He realizes he is no longer in Blackwing and rejoices, only to turn around and become doubly excited when he see his friends. He and Todd embrace joyfully and Todd asks where he was, Dirk explaining that he was in a Blackwing facility. Todd asks if he saw Amanda Brotzman there, Dirk confused as to why he would have, and he references "Mona Wilder" as the woman who helped him escape. Before he can explain more, Sherlock Hobbs arrives on the scene to arrest Todd and Farah. He asks that they comply, having never arrested anyone before, and Farah throws her gun on the ground after realizing she is still holding it, which Hobbs asserts was "a very cool thing to do."
Lieutenant Assistent shows Dirk's empty room to an aghast Hugo Friedkin, explaining that the security feeds cut out just before he vanished. Friedkin notices a circle of liquid on Dirk's sheets and sniffs it, murmuring "is it possible he...peed himself invisible?" Before Assistent can react, Friedkin tells him to "get me Mr. Priest."
Suzie Boreton pretends to be sick so she can miss work, her husband unsympathetic as he leaves. She cleans the blood off her clothes from the night before and opens her nightstand to reveal the book and wand. She finds that the book's strange text is readable for her and attempts a spell to clean her clothes, finding that it works.
Tina Tevetino arrives at work to find Dirk handcuffed to a pillar outside. Hobbs shows her what he found at the scene of Todd and Farah's arrest: a driver's license belonging to a "Marina Cardenas", a name that means something to both of them. He notes that the address on the license is registered to a farmhouse that was abandoned "after the '67" and they both run inside, excited.
A retail worker finds Vogel trying to force a Pararibulitis attack on Amanda by almost hitting her with a golf club, and they both shout at him to go away, which he does. Vogel's attempt is unsuccessful, Amanda having gotten too used to forcing attacks. Vogel apologizes for not being intimidating enough and Amanda assures him that he is doing fine, before getting an idea and asking "you wanna try something crazy?"
Suzie continues to study the book and uses a spell to fix her leg, leaving her overjoyed.
Farah compulsively organizes the pens on Hobbs' desk as he points out that she and Todd are connected to over two dozen deaths, Farah countering that only one was direct and in self-defense. She begins to berate herself for not listening to her brother. In another room, Todd demands a phone call until Tina interrupts her, a massive Mexican Funeral fan. She proclaims Todd "a god of the Seattle mid-2000s alt scene" and Todd develops a more relaxed demeanor, failing to humble himself as he states it is "no big deal." Outside, Dirk explains the events of the previous case to an enraptured Hobbs, who he learns, to his delight, to be well-versed in the concept of holisticism. Hobbs puts him in a holding cell with Todd, who shouts after him not to call the FBI. Dirk notes that he doesn't think Hobbs will, and Todd asks him how he can be so calm. Dirk asks how they ended up in Bergsberg, Farah (in another holding cell) stating that they were looking for him. Dirk gleefully points out that they were therefore meant to end up in jail together together. He clues them in on his new case: "find the boy." Farah asks him a series of questions in hopes of identifying the boy, Dirk being able to answer none of them and again referencing Mona. Todd snaps and shouts at him, asking who Mona is, and Dirk explains she is a Blackwing subject and he is being demoted back to assistant for his attitude. Todd sighs and mutters "how did I forget how annoying you are?"
Having seen a train in her most recent vision, Amanda decides to force an attack by laying down in the path of an oncoming train, despite Vogel's protests.
Todd futilely tries to pull open the cell and Dirk chastises him for it, stating that "everything will work out, just like it did last time." Todd points out that "last time" ended with Dirk being abducted, all their bank accounts frozen, and Todd running out of medication. Dirk asks what he needs medication for, and Todd reluctantly reveals that he has Pararibulitis. He remembers Dirk saying that the universe would reward him when they first met, but they have only been punished for following it. Dirk promises Todd that "somehow, it always works out in the end" and that they will find Amanda and the boy. Todd laments that they will never get out, only for Hobbs to enter and release them, giving Dirk a replacement jacket. He explains that he is not officially letting them go, just recruiting them to help with an investigation, which Todd surmises as "you're helping us because you're bored." Hobbs explains the dead body they found was half of a married couple, both she and her husband having been missing for fifty years. He gives Todd his cat's epilepsy medication, as it has a similar chemical makeup to Todd's pills, and Dirk smugly points out the convenience of the situation. Todd notes that "I think these people are crazy" and Dirk agrees "yes, I'm a bit concerned about that."
The train passes and Amanda hallucinates a large, deep, vertical cut down her face. Vogel drains her energy, and she sees the abandoned house and the motel again, Bob, Hobbs, Wendimoor's moon, a child drawing a person with pink hair on a wall, the Boretons' dog Agrajag, Martin, and a man in tactical gear standing next to a Montana sign. She snaps out of it and tells Vogel that she knows where to go.
Suzie uses the wand to freshen up her appearance as Scott Boreton comes home, demanding to know where his car keys are. She snaps at him and tells him they are likely in his jeans, and he storms out as she weakly tries to apologize.
Friedkin visits Ken Adams to ask if Dirk can teleport, unsure who else to ask. Ken tries to bargain his experience with Blackwing for a deal where he is let out of the taxi, only for Friedkin to leave because he only half understands what Ken is trying to say.
The Bergsberg group arrives at the house, finding the door busted open from the inside and a set of wet footprints emerging from the house. Dirk drags Todd and Tina to look at the barn with him, and Hobbs takes Farah (giving her a flashlight as a weapon because he is not registered to carry a second gun) to look inside the house. The Mage watches from an upstairs window. Farah notes the walls are littered with burn marks, Hobbs attributing them to "the '67," or a massive, destructive power surge that rocked Bergsberg in 1967 and caused most people to leave. Marina Cardenas and her husband, Hector, went missing days beforehand. Farah wonders if it has anything to do with the boat in the field, but Hobbs notes it was found at least a decade before 1967. He finds a landline in the wall despite everything else being removed, while Farah follows the footprints backwards to an empty room where they seemingly appear from thin air. Having read her file and knowing her background, Hobbs asks Farah why she never went into law enforcement while they examine the room. As The Mage joins them in the room and watches them, unnoticed, she says that "it just kinda worked out that way." Hobbs shares her sentiment, his family also in higher echelons of the law than him, and Farah seemingly senses The Mage's presence but finds him gone when she turns around.
Suzie uses the wand to clean up her house and is about to use it to make her bed when she spots a dollar on her nightstand. Getting an idea, she duplicates it, then begins to mass-produce dozens of dollars, laughing with joy as she jumps into the pile on the bed.
Todd shows Dirk the wet spot in the barn that he insisted was important to Farah, but Dirk does not find anything interesting about it. As he runs off, Tina asks Todd if Dirk just "ignores whatever you say and then does some random shit for no reason," following up with "you blew up your life for this?" when Todd confirms her analysis to be correct. The wall of the top level of the barn explodes, Dirk having climbed up and finding a cartoonish toy gun that seems to have worked.
Friedkin visits the Rowdy 3's room in Blackwing, which is just three pits where they are kept separate and sedated in cages and straightjackets. He raises them up and shocks them awake, only for Cross and Gripps to start shouting excitedly, not realizing they were all being kept in the same room. Annoyed, Friedkin lowers them back down, leaving him alone with Martin. He immediately starts to threaten Friedkin, claiming that his energy drain ability's effect on normal people can be fatal. Knowing that the Rowdy 3 were living off Dirk's energy for a long time, Friedkin asks if they can track him down, promising to get them better living conditions and food. Martin chuckles that "you just brought me something to eat" and starts to drain Friedkin's energy. The man from Amanda's vision enters and sprays Martin with a substance that subdues him, identifying himself as Osmund Priest, a Blackwing associate responsible for the capture of the majority of Blackwing's subjects. Friedkin passes out and he starts to chuckle madly.
Dirk, Todd and Tina go out into the woods to further test the gun. Tina fires it at a tree, finding that it produces a powerful blast of air. They take turns firing at the tree and Tina realizes the gun has no barrel. She tells Todd that she is freaked out by the weirdness of the situation and Todd affirms that it will only get weirder. Tina believes that to be impossible until Dirk interrupts, noting that "there's a person in this tree." They call Farah and Hobbs, finding a petrified hand inside the tree. Farah identifies the body as male and Hobbs realizes it could be Hector. Farah wonders about their child, having seen height marks on a door frame back at the house, and Dirk realizes that if they had a son, he could be the boy he is supposed to find.
Priest carries Friedkin back to his office and plays with his stress toy until he revives. He informs Friedkin that he is starving the Rowdy 3 and that he should find sacrifices to feed them with, which Friedkin is vehemently opposed to. Priest tells him that he is "soft," but he is here to help Friedkin run things properly, revealing his psychopathic personality as he expresses delight in tracking and controlling the subjects, eager to use force whether it be necessary or not. Having located Amanda and Vogel by bothering to read the reports, he offers to collect them for Friedkin.
Scott smokes while driving down the road and accidentally hits Panto, who runs off into a field.
Bob returns home and Suzie approaches him in the kitchen, trying to get him to notice her new look, but he fails to see it. He tells her that ever since her accident she has been "up and down" and that her physical self-improvement will not "fix what happened." He affirms that "you're still the same you" and that "you can't change who you really are." She instinctively casts a spell on him that puts him into a trance, only conscious enough to grunt. She initially apologizes before justifying it as "I did this for us." She makes him close the open fridge and then asks him to "get rid of the dog," it having barked all day. He lumbers into the other room and a thump is heard, and Agrajag's barking stops. Suzie murmurs "isn't that silence nice?" and begins to smile.
Behind the scenes[]
- The episode title comes from dialogue spoken by Dirk, commenting on Todd's enthusiasm for the barn's wet circle: "Yes, for fans of wet circles, I suppose it's very exciting."
Cast[]
Starring
- Samuel Barnett as Dirk Gently
- Elijah Wood as Todd Brotzman
- Hannah Marks as Amanda Brotzman
- Jade Eshete as Farah Black
- Mpho Koaho as Ken Adams
- Michael Eklund as Martin
- Dustin Milligan as Hugo Friedkin
- Osric Chau as Vogel
Guest Starring
- Tyler Labine as Sherlock Hobbs
- Amanda Walsh as Suzie Boreton
- Christopher Russell as Panto Trost
- Izzie Steele as Tina Tevetino
- Karin Konoval as Frija Dengdamor
- Viv Leacock as Gripps
- Zak Santiago as Cross
- Lee Majdoub as Silas Dengdamor
- Aleks Paunovic as Wygar Oak
- with Alan Tudyk as Mr. Priest
- and John Hannah as The Mage
Co-Starring
- Amitai Marmorstein as Lieutenant Assistent
- Jared Ager-Foster as Scott Boreton
- John Stewart as Bob Boreton
- Jerome Yoo as Mall Employee
Uncredited
- Bentley as Rapunzel the Corgi
- Titan as Agrajag
Crew[]
Notes[]
Holistic Connections[]
- The police officer who arrests Dirk, Farah, and Todd is the same one who didn't recognize Todd and Farah the day before
- Suzanne Boreton is able to read the magic book even though the strange symbols were unreadable to the man earlier. In episode 5 of season 1 Dirk described his power as like being able to read in another language with strange symbols he didn't understand.
References[]
External links[]
- "Fans of Wet Circles" at BBC America
- "Fans of Wet Circles" on IMDb