"Girl Power" is an episode of the series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, the sixth episode of season 2.
Synopsis[]
As we grow closer to an answer about the case and the identity of "The Boy," our villains converge to stop our heroes with a shocking outcome.
Plot[]
Doors branded with the Blackwing symbol for Project Moloch open, revealing a car driving down a road at night. It passes the Bergsberg sign, revealing it originally said "ONCE YOU'RE HERE...YOU'LL NEVER WANT TO BE GONE". The man driving and the woman in the passenger seat have a brief argument until they hear a boat horn, followed by a light flying above them and something heavy landing in a nearby field. The object is revealed to be the Bergsberg boat, which they hear the cry of a baby coming from.
Following the Sound of Nothing festival, Scott Boreton approaches his exhausted mother, having had an epiphany under the influence of her spell and resolving to treat her better. She uses her recovered wand to turn him into a toad and begins to laugh maniacally.
Hugo Friedkin is horrified to learn of the Rowdy 3's vanishing, his rage doubling when he learns that Lieutenant Assistent is not actually an assistant, having mistaken his last name as his job. Having run out of options, he gives Ken Adams and Rapunzel their own room, where Ken shaves and showers for the first time in two and a half months.
Todd Brotzman and Farah Black awaken together on the floor of the trashed police station, Tina Tevetino having invited several concertgoers back to party with them. Tina wakes up and tells all the partygoers to leave, while Dirk Gently wakes up in Bart Curlish's cell. Bart is visibly confused as to why Dirk is still scared of her, asking "this again?" when he mentions she tried to kill him. Dirk asserts that it is "this forever" and moves to leave, only to find the door locked. Bart asks if he knows how his connection to the universe works, and Bart tells him that "I'm starting to get a feeling that this all ends badly." She opens the door for Dirk, and he shuts her back in.
In the mural room of the Cardenas house, Suzie apologizes to The Mage for her failure to kill Dirk, only to find him depressed over his foretold demise depicted on the walls, miserably declaring himself "just a puppet." He concludes that to know all this information, the artist must be the boy, Arnold Cardenas, and Dirk has already found him. When Suzie realizes The Mage knows where Arnold is, she tells him not to let the drawings dictate his choices, not willing to let her chance to become a queen go to waste.
The group shows Panto Trost a picture of Suzie, but he does not recognize her. Dirk insists that the details do not matter, just wanting to finish the case before anyone else gets hurt. Panto wonders why these events are only happening now, as the prophecy began decades ago, and Dirk and Todd realize that Suzie must be The Mage's apprentice that Panto spoke of. Panto warns them of the danger The Mage poses, and Tina remembers that they have Scott's phone and can contact Suzie to find out if she is truly in league with The Mage. Having brought the Scott-toad home with her, Suzie is about to wash the dirt off her when she gets a call from Scott's phone. Tina is on the other end, pretending as though Scott is under arrest and at the station, but Suzie cuts them off, now hostile and accusing them of "embarrassing" her. She declares that "I am done feeling small" and tells them she is going to kill them all before hanging up.
Ken points out Friedkin's numerous errors as he reads through reports and tells him their focus should be on Bergsberg. He asks to talk to Osmund Priest, which Friedkin gives him higher clearance to do.
Martin compliments Amanda Brotzman on her pulling them into Wendimoor and she promises to get them back to their world. Martin says it is her call and puts her in charge of the Rowdy 3. Amanda hugs him.
Tina finds Sherlock Hobbs' voicemail to her and learns of Blackwing activity in town, asking Farah what to do next. Todd wonders if they should go to the Cardenas house and Dirk begins to stress over putting them all in danger, then suddenly decides that they need to talk to Arnold so they can learn what happened in his childhood, concluding that Arnold is the boy in an attempt to solve the case as quickly as possible. As they leave for the hospital, Priest watches from a nearby van, having found Dirk thanks to Ken's suggestions to track Bergsberg cop cars.
Training her powers with Wakti Wapnasi, Amanda pulls her hands out of the pool, finding its power too much for her and worrying that it will force a Pararibulitis attack. Wapnasi goads her into putting her hand back in and she immediately pulls it out, suffering an attack where she sees a knife in her hand. Wapnasi coaches her into stopping the attack by manifesting it as reality, and she pulls the knife from her hand but finds it perfectly fine, to her delight.
Arriving at the hospital, Farah fakes police credentials to get information from a friendly officer, learning that a shipment of guns were stolen from a nearby town, and they were paid for using golden bars with a "K" on them. The group enters Arnold's room and he insists that Wendimoor cannot be real, as he would "never be forgiven" if it was, but does not say by who. He explains that the Kellum Mining Corporation wanted to buy his parents' land and they had frequent fights over it, Marina Cardenas wanting to sell but Hector wanting to stay, resulting in a night where both his parents were killed. He states that Wendimoor was to be a "safe haven" where he was promised to be taken, and he tells them that he can take them there if it exists.
Priest stakes out the hospital's exterior and gets a call from Ken, who tells him to stand by until Dirk emerges. He notices Suzie taping the wand to her wrist and marching towards the hospital. She enters and kills the receptionist and the cop Farah talked to using a spell that shoots red-hot, metal shapes, finding Arnold's room and storming towards it, killing anyone in her way. Priest asks for permission to engage and Ken grants it, so long as Dirk is not hurt as he needs to be captured alive. Priest asks what he should do about civilians and Dirk's friends, Ken hesitating before responding "Project Icarus is the priority." Priest chuckles that he likes Ken.
Hearing the commotion, Dirk and Todd help Arnold into a wheelchair as he moans that "I betrayed him." Suzie locates and begins to shoot shapes at them and Farah shoots her in the head, only for Suzie to pull the bullet out with magic, her face now coated with blood. She closes Tina in a utility closet while trying to kill her and Todd pulls a fire alarm, causing all the occupants to evacuate and making Suzie lose them in the crowd. They reach a dead end as Arnold insists "we have to find another way" and Farah shoots the door open, only for them to turn around to find Arnold's wheelchair empty. His body is hurled across the hall at Dirk's feet, Suzie having caught up to them and shot him with a shape. Todd and Farah drag a horrified Dirk out just as Priest arrives, coming face-to-face with Suzie. He shoots her dozens of times in the chest with a machine gun before she can attack him, sending her out a high window. When he looks out, he sees only a large splash of blood and remarks "god dammit, baby, I missed Blackwing." As Farah steals a car and they drive away, a forlorn Dirk remarks that they have lost now that the boy is dead.
Amanda has a vision of Priest with a vertical cut down his face, Dirk and Suzie in Wendimoor, the latter in evil-looking royal attire, and dozens of marching Kellum knights. Amanda asks Wapnasi if she can see the visions too, but Wapnasi states she has "a friend" in her world and "I use her eyes." Amanda expresses fear at the approach of the knights, and Wapnasi confirms their arrival would mean evil's victory.
Panto begs Bart to get him out of his cell, realizing the group left them with food because they knew they might die at the hospital, and he admits that he has known how to get back to Wendimoor the whole time but did not tell Dirk because he did not have the boy. He tells her to forget the universe and make her own decisions, asking "what is it that you want?"
Deeply troubled by her visions, Amanda asks the Rowdy 3 to go south to search for the knights. Worried that she is sending them to their deaths, so she starts to try and pep talk them until Martin interrupts, telling her "it's done" to the agreement of the rest of the group, and they leave.
As Dirk lays silent in the backseat, Farah announces intent to leave Bergsberg until Todd convinces her to go to the Cardenas house, wanting to go to Wendimoor and retrieve Amanda. As they arrive, Dirk sits down on the lawn until a van approaches, Todd dragging him inside and Farah standing guard outside the house, she and Todd sharing a look before he hurries inside. Todd and Dirk enter the mural room, the former desperately trying to figure out how to use the bed to get to Wendimoor while the latter sits in the corner. Priest gets out of the van and Farah prepares to fight him, but he knocks her out with one punch. He enters the house, calling for Dirk (who he addresses as "Svlad Cjelli") and blaming him for the incident at the hospital. As he begins to taunt Dirk about bringing death to everyone he meets, Dirk recognizes his voice and, now visibly terrified, tells Todd that Farah is likely dead. Frantically trying to figure out the portal's location, Todd theorizes it could be in the mural and runs face-first into it, alerting Priest to their location. Laying on the bed, Dirk mumbles that "I deserve to go back" and Todd notices the water stain on the wall that houses the bed, remembering that Dirk was wet when he emerged from the car. Realizing that they need to tip the bed back into the wall with them on it, Todd lays down on the bed with Dirk just as Priest shoots the doorknob off, and they rock the bed into the wall. Priest enters the empty room, sighs, and tells Ken he needs a lockdown team.
At Suzie's house, the Scott-toad sits on the arm of a chair his father is sitting in, The Mage sticking thumbtacks in Bob's unresponsive face as he rambles about enjoying hurting people for all his life. He muses that his initial plan of giving the Trosts weapons from Bob's world to fight the Dengdamors with was "thinking small" and "maybe it's time I left Wendimoor behind me. There's plenty of people in your world to torture." He thinks about "closing those doors once and for all" until Suzie (who he referred to seconds before as "deranged") limps in, covered in blood and dirt, telling The Mage that Dirk has lost and the boy is dead, demanding that he send her to Wendimoor.
Behind the scenes[]
- The episode title is reflected in Suzie Boreton's shirt inscribed "GIRL POWER", as well as likely referring to Amanda's and Suzie's use of (magic) powers.
Cast[]
Starring
- Samuel Barnett as Dirk Gently
- Elijah Wood as Todd Brotzman
- Hannah Marks as Amanda Brotzman
- Fiona Dourif as Bart Curlish
- Jade Eshete as Farah Black
- Mpho Koaho as Ken Adams
- Dustin Milligan as Hugo Friedkin
- Michael Eklund as Martin
- Osric Chau as Vogel
Guest Starring
- Amanda Walsh as Suzie Boreton
- Christopher Russell as Panto Trost
- Izzie Steele as Tina Tevetino
- Agam Darshi as Wakti Wapnasi
- Tony Amendola as Arnold Cardenas
- Viv Leacock as Gripps
- Zak Santiago as Cross
- with Alan Tudyk as Mr. Priest
- and John Hannah as The Mage
Co-Starring
- Francoise Robertson as Marina
- Sergio Osuna as Hector
- William C. Vaughan as Officer Rizzio
- Amitai Marmorstein as Lieutenant Assistent
- Ajay Friese as Farson Dengdamor
- Jared Ager-Foster as Scott Boreton
- John Stewart as Bob Boreton
- Karyn Mott as Hospital Receptionist
Uncredited
Crew[]
Notes[]
- Deaths: Betty (name source?), Officer Rizzio, three cops, Arnold Cardenas.
References[]
External links[]
- "Girl Power" at BBC America
- "Girl Power" on IMDb