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The House Within the House

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"The House Within the House" is an episode of the series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, the fourth episode of season 2.

Synopsis[]

As the team's investigation leads to a startling discovery in the long-abandoned Cardenas homestead, Bart and Panto forge an unlikely and unusual relationship. In Wendimoor, Amanda takes steps towards understanding the powers that are hidden within her.

Plot[]

A hand holding a candle shines light on a mural. It depicts a house with the door opening to show another, more colorful house inside. The hand moves the candle to the right, where it shows another drawing: an enormous purple monster.

A group of Kellum knights sit around a fire, eating and laughing about The Mage's plans. Their prisoner, Farson Dengdamor, asks for some food and they tell him to shut up while their other prisoner, a feral woman who speaks in gibberish, watches him. A knight asks why they are bothering to keep him alive, and his companion explains that by doing so, the Dengdamors blame the Trosts for Farson's disappearance, while the Trosts blame the Dengdamors for Panto Trost's. The first knight remarks that they should kill Farson regardless until a third interrupts, asking him what his plan would be for conquering Wendimoor. He warns all listening that "nobody questions The Mage! Nobody!"

Amanda Brotzman and Vogel emerge from a lake covered in a shower curtain and they swim to shore, collapsing. As Vogel asks where they are, Amanda looks up at the sky to see Wendimoor's moon and murmurs "we're somewhere else."

While exploring the Cardenas house, Dirk Gently finds a closet with a colorful slide in the floor inside. As he leans down to look into it, he accidentally falls in.

Suzie Boreton rewatches the video of The Mage destroying the bodies at the quarry in her bedroom, berating herself for getting involved as Bob Boreton sleeps standing up and with his eyes open. Scott Boreton hammers on her locked door demanding his phone. She unapologetically snaps at him and he storms away.

Farah Black and Tina Tevetino, having slept in the police station to keep watch over Bart Curlish and Panto, awaken to a phone call. Tina answers and learns of the disappearance of the local book club, convincing Farah to leave the prisoners alone to go investigate, as "it's not like they can just walk out of their cells."

Todd Brotzman awakens on Sherlock Hobbs' couch, finding Dirk gone. He wakes Hobbs up, having an idea of where Dirk went, and notices the air gun on his bedside table. He asks Hobbs why he hasn't submitted it to evidence yet, Hobbs remarking that he probably should.

Bart wakes Panto, having left her cell to get donuts and bring him some as well. He asks if she can get him out, but she pulls on his door and simply says "it's locked." He thanks her for being the first person in her world to show him kindness, and she shrugs it off as "just a donut." He introduces himself, using his full title, and she observes that "that's just a bunch of noises," causing them both to smile.

Amanda and Vogel are captured by the knights, suspecting them of being "witchakookoos" and locking them up with Farson and the Beast. Amanda begs for release as Vogel is wounded after his encounter with Osmund Priest, but they decide to wait for their leader to decide what to do with them. Farson introduces himself and the Beast growls at her, and Amanda, exasperated, gives them both the middle finger.

On the way to the Cardenas house, Hobbs asks how Amanda is part of the situation. Todd explains his family's history with Pararibulitis and him revealing the truth to her, which Hobbs says was "karmically a good thing to do." Todd laments involving Amanda and Hobbs puts a reassuring hand on his shoulder. They arrive at the house and enter looking for Dirk, only for the house phone to ring despite having not been connected for fifty years. Todd picks it up to find Dirk on the other end, claiming he "fell down a hole." His surroundings are shown, revealing he is in a bizarre version of the Cardenas house decked with toys and intense colors, the outside having been replaced with TV static.

Having finally been allowed to get out of the taxi, Ken Adams decrypts Blackwing's data for Hugo Friedkin. He searches for people who can make themselves or others disappear and Friedkin laments his situation, Ken asking if he thought he could "enslave a group of magic people, turn them into a team of super soldiers out to strike down the enemies of America?" and Friedkin responds "sort of." He admits that he is in over his head following Amanda and Vogel's disappearance and asks for Ken's help.

Dirk updates Todd on his location, wondering if "I may be in actual Judeo-Christian Hell." He explains that after Todd's talk with him, he started thinking and remembered Panto coming from the house, so he decided to look around and found the slide. Todd gives Hobbs the phone and locates the slide, Dirk warning him not to come down because he cannot get back up. He starts to hear heavy footsteps inside the house and realizes he is not alone. He tries to dissuade Todd from helping him and opens a door to try and find a way out, only to find a hallway filled with doors. He begins to wander them and a glimpse of what is following him is shown: a massive purple entity with long, sharp talons.

Farson explains that he was sick of the fighting between his family and the Trosts, so he ran away to try and get help from Wakti Wapnasi, only to be intercepted and captured by the knights. At the same time, Panto explains to Bart that Wapnasi was the one who foretold the prophecy, and he came to her world to find Dirk and save Wendimoor. Bart remarks that she was also looking for Dirk for a time, but it "didn't turn out great for me."

Farah and Tina visit the book club's meeting place, finding four piles of dust with things like wedding rings among them. Farah notices that despite there being four piles, there are five wineglasses set out. Tina decides to call Hobbs.

Dirk finds an open door with a bed that folds into the wall and a television rapidly flicking between channels inside. As the thuds get closer, Todd theorizes that it could somehow be the boy and Dirk tentatively takes a look, seeing the full monster: a tall, cyclopian purple being that plays a distorted version of Sheb Wooley's "The Purple People Eater" everywhere it goes.

In the car, Tina remembers that Suzie has been in a feud with the book club for years, and they decide to go talk to her.

Suzie hears movement outside her bedroom and goes to investigate, finding nothing. She turns around only to get startled by Bob, who has followed her out and is holding her phone up, playing the video of The Mage. As it plays, a second Mage pops into frame and smiles into the camera, saying "see you soon."

Dirk flees through the hallways (still on the phone and making the cord stretch impossibly long) until he arrives at the end in a kitchen with scissors embedded in the table, making it ooze blood, as well as the remnants of a vase and the flowers it held on the floor. As the monster appears at the end of the hall and Dirk grabs the scissors to arm himself, Todd, having come down to save him, gets between them and fires the air gun at the monster, stunning it. Todd opens the exit door to the static outside and begins to push Dirk out, despite him insisting that they may die. Todd forces him out anyway and they end up outside the Cardenas house. Just as they calm down, Todd sees something that stuns him.

Vogel collapses and Amanda begs the only remaining knight on guard to help, but he again accuses her of being a witch and wanders off. She suffers a Pararibulitis attack in which her hands are suddenly sparking with intense electricity, only to realize it is manifesting physically when the Beast touches her and gets shocked. Vogel drains her and she has a vision of Dirk and Todd outside the Cardenas house, only to appear, still in the cage, in front of Dirk and Todd, only Todd being able to see her. As he moves towards her in relief, he suddenly suffers an electric attack as well and her attack restarts until Vogel stops draining her, and the vision breaks. Todd seizes on the ground as Dirk shouts for Hobbs. When Todd's attack passes, Dirk shows Hobbs the scissors, thinking they may be "the murder weapon."

Ken is fascinated by the range of abilities in the Blackwing subjects he is reading about and tells Friedkin he cannot keep them locked up because "they want meaning," something he believes he can use to get them to cooperate as long as Friedkin lets him out of his room.

Tina and Farah knock on Suzie's door and she move to answer with the wand behind her back, only for The Mage to magic Bob into unconsciousness and press his wand to her neck to keep her silent. As Farah begins to pick the door's lock, Tina gets a call from Hobbs updating her, and she mentions DIrk's name, which leaves The Mage visibly troubled. Suzie elbows The Mage and pulls her wand, and as Farah and Tina leave to go talk to Hobbs, the house lights up with flashing colors. Back at the police department, Farah finds the scissors fit neatly into Hector's head wound, and Todd connects it to Panto's scissor-sword. Everyone begins to connect pieces of the case except Dirk, who rambles a little before awkwardly leaving. Todd follows him and Dirk sighs that he could've killed them both by exploring the house in the first place, saying "I don't know what this all means. I never know how things connect before they do, and usually before then, it's just danger and death." Todd mentions his vision of Amanda, and that he believes she is somehow in Wendimoor. Dirk suddenly gets an idea, telling Todd they need to take Panto back to the Cardenas house.

The knights' leader, Lord Triangle Badevil, arrives to collect Farson, telling his men to kill the rest. They bring Vogel out and make Amanda kneel in front of him as Badevil puts his scissor blades around his neck. Amanda tearfully apologizes for being unable to save him and a knight grabs her, forcing another electric attack. As the knights all react in shock, being able to see it, she thrusts her hands out and electrocutes them all, Vogel draining her when it becomes too much. They free Farson and he frees the Beast, not wanting her to die in the cage before the three run off into the woods.

Panto shows them the room he arrived in Bergsberg in, and Dirk, remembering what he saw in the other Cardenas house, pulls a bed out of the wall. Panto confirms he fell onto it when he arrived and Todd notes the water damage on the wall inside, while Dirk starts tearing down the wallpaper on a whim and finds drawings under it. They all start to tear down the wallpaper to reveal a series of fantasy drawings, which Panto realizes are of Wendimoor.

Having won their fight and taken back the wand, The Mage explains Wendimoor to Suzie and that the prophecy cannot be allowed to pass, so he created the second wand to give to someone who could help him. Suzie insists that she is "a nice person," but The Mage insists that the wand was not drawn to her because she was kind, but because she was "interesting." He promises to make her a queen if she joins him. She asks what he needs her to do, and he says that "I need you to kill Dirk Gently." The wand starts to glow in his hands.

Behind the scenes[]

  • The episode title refers to the "House Within the House" reality/pocket dimension in the Cardenas house.
  • This fourth episode mirrors episode 1.04 Watkin: both feature a kind of maze, respectively the underground Springsborough maze and the other house in the Cardenas house (--Max Landis' Video Blog on Episode 2.07).

Cast[]

Starring

Guest Starring

Co-Starring

Uncredited

Crew[]

Notes[]

References[]


External links[]

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