"Trouble Is Bad" is an episode of the series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, the ninth episode of season 2.
Synopsis[]
As Wendimoor falls into chaos, The Mage enacts his final solution, putting both worlds in dire jeopardy and forcing our heroes to face off against the season-long villains. Amanda and Todd must overcome their differences to help Dirk, as he rises to the challenge of fulfilling the prophecy.
Plot[]
A few days after the death of his parents, Arnold Cardenas stares at his father's dried blood before looking at a card with a number on it. Some time later, his brother finds him outside talking to Blackwing agents, who spot him and run inside after him. He runs to his bedroom and tries to fall asleep, but the agents grab him and start to carry him out, only for him to have a seizure that causes a massive power outage that bursts all nearby lightbulbs. The scene transitions from the boy's face to that of Project Moloch, comatose in Blackwing.
In Wendimoor, Suzie Boreton prepares to kill Dirk Gently and his friends until Wygar Oak covers her mouth, telling them to run. Silas Dengdamor runs to find his family and try and stop the war while the rest of them flee to the throne room pool. Kellum horns sound while Suzie tortures and kills Oak for silencing her. Believing Dirk to have no means of getting to Moloch, Suzie orders Lord Triangle Badevil to have the last of the Trosts and Dengdamors killed, smiling and declaring "this is my world now. I'm gonna fix everything."
Ken Adams briefs a squadron on capturing Mona Wilder, warning them that she is only dangerous when provoked. They enter Hugo Friedkin's office, only for him to find his stress toy that she was masquerading as gone. He begins to panic and shoot around the room, then convinces himself Mona may be impersonating Ken and trains his gun on him. Ken realizes Friedkin's gun is still in his holster and the one he is holding suddenly turns into a chain that starts to strangle him. Ken orders his men to stand down and carefully manipulates Mona by claiming Dirk is trouble, getting her to release Friedkin and turn into her human form.
Farah Black and Tina Tevetino come to, finding The Mage still down in the quarry and seeing Sherlock Hobbs carry boxes from a Kellum shipping container to the trunk of his car. Realizing he is under magical hypnosis, they stand up to fight The Mage, only for Tina to collapse from his magic. Farah concludes they are both going to die.
At the Cardenas house, Osmund Priest sees something approach and rallies his soldiers. He calls Blackwing command and finds it empty, only for Ken to pick up. He asks Ken if he was the one who survived a week with Bart Curlish, and when Ken confirms, he says he needs his help. Bart and Panto Trost are walking down the road dressed in cowboy garb, Bart armed with a chainsaw. Priest orders his men to disarm themselves, knowing they cannot hurt her and that she will kill them all if they give her a reason. He tries to convince her to come with them by showing her a live feed of Ken, who she is delighted to see, but quickly becomes confused when he too asks her to go with Priest. She instead tries to get Ken to come with her and Panto to Wendimoor, but he turns her down and she gives the video back to Priest. Priest tries to block them and Panto draws his sword, causing a soldier to attack him. Panto non-fatally wounds all the soldiers around him with just his blade and snips a vertical cut across Priest's face. Bart picks the video feed back up and asks Ken to come with her again, putting it back down when he refuses and entering the house with Panto.
The Beast leads the group to the throne room as they discuss what to do next. Dirk considers having Amanda Brotzman open the portal and send him and the Rowdy 3 to get Moloch, but Todd insists they need to worry more about Suzie. He suddenly suffers a Pararibulitis attack in which barbed wire wraps around his leg, but Amanda coaches him on how to beat it and manifest the wire into reality.
Mona is placed in a room and guarded by four men. She is visited by Friedkin, who she apologizes to for choking, claiming that he was scaring her, just like her guards are scaring her now. Friedkin tells her that they need to be there "in case you, like, turn into a bear or something." Mona retorts that she would just turn into an aircraft carrier and destroy the entire facility if she wanted to kill him, to which Friedkin nervously requests "please don't do that." Ken enters (making Friedkin give him his chair) and she asks to see Dirk, only to learn that Dirk is in trouble. She claims she is a "holistic actress" who can be anything, but "I don't know what I'm supposed to be." Ken asks why she sent Dirk away, but she insists she just did what the "funny little snail voice" told her to do. Ken realizes the voice saw what she saw, explaining why the doll's eyes turned green, and Mona asks "do I have to stay a person now?" Ken tells her "only for a little while longer, if you don't mind," and "you're a great friend," and leaves.
Bart is astounded by Wendimoor, noting how much more impressive their moon is, which Panto agrees with. She ends up stalling them by asking to go one way instead of another, allowing Silas to burst out of a bush and accidentally run into them. He and Panto joyfully reunite and Bart deduces who he is, noting "your mom's an asshole" before Panto introduces her to Silas. Silas has them both come with him to negotiate peace between their families, Bart noting that they are going the way she wanted to go in the first place.
Suzie uses Wapnasi's pool to locate Moloch and orders Badevil to take a squadron of knights through the pool and kill him, as well as anyone who gets in their way. The shower in Ken's room turns on and Rapunzel scampers out as Badevil emerges from it. Ken has deduced from the files and Mona's information that Moloch successfully created Wendimoor, and his stroke when Blackwing tried to move him weakened the gap between worlds enough for Wapnasi to start speaking to Mona. He starts to order the facility on lockdown and Friedkin tries to stop him, until Ken points out Friedkin unintentionally gave him equal clearance. Rapunzel runs past them and alarms start to sound, Lieutenant Assistent also fleeing past them and yelling about knights. The knights themselves enter and begin firing on the soldiers, Ken ordering Moloch locked down and fleeing while Friedkin watches in disbelief. The knights easily get through the facility with their superior combat skills, killing any guards that get in their way.
Farah and Tina make their way down to the quarry and attempt to kill The Mage by having Tina distract him, but he sees through it easily. He begins to taunt Farah about her family's disappointment in her and makes Farah and Tina point their guns at each other. He explains that Hobbs is going to load his car up with dynamite and drive it into the Cardenas house, hopefully destroying the portal. He lets them put down their guns, only to make Hobbs take out his own gun and aim it at them. He declares that his true purpose was never to be a conquerer, but someone who tortures individuals, and makes Hobbs shoot them both. Farah shoots Hobbs twice to weaken him, only for The Mage to make Tina shoot her and her shoot Tina back. He makes Farah put the gun to her head and tries to get her to commit suicide, but she unloads the gun before he can. He tries to get Tina to shoot her again, but Farah knocks Tina's aim off before she can shoot, instead hitting The Mage's wand. Shocked, he roars "no one in Wendimoor can defeat me!" only for Farah to retort "you're not in Wendimoor!" and together with Tina shoot the dynamite in Hobbs' truck, blowing up the car and incinerating The Mage. Hobbs immediately comes to, sees Farah and Tina lying prone on the ground, and shouts "what the heck happened?"
The Dengdamors and Trosts have massacred each other, a wounded Frija and Jeppum Trost being the only survivors and about to kill each other. Their sons run to them and pull them apart, Panto begging them to stop so they can save the boy and rebuild their world. They reveal that they are lovers, which seems to please their parents. They agree to try and make peace and a watching Bart insists that "everything's gonna work out great," only for a platoon of armed knights to arrive. They kill Silas, Panto, and their parents, leaving Bart horrified when she sees that Panto and Silas' hands are almost touching. The knights open fire on her, only for every bullet to miss. She glowers and revs the chainsaw as more knights approach.
The group arrives at the throne room and Amanda begins to power the pool, causing her immense pain. She tells Todd that she needs his own power to keep the portal open. The Beast senses Suzie approaching and the Rowdy 3 go to fight her, leaving Dirk to go get Moloch alone. Todd and Amanda open the portal and, after a moment of hesitation, Dirk tells himself "don't panic" and jumps through.
Behind the scenes[]
- The episode title comes from dialogue spoken by Mona, answering to Ken's "[Dirk]'s in some trouble." with "Oh no. Trouble is bad.".
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
- Tyler Labine as Sherlock Hobbs
- Amanda Walsh as Suzie Boreton
- Christopher Russell as Panto Trost
- Izzie Steele as Tina Tevetino
- Lee Majdoub as Silas Dengdamor
- Aleks Paunovic as Wygar Oak
- Alexia Fast as Mona Wilder
- Karin Konoval as Frija Dengdamor
- Dylan Schombing as Cardenas boy
- Viv Leacock as Gripps
- Zak Santiago as Cross
- with Alan Tudyk as Mr. Priest
- and John Hannah as The Mage
Co-Starring
- ...
Uncredited
Crew[]
- Directed by: Alrick Riley
- Written by: Max Landis & Molly Nussbaum
Notes[]
Deaths[]
- Wygar Oak
- Ten Blackwing guards
- Two Kellum knights
- The Mage
- Several Dengdamors
- Several Trosts
- Silas Dengdamor
- Panto Trost
- Frija Dengdamor
- Jeppum Trost
References[]
External links[]
- "Trouble Is Bad" at BBC America
- "Trouble Is Bad" on IMDb