Reverie Review: Altum Somnum (Season 1 Episode 5)

Reverie Season 1 Episode 5 “Altum Somnum” continues the series’ trend of asking thoughtful, provocative questions that it’s not entirely prepared to answer. But the fact that the show seems to realize how problematic its central premise can be seems like a hopeful sign for the future.

With a technology as advanced as Reverie 2.0, it makes sense that there are many people who want to use it for something more than recreation. Such as the U.S. government, for example.

After 63 people are killed in a terrorist attack the shady Onira Tech investor Monica Shaw calls a classified meeting. Turns out she isn’t just an investor; her employer is the Department of Defense, who actually owns a significant piece (30%) of the company.

In response to the threat of another attack, the DoD want Onira Tech to deploy the power of their reverie technology and, subsequently, Mara herself to go into the mind of a coma patient, the last surviving eyewitness of the event.

There’s just one small problem. The patient is dying, with less than a day to live. She’s never used reveries, probably doesn’t even know what they are. She can’t consent to this procedure, or even to talking to Mara in the first place.

This is an interest plot twist for a number of reasons. It not only opens up a whole new area of story for Reverie itself, it asks our characters exactly how far they are willing to take this new technology they’ve built.

The answer is: Apparently pretty far.

Yes, Mara and her crew are always going to be on the side of saving lives. That’s important, obviously. And it’s a lovely thing that she can help this poor girl gain some piece in her final moments.

But the implications here are frightening: What’s to stop the government, or anyone with enough money to get this technology from messing around in the minds of innocent citizens?

This all isn’t necessarily just a fun dreamscape playground anymore. There are genuinely scary possibilities for increased domestic spying, intelligence gathering, manipulation — all manner of creepy things that Reverie 2.0’s users may or may not ever agree to.

Reverie, of course, doesn’t take this as far as it probably should. Instead, it turns the story into Mara’s effort to find out whether there are more bombs, and if Ashley, the young girl mixed up with terrorists, can help her.

The episode spends more time on Ashley’s estranged relationship with her mother than it does on the incredibly creepy consent issues that Mara’s every trip into her mind brings up.

It shies away from confronting the difficult questions about almost everything. (It’s not an accident that even though this episode is framed around terrorism, we don’t actually learn that much about the folks behind these crimes.)

However, the very fact that Reverie even acknowledges these issues is a promising step forward.

Thus far, the series has been largely focused on overly sentimental stories and schmaltzy solutions. (Even when people look like they’re using reveries for bad things; they’re really not!)

However, the implications of Department of Defense involvement with their technology — as well as the company’s apparent comfort with invading people’s minds with no consent — are kind of staggering.

Even though it doesn’t necessarily address then in as in depth a fashion as it probably should this week, Reverie clearly acknowledges that these issues are deeply problematic ones.

What happens if you force a reverie-based interrogation on a subject who isn’t as willing as Ashley was? Are someone’s memories private property? How far are Mara and friends willing to go?

These are the kinds of questions Reverie should be considering in the future. This episode at least offers hope that they might.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• Reverie really needs to lose its tendency to make even the designated “bad guys” into secretly nice people. Of course, Ashley, who literally helps a terrorist with a bomb into the building, is secretly a really nice person who didn’t want to hurt anyone, really. Girl, then maybe you shouldn’t pall around with folks that want to use explosives to get attention?? It’s really odd how hard Reverie is willing to work at making sure that all of the folks Mara helps are decent.
• While I appreciate the show’s attempts to bring Alex more fully into the story this week, the idea that all she really needs to become a better person is to spend less time on screens is…lazy at best.
• That said, I loved that Alex was really only into this week’s mission for the technical challenge of it, not its lifesaving potential. Not everyone is a sentimental hero, and Reverie is better when it leans into the messy potential of its characters.
• Have we decided on a ship name for Paul and Mara yet? Para? Maul? I’m so into them as a thing.
• Speaking of Paul, the sequence in which he and his team built the bank lobby reverie was fascinating and looked amazing. More of that please, show.

What did you think of this episode of Reverie? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Reviewer Rating:

User Rating:

 

Reverie airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

Follow us on Twitter @telltaleTV_

Want more from Tell-Tale TV? Subscribe to our newsletter here!