Reverie Review: Despedida (Season 1 Episode 8)

Reverie Season 1 Episode 8, “Despedida,” offers the series’ most complete effort yet at a story that blends larger thematic issues into its standard case-of-the-week format.

In fact, it may be the first episode in which the reverie rescue is the least important part of the plot.

On its face, “Despedida” is a heartwarming story about how we can all make a difference in other people’s lives in unexpected ways. But look underneath the surface, and there’s a lot more going on.

In fact, this episode of Reverie is not only shocking from a plot stand-point, but from a character one as well. Is Mara a reliable narrator? Has Paul told us the truth about her condition? How dangerous is the reverie technology, really?

Reverie Season 1 Episode 7, “The Black Mandala” started to explore some of these issues, asking difficult questions about how the government could potentially use reveries in dark or disturbing ways. “Despedida” takes it a step further, illustrating just how completely the technology can mess with your mind.

Much like this episode itself, come to that. “Despedida” is the first episode of Reverie that purposefully plays with our expectations of the show’s format. (It also allows Mara to make some pretty big mistakes before saving the day at the end, which is kind of a nice change.)

The main rescue of the week focuses on Pilar, an elderly woman living in a nursing home using a contraband reverie device to relive her youth in Chile. When confronted by Mara, Pilar refuses to leave her imagined reality, insisting that the tech represents an important second chance for her.

Mara, apparently having watched this show before, immediately assumes Pilar’s personal fantasies involve love, specifically a man named Joaquin, who died during a military coup in the 1970s. Intriguingly, however, she’s wrong.

It turns out that Pilar isn’t interested in a long-lost romance. She’s attempting to revisit a time when she felt her life mattered. Specifically, her attempt to save four girls from the oncoming military troops.

And her one real regret? Has nothing to do with a dead boyfriend. After getting these girls she loved across the Chilean border to safety, Pilar lost track of them and never saw them again.

Mara, naturally, manages to save the day again, not only convincing Pilar to say goodbye to her digital memories, but by orchestrating a heartwarming reunion with one of the girls she saved. Everyone cries, and Pilar realizes her life will leave a legacy after all.

The heartwarming nature of this particular mission works well because it provides a nice balance to the darker undertones happening elsewhere in the episode.

And there are a lot of them.

We haven’t really seen much about Mara’s derealization problems since Reverie Season 1 Episode 4, “Blue is the Coldest Color”. In fact, you might have assumed she’d gotten over them, since the series leans so hard into the idea that she’s doing just fine.

Spoiler alert: She’s not.

In fact, she’s doing very, very far from fine.

Mara’s bruises from “The Black Mandala”, it turns out, aren’t a strange, personalized programming glitch due to government coding. They’re a result of her ongoing derealization issues. (What does it mean that others can see them? It’s not clear.)

Furthermore, her problems are getting worse. That supersweet morning after scene she shares with Chris as the episode opens? Never happened.

The episode concludes with Mara getting a phone call from Chris while she’s standing next to him, forcing us all to realize that their rekindled relationship has only taken place in her mind.

This in and of itself is terrifying enough. But once Imaginary Chris starts shifting into Mara’s murderous brother-in-law, it becomes clear that Mara has a…let’s just say extremely tenuous grasp on what is real and what is not.

Which means we have to wonder: How much of Reverie is real?

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• Chris — even the imaginary version — seems like a really nice guy, but I still need Mara and Paul to be a thing. (Para? Maul? What are we calling them?)
• I will fully admit I didn’t even think for a second that Chris wasn’t real. Well done, show.
• Reverie has actually done a really great job keeping Mara’s condition a part of the story’s ongoing background. Even in episodes that have nothing to do with derealization, we still see Mara taking her pills in an attempt to manage the condition.
• This is the most Alexis has ever been in an episode, I think. Have to admit I really liked her getting the chance to do something besides spout tech jargon.
• I’m so intrigued by the return of Oliver Hill, even though I have no idea at all what he really wants.
• Surprisingly, there are only two episodes left in this season of Reverie. It’s a shame, as the show seems to have only just gotten into a real storytelling groove. Here’s hoping we get some news about Season 2 — and some explanation about what Mara’s derealization experiences mean — in the coming weeks.

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

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Reverie airs Wednesdays at 10pm on NBC.

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