Reverie Review: The Black Mandala (Season 1 Episode 7)

Seven episodes into their first season, Reverie starts to delve into exactly what the technology can do. It isn’t pretty, but did we really expect it to be?

Reverie Season 1 Episode 7 “The Black Mandala” begins with Paul attempting to push the boundaries of the reverie technology in order to defy gravity. The scene is cute and it does underline that fully accessing what reverie is capable of has to do with turning off the left side of your brain and admitting that none of this is real, it’s starting to bring up new questions about the Reverie technology.

The thing is, by the end of the scene it started to bring up questions about the reverie technology for me.

While reverie supposed to help you create a world of your own design, the worlds we’ve seen have been pretty realistic. I’m starting to wonder where the people who live for high fantasy are because this product just seems perfect for them. Yes, flying is cool, but surely some customers must be requesting more imaginative designs.

And if they do exist, are they in their reveries fighting dragons? Do they believe that their worlds are real? Surely they’ve figured out how to turn off the left side of their brains. There may be a simple explanation for this, but after seeing Paul fly, I can’t help but think that building a whole world that is complete fantastical is a possibility with enough construction.

Paul and Mara’s conversation comes in handy with the a-plot of “The Black Mandala,” when Mara ends up in a dark reverie that looks like a detention center and finds a boy named Ehmet. Ehmet has no idea he is in a computer program and is being interrogated by the government. Mara attempts to use the exitus code to get him out, but it doesn’t work.

This scene is absolutely terrifying. Until now, we’ve seen the technology used primarily to fulfill fantasies and work out problems like planning the robbery in Reverie Season 1 Episode 4, “Blue is the Coldest Color.” We also saw the technology used to access the memories of a dying woman in Reverie Season 1 Episode 5, “Altum Somnum.”

Unlike Denise Lang, Ehmet’s reaction is one of anger. Understandable, he’s in an unfamiliar place with soldiers who are convinced he knows something that he doesn’t. Who wouldn’t be angry in this situation. But, this reverie takes it further and turns what Ehmet is experiencing into psychological torture.

This is the first time, we’ve actually seen a dark reverie, and what makes this one even more terrifying is that it is being used by the Department of Defense.

The revelation shouldn’t come as a surprise, because we know Monica Shaw’s people see “potential” in this technology. Monica said she wants to use it to help soldiers with PTSD, and I can see that therapeutic use being very beneficial to veterans. However, given that the Department of Defense has the reverie source code, it shouldn’t shock us that they have started tinkering with it to suit their purposes.

“The Black Mandala” feels appropriately timed for its place in the series’ first season. This brings the idea of dark reveries to life and shows us exactly what dangers these types of worlds can contain. The action sequences as Mara and Ehmet try to escape the Reverie provides nail-biting tension that keeps the story at a good pace so that the viewer is engaged, and the story about him and his brother is touching.

More worrisome, is how Mara wakes up with a wound after being shot in the reverie. It seems inevitable that this technology will have consequences in the real world, but the only way to introduce it with a dark reverie plotline. With the exitus protocol, we never see what happens when Mara is really in danger, but with this dark reverie, the rules don’t apply.

We don’t have a definitive answer for, “What happens if someone kills you in their reverie?,” and seeing as Mara is the only one with 2.0, I don’t want to find out. Yet, seeing the wound left on Mara’s side has some pretty scary implications. We don’t have an answer for why it’s there, but if it’s a recurring issue, then it ups the danger for Mara whenever she enters someone’s mind.

De-realization is weird, unsettling, and would threaten her mental health, but this could kill her outright.

We also see a little bit of conflict on the part of Monica Shaw. There is no question that her character plays it close to the vest, and that’s made her interesting and threatening, but seeing her tip her hand in this episode has me interested in her story and what she could be playing at.

I’m not saying we should trust her, but she may not be all bad.

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

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Reverie airs Wednesdays at 10/9c on NBC.

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