Reverie Review: The Key (Season 1 Episode 9)

Reverie Season 1 Episode 9, “The Key,” gives us some long-awaited answers to the mystery of Mara’s derealizations, but provides a dark new insight into her past.

On the plus side, at least Reverie didn’t get too crazy with its big end-of-season twist. After an episode that basically left us all wondering whether anything in the show was real — was Mara’s entire story taking place in a reverie? — the revelation that she’s basically suppressed some memories seems pretty mild.

Granted, these memories are distinctly not great ones. In fact, they reveal some pretty frightening elements of Mara’s character that none of us would have likely ever expected.

It turns out that she didn’t just witness her brother-in-law Ray murder her family and shoot himself. She talked him into shooting himself after he killed Jamie and Brynn. Um. Yikes.

This revelation is a bit double-edged for viewers, however. There’s only one episode left in Reverie Season 1. Therefore it seems unlikely we’re going to see a ton of fallout from this twist. It may not even be interrogated that deeply.

Mara’s behavior is, in a way, understandable. The man had just murdered her sister and niece, and it’s natural that she wanted to see him punished as harshly as possible. But this is also the first time Reverie has really dipped into the darker side of Mara’s skills.

Part of the reason Mara’s so successful at Onira Tech is because she’s capable of empathizing with others. She connects with people on an emotional level, and basically uses her skills at reading them to talk them into doing something they don’t want to do (i.e. leave their reveries).

That’s basically also what happens during her final confrontation with Ray. Except she not only talks him into attempting suicide, she doesn’t even remember doing it. That’s so, so dark, and it’s not clear if Reverie, as a series, is really equipped to just explore just how messed up that means Mara is.

Much of this season has ostensibly been about Mara healing through helping others. In “The Key” we see her resist the idea of removing the BCI chip that allows her to access the reverie technology because she knows it will mean some people stay lost in the program.

She wants to help them. That means Mara’s a good person, isn’t she? Well, yes. But also no. At the very least, there is a darkness here that the show has never confronted before.

And there’s not a time left in the season to really out just what this retrieved memory means for her.

If Reverie gets a Season 2, perhaps the show will have time to fully explore how this twist impacts Mara’s character. This is the most interested I’ve been in her, as a person, versus the technology she’s been using all season.

“The Key” also represents Reverie’s strongest episode to date when it comes to actually including Alexis in the ongoing story in an organic and meaningful way.

She’s had a bigger presence in recent episodes, sure but this is certainly the most time we’ve ever spent with her character. And guess what? She’s actually kind of awesome.

From her thoughtful, albeit highly technical, comforting of Mara when she questioned her entire reality at the beginning of the episode, to her determination to confront Oliver on her own terms, this is an Alexis that’s interesting and likeable. (And without shedding any of her existing edge.)

This Alexis is a character I’d like to spend more time with, certainly more so than when she was just constantly presented as a rude, idiosyncratic tech genius.

In fact, “The Key” is Reverie’s best attempt yet at giving each of its four main leads meaningful moments in a weekly story. It probably helped that the “reverie of the week” was Alexis, but it’s something the show should definitely do more of in future.

Stray Thoughts and Observations

• Oliver Hill has seen Inception way too many times.
• Is it weird that I kind of don’t care that much about whatever Oliver’s grand revenge plan against Onira Tech is?
• If Mara’s derealizations were her brain trying to piece together a traumatic truth she’d forgotten, what does that mean for Oliver? Is he really going crazy from prolonged Reverie 2.0 exposure or is there something else at work here? Is there something he’s trying to repress?
• I know that Mara’s dirtbag brother-in-law is a murderer and general trash, but I can’t help being a little bit uncomfortable about the fact that she and Paul are so willing to force themselves into Ray’s comatose mind for whatever reason. Reverie’s bizarre issues surrounding technology and consent are well documented in other episodes, but at least the show usually tries to pretend like it acknowledges them. Other than Mara sheepishly admitting her idea “is probably illegal”, it’s not mentioned much.
• In happier thoughts: Paul came THISCLOSE to admitting that he’s totally in love with Mara and they should date. My shipper heart is so happy right now.
• That said: Whatever happened to poor Chris? Did Mara just hang up on him and ghost again?

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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