Bond. Jane Bond. – Reverie

By starrymag | June 12, 2018

By: Jessica Wolff

 

 

A sales rep (Paulina Bugembe) explains Reverie to Rachel Kauffman (Ahna O’Reilly), and Rachel admits she’s been in a bad place lately and wants an adventure. Inside her Reverie, she goes into a bar and orders a scotch. Keystone (Jeff Marlow) approaches her, refers to her as Agent Kauffman, and tells her that her mission is to track down a scientist with the code name Vater (John Brotherton). Keystone spots three of Vater’s agents enter and shoots at them. Rachel runs for cover as the bar erupts in a shootout, then grabs her gun and joins the fray.

 

Rachel is excited about how realistic her shooting is when she hits one of Vater’s agents. Keystone tells her to chase the agent that ran away and identifies Vater once they are outside. Rachel recognizes Vater from a family photo, and freezes as Vater’s agents shoots Keystone. Vater drives away and Rachel points a gun at a car that pulls up, ordering the driver to get out. The driver complies and Rachel chases after Vater.

 

Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi) is unable to sleep, haunted by the vision of Brynn (Madeleine McGraw) standing in her hallway. She looks at her photo of Brynn, and hears Brynn’s laughter. As she calls out to Brynn, Mara gets a call from Charlie Ventana (Dennis Haybert) asking her to come in early. He explains that Rachel’s condition is more urgent due to her fast heart rate, and Paul Hammond (Sendhil Ramamurthy) suggests that Rachel might have a previously undetected heart condition. Alexis Barrett (Jessica Lu) reminds them that Rachel signed a waiver, and Charlie tells Mara to rescue Rachel before she goes into cardiac arrest.

 

Mara asks why they’ve stopped walking, and Charlie shows her her new office. She asks about the details of Rachel’s Reverie, and Paul explains that the details are mostly confidential. Charlie urges her to work quickly, and Mara settles into the office bed before entering Rachel’s Reverie. She finds herself inside a fancy casino, and spots Rachel being led to the bathroom at gunpoint. Mara follows her and enters the bathroom as Rachel insists to the men that she doesn’t know anything about Vater.

 

Mara calls out to Rachel as one of the men puts a gun to Rachel, and tells her they need to talk. One of the men slams Mara against the wall by the throat, but Rachel knocks them both out and searches their pockets. Mara thanks Rachel for saving her, and repeats that they need to talk. Rachel finds a room key inside on of the pockets, and tells Mara that there’s no time. Mara follows Rachel out of the bathroom and explains how she was able to enter her Reverie. She tries to talk to Rachel about her condition, but Rachel questions how she can trust her when so many people have lied to her.

 

The men exit the bathroom, and Rachel accuses Mara of slowing her down. Mara follows her through the hotel and into a room. She finds Rachel searching the suitcases and asks if she’s looking for a clue, assesing that this Reverie is set up like a game. Rachel continues to search the hotel, and Mara explains the issues with her heart. However, Rachel tells her that nobody ever told her about a heart condition and refuses to trust Mara. Rachel insists her Reverie is more than a game and finds a receipt in the hotel for a marina. She shoots the men that enter the room and tells Mara she’s not leaving her Reverie.

 

Paul explains to Mara that some Reveries are built to allow people to play out their fantasies like a video game. Mara tells him that Rachel doesn’t think it’s a game, and that she can’t get through to her until she finds out what she’s looking for. She tells him that the digital characters spoke to her this time, and Paul explains that it means that the program is becoming more familiar with her presence.

 

Mara studies Rachel and asks Dylan (Kai Scott) questions about her. She calls Rachel “Jane Bond” and clarifies that she means a female James Bond. Mara stops Dylan before he can read the encyclopedia on James Bond, and Dylan comments that he and Alexis used to play as spies together when they were younger. Mara is confused, and Dylan tells her that Rachel’s more frequent interaction on social media is with Anton Deray (Konstantin Melikhov).

 

Mara spots Brynn walk by her office and chases her down into a crowd. She grabs out for Brynn, but scares a different girl. Mara tries to apologize, and walks away as Charlie witnesses the interaction. Later, Mara asks Anton about Rachel, and he tells her that she had her heart broken a lot of times and that Rachel got upset after cleaning out her aunt’s house, but wouldn’t explain why. Mara thanks him for his help, and Paul approaches her at the table. Telling her that Charlie sent him, he asks to talk.

 

Paul asks her if she’s had any hallucinations recently, explaining that a side effect of her version of Reverie is derealization: the appearance of images with strong emotional connection outside of the Reverie. Mara tells him about the times she saw Brynn, and he assures her it’s a temorary effect. He advises her to put away images of Brynn until the effect passes and gives her medication that she is reluctant to take. Charlie informs them that Rachel’s condition has worsened, and Mara asks Paul for help getting a fancy dress and a gun inside Reverie.

 

Mara enters Rachel’s Reverie and finds herself standing on a boat with her requested outfit on. She finds Rachel sneaking around the boat and Rachel shushes her as she attempts to approach a group of armed gunmen above. Mara shoots them with her gun, and Rachel compilments her shooting. Mara tells her about her background, but Rachel still doesn’t want to talk to her. She tells Mara that she knows what she must do and explains that the boat will lead her to Vater. Mara asks why she wanted to be a spy, and Rachel tells her that spies know people are lying to them. After Mara concludes that the mission became personal for her, Rachel calls Reverie magical.

 

Mara asks Rachel what happened after she cleaned her aunt’s house, and Rachel asks who told her about that. Rachel tells Mara that it taught her not to trust anyone, and orders her to stop asking questions. Mara warns her she is in danger of going into cardiac arrest, but Rachel orders her to get off the boat, pointing a gun at her. Rachel questions what happens if Mara dies in her Reverie, and Mara watches from the dock as the boat sails away.

 

Charlie introduces Mara to their investor, Monica Shaw (Kathryn Morris). Mara is surprised by Monica’s enthusiasm of meeting her, and Monica explains that she was impressed by her initial success. Charlie asks to speak to Mara privately, and asks if there’s been any additional side effects. Mara is confident that Paul’s instructions will help, but Charlie reminds her that she rarely follows instructions. She insists she’ll be fine, but Charlie warns her to be careful before telling her to get some rest. Monica asks why Charlie’s so concerned about Mara, and he reminds her that they don’t fully understand the effects of Reverie. She comments that he’s never expressed concern about Reverie before.

 

Mara hears another noise in her apartment and takes the medicine before hiding her pictures of Brynn in a drawer. The next morning, Dylan gives Mara details about Rachel’s mother and Mara asks if her mother is mentioned on her social media. Dylan tells her there are three mentions. Mara is surprised that none of the mentions are recent, and asks Dylan if there’s any mention of the name Vater. Dylan tells Mara that the name is pronounced differently in Germany and means father.

 

Mara tells Paul of her discovery, suggesting that Rachel is looking for her father inside the Reverie. Paul suggests that the program subconsciously sensed her desire to find her father and altered the Reverie to help her. Mara tells him there’s no father listed on the birth certificate, and Paul suggests that there may be something on Rachel’s laptop.

 

Alexis refuses to hack into Rachel’s laptop, but Mara tells her that Paul told her she was the best in the office. She tells Mara that flattery won’t help her, but reluctantly takes the laptop when Mara persists. As Alexis works, Mara asks her questions about her family, telling her what Dylan told her. Alexis tells her that Dylan is just an AI and successfully hacks into the laptop.

 

Mara shows Charlie a photo of Rachel’s parents that she believes Rachel found at her aunt’s house despite her aunt denying knowing anything about her father. She tells him that Rachel hired a private investigator to look for him, but found no results. Mara asks Charlie to find Rachel’s father, insisting that the investigator didn’t look seriously for him and reminding him that he brought her in to help people.

 

Mara goes back into Rachel’s Reverie and waits for her to arrive to an elaborate mansion. Rachel is not happy to see her, but Mara tells her that she’s not going to get in her way. Mara tells her that she knows what it’s like to push people away, and that she always secretly hoped that someone would stay to help her. She tells her that she’s going to be there for her whether she likes it or not and they walk to the mansion together.

 

Charlie asks Dylan to run facial recognition on the man in the picture, and Dylan asks why he works outside his office. Charlie tells him he doesn’t want him in his office, and Dylan tells him there are too many possible results on the facial recognition. Charlie focuses on the class ring in the picture and decides to look at the high shool for results.

 

Rachel and Mara go inside and find Vater sitting inside. He greets them and invites him in and they go to him. Mara observes as Vater tells Rachel to ask her questions. Rachel asks if he’s her father, and Vater asks what she thinks. She tells him that she sees the resemblence, and Vater confirms it. Rachel asks him more questions, but he remains silent. She tearfully admits that she doesn’t want to push people away anymore, but he continues to remain silent. Mara approaches her and tells her he can’t answer her questions, and that it’s time to go, promising that she’ll be on the other side. Rachel wakes up and Mara welcomes her back.

 

Paul compliments Mara on her success, and Charlie brings in Elliot Harrison (Andy Forrest), the friend with the class ring next to Rachel’s father. Harrison tells them that Rachel’s father, Alan, and her mother had a deal for him not to be involved with Rachel. Rachel approaches them, and Mara introduces her. Harrison gives Rachel Alan’s contact information and she hugs him. Mara thanks Alexis for her help with  the laptop, and tells her that she’s starting to see how miraculous Reverie is. Dylan tells Alexis that it’s time for Backgammon, and Paul explains that Dylan was Alexis’ twin brother that died at around ten years old as they obeserve Alexis and Dylan play.

 

Rachel meets her father, and tells him that she doesn’t expect anything from him. He shows her his copy of the family photo and tells him that he’s been waiting for the chance to meet her. Alan tells her he never forgot about her and asks if she wants to meet the rest of his family. As Rachel meets the family, Mara hears another noise in her apartment. She decides not to take the pills, and looks at the photo of Brynn. Brynn appears to her and Mara says hello.