A paralysed former ballet dancer is stuck in the Reverie, threatening her health in the real world. If Mara’s job in finding out the reason and trying to bring her home wasn’t complicated enough, the woman’s therapist turns out to be a familiar face from the past. With the clock against her, a surprising set of revelations has the OniraTech team presented with questions it has never yet considered.

The thing about Reverie is that it always takes the opportunity to dig a little bit deeper than the central conceit might suggest. This week is no exception – our ‘patient of the week’, Hollie is a superbly gifted ballet dancer tragically paralysed in an accident. When we see her in the Reverie, she’s dancing again to an empty theatre, and her sister is in the real world, exclaiming ‘no, not again’. So far so simple, paralysed dancer whose main interest was stolen from her simply wants to stay in the Reverie where she can dance to her heart’s content.

Two things bug Mara though. Firstly, why is the theatre in the Reverie empty? Secondly, what lies beyond the locked door behind which Hollie retreats when Mara first enters the Reverie to try to bring her home? Hollie’s psychiatrist, who has counselled her since her accident, might be able to provide some insight, but that opens a whole other set of complications, as he turns out to be someone Mara knows well from her past.

Once again, the writers get around the fact that slavishly following their basic formula wouldn’t engage the interest for very long. Besides the secrets Mara must slowly pry out as she pieces together the puzzle of Hollie’s life, there’s her own past to deal with in the shape of a man she’s been avoiding since her own tragedy, but with whom she must now work again. Added to that is a complication that adds a further moral consideration to the mix – what if someone knows that staying in the Reverie will kill them, but chooses to stay anyway? It’s addressed briefly, but the sides of the argument which emerge, and where they come from, are a little surprising.

Once again, the writing is really sold by the performances. Shahi remains engaging as Kint, always earnestly trying to help even as you sense her own internal struggles and pain. This is a person you can believe would not only find the way to persuade people to leave their literal dreams behind, but would also be able to speak easily to their loved ones to get there, gaining their trust and respect along the way. Hollie’s sister also deserves mention. Alhough she doesn’t actually get a huge amount of screen time between everything else that the episode packs in, Wynn Everett as Viv does a great job with what she has, and her closing scene, in which the show follows its convention of following up on what happens when Mara’s job is done, is affecting in all the right ways – sappy, but earnestly done.

The final scene gives us another breadcrumb on the trail towards uncovering everything about Mara, and it’s something of a bombshell. Week by week, it becomes clearer and clearer why even someone with Kint’s training, experience and emotional intelligence has been unable to properly move past her own personal tragedy. What the show decides to do with this particular thread may turn out to be the most fascinating bit of all.

Verdict: Nicely balancing itself again, the show knows just how to share out its time between its central conceit and the supporting stuff that lies behind all the characters. Enjoyable and consistently surprising. 9/10

Greg D. Smith