The pursuit of a thief through the Reverie is complicated by Mara’s serious doubts about OniraTech and 2.0 after a near-catastrophic de-realisation episode and a chance encounter. Realising that she understands very little about her new employers leads her to question whether she can trust them at all.

Picking up precisely where the last instalment left off, the episode starts out with a hefty dose of reality check for Mara. Can she trust her own senses? How can she ever be sure when she’s awake and when she’s experiencing de-realisation? And just exactly how much does she know about OniraTech anyway?

But just in case you were worried that the show was going to give up on individuals being chased through the Reverie by Mara and start exclusively dealing with real-world politicking and drama instead, in pops our pursuit of the week. Not a victim this time, but rather someone who’s let themselves into Reverie with a very specific purpose.

It’s a nice change of pace from a format that could otherwise get stale and limited very quickly – after all, there are only so many ways of telling the story of someone who gets too fascinated by their own wildest fantasy and never wants to leave it. Here, we have instead someone specifically using Reverie for a real-world goal, and the best bit is that it isn’t the obvious one you assume when the character is first introduced.

There’s also a good deal of work done by the various actors to make the plot about Mara’s doubts satisfyingly tense. From the intensity of an early random encounter to interactions with Alexis, Dylan and even Charlie, the show wisely plays everyone just vaguely enough that any interpretation of what we are seeing is possible, keeping an intriguing thread of narrative alive. There’s always been an edge of mystery to the whole crew at OniraTech, a feeling that everyone isn’t necessarily being perfectly straight with our protagonist, and the episode uses and extends this to good effect here.

And what’s really impressive is how the show gets you to care about the focus of Mara’s efforts this week. Even though he’s not a ‘victim’, his is still an interesting story with depth and feeling, and a lot of that is sold (as per the norm for this show to date) by the respective performances of the actors. It’s a bit of a mushy one, sure, but it works because Shahi and her co-star sell it so earnestly and well.

And by the end, well, there are some answers, but also a lot more questions. I don’t think we are done exploring the effects of the Reverie on Mara, or that we have explored the full potential extent of her de-realisations. More importantly, there’s every sign here that we may be getting a more complex overarching narrative here than the initial premise of the show promised, and that can only be a good thing.

Verdict: A nice change of gears with a very different take on the usual formula of the show, and more solid work by the cast. Rapidly becoming much better than I initially expected. 8/10

Greg D. Smith