‘Reverie’ Season 1 Episode 7 ‘The Black Mandala’ Recap: Interrogation

Trusting someone becomes especially hard after a traumatic experience. Just like the protagonist, the main character in this chapter of Reverie finds it hard to believe people. A private contractor misuses the program to find answers. Unfortunately, the main character ends up on the receiving end of the abused. After desperately trying to flee the war in Syria, the main character ends up facing the very thing he almost escapes. However, the protagonist’s intervention is what he needed to survive.

In this week’s episode of Reverie, Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi) comes across a secret interrogation while experimenting on the program with Paul Hammond (Sendhil Ramamurthy). As Mara and the Oniratech team form a plan to save the victim, a Syrian refugee named Ehmet Alwad (Ben J. Pierce), Monica Shaw (Kathryn Morris) tries to stop them, or so they thought.

Interrogation Program

As each day passed, Paul always came up with something new for the program. He demonstrates the ability to fly inside the application. This can be done by managing to control the activities of the left brain. After their fun experiment, Mara finds herself in a warehouse, hearing someone call for help. When Mara looks around, she sees a young man locked up in a cell, bound in chains. His name is Ehmet.

Greg Gayne/ABC

Because of what Mara found, the team decides to try to save Ehmet. Upon tracking the I.P. address of Ehmet’s program, they find out that it belonged to the government. This is when Monica shaw comes in, discouraging them from continuing the operation. As Mara re-enters the program to try to save Ehmet, Monica brings a man named Drew Sullivan (Mac Brandt) to Oniratech. Drew is Ehmet’s interrogator.

Greg Gayne/ABC

Meanwhile, Mara convinces Ehmet to trust her, mentioning that she met his brother, Kareem Alwad (Deniz Akdeniz). Eventually, Ehmet trusts Mara and they make their way to the Mandala, their only means of exit. However, they had new problems. Two guards stood in front of the Mandala. The duo comes up with a plan to take the guards out. This becomes successful until one of the guards manage to shoot Mara.

Greg Gayne/ABC

Despite Mara’s injuries, the duo overcomes the challenge posed by the guard. They make it to the exit. Meanwhile, the Oniratech team manages to have the interrogation program canceled. The Alwad brothers reunite and thank Mara for helping. After the incident, Charlie Ventana (Dennis Haysbert) deduces that Monica set up the entire event to have the interrogation program scrapped. At the same time, she got to keep her job.

Perhaps every immigrant in America could sympathize with Ehmet. Not only are they being driven out of the country, but those who seek sanctuary are also even denied entry. Also, like Ehmet, some refugees are wrongly accused. While this is a heartbreaking reality, Reverie gracefully presents the situation. The plea of the war victims must needs addressing, and no racist president should deny them the safety that they deserve.

Opening up

Greg Gayne/ABC

When Mara comes home from work, she invites Chris Condera (Sam Jaeger) over. Mara tells Chris about her day at work, and then her visit to her brother-in-law, Ray McConley (Christopher Redman). It was not easy to see the face of her sister and niece’s murderer, but she pushed through. Mara slowly realized that she is slowly learning how to trust again. With that, she kisses Chris, and their relationship starts once more.

It is nice to see that Mara is slowly healing. She has a pure soul and a kind heart, and she did not deserve to go through that much trauma. In time, Mara would recover along with people she pushed away as well. While it seems like a long shot, I think that Mara would forgive Ray. Mara’s compassionate nature had no room for that much baggage in her heart.

Reverie continues Wednesday, July 25th, with “Despedida” at 10/9c on NBC.