‘Reverie’ Season 1, Episode 8 ‘Despedida’ Recap: Reliving The Coup

Perhaps some of the dullest moments in life happen when we are growing old. As we age, our capabilities become limited. Sometimes, even our memories fade away. However, when they are not entirely gone, we reminisce. This chapter of Reverie revolves around this point of life. While it presents similar risks as to what happened previously, the Protagonist prevails. In contrast to the events, a shocking surprise occurs in the end.

In this week’s episode of Reverie, Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi) encounters an old woman named Pilar Simonet (Anne Betancourt) who currently stays in a nursing home. As Pilar’s health declines because of spending too much time in the program, the management calls on Oniratech. Determined to bring Pilar back to reality, Mara comes up with plans that eventually help bring Pilar the feeling of having a purpose once more. However, problems arise that mean trouble for the Oniratech team without them knowing.

1973 Chilean Coup d’état

Greg Gayne/NBC

Because of her old age and declining health, Pilar decides to acquire a BCI. When she does, she uses it so much that she misses some of her treatment as well as her daily activities. Alarmed, the management contacts Oniratech which sends Mara in Pilar’s program. While Mara does not convince her at first, she does gather enough information about what Pilar was playing as well as an assumption as to what she had in mind. Because of this, Mara devises a plan.

Since Mara assumes that Pilar wanted to reunite with her lost lover Joaquin (Adrian Anchondo), she fetches him from the battlefield. Joaquin is supposed to be fighting the soldiers. However, since Mara took him, the soldiers had no one to fight. Because of this, Pilar’s plan was ruined. Apologetic, Mara tries to find a way to put Pilar’s objectives back on track. Pilar wanted to rescue and say goodbye to a group of four young girls, captured by the soldiers. As much as Pilar did this in real life, she never had the chance to say goodbye. With that, Mara approaches the management.

Greg Gayne/NBC

Restarting the BCI would let Pilar reset the story and try again, so Mara asks the management if they would let Pilar do so. Unfortunately, the management declines, so Mara approaches the Oniratech team for help. When she returns to Pilar’s program, she had a different plan in place. Pilar and Mara break the girls out of the church and successfully cross the border. After saying goodbye, Pilar leaves the program.

Learning of Pilar’s motives, Mara and Charlie Ventana (Dennis Haysbert) help her reunite with the girls she helped long ago. Pilar and Elvia (Lidia Porto), one of the four girls, make an emotional reunion. While Elvia thanked Pilar as well as show her photos of her family, Charlie and Mara stood back and watched as they had their well-deserved closure.

Greater Threats

Greg Gayne/NBC

Because of Mara’s injuries incurred during her previous rescue, Paul Hammond (Sendhil Ramamurthy) asks Alexis Barret (Jessica Lu) to look into this problem. Alexis takes a risk when she contacts Oliver Hill (Jon Fletcher), her former partner and co-developer of the program. Oliver may have provided her with a solution, but this man was doing things to get back to the program secretly.

Greg Gayne/NBC

Later that evening, Oliver meets Leekly (Gary Kraus), an Oniratech security guard whom he bribed into getting a BCI. When Leekly left, Oliver uses the BCI immediately, despite being in a public setting. The bar’s patrons check on him as he collapsed. Elsewhere, Mara thought she was going to have a good time. Because she invited Chris Condera (Sam Jaeger) over for dinner, she thought nothing of the ordinary when Chris shows up at her house. However, the actual Chris calls her phone. As she talked to him, the ‘Chris’ who was with her turned into her brother-in-law before he faded out.

Greg Gayne/NBC

This episode was something else. The user of the BCI becomes her young self in the program, something that never made its revelation before. Also, the setting of the program is a historical event. This possibility makes it seem that some sort of ‘time travel’ is possible without having to face the consequences of changing circumstances. The ending presents something critical happening in the next chapter, so we are in for another intense story.

Reverie continues Wednesday, August 1st, with “The Key” at 10/9c on NBC.