‘Reverie’ Season 1, Episode 9 ‘The Key’ Recap: Suppressed Memories

Compared to the previous chapters, Reverie‘s themes become emotionally more substantial in this chapter. After an unprecedented emergency, the Oniratech team finds the person they least hoped to encounter. The danger lies ahead as the protagonist goes into unexplored feats of the program. However, this is not the only problem. The antagonist intricately planned something terrible that could mean the company’s end.

In this week’s episode of Reverie, Oliver Hill (Jon Fletcher) starts phase one of his menacing plan. Meanwhile, Mara Kint (Sarah Shahi) struggles with the strangest case of derealization ever known to the team. As Charlie Ventana (Dennis Haysbert) and Paul Hammond (Sendhil Ramamurthy) put forth their best efforts to help Mara, Alexis Barrett (Jessica Lu) decides to make a final encounter with Oliver.

The Arsonist

Justin Lubin/NBC

After the team discovers that Oliver somehow acquired a BCI, Mara decides to enter the program and find out why Oliver is there. The group reluctantly lets her, given Mara’s current state. However, Mara does it anyway. When she enters the program, Mara finds herself at a beach. Mara makes contact with Oliver, who asked to meet with Alexis. Also, Oliver tells her that Mara needed to get rid of the BCI implant so that the derealization stop. As Mara exited the program, she lets the team know about his request. Because of this, Alexis decided to enter the program as well.

Justin Lubin/NBC

When Alexis finally meets with Oliver, Oliver takes her to a place she always dreamed of going: France. However, this was not the final surprise. Oliver made a digital version of Alexis’ dead brother, Dylan (Kai Scott). Alexis angrily left the program, realizing that it was a mistake to trust him. Unknown to anyone on the team, Oliver had a mole inside Oniratech. Leekly (Gary Kraus) stole Alexis’ security key while she was still in the program. Dylan may have warned Charlie and Tirza Hagan (Molly Hagan) about the deactivated camera in Alexis office, but they were too late.

That evening, Leekly gave Oliver the flash drive that would help Oliver access the program’s source code. He was going to use this ‘burn down Oniratech’ permanently. Moments later, Oliver kills Leekly then drives off. The next morning, he follows after Alexis, who was on her way to meet with her family for her birthday. Towards the end, Oliver meant nothing but chaos towards Alexis and Oniratech.

A Disgruntled Mara

Justin Lubin/NBC

Throughout the entirety of the episode, Mara deals with the tragedy of her loss. Flashbacks from the day that her brother-in-law, Ray McConley (Christopher Redman) killed her sister, Jamie, and her niece, Brynn. It reaches a point when Mara starts to doubt if Alexis, Paul, and Charlie were real as they stood in front of her. After an encounter with Oliver, Mara decides to get rid of the BCI implant permanently. However, as the day progresses, Paul comes up with a theory that could help Mara.

Justin Lubin/NBC

Based on Mara’s experiences, Paul theorizes that the program is helping Mara uncover a suppressed memory. At first, Mara declines Paul’s offer to help him, since she is comfortable with keeping the memories buried. However, Mara considers how she valued her job and how she enjoyed working with Paul, Charlie, and Alexis. With the help of Dylan, Mara reconsiders her decision, thinking about how many people she could help.

Eventually, Mara recounts Ray’s hostage-taking incident. Paul listens to her intently, but it seemed like there was nothing that Mara could think that would help them. As Charlie sees what they are doing across the hall, he decides to talk to Mara. What he revealed was unexpected. It turns out that Mara called Charlie, who was on his way to the location. Since Charlie’s phone is in his pocket, it redirects Mara to voicemail.

Justin Lubin/NBC

The phone recorded Mara and Ray’s conversation. In contrast to Mara’s story, Ray had said something before he pulled the trigger. Ray apologizes to Mara, then comes the shocking part. Since there was nothing Mara could do to bring Jamie and Brynn back, she coerces Ray to kill himself. As we all know, he shoots himself in the head.

The revelation sent Mara straight back to her home. Mara could not believe her words, and yet there they were, recorded on Charlie’s phone. Fortunately, Mara’s derealization went away. Still, Mara knew that she needed to do something to ease her guilty conscience. Mara visits Ray, who was in a comatose. With Pauls help, Mara decides to have a word with him using a BCI.

Reverie continues Wednesday, August 8th, with “Point of Origin” at 10/9c on NBC.