Weaponized Soul

**"Weaponized Soul"** is an episode of the series *Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency*, the seventh episode of season 1.

## Synopsis

Flung backwards through time, Dirk and Todd make a horrifying discovery about the nature of their case, and find themselves with a unique opportunity: solve their case before it even starts.

## Plot

**One Week In The Past**

Following the activation of the machine, Dirk and Todd are transported one week in the past. While hiding, they witness Gordon Rimmer using his machine to swap Lydia Spring with Rapunzel. Rainey arrives and Gordon explains that Patrick Spring has the other machine (the unlimited energy device) and they can use Lydia to get to it. Declaring that they don't need the other machine, Rainey takes Rapunzel hostage and Gordon is forced to leave with the machine.

Following Gordon's escape, a man in heavy armor arrives and begins killing several Men of the Machine, including Rainey. He discovers Dirk and Todd and Dirk correctly surmises that armed man is Patrick Spring from the past. He explains that he solved the case:

> Patrick Spring was Zackariah Webb who invented a time machine in he 1880s. His first few experiments failed, only sending the energy of the animals he experimented on through time, not their bodies. Eventually he accidentally sent the machine into the future and a new, altered machine came back (the one with Dirk's message). To get his old machine back, he used the new machine to jump to the future where he found a group of hippies, led by Jake Rainey, worshipping it. Rainey refuses to give the machine back and Zackariah leaves to rethink his plan. Soon after he discovers that he can use the time machine as an unlimited energy device and becomes millionaire Edgar Spring, all while planning to eventually gain back his original machine. The Men of the Machine, however, find out how to swap bodies with the machine and declared war with Edgar throughout the years. After one particularly bad fight, Edgar, now as Patrick, was injured and found by a young woman who nursed him back to health and eventually became his wife and mother to his child, Lydia. He thought he found happiness until the Men of the Machine killed his wife throwing him into a blind rage and causing him to travel in time to where they are now.
>
>

After Patrick confirms the theory, he leaves to try and save the kidnapped Lydia, shooting out the tires of all the vehicles in the lot to prevent Dirk and Todd from following him.

Outside of the warehouse, Dirk realizes that "3? 1!" was a sign that Edgar, Patrick, and Zackariah were all one man and the three different machines are all the same machine existing simultaneously but out of chronological sequence. They leave on foot to try and find the still-alive real-time Patrick Spring to try and fix everything. While traveling through the zoo, Todd recognizes a gorilla mask on the concession cart as the one from the hotel security tape. Dirk takes the mask and Todd uses a giraffe mask as a disguise to steal a worker's car undetected.

Elsewhere, Gordon explains to the remaining Men of the Machine that he is tire of the status quo and the way Rainey has been treating them so poorly. He promises to obtain both machines so that they can do and be whatever they want.

Dirk and Todd pull up to the parking lot and Todd finds the real-time version of his lottery ticket on the seat of the car. He puts it in his pocket and the two enter the building through the service entrance, stealing real-time Todd's master key to gain access to the penthouse.

In the penthouse, real-time Patrick Spring meets with Gordon who bargains that he'll swap Lydia back if Patrick gives him the machine. Patrick says it doesn't matter because the war is already finished. He continues to say that he wasted 15 year preparing for this moment and apologizes for taking Lydia for granted. Picking up the phone he calls real-time Dirk who says that he's on his way, though he's still in bed.

Just then, past Patrick Spring arrives and gets into an argument with real-time Patrick Spring. Real-time Patrick tells his past self to find Lydia and tell her he's sorry. When Todd and Dirk arrive, he apologizes to Dirk for hitting him. Past Patrick shoots the man holding the kitten-shark and the shark's energy is activated, destroying the hotel room, several Men of the Machine, and killing real-time Patrick Spring. Todd and Dirk escape with past Patrick but in the process Todd drops the real-time lottery ticket outside of the hotel room door.

While escaping with past Patrick, the three run into real-time Dirk. Dirk tells his past self to remember "3 questions 1 answer" and that Todd is his best friend who lives at the Ridgley. Giving him the gorilla mask as a disguise, he tells himself to get the kitten. An enraged Todd realizes that Dirk knew the entire time that they were in a time loop and was keeping it a secret. He begins yelling at him in the hall and turns just in time for the elevator door to open and for him and real-time Todd to make eye contact.

The three travel to the docks Dirk introduces himself to Patrick as the man that he will hire him to solve his own murder. Dirk says that the Men of the Machine's blindness led to their undoing which is ironic because that's exactly what happened to Patrick, causing Patrick to hit him, the action that real-time Patrick apologized for earlier. Patrick informs them that when the machine came back to him in the 1880s it had a note from Dirk attached to it. He thinks that he just needs to take one more jump to save Lydia but Todd angrily scolds him that he must have done that exact thing which led to where they are now. He suggests that Patrick just accept the consequences of his mistakes rather than fixing them. Patrick agrees, saying he'll head back to 2001 because his daughter needs him, though it is clear that he will spend the next 15 years preparing for his death.

Todd realizes that he was the one who stole his key and the one who left himself the lottery ticket in the first place. Despite his belief that they were going to fix everything, everything ended up exactly the way it started with Dirk knowing the entire time. He tearfully calls Dirk a liar who deserves to be alone and declares that after this is over, he never wants to hear from him again.

They return to the time machine and get into an argument about where they should jump; Todd believes they should just return back to their time and Dirk believes he could travel back to the wild west and fix everything before it starts. They end up jumping back to when they jumped the first time.

**Five Minutes Before Dirk and Todd Left for the Past**

Farah awakens locked in a trunk of a car. She begins to use her gun to try and save herself but the shots get the attention of the Men of the Machine inside the warehouse. Using the distraction as their chance to escape, real-time Dirk and Todd successfully make it to the room with the machine and make the jump. Using her knife, Farah is able to escape through the backseat and kill Agent Weedle.

Gordon goes to check on Rapunzel and finds Lydia, the corgi, and Estevez waiting for him. Estevez begins threatening Gordon to put the two back in their respective bodies before Gordon successfully runs away.

Dirk and Todd arrive back in the room immediately after they left before. The Men of the Machine finally break in and electrocute them both.

## Behind the scenes

### Cast

* Samuel Barnett as Dirk Gently
* Elijah Wood as Todd Brotzman
* Hannah Marks as Amanda Brotzman
* Fiona Dourif as Bart Curlish
* Jade Eshete as Farah Black
* Mpho Koaho as Ken
* Michael Eklund as Martin
* Dustin Milligan as Hugo Friedkin
* Neil Brown Jr. as Estevez
* Aaron Douglas as Gordon Rimmer
* Julian McMahon as Zackariah Webb
* Christian Bako as Ed
* Michael Adamthwaite as Zed
* David Lewis as Agent Weedle
* Alison Thornton as Lydia Spring
* Jeremy Jones as Fred
* Ben Wilkinson as Hermano Palacios
* Jessica Lowndes as Modern Jake Rainey
* Shane Nicely as Eighties Jake Rainey
* Matthew Bissett as Original Jake Rainey
* Laura Mitchell as Catherine Spring
* Tim Lok as Zoo Employee
* Ty Olsson as Dorian
* Bently as Rapunzel the Corgi

### Crew

The crew for this episode has not been recorded yet.

## Notes

**Holistic Connections**

* It is revealed that Lydia was swapped with Rapunzel a week ago.
* When Patrick threatens Dirk on how he knows everything, Dirk exclaims "I have magic powers". In Very Erectus it was shown that Dirk has limited psychic abilities.
* Dirk and Todd forgot their time machine when they were running to find Patrick. In the previous episode, Dirk had berated himself for always running away and forgetting machines.
* The dead bodies that Zimmerfield and Estevez discovered in the warehouse before were the same bodies that past Patrick Spring killed in this episode
* Dirk took the cat in the first episode because he told himself to
* Todd found the lottery ticket because his future self accidentally dropped it
* Gordon recognized Dirk and Todd because he met their future selves before
* Todd's access key was missing because future Todd and Dirk took it
* The man in the gorilla mask on the security tape was Dirk
* Gordon's phone conversation about a Giraffe and Gorilla makes sense since though were the masks Dirk and Todd were wearing at the time of Patrick's murder
* Patrick knew about his murder before it happened because his past self was the one who caused it

**Other Notes**

* The name of the episode comes from the fact that Gordon calls the kitten-shark a weaponized soul.