The tale of ‘Dirk Gently’ and the Steampunk Robocop

Episode 6 of “Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” ended with our heroes traveling back in time. And if you thought that was just going to be a side detail in the ongoing story, you’re in for a serious wake-up call. Saturday’s (Dec. 3) episode, titled “Weaponized Soul,” not only found Dirk (Samuel Barnett) and Todd (Elijah Wood) traveling a week back in time, the story took a deeper look at the time travel aspect as a whole — and unveiled some unknown details in the process.

Now, pay attention because things might get a bit confusing as we attempt to unpack everything from the episode…

After Todd and Dirk traveled back a week, Todd realized they were in prime position to fix everything that has transpired — but that positive thinking is soon challenged, as some truths come to light.

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Enter: Steampunk Robocop.

(At least, that’s what we’re going to call him for the moment.)

Out of nowhere, a man decked in odd armor, head to toe, busts into the vacant portion of the zoo where Gordon Rimmer (Aaron Douglas) and his henchmen had previously taken up shop. And while this metal dude proceeds to take out the majority of his men, Dirk and Todd soon face elimination.

But thanks to Dirk’s quick thinking, he deduces the real identity of this mysterious soldier dude. Revealing himself to be Patrick Spring — the man whose death originally sent all these odd events into motion — Dirk walks us through the puzzle pieces as he connects, them on the spot.

This, friends, isn’t really Patrick Spring. He’s Edgar Spring. But wait… It turns out he’s not really Edgar Spring either. No, his real name is Zackariah Webb (Julian McMahon) — and in the 1800’s, he built a time machine.

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Yes, the same time machine that is also the huge power source Dirk and Todd went on a mission to find back when they were stuck in that underground maze. But it’s also not just a time machine and power source for the town, it’s also a soul exchanger. One machine, three different purposes. And when Webb sent it into the future, things didn’t go according to plan.

This led Webb on a mission to the ’60s to find his mechanism, changing his identity to Edgar Spring. Here, he meets a group of hippies — led by a man named Jake Rainey — who have taken ownership of his device. This, right here, is the inception of Rimmer’s posse — or, as Spring called them, “The Men of the Machine.” Every cult has its moment of inception, and theirs was Spring’s invention.

So, staying in the ’60s, Edgar Spring changed his name again: To Patrick Spring, taking on the role of his own son, as the decades passed and his war with Reiney — having taken full advantage of the power of soul transference — raged on. But once Lydia Spring entered the picture, Zackariah found a new purpose for living… Until his wife was killed, and his daughter was kidnapped.

Bent on a new mission of revenge, he traveled to the future to face himself during the meeting that was to transpire in the hotel room between himself and the Men of the Machine.

How did Dirk Gently figure all this out? Well, through our heroes’ own time travel, the holistic detective ran into his future self and some important information was shared. Still, the deductive reasoning to get from point A to point B is commendable.

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Needless to say, with all their efforts and sacrifices, the events of the past continued to play out exactly as they did before. The kitten, who Rimmer refers to as a “weaponized soul,” still wreaks havoc in the hotel room, Spring is still murdered and Lydia’s soul is still trapped in that corgi.

And so with Todd feeling betrayed by Dirk, and his secretive ways, we’re set up for the Season 1 finale. But after Dirk is shot by a harpoon gun, electrocuting Todd in the process, our duo is going to need help.

Thankfully, Farah (Jade Eshete) found herself a way out of the trunk of Agent Weeble’s (David Lewis) car — taking the creepy guy out in the process. As for Estevez (Neil Brown Jr.): His drunken search for vengeance led him straight to the old zoo as well. And he was just in time, too. That fist fight with Gordon Rimmer wasn’t going to start itself.

Where will things go from here? Your guess is as good as ours.

“Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency” airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on BBC America.

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