'Reverie' premiere recap: 'Apertus'

NBC’s newest sci-fi drama Reverie introduces the audience to Mara Knit, a behavior expert who helps rescue people in a virtual reality program.

“Apertus” begins with a man and woman celebrating their anniversary in a lavish hotel. The two stand on the balcony watching hot air balloons as a band plays classical music. A beeping noise breaks through the celebration and the scene changes to the man lying unconscious and hooked up to medical machines. The man is lost in a virtual reality simulator called Reverie.

Alexis Barrett and Charlie Ventana watch the man and discuss what to do now. Alexis is the brains behind the Reverie program for Onira-Tech, and Charlie leads Onira-Tech’s security team. He’s worried because they now have seven Reverie consumers who are in comas and says Reverie will be shut down if they can’t fix the program. Lexie agrees they need to find a solution.

Mara Knit, a behavioral expert and teacher, downs pills and alcohol before starting her morning class. Charlie walks in as she’s having the students do an exercise about nonverbal communication. Mara sees Charlie and dismisses the class. They go eat street food. She talks about her class and how people aren’t developing empathy and interpersonal skills because of technology. Charlie offers her a job, saying he knows how good she is since they worked together when she was a hostage negotiator.

Charlie says after he retired from being a police chief, he created his own security business and started working for Onira-Tech. He explains Reverie is tech which allows its users to experience their fondest memories. The dream simulation allows users to change their appearance, see lost loved ones, and generally change it to go the way they want. By using pictures and other data, a dream is created based on each person’s design. He explains some people don’t want to come back to the real world, which is why he wants her to go inside Reverie and help save the users.

Later Charlie talks to a business associate named Monica about Mara, saying she’s the best person for the job. A flashback reveals why Mara quit being a hostage negotiator. In the flashback, Mara loses her sister, Jamie and niece, Brynn when Jamie’s abusive husband/boyfriend discovers she wants to leave. Mara tries to talk him down and gets a text from Charlie saying the police are on their way. The abuser seems to calm down, but then he hears sirens and he shoots and kills Jamie and Brynn. In the present, Mara cries as she looks at a picture of Brynn sitting beside her stuffed animal on the shelf before staring at the Reverie card.

The next day Alexis and Charlie show Mara around Onira-Tech and introduce her to the building’s AI Dylan. Alexis explains that Mara will use a prototype they’ve been working on which allows two people to share a Reverie experience. They take her to the brain-computer interface (BCI). Mara wants to know why they don’t remove the BCI since it’s basically an implant. Alexis says the connection is too strong and if they remove it, it could cause severe damage to the user.

They show Mara the first coma patient, Tony Lenton. She stares at his daughter sitting in his room and decides to take the job. She gets the BCI implant and then walks around the building. She sees a mandala symbol and Paul Hammond and tells her it is a gateway symbol, which is how you find your way back to reality in Reverie. Paul is the Chief Oneirologist of Onira-Tech, which means he deals with researching and designing the dreams. He explains he creates the basic layout and structures, and the user helps customize with the details they want.

Paul gives her a tablet and tells her to use the command word apertus which will take her inside the box, or training simulation. She opens her eyes to find she’s in a lush forest. She chases a swarm of shining bugs around and sees a fire. He had said she could train her brain to not react to fear, so she puts her hand in the fire. Everything is fine at first, but then the whole forest is on fire. She starts to panic and ends up in an encased box which starts filling with water. She calls out, but Paul can’t hear her when she’s in the simulation. She can’t find a gateway icon and calls out exitus, which Paul said was the ending keyword. She wakes up in the real world.

Paul and Alexis argue about the amount of danger Mara is in and what will happen when she uses the tech to connect to Tony. Mara speaks to Tony’s brother Jay, who reveals Tony’s wife Naomi died in a car accident recently and he blames himself for surviving. He uploaded photos, voicemails, and other information of Naomi’s.

Mara goes through more simulations, quickly learning Reverie. When she finishes, she finds the surprise Paul promised. She’s back in the favorite memory she told to Charlie and watches happily as the floating lanterns soar into the sky.

Monica and Charlie talk about Mara and decide it’s time for her to go into Tony’s Reverie. Mara uses the tablet to go into Tony’s simulation. She notices Tony and Naomi immediately, but he notices her too and the scene changes to a festival. She hears a girl and sees a stuffed animal that looks like her niece’s and she almost losesTony.

Mara follows Tony and finds herself in a round library room. When she opens one of the doors, she sees the festival. She sees a butterfly on a door handle and follows it when it flies to another door. She opens said door to find herself back on the balcony. Tony confronts her and the simulation starts breaking. He yells at her to go away and pushes her off the balcony, but she says exitus and wakes in the office.

When she gets out of the simulation, Paul reminds her that she’s okay and asks her about a spike in her brain activity halfway through her mission. The image of the stuffed animal flashes through her mind, but she lies.

Mara talks with Iris, Tony’s daughter. Iris tells her Tony was poor when he proposed to her mom, but paid someone to let them use the hotel’s roof. Later, Mara asks the AI Dylan to search for butterflies in the media Tony uploaded. The two chat and Dylan reveals there are three pictures with butterflies, but none are the butterfly she saw. She notices one of Naomi's friends and asks Dylan for her information and leaves.

While Mara’s gone, one of the Onira-Tech employees says Tony only has a few days left. She tells Charlie about a test Paul ordered on Mara’s brain and says she’s worried Mara might have a psychiatric disorder.

Mara meets with Naomi’s best friend Allison at her work. She tells her what happened to Tony and asks questions. Allison reveals Naomi was very ill before her accidental death. After, Mara goes to Tony’s house and finds a small package with a picture of the butterfly she saw and a pill inside.

Mara brings the pill to Charlie, who says it’s a drug called Skeiron. Mara tells them Tony had a negative reaction to the butterfly. The group talks it over and Alexis says the program works a bit different for everyone. Mara asks if it’s like how drug side effects can be different for everyone. She thinks the program thought the butterfly had something to do with love when it really deals with Tony’s guilt.

Mara goes back into Reverie and Tony is angry to see her again. She mentions the butterfly and all the background characters go still. Mara tells Tony who she is and says Onira-Tech sent her in to talk to him, but he’s still upset for invading his privacy. She calms him down and gets him talking about the proposal. They talk about Naomi's illness and she finds out he was on Skeiron during the accident. Tony breaks down and talks about the anniversary date he had planned at the hotel.

Mara continues to gain his trust as she tells him she also feels responsible for the death of loved ones. She talks about self-medicating and how her life just changed. She mentions Iris and reveals he’s been in Reverie for weeks. He’s shocked and she tells him Iris will grow up alone unless he lets go of the simulation. Tony speaks with the simulation of Naomi, apologizing for what happened and saying goodbye. He and Mara leave through a door and he wakes up to find his brother and daughter in his room. A few moments later, Mara comes in and they thank her for saving Tony.

Charlie asks Paul to bring any information about Mara’s health to him directly. Later he talks to Monica at a restaurant and it’s revealed she works for the Department of Defense. She claims they’re just interested in the potential of Reverie and have no direct plans for the program.

Alexis plays a game with Dylan in her room. She mentions they used to play the game all the time when they were kids. On the wall are pictures of her as a kid along with a young boy.

Mara gets home looks at a picture of her dead family. She picks up the picture of her niece Brynn that’s covering up her sister’s murderer in the family picture. She flashes back to the day of the murder and remembers him killing himself as the police sirens drew closer. Mara starts cleaning up her home and getting rid of her alcohol and pills. She hears something and looks behind her in the hallway to see her niece Brynn. She turns on the light and Brynn disappears.

I enjoyed the first episode of Reviere and look forward to seeing what the show has planned. It definitely reminds me of a few pieces of media, Inception and Fringe for example. It has a diverse cast. Overall I thought it was an okay pilot when it came to the writing. I thought the performances, particularly Sarah Shahi (Mara) and Jessica Lu’s (Alexis), were good. I want to know more about the Reverie program and what problems the Onira-Tech employees are hiding.

Reverie airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC. Check out the preview for the next episode below.