'Reverie' recap: 'Bond. Jane Bond.'

On the latest Reverie, Mara goes inside a spy simulation to save a woman who uses Reverie to escape, but in the real world, her health is in danger.

Previously on Reverie, Mara Knit began working for Onira-Tech. She helps rescue people trapped inside a virtual reality program called Reverie. Mara saved her first patient, but now she’s seeing her dead niece as a side effect of Reverie.

“Bond. Jane Bond” begins with a woman named Rachel looking at a picture of three people. She researches Onira-Tech and goes in to get implanted with the BCI. She says she’s had a difficult time recently and thinks Reverie is what she needs to have an adventure. In Rachel’s simulation, she’s a spy. She walks into a bar and gets details about a bad guy named Vater, who arrives moments later. They fight and Rachel runs after the men. She sees them taking a man she recognizes and seals a car to follow the criminals.

Meanwhile, Mara’s having a difficult time sleeping after seeing her dead niece Brynn. Charlie calls her and says they need her at Onira-Tech. The team shows Mara her new office, then briefs her on Rachel’s situation. Rachel’s having trouble breathing and they’re worried about her heart. They don’t know what she’s doing in the program, as the designs are confidential and they only have access to the data provided.

Mara enters the simulation and finds herself in a casino. She sees two men threatening Rachel and follows, trying to tell Rachel she’s from Onira-Tech. One of the men attacks her and Rachel knocks both men out. Mara starts to explain why she’s there, but Rachel takes a room key from one of the men and leaves.

Mara follows Rachel and again tries to explain what’s happening in the real world multiple times. Rachel doesn’t believe her and claims what she’s doing is too important. She shoots the two men when they find her again and goes looking for her next clue.

Mara exits the simulation and talks to Paul, who explains Rachel is in a spy simulation. She believes she needs to find out what Rachel is looking for in order to gain her trust. Mara tells Paul about being attacked, unlike the first time when she was ignored by the background characters. Paul says this means Reverie is getting to know her and recognizes her as a user now.

Mara does some research on Rachel, finding out she’s a teacher. She talks to Dylan and the AI helps her research. During their talk, Dylan mentions being kids with Alexis. Mara is confused but decides to question the AI after she talks to Anton Deray, one of Rachel’s friends. She looks up and thinks she sees Brynn walking by, holding her stuffed animal. She runs out and pushes through the crowds of people towards the girl, only to find it isn’t Brynn. Mara apologizes and leaves, but Charlie saw the incident.

Mara speaks to Anton, a friend and former boyfriend of Rachel’s. He says Rachel was raised by her aunt, and the aunt died a few months ago. Rachel was okay until she went to clean out her aunt’s home. After that, she became more detached.

Paul asks Mara if she’s had any hallucinations lately, as it’s a side effect of Reverie 2.0. She admits she saw someone she cared about twice, not saying who. He tells her to hide anything she owns related to that person until the effect goes away. He gives her some anti-anxiety medicine to take if it happens again. Charlie comes in, saying Rachel’s health is worse. Mara asks Paul to help her create an outfit and gun to use in the simulation.

Entering Reverie, Mara finds herself on a boat. She helps Rachel by shooting some men and continues to try and gain her trust. Rachel works on the GPS, saying she needs the last coordinates to get to Vater. When Rachel’s aunt is brought up in conversation, she becomes angry. After threatening Mara with a gun, Rachel leaves her on the dock.

Back in reality, Charlie introduces Mara to Monica Shaw. He says he’s worried about her and tells her to follow Paul’s instructions. After she leaves, Monica questions Charlie about being so concerned for Mara. Later at home, Mara takes one of the anti-anxiety pills and puts away items involving her family.

Mara looks into Rachel’s past, learning her mother died from cancer at an early age and her father wasn’t listed on the birth certificate. Dylan explains the meanings of the word Vater, including that it is the German word for father. Mara realizes Rachel’s simulation is about finding her father. Paul says the program might have decided what Rachel needed was to find her father and says there has to be data somewhere. Despite Alexis’s objections that it’s a waste of her time as the resident genius, Mara manages to talk her into hacking Rachel’s laptop. Mara tries to find out if Dylan was molded after someone Alexis knew, but she refuses to answer.

Mara takes her findings to Charlie. Rachel found a picture of her mother, her, and a man in her aunt’s belongings. She suspected the man’s her father and hired people to find him, with no positive results. Mara asks Charlie to try and find the man, saying he might be what helps them save Rachel. Charlie reluctantly agrees.

When Charlie asks Dylan for facial recognition help, it’s revealed Dylan doesn’t have access to Charlie’s office. Dylan gets over three hundred thousand hits when looking for the man. Charlie notices a class ring on a hand of someone cropped out of the picture and Dylan discovers the school's name, helping to narrow down their search.

Mara goes back into Reverie and talks to Rachel. She tells Rachel she’s staying in Reverie to help, even if Rachel doesn’t want her around. The two search an island mansion and find Vater waiting for Rachel. The two have a conversation and Rachel shares what she wants to know about her father. She realizes the simulation can’t answer what she wants and starts to break down. Rachel decides to leave Reverie, and Mara comforts her when she wakes up in the real world.

Charlie found Elliot, the man with the class ring, and he tells them about Alan, Rachel’s father. Rachel’s mother Miriam wanted a baby and Alan was a friend who agreed to help. The two didn’t keep in contact due to Miriam’s wishes. Elliot speaks to Rachel and gives her Alan’s phone number.

Rachel goes to meet her father and he brings out the photo of them together with her mother. He shares that he’s been waiting to meet her and saved the photo for her to see. He asks her if she wants to meet his family and she happily meets with them later on.

Mara goes to see Alexis and thanks her for her help. She sees Alexis playing a game with Dylan as she’s leaving. Paul notices and tells her Dylan was Alexis’s twin brother who died when they were young. Later, Mara thinks she hears her niece again and starts to get a pill, then stops. She pulls out a picture of Brynn and stares at, then sees Brynn in front of her and says hello.

I was left wanting more from this episode of Reverie. I like the idea of the spy angle, but they didn’t do enough with it and I wasn’t fond of Rachel. That said I’m very interested in getting to know the main characters more.

Reverie airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on NBC. Check out the trailer for next week’s episode below.