It’s not a fairy tale anymore.

Dirk and Todd get to Wendimoor, but Dirk would do anything to quit the search for the boy after all that happened last week. That changes when some strange girl “captures” him, leading him to a strange discovery. It’s also shown the land will ruin itself because of very thick mistrust, and there’s a new ruler in town.

SPOILERS BELOW

However, the episode doesn’t reveal what happened to Farah and the events at the Bergsberg Hospital. It stays mainly in the magical land, which Dirk (Samuel Barnett) and Todd (Elijah Wood) know is not Miami because of the big smiling crescent moon that is NOT in Miami. Even though the show has been alternating between Bergsberg and Wendimoor, the pacing is a bit off. For one thing, it’s still not revealed what happened to Sheriff Hobbs after his confrontation with the Mage two weeks back. Bart isn’t playing as big a role as she did last season. Mona, the fairy who sent Dirk on his quest, hasn’t been seen since the opener. How come she hasn’t even been a hologram to give Dirk some advice, like Watki is helping out Amanda?

It still opens episodes with odd scenes. This time, Hector Cardenas is being chased by something in 1967. His wife tries to wake who we think is Arnold. It’s revealed the monster was the Purple People Eater that chased Dirk, but it goes away suddenly. This may suggest something.

In the present, Todd and Dirk find themselves in a deserted castle, and debating where they really are. Dirk also admits he can’t solve this case because it’s led to several deaths, including Arnold, and his friends could be next. He’s also afraid he’ll wind up being alone again.

Todd doesn’t care. He wants to find Amanda (Hannah Marks), but gets promptly lost in the woods. He runs into Silas (Lee Majdoub) and Wygar Oak,(Aleks Paunovic) who promptly accuse him of killing Farson (Ajay Friese) and being an ally of the Mage. Once Todd says the magic words, “Dirk Gently”, things are suddenly fine.

It’s a reflection of the blood feud between the Trosts and Dengdamors which is causing more damage to the land than the Mage ever could. Queen Frija Dengamor (Karin Konoval) is demanding vengeance for a death that is not true (Farson ran away because he was sick of the fighting) while Jeppum Trost (David Allen Pearson) is also determined to wipe out the cruel Dengamors. His daughter Litzibitz (Anja Savcic) calls him a bobo fool, which upsets him a lot….even though she may be right. The thing is, the kids are sick of this war and want to end it. Too bad the family heads think otherwise, maybe thanks to manipulation by the Mage.

Meanwhile, Amanda is upset she is getting visions of death. Watki (Agam Darshi) says it’s a reality that could happen, and that there are worse things than death. She is still hoping the boy can be found to fix everything, but she also tells Amanda her world is threatened by a war between order and chaos. Amanda decides to try to stop the “future”, but Watki says the universe is broken, and Amanda must get the tools to fix it.

She manages to find some of the forest people and Farson, who doesn’t want to go home to his warmonger mom. She also finds Litzibitz, and it looks like maybe death can be avoided. However, they’re followed by the Kellum Guard..and maybe others.

While this is happening, Dirk’s captured (more or less) by a strange girl from the Bofuki Nepoo. She shows him odd things, like hamburgers that grow from pea pods. After a while, she finds some odd murals similar to the ones from the Cardenas house. They include the Purple People Eater, the boat in the middle of the field back in Bergsberg, and the house. There also seems to be murals of the Cardenas family…including an extra son? Also, that son must have come from the boat. So, it looks like “the boy” was not Arnold.

At a bridge, it looks like a happy ending could be at hand. Todd’s reunited with Amanda, as are Farson and Silas. However, the heads of both families are also there, really to attack first and not ask questions later. Amanda is able to calm both sides down…until a shot is fired.

Remember, Lord Triangle provided Jeppum with guns thanks to the Mage stealing some and getting them to Wendimoor. This time, it’s Lord Triangle (Christian Sloan) shooting Litzibitz in the head. This leads to an all-out attack that kills Farson and several others.

Now both sides are vowing revenge, and it looks like if the Mage does come back, he can conquer Wendimoor as the last man standing. Todd and Amanda run away, but she wants to stay to stop this war. All Todd wants to do is get back to Dirk, and maybe prove Wendimoor isn’t real but only a drawing. Tell that to Litzibitz and Farson.

Can it get worse? Well, Suzie the Magical Mad Housewife (Amanda Walsh) made it to Wendimoor, and claims the Mage has quit. That must really mean she’s cast a spell on him, since she’s now taped her wand to her right hand. She also confronts Watki, and tells her she’s taking over, Watki isn’t scared, and predicts Suzie will eventually feel small.

When Amanda gets back to Watki, it appears she’s dead. Todd still insists they find Dirk, while he sacrificed a lot to find her. She says he did it out of guilt, and she’s not leaving. As for Suzie, Lord Triangle learns the hard way that there’s a new evil Mage/Queen in town, and it is her.

Back at the ruins, Dirk is trying to figure out what he missed. Then it comes to him: while Arnold thought Wendimoor wasn’t quite real to him, the brother that we don’t know about managed to create the land in a dream. Dirk then leaves, claiming he’s solved the case…but how?

Come to think of it, there was that old guy called Project Moloch back at Blackwing, who was also an old friend of Dirk’s. Could he be the boy? If so, how can he possibly fix things?

It’s likely the next episode won’t start with that. It’ll come back to Bergsberg to see what happened to Farah and Tina, and maybe the betrayed Mage, too. Hopefully, it’ll also include what Dirk has figured out.