Arka Mukhopadhyay
With mind-bending revelations and fatal accidents, the sixth episode of ‘The Irregulars’ is something of a roller-coaster ride. The episode sees Beatrice and the team looking to revive an old case and tie the knots together, while Leo has to make a crucial decision against his wishes. However, this episode marks a rupture in the naïve and essentially innocent worldview of Jessica, who is at the center of this fight between good and evil. While the episode ends on a weary and uncertain note with Jessica getting trapped in the tunnels of her nightmare, we, like you, want to know why. In the next sections, we shall try to re-establish the plot and find major clues for what lies in the future of the paranormal ‘Holmes’ universe. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Irregulars Episode 6 Recap
The sixth episode of ‘The Irregulars’ begins with Beatrice and Leopold spying on John Watson. Watson, from our previous experience, has seemed conspicuously shady, and the episode brings this pertinent truth to light. Watson leads the duo to a hospital, where they find patients with missing eyes and ears. Beatrice rightly connects the incident to a previous case – one regarding “the collector” – which Sherlock was pursuing in his final glory days.
Alice found a vial in the crime scene when Sherlock was investigating the case, and the vial supposedly contained “Snowdonia Hawkweed,” according to Sherlock. However, John Watson took the vial to a scientist called Edith Dubois, and he returned with the claim that the potion is made of “Tarragon.” Bea and the team go to Edith Dubois’ place in search of clues, where they find out that Edith is the “collector” who is trying to revive her husband with the use of potions and magic, borrowing organs from other bodies.
While Edith claims that her work is complete, she has made a Frankenstein out of her husband, Sammy. When Beatrice asks Edith about Watson, she discloses a captive John before the team. We find that John is the one who accidentally opened the rip while trying to prove his expertise. To cover it up, he lied to Sherlock about the potion being tarragon and set the present narrative in motion. While Edith manages to revive her husband, Sammy is angry that she did not let him die in peace, and he strangulates Edith with his bare hands, after which he takes his own life.
In another vein of the narrative, Beatrice comes to know of Leo’s true identity as the Prince of England, and she is repulsed by the fact that Leo has chosen to keep the fact hidden from her. Leo wants to free himself from his ties to the monarchy, where he is seen as a frail and invalid prince to be taken care of by the elders. But alienated from the group and Bea, he has to return to his lonely palace. On the other hand, Billy is forced to engage in a fight with his previous keeper, and Billy kills the frolicking drunkard against his best intentions, ending up in a jailhouse.
In an attempt to decode her nightmares, Jessica seeks help from Holmes. Holmes’ intuition suggests that the nightmares indicate towards a plague pit, and while there are too many plague pits in London, he manages to narrow the leads down to one below the London Public Library. Together, Jessica and Sherlock pursue the clue, but it is the wrong pit. Sherlock gets upset about him being incorrect, and Jessica, cut off from the group and her father, tries to connect to the apparition of her dreams. The mysterious person in Jessica’s dreams doesn’t quite appear to be what he is, and Jessica’s life seems to be in grave danger.
The Irregulars Episode 6 Ending: Who is the Man in Jessica’s Dreams?
The Louisiana man in Jessica’s dreams looks something like a benevolent father trying to guide Jessica through a world of ungodly spirits and dark beings, but we had our doubts. The man claims that he is also an ipsissimus, and he is the one who gives Jessica her abilities. As both of them possess this rare psychic ability to delve into another person’s mind, their spirits can communicate in a metaphysical realm.
The “Linen Man” tells Jessica about the boundary between the human world and the spirited world, and he is the one that directs Jessica to find out about the rip. He is the person that Jessica trusts the most, apart from Bea, who is her “guardian angel.” When Spike and others tell Jessica to delve into her nightmares, she feels that others don’t understand her discomfort. She thought Bea would understand, but when Beatrice also pleads her to try harder and find clues from her nightmares, Jessica is devastated.
Feeling misunderstood and lonely, she turns to the fatherly figure of her vision, who tells her that he is hours away from London. Jessica finds a ray of hope, but upon reaching the port, she recognizes that something sinister has made its way to the place before her. Mutilated and dead bodies lay across the shore, and the suited man appears from the darkness. He asks Jessica about the location of the rip, and Jessica, like the naïve person that she is, admits to being unable to find the rip.
Jessica suggests that they can find and close the rip together, but the man tells her that he does not want the rip to be closed. Does he want to use the power of the rip for accomplishing evil? Or could it be that the man is somehow connected to Sherlock’s past? Or is he an incarnation of the Devil in the garb of God? In a paranormal universe where notions of good and evil are blurred, we are as puzzled as Jessica about the identity of the man.
Does Jessica Lose Her Power as an Ipsissimus?
In the final moments of the episode, Jessica meets the man of her dreams, and he turns out to be more sinister than the audience would have anticipated. After interrogating Jessica regarding the whereabouts of the rip, he discloses that he doesn’t want to close it. The audience recognizes greed in the man’s eyes. He decides that Jessica is too weak to delve into the minds of the monsters and removes the butterfly from her wrist. In the final moment, we see Jessica getting trapped in the dungeon of her dreams.
It could be that the man has taken away Jessica’s powers from her. However, we know from the storyline that Jessica’s powers have been acquired from her mother, Alice. If it is hereditary, there is little chance that the ability can be taken away from her. While it seems that Jessica is imprisoned by the fatherly apparition, we have faith in her inherent goodness and resilience.
Read More: The Irregulars Episode 5 Recap and Ending, Explained
