Summary
Dory gets hypnotized while her friends follow a false lead.
This recap of Search Party season 4, episode 5, “Doctor Mindbender”, contains spoilers.
“In an ironic twist of fate, our friend Dory has gone missing.”
In a show of self-awareness, the first line of this episode is a statement of the season’s premise. Of course, that’s only half of it, with Dory’s imprisonment being the main story, but “Doctor Mindbender” finally kicks the titular Search Party into high gear! And boy is it worth the wait.
They begin in a police station, telling a detective that “there’s a twink we believe may have kidnapped Dory Seif.” But it seems that Chip has been very thorough, and the detective informs them that Dory is actually in hiding; escaping from the public eye and her friends. This comes from “a beautifully written letter stating her intentions that also said she appreciates the fine and handsome men in blue,” which also came with a lovely watercolor. Dory’s friends are aware that she would never be this thoughtful but don’t bother telling the police, deciding instead to follow up with a lead from the twink catering company.
This leads them to a marina where the twink who “honeyed” Portia supposedly lives. Knocking on the trailer door, he responds, “o shrimp today please” (which pays off minutes letter when they burst in realizing that Dory’s “Not even in there and there’s so much shrimp it reeks.”)
It’s the wrong twink, something they realize only after Portia shows off her right hook. The twink tells them that his memory of Elliot’s wedding is a blur, and his confusion about it is hilarious. “The night before the wedding I was drunk… and I lost my ID,” he tells them, recounting how Chip told him it was in a truck and then later, he “fell into a truck somehow.” It’s the kind of character that Search Party excels in, who maybe went through something horrible but is so blasé. “He never texted me but I’m not surprised. I’m so unattractive,” the twink tells them. “You’re fishing,” Elliott, familiar with twink before, snaps.
As of Search Party season 4, episode 5, their only lead on Chip has dried up, and worse, their car has been towed. A grimy looking man offers them a lift, which they all, horrified at this man’s griminess, turn down. He guilts them into going with him anyway and ends up robbing them. With a huge knife raised, he asks them to give him their expensive items, including their clothes.“I don’t think they’ll fit you man,” says Elliott. “I’ll make it work.” And they are left to freeze in their underwear.
After unsuccessful attempts to hitchhike (the garbage bag clothes may not have helped ) they end up in the warmth of a store. Portia shrieks and the others huddle around to find a Cinnamon Bun brand with Chip’s face as the logo.
As for Chip, he’s putting that psychology degree to good use by attempting to hypnotize Dory. He gaslights her about her friends and uses a model of the kitchen where she killed Keith and those dolls of her friends to role-play that awful moment. Droning music plays as he convinces her that maybe it was a pear not a taser that she held, and that her friends made her believe that she had killed Keith when actually she had done nothing wrong.
It’s a little far-fetched and by this point I just want Dory to be free, but the re-creations are fun, and it starts to really work when her friends do the work themself. Chip plays Dory the voicemail they left back in the season premiere, and it’s enough to push her over the edge and to seek Chip’s open arms for the sweet call of catharsis.
Search Party season 4, episode 5, “Doctor Mindbender” Notes:
- Chip also reads a “postcard” from April who seems to be doing well in the Caribbean. At one point her head falls off, but it was just Chips poorly made faux-barbies.
- “Killing Keith…Blaming it on you, Doing it all in Canada. That is psychopathic”
