Summary
Dory has escaped captivity, but not her guilt.
This recap of Search Party season 4, episode 9, “The Inferno”, contains spoilers.
The season’s penultimate episode ends with a reveal that, in my opinion, adds a deep layer to what’s come before. Dory could have escaped imprisonment; could have avoided being kidnapped by Chip. But the events of her life; the pressure of infamy, and the guilt of her murders hangs heavy, to the point where she would rather live in a world where she does not have to face her actions than be free.
Now free of Chip, Dory tries to express to her friends the grueling weight of her actions. “What do you guys live for?” she asks them. Portia responds with a self-valorizing platitude about the “nobility” of acting, while Elliott gives a brief spiel about “connecting with the unexpected” before breaking down and admitting, “to be honest I don’t know if I believe anything that I just said.”
Drew is the one who has never been good with poeticisms, and he balks at the question. “You just get up because you have to,” he says as if being asked is a bother to him, and then, with equal insight and dismissiveness, complains that their ancestors never bothered themselves with questions like that. “They just get up.”
But most of their ancestors haven’t committed murder or tried to cover it up. And Dory can no longer compartmentalize her actions, nor hide from her misdeeds. So when the gang is distracted, she takes Drew’s car back to Chip with the hope of being rehypnotized.
At the mansion, which is being doused with gasoline by some hired teens, Dory finds Chip hiding from her in the basement. “You hurt me, you isolated me, you tortured me,” she says, “but it’s still easier to live with that anger than it is to live with being myself.” Chip, however, admits that he has no idea how he hypnotized Dory, blaming it on a combination of a whack to the head, the full moon, and “a book and a couple of articles” he read. It becomes clear that the only way she lost her memory is because she wanted to. “I’m not some evil mastermind. I’m just wealthy and inbred,” Chip states, asserting that he only did it to have a friend.
Still, Dory relishes the hope that she can keep living with Chip and forget her old life. Her plan is foiled by Lila, who mercilessly kicks her down the stairs and locks the door, as the teens start to light the house on fire.
Meanwhile in Search Party season 4, episode 9, when the gang notice Dory’s (and the car’s) disappearance, they rush outside, only to find Drew’s family hiding in the parking lot. A programmed keyboard and a few singing brothers later, Cindy appears singing (“When you know, you know” — kinda catchy) with a ring. The scene is so painful and hilarious, as Drew attempts to avoid answering, eventually blowing up when Cindy tells his family that he said yes. “I did not ask for this,” he shouts, and it only gets worse as he declares the truth. “I’m using you to try and get over Dory,” “I’m in love with a Brainwashed psychotic murderer,” and finally, “Merry Merry Land is not merry.”
He sulks down the road, as Portia and Elliott struggle to comfort him. Eventually, he breaks down to express his self-frustration; “I don’t know who I am, where to go, who I love.” Elliott soon joins him in commiseration, “I’m a person playing a person playing person,” he says, and Portia expresses her failure — first by making a movie about her friends, and then being fired from it.
Their pain soon turns into a discussion about whether they should save Dory — or if Dory can be saved at all. Elliott believes that they can’t, and Drew has already made the decision himself, ordering an Uber to take them away.
As the flames begin to surround Dory, her friends only complain about the nosiness of the fire truck. Is this how it ends?
Search Party season 4, episode 9, “The Inferno” notes:
- Elliott defends not tipping: “In rural towns like this, you can cap it at 5 percent because a dollar goes a long way.
- Another great Elliott moment is when he admits that the Elliott gun factory blew up when all the guns started going off.
