Lydia Spring is a character in the television series Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency.
Lydia Spring is the daughter of billionaire Patrick Spring. The murder of her father, which Dirk Gently was hired to investigate, as well as her disappearance, were the central mysteries and plot of Season 1.
Biography
Early life
Lydia was born to Catherine and Patrick Spring. Her mother Catherine was murdered in 2001, when Lydia was very young.
Lydia was raised as sole heir to the Spring fortune. Her father Patrick loved her, but was emotionally distant. She was close with their bodyguard Farah Black.
Disappearance
Lydia received a letter by a Gordon Rimmer, claiming to be able to give her answers about the many questions she had concerning her family, her grandfather Edgar Spring, her mother's murder, and Zackariah Webb. A few days before the events in Horizons, Lydia arrived at his house and was captured.[1]
Two days before the events of Horizons, Lydia was at Rimmer's house and forced to phone Farah Black and lure her into a trap at the Ridgely building, although Lydia also tried to warn her before being disconnected.[2]
On the morning of the 03.08., Lydia was taken to the Animal Transfer Unit at the Seattle Zoo, and soulswapped with Rimmer's corgi dog Rapunzel. She was then seized by leader Jake Rainey's faction of the Men of the Machine cult in a standoff with the rebelling Rimmer's faction. Shortly afterwards, a large number of the cultists at the ATU were killed in a massacre by a man in a steampunk armor, which was presumably when Lydia escaped. She made her way to the Perryman Grand Hotel to find her father, but when she arrived in the hotel's parking garage she heard Rimmer tell his men of Patrick Spring's death, and left.[3]
Escapes
Now fully orphaned and trapped in a corgi dog's body, Lydia took to wandering the streets for this day (03.08.) and the next. The second night Lydia was picked up off the street by Todd Brotzman, who had seen her twice already, on the morning and night of the previous day. Todd brought her to the address on the dog tag she was wearing and returned her to Gordon Rimmer. Also in the house was the dog Rapunzel in Lydia's body, who was seen by Todd.[4]
The next day Dirk Gently and Todd broke into Rimmer's house. Lydia noticed and went into the bathroom they were hiding in; Dirk picked her up and took her with him when they escaped. Afterwards Dirk asked her whether she was Lydia Spring and she barked her assent, but Dirk thought the dog Rapunzel had been hypnotized to think of herself as Lydia and vice versa. Rimmer arranged a hostage exchange to trade his ostensible dog against his captive Farah Black, on the Eastgate Bridge at midnight. During the exchange Lydia projected the ghostly image of her human face and voice over her dog body just as Todd was threatening Rimmer to drop her off the bridge, startling Todd into dropping her, and the exchange descended into chaos. Unseen by either party, Lydia survived the fall unharmed and escaped on her own.[2]
At one point during either stretch of time she was alone Lydia was so hungry she ate a rat.[5]
In police custody
The next morning Lydia had gone to the police station and was waiting outside, barking at passing police officers. Detective Estevez noticed her, recognizing her as the dog from the video tape of the Perryman Grand Hotel and the address on her tag as being Rimmer's house that burned down the previous day. Being connected to both a murder and an arson case, Estevez and Detective Zimmerfield decide to keep hold of the dog, not knowing she was the missing Lydia Spring they were looking for in the first place.[1]
A restored Lydia in the Spring Mansion lab, still wearing the dog leash.
Behind the scenes
- Lydia is played by the actress Alison Thornton. Throughout most of the character's screentime in season 1 however, Lydia is soulswapped into the dog body of Rapunzel the Corgi, who is portrayed by the male dog Bentley the Corgi.
- The "last seen" date on Lydia Spring's Missing poster is given as "07/08/16". This is prossibly a production error, or Lydia already ran away three weeks before contacting Rimmer.
- Lydia's statement "I've been sleeping on the streets for a week."[5] about her time as a dog is inaccurate. She should have been at most one and a half days as the longest stretch without human supervision: from late morning of 03.08. to night of 04.08. (possibly early morning of 05.08.). This is either a production error, hyperbole, or an honest error on her part if she was unable to keep or perceive time as usual as a dog.
Appearances
Notes
- She doesn't know who Lux Dujour is.[1]