Joko Anwar’s Nightmares and Daydreams — Episode 7 Recap, Review & Ending Explained

P.O. Box

Episode 7 of Joko Anwar’s Nightmares and Daydreams titled “P.O. Box” starts in the year 2024 with a professional diamond appraiser named Valdya. She is on a freelancing job at the customs office under her boyfriend – Rendy’s recommendation.

There, she meets a suspicious woman who tells Valdya that she will soon cross paths with her. Valdya leaves the customs office confused.

What happened to Valdya’s sister – Dara?

That evening, Valdya and Rendy meet their friends over dinner. Valdya talks to her friend about her sister Dara who had gone missing five years ago. Valdya explains how the cops were still looking for Dara who had gone missing while she was away for a job interview.

That night, Valdya goes back home and looks at photos of herself and Dara. Attached to one of the frames, she finds a flash drive with Dara’s documents on it.

Among them, Valdya finds the job application email Dara had sent out before her disappearance.

Valdya then looks through the internet to find the job vacancy advertisement in the newspaper from 5 years ago. She learns that the applicants sent in their resumes to P.O. Box 888. She decides to investigate the newspaper and visits the place where P.O. Box 888 is located.

What happens at the Post Office?

The post office clerk tells Valdya that the box has already been rented for 100 years. He also tells Valdya that someone else had inquired about the box.

Valdya visits the woman who inquired about the box. The woman first doubts Valdya but after learning who she is, the woman claims that her husband too had gone for a job interview 5 years ago.

She reveals that after coming back from the interview, he had gotten paralysed.

The woman adds that her husband had recently gotten better and had mentioned the P.O. Box number only for his condition to worsen again.

Valdya tries to show the paralysed man a photo of Dara but the man begins wailing. Valdya asks the woman to report the crime but she states that someone cut open his skull and a part of his brain was missing.

The woman asks Valdya to leave when she tries to push her to file a complaint. Later that night, Valdya tells Rendy all about this and asks to bring his cop friend to the paralysed man’s house.

The cop claims that the house had been abandoned for years and was empty for a while. Rendy tries to tell Valdya that she is probably overthinking.

On the drive back home, Valdya tells Rendy that she feels guilty for moving on from her sister’s disappearance so easily. She adds that she feels terrible for dating him as he was Dara’s ex but Rendy claims that they had been together for far longer than his 2-month relationship with Dara.

Valdya sees the same woman from the customs office on the street and panics but the woman disappears. Rendy uses the image search software at his office to find out who the woman is very famous.

Does Valdya apply for the job?

The next morning, Valdya finds the same job vacancy in the newspaper from P.O. Box 888. Valdya applies for the job and mentions how she has a gifted vision. She hopes to find the truth about Dara’s disappearance.

Valdya rents out the P.O. Box right opposite 888 and waits there to see who is going to collect her interview mail.

Later that day, 2 men show up at the post office to collect the mail from P.O. Box 888 and Valdya leaves the post office to hide in the trunk of the men’s car. She is led to an abandoned building.

Valdya escapes the trunk and looks for a way to enter the building. She calls Rendy and is about to send her location to him when she gets a response to her job application.

To Valdya’s surprise, the job interview is in the same building that she is at. The next morning, Valdya joins the other interviewees in the elevator as they all go to Floor Number 13 for the job interview.

During the elevator ride, the interviewees discuss how they all had special talents as one was a skilled violinist while the other was a skilled scientist or a soccer player.

The elevator stops at Floor 13 and the group concludes that they each had a special body part with Valdya’s speciality being her eyes. Suddenly the elevator malfunctions and a lethal gas is released.

All the interviewees, including Valdya pass out in the elevator. Eventually, Valdya wakes up in a dark room by the dinner table where many rich people are seated. She notices that the interviewees are all tied up in wheeled chairs.

What happens to the interviewees?

The violinist is wheeled towards the dinner table and the chef cuts up her fingers. The diners at the table eat up the violinist’s fingers.

Valdya then sees the paralysed man being taken to the table as the chef cuts open his skull to feed the diners his brain. Valdya tries to free herself from the chair but ends up falling off.

One of the diners asks the nurse to bring Valdya to the table to dine on her eyes. Valdya stabs the nurse in her eye and tries to flee.

However, she sees a vision of Dara who asks Valdya to save herself. The diners wake Valdya up and are about to feast on her eyes.

The diners, including Laras’ husband – Adrian, tell  Valdya that they are no cannibals but the highest people on the food pyramid.  Valdya asks the monsters about her sister and they state how delicious Dara was for them. Valdya is shattered to learn that her sister is no more.

Who are The Antibodies?

Just as the cannibals try to eat Valdya’s eye the doors open and in comes Wahyu along with Dewi, Panji, Rania, and Ali. The mysterious woman is with them too.

Panji starts shooting the diners and killing them while one of the chefs uses their knife to kill Wahyu. The group use their powers to heal Wahyu and there is a face-off between the cannibals and Wahyu and his team.

How does Joko Anwar’s Nightmares and Daydreams end?

Wahyu and his team manage to kill the cannibal monsters using their powers.

The mysterious woman helps Valdya up. Wahyu tells Valdya that the monsters were creatures created in the underworld – Agartha who were invading their world.

He asks her to join them – the Antibodies – in killing the monsters and Valdya agrees as the show comes to an end.

The Episode Review

The show does end on quite an interesting note and I hope there is more to this story than what we just saw. This entire season seems like an introduction to the bizarre world that was created by Joko Anwar.

We will hopefully see more about these characters if the show is ever renewed for another season. 

I wonder who the mysterious woman who saved Valdya was and why no character from Episode 2 is a part of the antibodies. We know that alongside Adrian, who is the most noticeable monster, Syafin too is a monster. If we were to chronologically arrange the episodes, Wahyu from Episode 4 is the oldest while Dewi from Episode 5 is the second oldest. Then comes Panji from Episode 1 followed by Rania and Ali from Episodes 3 and 6.

Since Episodes 7 and 2 both take place in the year 2024, we can assume that Syafin’s story takes place after Valdya joins the Antibodies. This would also make sense as we saw Syafin getting upset after his adoptive mother Iyos killed herself.

This unleashed a bright white light inside the cottage which could somehow be touched upon in a follow-up season if the show is ever to be renewed for one.

For now, we can only hope Netflix renews this one and gives us some much-needed answers.