When a team of trauma-informed tag-alongs decides to become heroes, there’s no way to do it except to go big - and Critical Role achieves just that in this absolute banger of an episode which kept me on my seat’s edge with suspense, stupidity and surprises.
I love stories about ragtag groups. This series has focused on a bunch who’ve been trying to get away from who they are to become someone else – a category I have a lot of time for. In the last several episodes we’ve seen them evolve from dupes, castaways, rejects, and refugees to a team of committed people who want to make a difference in the world – because that’s who they are. Appropriate to my question from the previous episode review, we open with the Orphanmaker, who is being commanded by someone the captions name as Obann. The Orphanmaker is quite attractive in the initial dream. We see her speaking to someone named Yasha, who melts away. The Orphanmaker then disappears. For someone so powerful, she’s not so present.
The Nein (I love calling them this, not just because of the inside joke that nine is exactly the number they’re not, but because in my head Nein is translating as Nobodies, and these Nobodies are very much Somebodies) have agreed to steal the Kryn artifact, and the Gentleman has a (fairly hilarious) kickoff meeting with Jester interjecting every couple of minutes as the Nein sit around a table. The Artifact, of course, is in the hands of Ikithon and the Volstrucker in the highly guarded Solstryce Academy, and being pursued by the Kryn and their armies – particularly Essek, who seems to have gone completely Darth Vader.
On a personal note, I finally played my first game ever of Dungeons and Dragons. It’s pretty tough to find a group of people interested who know American Sign Language, but it finally happened – about 20 years after I first realized I wanted to give it a shot. I wanted to share this because I finally got the experience of having a Dungeon Master tell a story which gets fully changed by the interactions of the players, and it was awesome. And I totally see in this episode how the Critical Role team upended traditional storytelling in the making of this episode, and injected references to the gaming experience – such as the aforementioned sitting-around-the-table, making battle plans. The result gives me Ocean’s Eleven energy in animated format. The Nein are definitely heist-type heroes. Consider:
- The heist begins by stealing an invitation to the aforementioned exclusive party
- The team have to break into several mini teams
- There’s a ton of last minute changes and switch ups which result in a couple of hilarious situations – and some real character growth
For example, while stealing the invite Caleb can’t resist stealing a book of magic – which turns into a standoff between Fjord, Caleb and Nott in which they accidentally activate several defenses and alarms and nearly bungle the whole thing. Then, Beau and Jester, assigned respectively to clandestinely climb walls and dancing at the ball with Fjord, are forced to switch roles once it’s revealed Lord Sharpe of Second Episode fame is going to be a Honored Attendee. Nott is assigned sewer duty, intended to smuggle the Beacon away. And Molly is assigned the role of getaway driver, and given a broken-down old cart to refurbish until it’s a sure escape from the City Guard and, well, everyone else.
Beau is at her most interesting in this episode. We learn she’s the daughter of a fairly important winemaker, and knows all about performing in a ballgown (and flirting with the Volstrucker, no less.) She looks hilarious in Jester’s dress, but it broke my heart to see Jester crying like a dejected Cinderella. It was worth it to see Beau playing dress-up spy and completely confusing Fjord – and flirting her way to success, slipping Caleb’s magic stone into Astrid’s belt.
I turn out to be very impressed by Molly’s cart-renovating skills; he quickly turns it into a mechanical contraption complete with trap doors and gets Nott and Jester quickly into place. Unfortunately Molly’s role as getaway driver… isn’t, as he ends up interacting with Vess DeRogna, who seems to know him. The interaction causes Molly to turn demonic and powerful (think Willow Rosenberg, season six) and only deepens the mystery about who he is. Who or what is a nonagon? In geometry, it’s a nine (nein?) sided polygon. In this show, it’s a mystery which leads to a gigantic explosion.
Of course, once the team’s in place everything gets even more chaotic and the ensuing battle is completely epic; we not only meet the Traveler, but our team gets caught in the crossfire between Ikithon and the Kryn. Beau fights Astrid, the Beacon gets tossed back and forth from side to side almost too quickly to believe, and the battle is far bloodier than I expected, with some incredible moments; Eadwulf being transformed into a werebird and the incredible high magic being slung between Ikithon and Essek, with the Volstrucker and other Kryn as able seconds, was just fantastic to witness. Ikithon wins, but loses the Beacon to the Kryn.
In all of this, miraculously, the team does manage to escape in the sewer – where they bump right into the Kryn, who unleash a magical smoke or darkness. Fjord, like Molly, loses himself to his own curious magic, consuming the darkness in the process, and turning Fjord into an energy-absorbing dealer of death.
The beautiful thing about this episode and what raises it above other animated series is the sincerity of the characters. Nott’s fear of water is hilarious, but then she begins yelling at herself and we realize exactly how much she cares about her friends. Jester makes it to the top of the tower - and it’s just too far away; she has to try though, and takes a huge leap of faith. Caleb’s thirst for power is almost stronger than his love of Nott (almost), Molly is disturbed beyond belief by what happens to him, and Ikithon seems genuinely shocked that he’s hurt Essek. These moments of sincere feeling elevate the show beyond what I usually see in the general drek of television these days, and make me very grateful for Critical Role’s work on this series.
The worst part of the episode is the end, because, my ducks, it’s a cliffhanger; the Nein as they escape through the sewer meet with the Orphanmaker. As we watch, we’re prepared for the worst, and indeed the Orphanmaker kills the remainder of the Kryn. Fortunately, the worst doesn’t happen; instead, the Beacon seems to break whatever power has been guiding the Orphanmaker since we first met her the minute she touches it – turning the wall of bloody death into a begging, and beautiful woman.
And that’s all we get, until the next season. That felt like ten episodes in one, and the team we saw in it was the payoff for an incredible amount of setup. I can’t wait for more.
Mighty Funny
This episode was one liner city; the writers clearly leveled up the dialogue. “My motto is to assume you’re going to get fucked so you can prepare for the fuckery,” is going to be my new favorite phrase.
Jester meeting the Traveler, at long last, was both cathartic and confusing. This show has a lot to share about the concept of gods and what that means. I count three so far – the Traveler, the Kryn god of which the Beacon is a part, and whatever is powering Fjord's magic.
The fireworks were every bit of the distraction predicted by the Gentleman, but now that Vess is dead (or is she?) who's going to buy the Beacon?
Overall
Ten out of ten mysterious marker stones.
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