Blood Ocean
Episode 9 of Mythic Quest Season 2 begins this finale with Poppy and Ian deciding on a new direction for the game. Specifically with two words – “Blood Ocean”. Poppy however, feels like she’s trapped in a cell, literally drawing bars on the windows. Meanwhile, the coders do exactly what the games industry should be doing – they decide to unionize to protect their worker’s rights. Specifically, all those periods of crunch are running them dry. David exhibits concerns though, especially when Ian starts riffing on new ideas and completely ignores all the issues brewing with the workers. While Rach quits her stream and finds herself without a testing job, David and Jo sit down with Michelle, the representative for the workers. Unfortunately David gets berated by HR and subsequently fired when he tries to talk them over to a pay rise. Dana realizes that all of Rach’s issues stem back from her, given the streamers noticed the Nebula Award in the reflection of her glasses. Those same glasses she herself gave to Rachel. Ian decides blood ocean should be a disease. He heads in to visit Poppy in the middle of the night but she’s had enough. Ian tries to convince her, using a Beatles analogy as ammo. It’s too much for Poppy though – especially when she’s referenced as Ringo – and she lets loose. She says some pretty nasty things too, namely about the state of the game and Ian’s child. The next day at work, Ian manages to fix everything. He’s managed to get David’s job back too. Poppy shows with her laptop, having coded in Ian’s blood ocean virus. Poppy concedes to Ian but actually he changes his mind – he wants her to be his co-creative director. That means they’ll have equal say and conditions. In order to seal the deal, Ian convinces Poppy to etch her name in the wall. Meanwhile, Brad comes through in the end and gets Rach a brand new position as head of quality. Then again, he does end with an “I own you” to Dana, so we’ll have to wait and see if he’s really turned a new leaf or not! It’s all smiles as the season comes to an end, with Poppy and Ian working together to secure the future of Mythic Quest.
The Episode Review
Mythic Quest bows out with a really good series finale, one that rounds out this much more dramatic season. Unlike the first which stuck to the videogame sitcom shtick with the added flashback episode, this second season has changed to dramedy and turned the focus away from the office. While there’s nothing wrong with that, at times a few of the subplots have suffered with Poppy and Ian sidelined during the midpoint for a look at other characters in this show. The future of Mythic Quest is still unknown at this point. If this is the end of the road for Apple TV+’s show then this is definitely one of the best ways to do it, with all the plot points rounded out nicely and our character arcs complete by the end. Either way, Mythic Quest has been a solid watch and easily one of the better shows this year.
