Even before this season started, you had a basic sense of where Poppy and Ian’s story would go from here: We’d likely spend some time at their new studio, watching them build Poppy’s new game and figuring out how their inverted dynamic works now. The first two episodes confirmed that direction, and this one elaborates on it a bit with Poppy’s frustrated venting session. But one character whose story we weren’t clear on was David. He’s commanding more respect than usual at work, and he’s suspicious of Brad, but otherwise there was no real central David story, and that meant there was no central story about the titular game.
That changes in “Crushing It,” when David announces that Mythic Quest is going to be a movie, with him as exec producer. I’m surprised it never occurred to me that the show could go in this direction, because it seems like such an obvious source of potential satire. Video game adaptations rarely turn out well, especially when it comes to multiplayer online games like Mythic Quest; Arcane is really the only recent one I can think of off the top of my head that did well with both longtime fans and casual viewers. For every Arcane, there’s a Warcraft or Assassin’s Creed.
The episode digs into this when David visits Sue (who’s been moved upstairs to his old office!) to run everything by her. She has little positive to say; players tend to hate adaptations of games, especially when they don’t cater to them specifically. After their meeting, though, the rest of the episode doesn’t really do much to further the movie story, instead just killing time with David going to GrimPop to gloat and getting trapped in their labyrinthine office. It makes for some amusing moments, especially when he tests the office acoustics by singing Sugar Ray, but the story never really climaxes or ends with anything new to say about David, nor does it introduce any new characters involved in the movie production. It’s ultimately all set up.
That feeling extends to the Brad and Carol story, which also feels a bit slight and unfinished, although the HODI (Head of Diversity and Inclusion) and the former HOMIE (Head of Monetization and Internet E-Commerce) continue to make a solid comedic pairing. Carol genuinely wants to make a difference in her new role, but she hasn’t been given the funds to do anything — and if there’s one drive Brad knows how to exploit, it’s money.
Brad’s plan to generate cash involves the art team designing another loot box, but his idea quickly morphs into an NFT initiative, which we don’t actually see implemented by the end of the episode. The best part of this subplot, and of Carol’s story line in general, is how it depicts and comments on this industry: For Carol to quickly make the money she needs to improve the quality of work life at Mythic Quest, she’d need to exploit the art team even more. Sure, it’s important to bring in new faces, but as Phil points out, they’re underpaying the employees who are already there. (He looks more exhausted every time we see him.) The problem, as Brad realizes, is the system itself. Carol’s job has nothing to do with managing the salaries of the art team, but it’s not a good look to ask a team of chronically overworked people to spend the weekend helping her hire new people to overwork.
Of course, the show doesn’t delve into this much, pivoting to the NFT idea instead. But there’s some fun industry commentary here, too, especially with Sue giving the idea a thumbs-down just like she did to David. Both Sue scenes are highlights of the episode; in general, Sue is a valuable asset for this show’s satire, being an important conduit between the studio and the gamers. I’m hopeful that her move upstairs will allow for more engagement with the audience, which might be important considering the splintered ensemble and time away from MQ.
But the real centerpiece of the episode is an unlikely brunch date with Poppy, Rachel, and Jo. I always appreciate that Mythic Quest doesn’t try too hard to make the MQ staff too much of a cuddly workplace family, avoiding sentiment when it isn’t earned, so I like the way “Crushing It” doesn’t pretend these three women are already great friends. Rachel spontaneously suggests brunch to politely congratulate Poppy for finishing a vertical slice, and Poppy agrees to it, with no one else there to appreciate her milestone. (This episode is unusually light on Ian, with he and Dana away for most of it.) Jo gets roped into it when David gives her the day off and suggests she spend time with her friends; she clearly doesn’t have any friends, but she’d like to. After visiting GrimPop to unsuccessfully deliver a message to Ian, she turns to leave but stops in her tracks, hilariously standing there until she gets an awkward invite.
For Rachel and Poppy, brunch (or, according to Poppy, “the brunch”) begins as a space to brag about their accomplishments, but turns into a weepy venting sesh once they’re sufficiently liquored up on mimosas and Bloody Marys. It reiterates their central dilemmas so far this season, and their coping mechanisms: Poppy pretends she’s a badass who doesn’t need external validation, especially from a man with whom she already spends every waking moment, but she inevitably breaks down about how much she does crave his approval. And while we still haven’t seen much of Rachel’s arc yet, she feels lonely and dumb at Berkeley, despite her unconvincing boast about the community she’s making there.
It’s nice to develop this trio as a unit, and the episode is particularly valuable for deepening Jo, the show’s most cartoony main character. She’s still violent, conservative, and just generally a weirdo, but she yearns for friendship the way anyone would. So when she repeatedly tries her best to contribute to girl talk but goes way too dark, it’s almost endearing to hear the disappointment in her voice. “I did it wrong, didn’t I?”
But Jo also gets arguably the biggest win of the episode, even if it’s more subtle than David making a movie: She takes Poppy and Rachel to a gun range outside Vegas to do something they’d never do, just like they took her to brunch. Venturing outside your comfort zone is often the best way to get out of a funk, which Jo recognizes — and as she predicted, the cure Poppy and Rachel need to overcome their solipsistic whining is driving around in a tank and crushing trucks. It’s a cathartic, fun final scene, even if Poppy throwing her phone away is only a temporary rejection of her dependence on Ian. And it’s most touching right at the end, when Jo sits watching the other two and muses, “Friends.” Jessie Ennis plays it perfectly, less overwhelmed by newfound companionship than pleasantly surprised by this new development in her life.
The more this show goes on, the better the writers understand their characters; they’ve allowed Jo, someone who started off as the “psychopath character,” to maintain her distinct traits while growing into someone who feels believably human. It’s an important marker of Mythic Quest’s confidence at this point that even in a relatively light, uneventful episode, it can still surprise you.
Level Rewards
• Favorite line reading of the episode might be Jessie Ennis saying, “You wanted to share your achievements, and they come in here looking like sad sacks? I can make them sad. I can put them in sacks.”
• “Are NFTs good or bad?” “Yes.”
