Title: Burrow’s End
GM: Aabria Iyengar  
Players: Brennan Lee Mulligan (he/him) as Tula (she/her), Isabella ‘Izzy’ Roland (she/her) as Lila (she/her), Erika Ishii (she/him/all) as Ava (she/her), Siobhan Thompson (she/her) as Jaysohn (he/him), Rashawn Nadine Scott (she/her) as Viola (she/her), and Jasper William Cartwright (he/him) as Thorn Vale (he/him)
Streaming Service: Dropout

If you missed it, catch our reviews of the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth episodes!

We dive back into Burrow’s End, opening with our group seeing a picture of humans for the first time without their HAZMAT suits. Tula comes to two conclusions: 1) Humans are not monsters; and 2) they do not speak stoat; they speak human. This completely alters the trajectory of their game plan. If they can negotiate coexistence, no stoats will have to die.

As Tula’s soft-spoken conclusions blow the minds of those around her, Lila, Ava, and Jaysohn search for the quarters of the First Stoats, but first, they visit Education where Lukas has rallied the students into a Lord of the Flies fiasco where he’s tied up the teacher. Deciding none of the rest of the children are worth it, the trio takes Lukas and heads out to complete their mission.

Jaysohn discovers an electrical current which traps the door, and Ava knocks the door off the frame, letting them into the lair of the First Stoats. Each of the First Stoats kept a personal log in their separate nests, and they also kept some notes from Dr. Wenabocker in their room. While Kiran and Jomei kept notes regarding the running of Last Bast and further plans, Hester’s diary shares the full story of the First Stoat, revealing they learned language intuitively alongside their sister, Phoebe.

Phoebe took up the leadership position. They managed to corner Dr. Wenabocker, but Phoebe wanted to speak with him. After a fight between Hester and Phoebe, Phoebe tore Hester’s jaw and tongue out in her rage. In the aftermath, Hester did not witness Phoebe’s leaving, but the other First Stoats revealed that Dr. Wenabocker escaped. Hester hopes their sister will return.

Viola heads off to speak with Teedles and deal with the coppers. The pair have a heart-to-heart, and the lack of a single leader as well as an absolute mess in training leads to complete chaos. From the notes Jomei the Speaker left, Population Support has authorization to kill and often cull the stoats of Last Bast to silence dissenting voices. However, right as she intends to announce, Viola sees her family running, and she leaves Teedles in charge.

The humans have arrived. Tula immediately goes to fetch her children. A feat of acrobatics brought Ava and her two grandchildren into the closet where Wenabocker recorded his last record. As they explore, Lukas panics upon meeting Meatwolf, marking the arrival of Tula. She helps them open the next door. From there, they head back outside.

Viola bravely makes contact, but in doing so, the startled human shatters her visor. As far as first contacts go, Rashawn and Jasper hit this one out of the park. Even when Meatwolf in all his glory comes in, Thorn manages to hold down the fort, keeping things from escalating dangerously.

While discussing, they find out the humans did not intentionally kick up the dust which hit the Red Warren but did so accidentally, losing a number of their own. However, while Dr. Steel has no ill will toward the stoats, the presence of Dr. Wenabocker and the foreboding tone of the sneak peek for the last episode of Burrow’s End promises a dramatic finale.

Highlights

The way Aabria plays it, none of Last Bast’s current leadership realized the origins of their language. Considering the dissemination of language organically in the real world, it isn’t unreasonable to believe that this learned behavior had to move outward. Though not fully discussed in this episode, the mystery of the fifth stoat as a possible source of the adoption of human as the lingua franca for stoats in the area, though even suggesting it as a language with which they have alternatives offers more diversity to stoat language than their appears to actively be.

Everybody loves Bennett. The distress when Lukas reveals his mother also likes Bennett romantically, putting Meredith in even worse regard despite the stuffed-nose young stoat stating he loves his mother, is hilarious. Even with the humans coming, the group always has time to push the Tula x Bennett side plot.

Final Score (4 out of 5 Stars)

A number of background bits and pieces came together through Hester’s journal, revealing that the five stoats were not experimented on intentionally, and while some had speculated on the five being all related, the only relationship described is the sibling bond between Hester and their sister, Phoebe.

Another area of speculation was that all four First Stoats used They/Them pronouns due to neutering. While that wasn’t the case, using They/Them as a distancing tactic and a tool of propaganda implemented on the suggestion of Uri the Pope wasn’t exactly a less off-putting explanation.

As far as fan theories go, one of the larger has Phoebe using Wenabocker similarly to how the chipmunks used the bear if not something more like a mech-suit. Knowing Phoebe went into the closet alone and only Wenabocker came out, at least from Hester’s diary, fans who rallied behind the theory last episode definitely received the most payout as Brennan comes to the exact same conclusion. Wenabocker’s lies about human enemy agents and his dedication to reclaiming Last Bast could go one of two ways. The possibility of Wenabocker attributing his contact with the First Stoats to radiation poisoning grows less and less likely.

Do you have any fan theories we missed? How did you feel about the latest reveals? Let us know what you think in the comments below or go over to our Discord channel to join the conversation.

Featured Image: Dimension 20

The Boss Rush Podcast: The Flagship Podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network

The Boss Rush Podcast – The Boss Rush Podcast is the flagship podcast of Boss Rush Media and the Boss Rush Network. Each week, Corey, Stephanie, LeRon, and their friends from around the internet come together with other creators, developers, and industry veterans to talk about games they’ve been playing, discuss video game and entertainment based topics, and answer questions solicited on social media and the community Discord. 

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