Title: Never Stop Blowing Up
GM: Brennan Lee Mulligan
Players: Ally Beardsley (they/them) as Russell Feeld (he/him) / Jennifer Drips (she/her). Ify Nwadiwe (he/him) as Wendell Morris (he/him) / Vic Ethanol (he/him). Isabella ‘Izzy’ Roland (she/her) as Paula Donvalson (nee Buocadifuoco) (she/her) / Jack Manhattan (he/him). Rekha Shankar (she/her) as Usha Rao (she/her) / G13 (he/him). Alex Song-Xiao (they/them) as Liv Skyler (she/her) / Kingston (he/him). Jacob Wysocki (he/him) as Andy ‘Dang’ Litefoot (he/him) / Greg Stocks (he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

If you missed it, catch our review for the first, second, third, and fourth episodes.

Drifting back down from space, Dang officially wins the Long Beach 5000, but while the police surround the area, dealing with airport security and the block party celebrating his victory, our awesome action heroes reunite.

Barsimmeon awakes as the group reunites in his tank. In this Jumanji-like action world, no more than 94 minutes pass regardless of the time spent inside. While that removes any potential time crunch, Barsimmeon’s Las Vegas mentality when it comes to the world of Never Stop Blowing Up opens a number of strange segues as Usha’s flirting diverts the crew into some interesting segues.

Ever the pragmatist, Wendell draws Barsimmeon back onto the point, asking how they can get out. Every avatar has a MacGuffin, which ties the alter with the player. Without the MacGuffin, the person inhabiting the action avatar cannot leave. Barsimmeon reveals J-Kwon is trapped in the video due to his MacGuffin being destroyed. More importantly, if they die in the action world, they die in relief life.

Brennan does contradict himself a bit. As Barsimmeon, he explains the death factor is something he witnessed, yet he also suggests that one person staying or dying would cause issues for the rest. Honestly, it passes off easily as something Barsimmeon says to push Paula to rejoin the real world when she expresses hesitation.

Russell pretends to be the Shadow Falcon, using the code phrase he learned to recruit the Skulker, who tells them to call him Johnny. Flying on parental instincts, Paula calls him out, realizing that he’s her action alter’s son – Johnny Manhattan. The Shadow Falcon’s threatened his mother, Jack Manhattan’s ex-wife and the Los Angeles district attorney, so he had no choice but to steal to save her life.

With their goal set, the group splits up, aiming to recover their MacGuffins. Paula, Russell, Wendell, and Johnny go one way while Liv, Doug Meat, Usha, and Dang go another.

Paula attempts to tell Johnny her true identity, but he begins to malfunction, panicking and glitching. A bolt of lightning hits Johnny in the head, nearly killing him, but the second Paula retracts it, claiming she tried to do slam poetry, he slowly recovers.

Paula and Johnny head into the house while Wendell stays in his car, and Russell sneaks into the garage, looking for tools. Seeking to bond with her alter ego’s son, Paula apologizes for Jack, offering to make cookies. It’s a cute scene that shifts into a slightly confused mix of hilarity and tragedy as Paula finds a video of Jack Manhattan’s deceased partner, Detective Cosmo Chase, who reminds her of her ex-husband. The tie between Cosmo and Paula’s ex Don intensifies as Cosmo apologizes to Jack for failing him as a partner.

While Brennan is usually pretty spot on with voices, there was something that didn’t match up for Cosmo. Maybe he sounded too much like Chief Kosciusko.

Her wailing breakdown has Russell running to her side. Luckily, Wendell keeps watch, seeing Lucy Santangelo approach. A cascade of lasers reveals snipers have Lucy in their crosshairs. Glass breaking pulls Russell and Paula from their revelry, sending them rushing to find Johnny.

Checking in with the other team as Brennan loves leaving beloved NPCs in danger, Liv and Dang approach Empresario, but their ploy to have Kingskin pretend to have captured Greg Stocks goes south. Kingskin takes over. Squishing the man’s head, Kingskin tells Liv to only crush when needed.

Doug quickly hides the body and takes the place of the security guard. Leaving Doug to clean, Dang and Liv head inside. The Empresario sits in a throne with his dogs at his side. Everyone stares as spotlights focus on Kingskin and the apparently captured spy.

Empresario’s voice was also a bit off this episode, not matching with what Brennan gave him during his introduction. Honestly, the voice almost more closely matched the Pig from the hotel.

Next week’s episode is guaranteed to be combat heavy, and we’re leaving multiple characters, and some very important NPCs, in dangerous positions. Jacob’s kill count is definitely going to skyrocket.

Highlights

Liv and Dang aren’t a duo I predicted, but Jacob knows the spy genre groove, proving time and time again that he knows how to best embrace and even subvert the genre to Dang benefit. Seeing that turned in support of Alex’s one liners, which are sometimes non sequiturs that sow unimaginable chaos through a scene, completely transforms how interaction land in the confrontation with the Empresario.

I can’t wait to see how their dynamic duo handles the bloodbath.

Final Score (3.5 out of 5 Stars)

For anyone who loves Dimension 20 digressions, this episode is a dream. Bits stretched a bit too long for me, but it is an interesting break from the quick-paced chaos of earlier episodes. I can’t say I ever expected to see Izzy perform slam poetry to save a life. This really shows that anything could happen.

The more I see Lucy Santangelo, the more her last name has me wondering if there are ties between her and Santa Patron. Maybe it’s just a strange coincidence, but with St. Jude and St. Lawrence, maybe it wouldn’t be too shocking for a St. Angelo to be hanging around, and while that might not be Lucy herself, I wouldn’t be shocked if we learn there’s a connection somewhere there.

If you have any predictions, tropes or parody cameos, let us know 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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