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, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth episodes.

Back into the chaos, our heroes scramble. With the Warrior Kings turning on them and the snipers still shooting, they’re in over their heads. Dave, as President Hancock, had access to an incredible variety of resources, and he clearly made good use of every single one when creating the Shadow Falcons. Fighter jets add to the mess, trying to steal the Barsimmeon’s dog tags from Russell in a maneuver that would only happen in an action flick. However, the ridiculous move helps Wendell to convince the Warrior Kings to join their side, fighting back against Dave’s forces.

Our players fully lean into the action flick physics. Paula rides a missile into a fighter jet and survives. Reliving the oily shirt incident, Usha tries to cause another plane to slip with baked beans. Rekha rolls a Nat 1. The dice know what they want. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your perspective, one of the unlocked skill groups allows players to make a single Nat 1 roll into a critical success.

Asking his group to trust him, Ify takes the groups only six bottles of Adrenanoxinil Plutonium Sulfate, which could be the difference between success and failure on their mission to defeat the president, and goes to pour them out in hopes of reviving Barsimmeon. Though Brennan could’ve absolutely destroyed Ify for the sake of comedy, he gives the group a chance. If any of the six players can roll a Nat 20, they can take the controls. However, while everyone else follows Ify’s suggestion, Liv downs her own bottle and takes off.

Russell catches up, allowing the two to have a heart-to-heart. It’s really endearing to see how Russell goes from this two-dimensional crush to a person Liv can go to for advice, and the shared terror of what life will be like when they return to their original world helps Liv face her mistakes and the group.

Barsimmeon’s MacGuffin blows up, injuring Russell as Wendell becomes the new keeper of Never Stop Blowing Up. While this gives them an exit strategy, it reinforces that the group needs Dave into order to escape.

This is the biggest issue in the series for me, and it’s made all the more obvious in this episode. Dimension 20 continues to ignore their biggest plot hole, laying all tension on our awesome action heroes needing to get Dave to leave the film alongside them. While a throwaway line about Wolfman Ann entering alone might help, the introduction of a number of throwaway celebrities who supposedly lost their MacGuffins ensure that couldn’t solve the problem.

Eating the dirt where they poured the Adrenanoxinil Plutonium Sulfate and making out, the group manages to get the bonus, but they’re on a timer, and with the president as their opponent, getting to him before that runs out isn’t very likely.

Arriving in Washington D.C., the group puts on disguises. Russell dresses as a White House aid while Usha goes with chef. With a moustache and Barack Obama’s hair, Wendell puts on a suit as Dang switches his own and combs his hair in the opposite direction. If the left versus right part managed to keep the Clark Kent / Superman disguise going alongside those trusty glasses, why can’t the same be true for Greg Stocks?

Wendell and Russell flank Liv, who dresses as a senator, while the Warrior Kings disguise themselves as secret service. All this planning doesn’t do much as Dave as President Hancock leaps onto the roof of the White House and rides it like a dragon rider as it takes off into the sky.

Ify’s second time at the helm might not have all the helpful ramifications of the first, but he hits the points that matter. First, he ensures Barsimmeon Higgs makes it out alive. Second, Ify maximizes Wendell’s kill count by having a missile launch that takes out a bunch of white supremacist super soldiers. Those two alone would’ve been incredible, yet Ify speed-talks his way into three bottles of Adrenanoxinil Plutonium Sulfate.

Paula hooks the White House with a crane, managing to create a chain bridge which she, Dang, and Usha rush up. Leading the Warrior Kings up too, Liv tries to fake her way inside, but she gets caught.

As the rest of the team goes for the president or calls in the calvary, Russell searches the chaos for St. Jude; instead, he launches at Dave, but as he hits him, Russell watches the tape rewind. Somehow, Dave is remotely taking Adrenanoxinil Plutonium Sulfate in addition to whatever this time-based power is, leaving Russell injured. Wendell joins the fight. The two are severely outmatched. Chopping himself in half, Dave creates a clone, cackling. As long as his MacGuffin is around, he can’t be killed.

Highlights

A singing saddled jaguar definitely falls pretty high on the list of top ten ridiculous moments for this season, but the fact that likely is at the tail end of the list really says all that needs to be said. Considering Tony the Jaguar reveals an ability to speak and ends up getting kissed by Russell not even ten minutes after singing, we can solidly say this series has jumped the shark in the way only action films can.

Final Score (4 out of 5 Stars)

There has to be someone out there capable of drawing up the fake chemical composition of Adrenanoxinil Plutonium Sulfate. The latter two words are simple enough chemically, so if we just work our way back on Adrenanoxinil to be some kind of adrenaline-steroid composite, I’d love to see how that would breakdown.

Next week will be our final episode. With the White House flying and a self-cloning president, there’s not much that I’d imagine is off-limits. We’re on the edge of my chaos limit, and the unanswered questions have started to burn a hole through my psyche, but for a Yes-And of an RPG, Never Stop Blowing Up remains a high energy, fast-paced, mad house, and I’m here for it.

If you have any predictions on how our heroes will close out this series, 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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