Title: Misfits and Magic
GM: Aabria Iyengar
Players: Erika Ishii (she/they/any) as K (she/they/any). Lou Wilson (he/him) as Whitney Jammer (he/him). Danielle Radford (she/her) as Sam Black (she/her). Brennan Lee Mulligan (he/him) as Evan Kelmp (he/him).
Streaming Service: Dropout

If you missed them, check out our reviews for episode one, two, three, four, and five!

While the doctors panic as an alarm sounds off Code Crimson, K joins the frenzy, dragging Evan alongside while Jammer and Sam pull back to speak with the calmer folks behind the food counter. If they also get to eat, all the better.

Sam and Jammer speak with Marla, who is completely unphased and unbothered with the absolute panic. While the doctors have aimed toward healing and unspecified research, the island drew Marla due to her desire to increase how much people enjoy eating.

Though uncertain of their roles, both Sam and Jammer decide to play along after getting a delicious endives salad with parmesan cheese curls on top.

Elsewhere in the thick of it, K rushes alongside Dr. Winnie Pants-Purcell. Doctors flood toward the Code Crimson. However, while he instinctively followed K, Evan can’t help but question whether joining into the strange almost role-play is a good idea after what K did last time she tried to heal him. Winnie supports K’s conforming to the tropes, and as additional doctors join, the drama unfolds.

When K finds an ID that identifies her as part of the hospital, Evan can’t handle it, calling that he’s out. He runs and finds Sam and Jammer, and while he tries to find out more details about the island from Marla, a pregnant woman comes and claims that Evan is having a break down, trying to call in psych which sends Evan into the air vents. This scene leads to Sam and Jammer realizing they can die if they’re special guests.

The pregnant woman goes into labor, preventing Sam and Jammer from doing what they planned to calm Evan, find K, and escape the island. As Jammer handles the labor with Marla’s help, Sam finds a nurses’ station, paging K as Evan rages from the vents. When K arrives, Sam realizes that she’s famous, so this could lead to a more dramatic and larger scale event happening.

Jammer gets sent out to find a woman’s phone, and he comes across a man who hides his name badge and refuses to interact. When Jammer overhears them talking about set dressing, he races out, finding Evan who has his pants off to prevent them from showing him.

Meanwhile, red, pink, and blue alarms go off as a localized earthquake throws Sam and K around. Though the two decide to leave, K can’t fully separate, and the pair find themselves in an OR where Fergus lies on an operating table with a bomb in his chest.

Through tone-shifts and strange dramatic tropes, our magical misfits manage to escape into a suddenly snowy outside. Our group gets back on their hoopty, and before they head out, Evan creates a magical flashlight, so he can call his shadow back. That way, he can let it wander and call it back as needed, forming a new relationship between them.

Unfortunately, drained by the hospital and the magic of the island, the Pilot Program struggles, ending up navigating to safe ground, landing on Wuegan. Quickly recognizing that the island amplifies magic to a dangerous degree, they try to do everything the mundane way wherever possible. Sam summons T2, sending him out to scout, and Evan expresses distrust for his own judgment, so he hands over his bag to Jammer before T2’s distressed call sends the group racing off after them. Freeing his shadow, Evan sends it forward to protect T2 from a wolf with a head attached the wrong way around. The wolf is Weugan.

Weugan sends out a wave of force, sending Sam and Evan tumbling as Jammer manages to hold his ground. K tried to flip the spell back on the magical wolf, but she fails. However, Sam gets back up, amplifying her charm which not only puts the Weugan under her sway but Evan and Jammer as well. Charmed, Weugan explains that it is the sum of all the magic in this place, a result of the magic of what is increased. After explaining that the well of magic broke, Weugan disappears.

Highlights

The Art Department went wild this episode. Between the hospital drama at Near to Weugan and the hellish landscape of the actual island of Weugan, pictures kept coming, and I appreciated every single one. We also got a look at this season’s horrifying good boy.

Aabria brought us the nightmare of Meatwolf back in Burrow’s End, and while Weugan definitely looks fluffier, he seems significantly less interested in affection. Even when Sam enthralls him, the wolf remains aggressive and leaves the moment there is an opening to do so.

Final Score (4 out of 5 Stars)

This was a lot of episode packed into not a lot of time. Part of me wanted to know what actually was going on in the hospital and if there was a way to fix that, but if I were in that situation, I would be Evan every time. That entire interaction between the background doctor and Jammer destroyed me.

When we flew to Weugan, the hellish landscape worked in wonderful contrast to the exterior perfection of St. Dotto’s. Frankly, it was almost a relief. I wish we couldn’t spent more time exploring the mechanics, but hopefully, we’ll see more in episode seven.

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Featured Image: Dimension 20

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