Review: Mythic Quest, "Breakthrough” | Season 4, Episode 3

In a recent post, Rolling Stone television critic and friend of the newsletter Alan Sepinwall (buy his book!) awarded Mythic Quest the designation of “one of the best hangs on television.” It’s an honorific that sits well on the third episode of this season, which is simultaneously an episode where next to nothing significant happens and where I don’t particularly care about that. After the season premiere set things in motion and established some potential arcs for the season—Ian and Poppy’s partnership dealing with an oncoming Storm, Rachel and Dana’s relationship dealing with their shifted status—“Breakthrough” taps away at those arcs only so slightly in favor of showing us a typical day at Mythic Quest offices. And that’s not in any way a criticism, as it picks the right pairings and pushes them all to just the right extremes that makes just spending time with them a reward.

The biggest reason why “Breakthrough” represents a typical day at Mythic Quest is that no one is getting any work done, largely due to Ian’s designation of the day as Warrior Within Day. At a certain milestone during each expansion development, Ian’s philosophical side takes over and he decides he needs to get away from the office, so the next steps can be determined by harnessing the natural energy of the elements. (David: “And margaritas, according to the invoices.” Ian: “Yes, there are a lot of margaritas.”) With Poppy deciding to dodge that nonsense with a sick day—more on that later—he expands the invite to other coworkers he identifies in need of focus. Jo’s in the middle of serious contemplation about her professional career after Dana’s comment at the end of “1000%,” and David’s easily bullied into it by the other two after his meeting with Carol is canceled.