Review: Dead Pixels “Mission”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Meg and Nicky’s frustration at being persistently unable to complete an in-game mission is compounded by the news a tradesman will be visiting the flat… which is soon remedied for Meg when she finds him attractive and attempts to act as ‘normal’ as she can around him.

Meanwhile, Nicky finds himself part of a group of followers of the mysterious Daisy character – and is unsure how to react when she requests a voice-chat between the two. He winds up talking to her and forming a bit of an actual connection perhaps, but is then maimed by the rest of the cult-like following she’s developed.

Our Take:

In its third episode, Dead Pixels carries on the theme of romance with an episode focused on how, though Nicky and Meg are approaching their romantic lives in very different ways, they’re both still progressing on that front. Mission may start and end with the gang taking on a tough to beat task in Kingdom Scrolls, but the real tension is found in the interpersonal lives of these characters.

To be fair, using this unbeatable side mission as a bit of padding and setup for the episode isn’t a bad move. It does give us one of the funniest scenes so far this season, when Usman declares that he’s going to flog himself with a USB cable every time they fail to complete the mission and proceeds to do so. There’s also a bit where Meg and Nicky diagnose themselves with Parkinson’s disease and compete for who is the most afflicted—definitely not among the funniest scenes.

Once the actual meat of the episode kicks in, though, things get more interesting. Alison made an appointment with a tradesman named Greg to fix their boiler, but won’t be around to let him in when he arrives. Thus, the duty falls to Meg, who quickly falls for Greg and proceeds to make an absolute fool of herself in front of him, going so far as to sabotage the boiler so he has to come back and then trying to cook him a six-egg breakfast. It actually ends on an encouraging note, however, as Greg gives her his phone number on a note saying he’s also weird.

Nicky’s romantic escapades aren’t quite as fast moving. He’s still fascinated with that one girl in the game who rips out his insides every time she sees him, except now she’s also evolved a bit of a cult-ish following. Nicky joins in the proceedings, which mainly involve following her around and waving. But when the two of them are left alone, she voice chats him and they wind up talking and forming a bit of an actual human connection perhaps? Unfortunately, the rest of her gang of admirers aren’t enthused about this development, and beat Nicky’s avatar to within an inch of his life.

Mission may not be the funniest or most gag-filled episode this season, but it definitely stands out for the way it involves Meg and Nicky in a bit of romance. (Any sign of their own connection is completely absent—guess that’s left back in season one!) And even with some more dramatic developments, there’s still time for fun stuff like Usman’s USB flogging and his pitch perfect advice to Nicky on how to woo women over voice chat. Even if I can’t see Meg or Nicky being prepared to have a healthy relationship at this point, I’m interested to see how far the show will push its characters in these new directions moving forward.