Review: Dead Pixels “Raid Boss”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Meg, Nicky, and Usman are all set to compete in a new limited time Kingdom Scrolls event. The three of them will have to defeat the Raid Boss, but there’s one little problem: they have to queue in a very long line in order to even have the chance to face him.

Meanwhile, all three of them are battling with relationship issues as well. Meg tries to pawn off texting back the boiler man on Alison, but it backfires when he shows up needing some cuddling. Nicky gets attacked by Daisy’s acolytes and ends up stuck alone with her. And Usman? He and his therapist are going to have a lot to talk about after their unexpected breakthrough.

Our Take:

This week on Dead Pixels, the gang gets involved in some serious relationship drama. Last season got into the woods of Meg and Nicky, but even that mess might not top everything going on right now in the romantic lives of Meg, Nicky, and Alison. The three of them are all in very different kinds of relationships, but each of them are in trouble and destined for doom in their own ways.

Alison gets some interesting plot points this episode, as the guy of her dreams keeps shifting ever more downwards. Now she’s learned he has secret kids, and in fact, she’s watching them while he’s otherwise engaged. It’s funny, but it’s also kind of nice seeing Alison not being able to lord her status over her flatmates for once. She seems almost uncomfortable with how her life isn’t as drastically better than Nicky and Meg’s as she might have thought previously, and I’m curious to see where she’ll end up this season.

Meg, on the other hand, has found a guy who’s almost too nice. He’s constantly texting her, but she’s about to take her turn with the guys in fighting the Raid Boss, so she gives her phone over to Alison with instructions to just spam a bunch of random emoji. This somehow leads to Alison getting him to open up about his mother issues, which is what Meg doesn’t want. He comes over and she reluctantly cuddles him instead of participating in the battle—a choice that may indicate where her loyalties are turning?

Nicky’s relationship may only be virtual at the moment, but it might actually be the healthiest one of the bunch! Despite all the strange heckling from Daisy’s fellow admirers, he manages to keep his cool—until he’s hit with a glitchy virus that causes his head to turn into a block. He goes to quarantine himself and finds that Daisy wants to catch the virus from him. They wind up in quarantine together, a sweet end that’s also a little morbid in this current day and age.

Raid Boss is an above average episode of Dead Pixels in that it incorporates a lot of forward progress emotionally for a bunch of the characters. Juggling all of this cast isn’t easy, but this week did a good job including everyone. (Except Russel, that is, but he’s taken a major backseat this season so far.) With all of the relationship issues of the flatmates, plus the utter hilarity of Usman trying to turn his therapy session into a fight to the death, the fourth episode of Dead Pixels does not disappoint.