Review: Dead Pixels “Hive-Mother”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

It’s almost time! Meg, Nicky, Usman, and Russell are set to complete Kingdom Scrolls once and for all. The group decides to set aside an entire weekend to get it done while Alison it out at her flute recital. Meg and Nicky decide to cosplay the event, but things get a little out of control when Russell shows up.

Meg has made plans to get with Russell after the hive-mother is taken down, but Nicky won’t accept it. He argues that they’re still married in the game, and tries things like putting a screw in Russell’s trail mix. Everything comes to a head when Nicky kills Russell in the game while fighting the big boss. Meg storms off to Russell’s house, but in the end, decides to return. Meg, Nicky, and Usman conquer the hive-mother together — just as an expansion pack is announced.

Our Take:

The final episode of Dead Pixels opens with Alison playing the flute on a scenic hillside beneath a backlit tree. It’s a very cinematic way to setup a series that mostly takes place indoors in front of computer screens. It’s also the last time we see Alison, since she’s apparently a flutist now and is off to a recital in the city. She’s been a lot of fun, and her interaction with Meg is definitely a highlight. It’s sad to say goodbye, but once she’s gone, the real fun begins.

I could see Meg and Nicky dressing up from a mile away, but it was still sweet (in a dorky kind of way). Nicky looks a little crazy in his robes, while Meg looks like she’s about to go into a WWE tournament. She’s invited Russell over, which gets on Nicky’s nerves. Her new way to remember her relationships is “Russell in the bed, Nicky in the head,” which is a very Meg thing to say.

Her relationship with Nicky almost comes to a head in Hive-Mother, but the show doesn’t quite get there, instead choosing to leave the two of them in flux as they wait for the Kingdom Scrolls expansion pack to be released. It’s a bit of a disappointing conclusion, since I was hoping to get some kind of bow on top. I suppose Meg has decided that Russell is no good for her, but she hasn’t quite gotten up the moxy to accept the true depth of her feelings towards Nicky. His behaviour in the episode is suspect for sure. From killing Russell’s character in an important moment for the team to trying to slip glass into his flapjack, Nicky sinks to his lowest levels this week and it never called into question for it. Rather, in the end, his violent persistence paid off, which is not exactly a great message to go out on.

Usman gets a great ending though. He’s holed up in a hotel in order to finish playing the game with his group, but is surprised when his wife finds him in game and wants to talk. He’s perfectly content to let Wade act like his second wife, borrowing his pants and putting his kids to bed. But his wife isn’t willing to let him go, so she tracks him down despite his high endurance levels. When he returns to Meg and Nicky, he informs them that he’s deleting his account. So it’s only right that he’s the one to go on the suicide mission to bring down the hive-mother. All in all, it’s a fitting ending for the pilot — until he pops back in to say there’s an expansion pack coming.

Dead Pixels ties off its short run with a funny episode that verges on moving things forward for the characters, but can’t quite reach the finish line. Russell may be out of the picture, but Meg and Nicky are still in a will-they-won’t-they phase and Usman doesn’t seem like he’s gotten any wiser. If there’s one complaint I have with, it’s that a lot of important moments, like Meg breaking up with Russell or Usman talking to his wife, are done offscreen. There’s more time for comedy that way, but the show loses a bit of serious steam. The finale of Dead Pixels proves the show is still alive, but maybe one of those pixels has just gotten stuck.