In some ways, Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet Episode 7: Permadeath felt like a season finale of the show. It included a climatic battle, offered the most stakes that the show has seen so far, and gave all of the major and minor characters that we've met some screen time. But while Episode 7 resolved one of the show's biggest conflicts, there is still the matter of Mythic Quest lead engineer Poppy Li potentially jumping ship to Cold Alliance Games.

In this episode, Poppy finally accepted the offer made to her back in Episode 4: The Convention, confirming that she would be joining the Mythic Quest studio's chief rival Cold Alliance Games. This came about after a meeting with David and Ian, where the two of them continued to disregard Poppy's opinions and decided to handle the hack situation in the way they wanted. Instead of attempting to be the voice of reason like she usually is, Poppy decided to go with the flow, feeding into Ian's ego and encouraging his decision to challenge the Masked Man hacker to an in-game fight. She even helped him with the motion capture work to record a cut-scene for the Masked Man's unmasking.

The entire situation was implausible, silly, and like Episode 6: Non-Player Character, felt hugely inaccurate to the actual video game industry. It also struggled with its own internal logic. The way the situation is presented, it makes it seem like Ian makes the challenge, trains endlessly, and organizes a large esports event within hours. None of it really made any sense, which made it harder to get invested in the story. It's a good thing, then, that the comedy was sharp enough that most viewers will likely overlook the logical inconsistencies.

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The added stakes also went a long way in making Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet Episode 7: Permadeath's mistakes easier to swallow than the ones we saw in Episode 6. It was exciting to see if Ian or the Masked Man would win their battle, as implausible as them having a fight like this would be within the context of an MMORPG, and it was also fun to discover the truth behind the Masked Man's secret identity. Those who don't want to know should proceed with caution, as this Mythic Quest episode review will delve into spoilers.

After Ian defeats the Masked Man, his character in the game unmasks him. Poppy had traced their IP and somehow turned on their webcam, revealing the identity of the Masked Man hacker to be none other than the show's resident PewDiePie parody Pootie Shoe. It's unclear what kind of impact this shocking revelation will have on the show, and we also don't know Pootie Shoe's motives. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming episodes, so hopefully it's not resolved too quickly like some of the other plot lines in the show.

For one reason or another, Pootie Shoe has a grudge against Mythic Quest and the game's development team. But his decision to stop streaming the game left the door open for Dana to be promoted and become Mythic Quest's in-house streamer. Dana struggled to be herself while streaming at first, but got some encouragement from Ashly Burch's character Rachel, which saw her subscriber count grow. This combined with her coverage of the big Ian/Masked Man fight helped her reach something like over 1 million subscribers in a single day. This is also hugely unrealistic, but again, the episode was exciting enough that most viewers won't care.

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Basically every other major or minor character the show has introduced so far was given screen time elsewhere throughout the episode. This included writer CW Longbottom, assistant Jo, and boss David, who decided to lock themselves in a closet and drink their woes away. Jo was drinking from the stress of Ian's fight and seeing him become friendly with Poppy, whereas Longbottom was drinking because he didn't write the ending to the Masked Man story. David, meanwhile, was avoiding his responsibilities, afraid to talk to corporate about the situation.

David's fear of corporate was made a little more intriguing because of the fantastic Episode 5: A Dark Quiet Death. That episode of Mythic Quest shone a spotlight on the struggle between corporate suits and creative types, and handled it in a very serious way. This episode used it more for humor, but Episode 5 still made it easier to understand why David felt so reluctant to talk back to his corporate overlords.

While corporate may have been portrayed as overbearing and intrusive on the creative process in Episode 5, though, it did have a genuine reason to be upset in this one. The Masked Man hack was a big deal as it meant that user data had potentially been compromised, reflecting the real-world hacks that happen in the tech industry every day. Ian even name-dropped the infamous PlayStation hack at one point in the episode.

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Otherwise, this episode didn't spend too much time attempting to mirror real world game industry events or situations. It instead focused on its own story and the conclusion of the Masked Man hack plot line, which was for the best. There were definitely ways to do this so that it would have felt more realistic, but it still got the job done. If nothing else, watching Rob McElhenney smash controllers in rage makes the episode worth watching.

Also, just as an aside, Brad got an interesting twist in this episode. He spoke with Poppy about the upcoming fight between Ian and the Masked Man, and he suggested that they bet on it. However, instead of betting money, Brad wanted to get Poppy's hair if he won - and it wasn't for him. It's unclear why Brad would want Poppy's hair, but it has creepy undertones and hints at Brad being a far more compelling character than he has been portrayed to be so far. Perhaps he is far more sinister than he is on the surface, and his money-making schemes from Episode 2: The Casino and elsewhere throughout the show are all part of a larger, darker plan.

Mythic Quest: Raven's Banquet is available to stream now, exclusively on Apple TV+.