Critical Role C2 Episode 69
By: I.Am.No.Man
Episode 69 (Nice): The King's Cage
Review
Whooo boy this episode was an intense one. If there ever was a payoff to a five episode long chase and dungeon crawl, this episode is it! We all knew that episode 69 was going to be exciting in one way or another. What I didn't expect was to have my heart torn out and stomped on by Ashley Johnson and Laura Bailey.
After the weeks long horror fest of the demonic catacombs of death, the Nein finally caught up to Oban. And then all hell broke loose. Oban unchained a particularly nasty infernal being named the Laughing Hand. Imprisoned some time during the Calamity, the Laughing Hand's destruction was entombed for generations, only to be unleashed full force onto an unprepared Mighty Nein. And boy were they woefully unprepared.
The already exhausted Nein faced the skilled magic user Oban, though he honestly didn't make it too far into the fight, but it was the Laughing Hand that really shook them up. They hit him hard, and with many kinds of damage, but he seemed to only grow more powerful the more they hit him. His wounds would grow gaping maw's that shattered the Nein's mental state and turned them against each other or struck them with immobilizing fear. One by one, the Nein began to fall under his attacks. They quickly realized that running was their only option.
And then this happened. Yasha. Our sweet gothic angel betrayed her friends. Yasha got Winter Soldiered! Oban said the magic words and the OrphanMaker took hold of Yasha again. We all saw this coming. But hoped that somehow they would find a way out of it. Thankfully, Ashley Johnson will only be gone for filming for a few months and then we hopefully get an epic Yasha rescue!
As this episode came to a close, the Nein dealt with their failures and losing Yasha. Everyone looked a bit like the Fellowship escaping Khazad Dum after Gandalf fell. All sad, confused, and a little worse for wear. Fjord took an intense beating and only narrowly escaped death by the skin of his teeth. Poor Jester took the brunt of Yasha's 'betrayal' the hardest. The Nein began their retreat to Bazzozan to lick their wounds and plan the next course of action.
Don't Miss It!
I'm going to keep this section brief today. You can catch all the updates on Critical Role at San Diego Comic Con, Travis Willingham's YeeHaw Game Ranch, The Denver Pop Culture Con panel and more at the end of Episode 70's review, coming soon!
