Created by Charlie Day, Megan Ganz, and Rob McElhenney, Apple TV’s Mythic Quest is a fantastic, brilliantly messy ride as a series. While it centers around a fictional video game, the show’s immense strength lies in its characters and their dynamics. The third season began airing in November 2022 and concluded on January 6, 2023, and the show is set to return for a fourth (via Deadline). For three seasons, viewers watched the fictional game expand, crumble, and stay in a bubble while the characters tried to evolve and improve upon it. And in their involvement with the game, viewers watched as their growth took precedence subtly.
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One of the Apple TV+ show’s most important (and purely platonic) relationships is between Ian Grimm and Poppy Li, played by Rob McElhenney and Charlotte Nicdao. Throughout the first two seasons, the two are constantly at each other’s throats, exhibiting moments of distinct vulnerability only when absolutely necessary. But when it comes to their creative process, the two work exceptionally well together. Still, where we thought their partnership was strong before, Mythic Quest Season 3 expanded upon it thoroughly, fortifying it in a way from which there’s no going back.
Season 3 Gives A Backstory
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Once every season, Mythic Quest brings what we can classify as a stand-alone bubble episode to the audience. The first, “A Dark Quiet Death,” introduces viewers to a couple from years ago, played by Jake Johnson and Cristin Milioti, whose means of creating the titular game and falling apart act as a catalyst for the entire season’s trajectory. The second, “Backstory!”, takes viewers through C.W. Longbottom’s (F. Murray Abraham) life working in a publishing house and on the road toward becoming the writer we later know him as. Mythic Quest Season 3, Episode 7, “Sarian,” is all about Ian and Poppy’s initial meeting.
In “Sarian,” we not only see a young Poppy obsessing over a game, only to meet its creator later and go on to work with him afterward, but we get a small glimpse of how well they could work together. A flashback in any way often provides the necessary depth to see how long characters have been in each other’s orbits. But the purpose of “Sarian” in more ways than one is to showcase the transition from a mentor-slash-mentee dynamic to the promise of a lasting partnership. It’s also the kind of episode that strengthens the confessions we get in the season finale. The backstory solidifies that their meeting was life-changing in that it gave them the means to understand components of themselves through the other.
It Dives into the Uglier Sides of Their Partnership
Since the pandemic special, “Quarantine,” Mythic Quest set up Poppy and Ian’s partnership to extend beyond the workspace. They’ve seen the best and worst in each other, and through changes, they’ve shown that they’re still going to be around to be the other’s strength in trying times. However, in completely separating them from the rest of the party, Mythic Quest Season 3 proves that their uglier, messier sides make them better as partners. GrimmPop should have been a success with both of their skills. Still, instead, the series does something riveting by tearing it all apart and making their diverting opinions essentially break the relationship.
Henceforth, when Playpen falls apart, and there’s no advancement with just the two of them, the realization of their brokenness forces vulnerability center stage to heal them. While they’re stuck together and operating from every new detail of the other’s artistry, it becomes apparent that the jokes about them being mom and dad are more accurate in a foundational sense. Because if Poppy and Ian break apart, everything else on the inside crumbles. If their relationship isn’t solid, no game they create will be either. And Ian realizing that the key is to do nothing but fix their brokenness first while meeting each other halfway, showcases just how much he’s grown from when they first met. By acknowledging that they’re broken and that they both sincerely love each other, Ian and Poppy thus reveal that every dam standing before them is on the verge of crumbling. When Ian chooses to eat the buffalo chicken pizza (and drinks the green-flavored soda) despite his established diet, he proves that he is indeed willing to meet Poppy halfway.
It Highlights the Importance of Platonic Relationships
In any other series, Ian and Poppy’s relationship would’ve been in the romantic realm by now. Their bold, love-filled confessions and outright vulnerability would’ve likely ended with a kiss or something equal. Still, instead, Mythic Quest cements that theirs is purely a platonic partnership, adding far more strength to the dynamic than ever before. Now, while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with romantic relationships when two people are great together, that’s merely not the story here. Their dynamic instead highlights the detail that platonic relationships can be just as powerful and lasting as romantic relationships.
Further, anytime a series provides viewers with a montage of sorts, it acts as a means of delivering on just how far two people have come. Poppy and Ian are each other’s person — they’re the ones they work best with, even through the highs and lows, and finally, understanding the importance of compromise is the key they need to succeed in epic ways. So much of the strength of their partnership also comes from McElhenney and Nicdao’s performances because their embodiment of these characters exhibits that the confessions aren’t laced with romantic undertones despite the language used. Their partnership matters significantly to both of them because, as each other’s yin and yang, they work better together than apart. He sees it all, and she builds from the vision presented to her. The semantics don’t matter here, but their partnership does significantly, and establishing this fact, despite all the mess they’ve had to walk through, authenticates that the foundation holding them steady is sturdier than ever, thus revealing the strength that also lies in solid platonic relationships.
