Danny Pudi breaks down Mythic Quest’s season 2 finale cliffhanger
Danny Pudi digs into his character's (mostly) selfless act in the Mythic Quest season 2 finale
Aux Features Danny Pudi
Mythic Quest’s season-two finale, titled “TBD,” is all about setting up new beginnings. Ian (Rob McElhenney) and Poppy (Charlotte Nicdao) quit MQ to work on their own project, Rachel (Ashley Burch) is heading off to Berkeley, Dana (Imani Hakim) is going to start school, and Jo (Jessie Ennis) goes back to being David’s (David Hornsby) assistant. As for MQ’s crafty Head of Monetization, Brad Bakshi (Danny Pudi), his new adventure involves a possible prison stint. In the episode, Brad proves he’s a shark with a heart when he takes the fall for Jo after she is tricked into doing insider trading by his brother, Zack (Parvesh Cheena). The secret softie that he is, Brad calls the SEC on himself before Zack gets the chance to throw Jo under the bus. “I love the moment he does his perp walk across the office,” Pudi tells The A.V. Club. “No one is surprised he is arrested, it’s like they saw it coming. I found that super funny.”
Pudi says Brad’s entire arc in season two was about peeling back layers to understand his manipulative behavior. His tumultuous dynamic with Zack, which is explored in “Breaking Brad,” explains a lot. “You get to see his vulnerabilities. I was excited to crack open that side of him. We have such a tremendous team that we can swing wildly from over-the-top humor to raw, honest character moments,” Pudi says. The storyline kicked off with Zack’s introduction and his acquaintance with Jo comes full circle in “TBD.” It leads to Brad saving his mentee and also gaining some street cred for going to jail: “Jo might have out-sharked him by going to his brother, but the finale then has this brief but beautiful moment with both of them where they realize they do have room to grow as people and be there for each other even if it’s masked under a snarky attitude.”
Their mentor-mentee relationship began in the premiere, when Brad had a walk-and-talk with Jo that almost predicted the turns their relationship would take. In “Please Sign Here,” the duo participated in the strangest dance-off to determine who is the apex predator. But in the finale, this bond surprisingly strengthens. “I don’t think Brad wanted to go to jail necessarily,” Pudi suggests. “I almost admire his quality of not being concerned with people liking him. In this episode with Jo, though, there’s a genuine moment of being like ‘this person sees me and accepts me,’” he says. “Neither of them have got that in this office before, so it was fun to play with that and work with Jessie on it, who is an incredible actor and just so collaborative.”
After two seasons and 20 episodes (including two specials, “Quarantine” and “Everlight”), the Apple TV+ comedy crafted multi-dimensional characters. Pudi, who starred on Community for six seasons, says that it’s a wholly different time in TV now: “Community season one alone was 25 episodes. It was my first big show and I was so excited to be there, but I also didn’t know what I was doing. I don’t think I fully comprehended what I was doing until the end of that first season, and then we really just sunk into it. With MQ, we’ve been given a lot of trust by the writers and by [series co-creators] McElhenney and Megan Ganz.”
In the finale, Brad is escorted away by the feds, and casually mentions to David—who really has no clue what’s happening here—that he’ll be back in six to eight months. It’s a strong indication that he will definitely be spending some time behind bars. “I wonder if Brad will come back with any prison tattoos?” Pudi wonders. “I’m thinking lots of knuckle tattoos, and Brad will probably want to start giving Ted Talks or something in prison.” Apple TV+ has yet to officially renew Mythic Quest for season three, but it might look very different now that half the MQ employees are technically no longer around. Pudi says the finale does take some interesting turns, but he’s confident the writers will know how to work around them. “I’m curious to see what it’ll be like for Jo and Brad now since she’s the only one who knows what he did and why. It’ll be exciting to find out.”
26 Comments
RENEW THIS GODDAMN SHOW
It is very good
I wasn’t sure what to think about it before it premiered. It seemed like it would be y’know, just another workplace comedy, but it’s that and much more. I will lose my shit if I don’t get more Poppy Li back in my life, damn it.
This show has set itself up for such an awesome 3rd season, the only excuse Apple has for not renewing it is if they give up on new content entirely. This show truly has the spirit of Community in the world of Halt & Catch Fire.
“…the spirit of Community in the world of Halt & Catch Fire.”Wow, what a perfect description.
Yeah, that last scene was almost literally “Donna, I have an idea…”
I had the same thought. plus Backstory! had some really strong HACF vibes, too, even if they weren’t working on a game. the period-piece character-driven writing had echoes
Such a good show. I have never in my life played one of these games – never even seen one played. Doesn’t matter though – the workplace and the characters are just fascinating to me.[Oddly, or not, it reminds me of Friday Night Lights, as I don’t understand football rules at all, which didn’t stop me from loving that show.]
I mean this whole episode was about how sometimes your stories have to end because that’s the ending, even if you want them to continue. It’s a great show and I’d love more but this is a natural end.
Yes, I’m glad they found a relatively graceful conclusion, should the show not be renewed.
It’s the perfect way to end a season of television: wrap up your storylines and tie a thematic bow on it all, while gesturing towards future possibilities that you can explore if a next season ends up happening.
I adore the Poppy and Ian and Brad and Jo dynamic that the season finale set up. Beautiful and wholly in character reconciliation. I saw the ending for Poppy and Ian coming, sort of, but it was seeded so well throughout the season that it felt cathartic to see them sitting at that table together. I love their partnership and the way it’s been built up. As for Brad and Jo, well, they’re fun. “Fuck! Fuck Fuck!”
The Brad and Jo dynamic is hilarious and is also just begging for a Brie Larson guest spot, since she and Danny Pudi were adorable in Community and she’s Jessie Ennis’s best friend in real life.
I liked the finale overall (and the season), but I will quibble that the insider trading storyline doesn’t make much sense. Supposedly, the material information Jo was trading on was that there was a mobile game coming out – but a) we haven’t heard about any mobile games besides the cancelled goat game, b) I’m skeptical that the launch of a mobile game would be considered “material” from a narrow SEC standpoint, especially considering MQ is just one of an unknown number of subsidiaries of the Montreal-based company, and c) she presumably had plenty of time to sell the shares once she realized what Zach’s plan was. I suppose if Zach had proof that she had intended insider trading, that might be enough to get a conviction even if she unwound her position before actually benefiting from material non-public information, but I’m skeptical
It also makes no sense how Brad could turn himself in for a crime that there is no evidence of him actually committing.
It’s a comedy show!
My thought was that maybe he told them he convinced Jo to buy the stocks for him? Agreed that the logic here is iffy. I also wondered why she couldn’t just sell the shares once she realized Zach was setting her up. The perp walk scene alone made it all worth it, though, plot-holes or not. I literally LOL’d at Danny Pudi doing his best Blue Steel for all the MQ employees.
As a lawyer watching this Finale, I could think was “There’s no fucking way they will be able to make Poppy’s game, since she clearly created that in the course of her employment, and of course her employment contract is going to make sure her employer at the time owns 100% of any IP she creates for the company or created during the term of her employment, whether used or not. They would be sued into oblivion.” Can I be a lawyer consultant to tv shows? I mean, come on here. Unless Season 3 is a courtroom drama in which hijinks ensue. But that’s my IP.
Things like this is why my wife has forbidden me from watching Doctor shows. While watching Clarice, all I can think is “pharmaceutical trials DO NOT work that way!”
That’s why I thought Knives Out was such an overrated load of horseshit. Morphine and Ketolorac don’t work that way at all (I described the use in the film to a pain specialist who must have thought I was having a stroke or seizure) and burning down a path lab days latter and the post mortem results only copy of tests getting lost … not like we don’t back up off site at least daily for decades now.Also the legal side of things was shit too. If you’re part of the cover up of a suspicious death you end up benefiting from to that extent, you aint seeing shit.
I can’t get past the idea that Ian and Poppy have to quit their jobs in order to create and work on a second game. That’s what a game studio is; a way for multiple teams to work on different things.
A lot of ‘celebrity devs’ have left a company to start their own studio (Sid Meir and Firaxis, for example). It also seems unlikely that a corporate overlord would let either of them completely abandon MQ, if it’s the cash cow they’re depicting it as.
I mean, yes and no. Poppy’s game really didn’t have any recognizable IP, the whole concept is that whatever changes happen in the game stay in the game, they could make any sort of game with that concept. But then again, it also makes no sense why they would quit their jobs to make a new game, they work for one of the largest video game companies on the planet, why wouldn’t they just pitch the heads at Ubisoft a new game instead of quitting and spending their own time and money to develop a game that they are just going to have to try and sell to a game developer anyway? That also brings up the point that for people as high up on the corporate ladder as Poppy and Ian are, they’re bound to have non compete clauses in their contracts.
Say to yourself “It’s just a show, I should really just relax.”
Did i miss your coverage of Backstory? Cause that was one hell of an episode. This show is pretty good, but it has moments of brilliance, especially in letting the ensemble and extended universe shine.
Season three? Felt like a series finale to me.