The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4 Episodes 1-3 Review

The Legend of Vox Machina Season 4 debuts June 3 on Prime Video with Episodes 1-3. Spoilers follow.

It’s been a year since the defeat of the terrifying Chroma Conclave, and much has changed for Vox Machina, but if you need a reminder of the story so far, we do get a fantastic and visually inventive musical recap by Grog himself. After our party of heroes each went their separate ways, Season 4 catches up with them as they contemplate whether a life without adventure is truly what they wanted. The three-episode premiere is all about whether these characters can truly live without each other and without accepting the call to adventure, and it does a great job of setting up the team’s inevitable return to action while teasing the biggest threat they’ve faced yet.

But before we meet the main villain, these first three episodes do a lot to establish the state of Exandria after the defeat of the dragons. As it turns out, just because Vox Machina saved the day doesn’t mean things are fine. The premiere shows us the aftermath of the great devastation caused by the Chroma Conclave, including how many towns have been ruined and how many people have suffered or died because Vox Machina couldn’t save them fast enough. In that time, a cult has been growing for the past year promising immortality and a stop of the old order — a cult seeking to defy the gods themselves and worshipping an ominous figure known as the Whispered One. Fans of Critical Role and D&D may immediately clock the identity of our mysterious new big bad for the season, one that’s been teased since all the way back in Season 1, but his identity is kept vague for now.

Within the first three episodes, the cult is already a fascinating antagonist for Vox Machina, unlike anything they’ve faced before, and replacing big monsters with ardent believers who are also quite hard to kill. One unfortunate CGI creature in the premiere aside, the visuals continue to stand out in this show, with dynamic action bursting with vibrant colors while still being easy to follow.

The lack of Scanlan Shorthalt is very much felt in these first episodes, but luckily we have a brand new character that steps into that chaotic comic relief gap with ease. Meet Taryon Darrington, a rich fanboy who simply loves everything Vox Machina, fancies himself an adventurer, and is accompanied by his own robot biographer. Wayne Brady’s performance gives Taryon an improvised feel, like the character is refusing to go along with the script and just doing his own thing. You can see bits of Scanlan in the character while recognizing that he serves a brand new purpose in the story, teasing big connections to later developments.

Season 3 took some big swings in rearranging or outright changing events, and now Season 4 is paying that off by building up some compelling stories for our heroes. In particular, Pike benefits from these changes, with the gnome cleric still reeling from her crisis of faith last season as well as Scanlan abandoning the team. Her journey in these three episodes sees her at her lowest, struggling with the team’s place in the world and whether they’ve truly done any good. It’s clear the season is building up to some big departures for her character, a defiance of the idea of fate being written — not only in-universe as characters like Vex ponder their fate, but even whether the show itself is tied to what happened in the web series… or if there’s a better way.