The New 'Mythic Quest' Ending Fixed the Old 'Mythic Quest' Ending

Spoilers

Last month, Mythic Quest aired its divisive fourth season finale. A couple of weeks later, Apple TV+ cancelled Mythic Quest. This week, Mythic Quest aired a new ending that fixed the divisive original.

For a complete rundown of the series finale, you can read Chris’s recap. The important thing to know is that, at the end of the original finale, Ian and Poppy kissed. I hated it.

In fact, much of the fourth season (and the third season, to be honest) had been spinning its wheels, obsessed with the working relationship between Ian and Poppy almost to the exclusion of what made Mythic Quest great to begin with: the workplace comedy. Charlotte Nicdao and Rob McElhenney are great, but the series really suffered from main-character syndrome. They were the least interesting part of a show that featured a terrific supporting cast, including Ashly Burch, Jessie Ennis, Imani Hakim, Danny Pudi, David Hornsby, and Naomi Ekperigin, among others.

The one thing Ian and Poppy had going for them was that it was a platonic relationship. It was interesting, up to a point, to watch a series center on the working relationship between a man and a woman that wasn’t romantic. They were a couple, but only in their professional lives, although that working relationship endured many of the same challenges marriages face.

Anyway, the kiss at the end of season four — and the obvious direction the series was headed in for season five —-completely undid the best thing about that couple. The new ending, to its credit, undid the old one. It’s the same episode, only this time, the two agree to repair their working relationship, but it remains platonic. They hug, and that’s it.

And that’s the way it should have been from the beginning. It’s hard to put the genie back in the bottle once we’ve seen the kiss, but this is at least better than that. Also, maybe they should have ended the series at the end of last season and saved us from a fairly uninspired fourth season.