DISCLAIMER: This recap of Miracle Workers: End Times Season 4 Episode 1, “Welcome to Boomtown,” contains spoilers. Proceed at your peril.
Welcome, warlords and lone wanderers! Miracle Workers is finally back with another delightful seasonal narrative. This time, it’s ripping a page out of Mad Max: Fury Road‘s book with some post-apocalyptic hilarity. “Welcome to Boomtown” is brilliant in its simplicity. It does a great job crafting this new universe for our actors to play in while showcasing clever jokes and fun performances.
Everyone fires on all comedic cylinders. I love the marriage of sci-fi/genre elements and comedy, so Miracle Workers: End Times certainly scratches that entertainment itch for me.
Ready to delve into “Welcome to Boomtown”? Let’s get to it.
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We open with Sid (Daniel Radcliffe), setting the scene for viewers. We learn the world ended with one big BOOM!, and our science essentially backfired. Then, Sid wanders through the apocalyptic wasteland while gnawing on what appears to be a human limb. Scraps (Jon Bass) suddenly jumps into view, attempting to attack Sid. The ravagers accompanying him fail to take out Sid. Freya Exaltada (Geraldine Viswanathan), a disgruntled warlord, realizes she has to do everything herself. So, she pummels Sid with an avalanche of punches. It’s a hilarious amount of punches.
However, the punching quickly morphs into kissing. Next, we see the two reveling in marital bliss after tying the knot. After their wedding, the newlyweds move to the suburbs, aka Boomtown. Sid adopts a 9-to-5 schedule while Freya adds WFH to her day-to-day (Warlord From Home). Sid goes to work for Morris ‘The Junkman’ Rubinstein (Steve Buscemi), who owns the local junk shop. When Sid expertly fights off Scavenger (Andre M. Johnson), who’s angry with Morris’s services, Morris decides to invite Sid and Freya over for dinner.
Meanwhile, Freya tries to do her warlording in the streets with her trusty Scraps by her side. Unfortunately, none of the Boomtown residents stop to submit themselves to her rule. Times are tough, you know. Warlording ain’t easy. TI-90, aka Tai (Karan Soni), a robot, zeroes in on Freya. He plans to eradicate her for being a “messy b*tch.” Tai can’t believe that Freya’s okay with settling down, with living that suburban life. Why would anyone trade in the apocalyptic wasteland for *gestures* this?
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Tai rattles off the negatives of residing in Boomtown, the chief of them being the “becoming a boring human” bit. As Freya contemplates what’s become of her life, Sid excitedly informs her about their dinner date with Morris and his wife. He thanks her for moving to Boomtown with him. That evening, Sid and Freya don their finest finery for a sumptuous meal with Morris and his wife, Holly (Erin Darke), a hologram. Fun fact: Daniel Radcliffe and Erin Darke are partners, and they just had their first child. Ah, love.
Morris and Holly reside in an authentic “McMansion from the 2020s.” They kept the chairs that only spin halfway. There’s even a ball pit to lounge in post-meal! Freya is taken aback by Holly’s “Stepford wife” demeanor and her eagerness to surrender to domesticity. After consuming a delectable, cooked rat for dinner (Can you believe Sid tried to use the cockroach fork to eat his rat? Neither can I.), Freya calls Tai into the bathroom. She asks him to free her from this madness. Meanwhile, he’s partying it up at the club.
Stuck at home, Scraps destroys the house, believing Sid and Freya are gone forever. All of his dog mannerisms crack me up. He’s a human dog in BDSM accouterments. (I guess he likes to submit.) While Freya looks as if she might explode as she listens to Morris and Holly prattle on about nothing of consequence, Tai bursts through the wall of the McMansion. The door was locked. Then, he starts blasting everyone save Freya. Thankfully, like a Stormtrooper, he misses every person. Infuriated, Morris orders them to leave and fires Sid.
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On the way home, Sid remarks about how Tai has lost control of himself. Freya admits she isn’t ready to settle down in the suburbs. She misses being a violent warlord. Sid’s perfectly okay with living elsewhere. He doesn’t care where they are as long as they’re together. He adores the vicious, bloodthirsty warlord with whom he fell in love. Aw, these two are cutie patooties.
When they arrive home, Scraps treats them to domestic destruction. He clearly missed them so much that he tore the house apart. And vomited in their shoes. And ate said vomit. What a good boy! Freya pays Morris and Holly a visit while sporting her warlord look, complete with a terrifying weapon. She orders Morris to rehire Sid. Otherwise, she’ll tear him limb from limb. When that doesn’t work, she beats the snot out of him. Holly gleefully notes how she didn’t know her husband’s head could go that far up his bum. What fun.
Later, Sid returns to clean out his desk at the junk shop. He’s really going to miss sitting in his desk chair. It’s not often he gets to sit in chairs in general. Morris hobbles in on crutches — the outcome of Freya’s rough lesson. He declares that Sid is still part of the team. That evening, Sid climbs into bed with Freya. He’s over the moon. Freya’s willing to give Boomtown a shot. Warlording can be done anywhere, after all. To celebrate, they allow Scraps to crawl into bed with them. Well, he’s a dog, so he does his damnedest to take up all the space.
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I love that Daniel Radcliffe and Geraldine Viswanathan are always romantic partners in every Miracle Workers season. That’s the connective tissue between these anthologies. That and Radcliffe’s character usually works for Buscemi’s character in some capacity (well, except in Season 2). There’s a mentor/mentee-type relationship between them. Karan Soni and Jon Bass are always down to play larger-than-life characters. While each season tackles a different story, these common threads connect everything in the Miracle Workers-verse.
It’s all connected, y’all, just like the MCU.
Miracle Workers: End Times airs Mondays at 10 pm on your TBS affiliate.
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