Spoilers ahead for “Mythic Quest” Season 4, Episode 5.
It sounds like a “Mythic Quest” opener, but it all started with an omniscient dream from Rob McElhenney.
“I messaged [Rob McElhenney] to be like, ‘Hey, do you have time to jump on the phone today?’ And he called me back in the middle of his Thanksgiving lunch and he was like, ‘Usually, I would be like, can we chat tomorrow? But I had a dream last night, and it would be so crazy if you are calling me because of what I think you are calling about,’” series star Charlotte Nicdao told TheWrap.
That dream was that Nicdao was pregnant on the set of Season 4, a premonition that started the process of this Apple TV+ comedy restructuring itself to account for its lead actor’s pregnancy.
“We would caution her to maybe not to tell this story because it makes Rob seem like some sort of God,” series executive producer and star David Hornsby joked.
Season 3 of the critically-acclaimed comedy ended with video game co-creators Poppy (Nicdao) and Ian (McElhenney) coming to a hard-fought compromise. After years of Ian treating his lead engineer as just another employee, Ian made good on his promise to finally start treating his creative partner and best friend as an equal. That meant actually listening to her and respecting her boundaries. Going into this new season, the writers knew they wanted to explore the limits of this dynamic by giving the work-obsessed Poppy a personal life for once as well as a new boyfriend. But once the team learned of Nicdao’s pregnancy, it took the season in a completely different direction.
“We were like, ‘Let’s write it in rather than act like it’s not happening,’” series star and producer Ashly Burch told TheWrap. “She’s such an interesting character to get pregnant.”
“She seems so far away from her personal life, for it to assert itself in her life that much just seemed really funny. And she’s also a mess,” series co-creator Megan Ganz added.
Burch noted that the pregnancy adds “a really interesting dimension” to Poppy. Impulsive, often spiteful, addicted to sugar and sometimes adverse to showers, Poppy is the definition of a workaholic. Earlier in Season 4 she takes a sick day so that she can code from her bed in peace. There is no part of this character who fits the expected television archetype of a mother. And that is exactly what the show wanted to explore.
“Why wouldn’t someone like Poppy want to be a mom? Why would you assume that she wouldn’t want to be a mom?” Burch asked.
The fact that Poppy has created something — both an art project and a new life — outside her relationship with Ian puts a toll on their partnership. “As toxic as they are, they care about each other. I think Ian wants to be a good friend to Poppy, but that takes the kind of selflessness that maybe he doesn’t know how to access,” Nicdao said. “The thing that I really wanted to explore was Poppy is actually rooting for Ian. Poppy wants Ian to get there. Poppy has found a personal life that’s making her happy, making her feel well-balanced, and she wants Ian to find that too so that they can finally have a healthy relationship and create together.”
Now looking back, the “Mythic Quest” team sees this pregnancy curveball as an essential part of this latest season. “It’s amazing to think we were going to write a season without it,” Ganz said. “It seems like the backbone of everything.”
New episodes of “Mythic Quest” Season 4 premiere on Apple TV+ on Wednesdays.
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