Miracle Workers: End Times 4×7 Review: ‘Roland Proudheart’

Respect is the common denominator in the two plots that make up this week’s episode of Miracle Workers.

I was provided with free advanced digital screeners for Miracle Workers season 4. The opinions I have shared are my own.

In my review of episodes 3 & 4 of Miracle Workers: End Times, I mention that Jon Bass, who plays the wardog Scraps, has been underused in the season so far. Well, that changes in episode 7 ‘Roland Proudheart’.

The main plot has Scraps apparently kidnapped, but it turns out he was taken by his original village and returned to his family. We get the backstory that he had fought against Freya (Geraldine Viswanathan) when she attacked their village. Scraps is the Roland Proudheart of the episode title, and he finds out he has a wife and kids as well as work to do. Having felt he wasn’t getting enough respect from Freya, he jumps into the role only to find out it’s more work than it’s worth.

Bass does a good job selling the basic idea that it’s not easy being the male head of the family. There’s a lot of humor in the episode, especially when Freya tracks Scraps and gets caught and turned into a dog herself. This role reversal works mainly due to the acting.

My biggest issue is that the moral seems to be that serving as a wardog is a positive thing, and it’s a lot less work than being a man and head of a family. I know, I know — that’s the joke. But to me, it’s not a very good joke. I kept waiting for the plot to end up being that it wasn’t Scraps’ real family and that it was just a way to get someone to take care of the town, but that never happened.

In the B plot, Sid (Daniel Radcliffe) is on the lookout for a new car with the help of TI (Karan Soni). Sid ends up getting a Bifi – a human ‘ride’ that is a nod to those types of cars that are way too big to be of use. Sid becomes enamored of the vehicle, thinking it gets people to respect him. But it becomes an obsession, and TI has to figure out a way to break him of it.

This plot, while silly, is a great slam on, to quote the show, douchebags too obsessed with their cars. It’s a combination of Tesla driver with Hummers, and there’s even a group Sid joins (although we never see) that talk about owning their Bifis. Radcliffe has a field day ‘riding’ the Bifi and trying to be stereotypically manly and obsessed.

I’m still enjoying the show, don’t get me wrong. But it seems to have taken a wrong step here and there that I hope are just exceptions, not the rule.

Miracle Workers airs Mondays, and more information about the show can be found on TBS’s website.

Author: Angie Fiedler Sutton

Angie Fiedler Sutton is a writer, podcaster, and all-round fangirl geek. She has been published in Den of Geek, Stage Directions, LA Weekly, The Mary Sue, and others.

She also produces her own podcast, Contents May Vary, where she interviews geeky people about geeky things. You can see all her work (and social media channels) at angiefsutton.com.

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