An explosive episode of Critical Role kept viewers hooked for 5 horrifying hours

polygon.com:

Typically, the live viewership for Critical Role dips after its break around midnight Eastern, as a good chunk of the audience heads to bed with plans to catch the rest of the Dungeons & Dragons actual-play episode later on. But last week’s session was so suspenseful that viewer numbers continued to climb until the very end. The marathon five-hour broadcast was must-watch TV for dedicated fans thanks to the return of a past adversary and a bold player move that felt as if it had been pulled from a different game entirely — because it was.

[Warning: This story contains spoilers for episode 91 of Critical Role’s Campaign 3, “True Heroism.” The video on demand is now available on YouTube, with audio-only podcast available on Thursday, April 18.]

For those of you who haven’t been keeping up with Bell’s Hells, the unlikely heroes at the center of Critical Role’s third campaign, it’s important to realize that just about every member of the party is a ticking time bomb — some more so than others. One entered the campaign bound to Vox Machina’s nemesis Delilah Briarwood. Two were born under Exandria’s red moon of ill omen. Two have absorbed shards of primordial power that nearly killed them. One has made a deal with a hag. And one rolls every day to see if he died in the night.

And then there’s Fresh Cut Grass, an automaton played by Sam Riegel. Normally he’s a healer with a sunny disposition, but under stress he gets a tad violent. How violent? Well, they killed everyone in his previous adventuring party, and even attacked the Bell’s Hells at one point in the not-too-distant past. But their path toward understanding the meaning of existence has revealed he has the ability to love, which is handy. Also? There’s literally a bomb lodged inside his chest.

Last week, at the end of the episode, that bomb went off — and that was just the final twist in a night full of wild turns.

While on a reconnaissance mission to Ruidus, the party ran into their longtime nemesis Otohan