Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy - Episode 4: Who Needs You

Too often I found myself trying to find an even ground that met everyone halfway. The problem here is that when you try to find a compromise, nobody ends up actually happy with the result. By trying to help everyone, I was ultimately helping nobody fulfill their goals.

This penultimate episode does in fact make the slight but important qualitative leap that series deserved, and all of which we "needed".

With a refocus on the dynamics of the Guardians as a team rather than the main plot line, Telltale appears to have repositioned themselves into a better perspective with which to enter the final act. With this episode, we can also begin to see how certain plotlines are coming together now that we near the end. We expect some great things from the final episode, perhaps aptly named Don’t Stop Believin’.

A flawed episode, but one which is finally getting the series back on track. At this stage though, we have to wonder whether it’s too little, too late.

Who Needs You showcases the best and worst of the Guardians series so far. The jokes repeatedly fall flat, the story is largely irrelevant, and the characters are still pale imitations of their big screen counterparts, but after a fantastically dull first hour, the episode manages to conjure up some surprisingly poignant moments in order to make the second half the highlight of the series so far. While it's by no means a home run, or even on par with much of what the studio has done in the past with other properties, the ending of Who Needs You has enough emotional weight to make it the best episode so far, leaving us with some hope that the upcoming finale might stick the landing for the series.