Brennan Lee Mulligan Confirms Calamity’s Bolo Was Hidden in Plain Sight in Critical Role: Downfall

In the final episode of Critical Role‘s Downfall arc, Brennan Lee Mulligan hid an Easter egg – well, perhaps a Dragon Egg is the more appropriate term – in plain sight. The temporary Dungeon Master confirmed that his beloved Exandria Unlimited: Calamity non-player character Bolo appeared as the silver dragon in the God’s climatic battle over the fate of Aeor.

On Critical Role chat show 4 Sided-Dive, Mulligan revealed Bolo’s brief draconic cameo in Campaign 3, Episode 101. The aspiring reporter first stole the hearts of Critical Role audiences in Exandria Unlimited: Calamity with her distinctive accent and delightfully off-putting social mannerisms. Though Downfall was set a century after Calamity in a different, yet equally doomed floating metropolis, fans still hoped to see Aeorian native Bolo reappear in Mulligan’s return trip to Exandria’s ancient past. However, the finale came and went without mention of Bolo – or so fans thought.

When the silver dragon perished in Downfall‘s godly final showdown, her departing words were: “No, not my city. My city. My name was -“. Though Mulligan was under the impression that the captions would unveil the dragon’s true identity, neither the Beacon nor YouTube VODs for Episode 101 specify that she was in fact Bolo. The Dimension 20 creator could have taken his secret to the grave and left Bolo’s appearance as a matter of fan speculation, but he graciously granted 4-Sided Dive viewers and castmates a peek behind the curtain.

The revelation that Avalir’s uncouth party guest was a dragon all along certainly put some of her abrasive Exandria Unlimited: Calamity behavior into context and likewise raised further speculation about her relationship with Sam Riegel’s Loquatius Seelie. Bolo was birthed of an improvisational riff between Mulligan and Riegel in Calamity, with the Fey journalist bringing the young Aeorian woman as a plus one to Patia Por’co’s Replenishment party. With Mulligan’s reveal that Bolo was a dragon rather than a humble upstart reporter, 4-Sided Dive‘s guests amusingly pondered the possibility that she and Loquatius may have sprung some curious offspring.

Aside from Loquatius and Bolo’s wildly hypothetical Fey-dragon spawn – a topic that Calamity player Aabria Iyengar might have some strong opinions on as Loquatius’ wife – the NPC was given plenty of deserved attention during 4-Sided Dive. Ashley Johnson’s KerPlunk-based consequence in the chat show’s final moments was to come up with a canon backstory for Bolo, including how she escaped Avalir and whether or not she finally got her drinks. Fortunately, Mulligan’s earlier Bolo revelation gave the guests a framework to deliberate on how the NPC may have spent the century between Calamity and Downfall.