There’s a lot of grief in this episode. That’s not to say it’s all bad, or even that the episode is a downer. It’s more that Cardboard Computer largely has players surrender the wheel for this part of the story. The characters just need time. So the assembled cast moves through the episode onboard a tugboat that heads down the underground river that runs between their destination and the Zero. That means there’s no driving or small side destinations. But there is still plenty of player choice, here in terms of decisions to follow characters who disembark the boat at different points or who stays on board.

Grief in this episode is quiet, and mostly unspoken. Some of it is certainly up to the player and how they feel after the events of Act III. New characters are introduced, new constellations of relationships can sprout between characters, and there’s a feeling that everyone has to move on. Nobody is exactly sure how to do that, or what comes next, but the river is going to carry them somewhere, regardless.