The penultimate episode of the fabulous Tales from the Borderlands has dropped and with it Telltale continues to weave an engrossing tale of con artists, office workers and robots as they hunt down a vault and the supposed riches that come with it. This episode finds our group forced to pull off an elaborate heist with a naturally low probability of success. What could go wrong?

We continue to focus on Rhys and Fiona who are thrust into coming up with a plant to infiltrate Helios, and steal something from the office of the late Handsome Jack, who is still looked upon by Hyperion as a hero. Like pretty much everything in Tales from the Borderlands, the well-laid plan almost immediately falls to pieces and the results are incredibly entertaining. While Episode Three was a calmer, more thoughtful episode, “Escape Plan Bravo” pulls the series back into more familiar territory with cool set pieces, plenty of jokes and yet still a few touching moments.

The amazing style of Tales from the Borderlands continues with several amazing sequences in Episode Four. There is yet another beautiful opening credits sequence with a haunting song. The scene where Rhys lays out his plan is great as he narrates each part working to perfection. However, the scene stealer is an amazing fake shootout on Helios with a horde of accountants. It’s probably my favorite section in the entire game up to this point and an absolute joy to play through.

While the set pieces were incredibly effective, what actually struck me as most interesting about “Escape Plan Bravo” was the humanization you get to witness of Handsome Jack. Don’t get me wrong, he still seems like a complete douchebag, but we do actually start to see a different, softer side of the ruthless villain. With the majority of this episode focusing on getting into his office, he plays a pretty significant role and also leads to a major choice right at the end of the episode that should result in some pretty huge consequences going into the finale.

One thing that is a little disappointing with the episode is the way it treats the side characters. This episode is very much the Fiona and Rhys show (which naturally includes Handsome Jack as well). Several major characters are just flat-out absent due to events in Episode Three and other characters are just underused. There is some hint as to what is going on with other characters but it is a bit of a disappointment to have so many excellent characters wasted in this episode.

All in all, Tales from the Borderlands continues strong with “Escape Plan Bravo.” Just like a heist movie, it’s an episode that moves fast and bounces around all over the place showing various parts of the plan. This results in some truly fantastic sequences and some incredibly interesting character moments for our main duo, albeit at the expense of other characters. With a titanic decision to end the episode, Tales from the Borderlands is setting up a series finale that I cannot wait to play.

SCORE: 9.0 out of 10

A code for Tales from the Borderlands Episode 4: Escape Plan Bravo was provided to Pixel Related for review.