Roll Over and Die: Season 1 Episode 3 – Recap and Review

While Flum has a weird knack for making enemies, a child nun tries to help balance the scales.

ByAmari Allah Hours Posted on

Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.

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Episode 3 “Purity and Corruption” Recap and Details

Making Enemies Out Of What Should Be Allies: Milkit, Sara, Flum, Dein

While Sara is spending every last bit of money she made dressing Milkit up, her fellow guild members are stealing. This isn’t treated as an understandable thing but something immensely wrong, and between Flum and a new friend, Sara, a nun, they take down two robbers, to the ire of Dein.

But this combo ends up not being a one-time thing but possibly the start of a new party. For with a young man asking them, circumventing the guild, for a particular herb to heal his wife, the two find themselves on a mission. The kind that could get Sara in trouble, as the church has effectively pushed out and banned medical practitioners, so they control the market on healing.

But, with Sara’s mentor being Sister Maria, of the Heroes’ Party, who believed in healing in whichever way possible, she joins Flum and Milkit for Anichidey to find the Kalahari flower.

A Disjointed Group: Jean, Maria, Eterna, Gadhio, Cyrill

The Heroes Party was formed to go against demons, but when faced with two chiefs, not only can they not get the job done, but it is also pushed that the current Demon Lord doesn’t want any humans killed. This doesn’t make sense, but neither does Jean continuing to act as leader.

Clearly, he doesn’t inspire anyone, and between Cyrill, Maria, Eterna, and Gadhio, it seems they are slowly but surely hating his guts. He demands so much of them but seems stuck on Flum’s lingering influence. Also, even with Maria’s hatred for demons, due to destroying her hometown, it seems a growing apathy is getting to the party.

Dein’s Revenge: Milkit, Sara, Flum

While Milkit, Sara, and Flum arrive at Anichdey safely, under the guise of being there as missionaries, their safety is short-lived. No sooner than Sara and Flum begin to seek the herb, they run into an ogre outside the cave where the herb may be, get trapped in said cave by Dein’s men, and a new ogre appears, which may have been corrupted by Dein’s men. Flum loses her lower leg trying to face the second ogre, which was not as easy to take down as the first, and Sara’s magic isn’t strong enough to quickly heal it.

Luckily, like in the werewolf fight, Flum’s own cursed weapons heal her quickly, but it is clear she and Sara are outpowered. Because of this, they end up fleeing and jumping down a hole in the ground to who knows where to escape. Leaving us unsure of what is to come next.

New Characters in Episode 3

Maria (Aya Endō)

Maria (Aya Endō) – Roll Over and Die Season 1 Episode 3
  • Character Summary: Sister Maria is the healer of the Heroes’ Party, and a nun formerly of the central district. Sara considers her a mentor and leader since they share a similar background, coming from the sticks, forced to leave their hometowns due to demon activity.

Eterna (Misaki Kuno)

Eterna (Misaki Kuno) – Roll Over and Die Season 1 Episode 3
  • Character Summary: Eterna is the dark mage of the Heroes’ Party with a knowledge of herbs and horticulture, which might be forbidden by the church, but is carried on through her and similar people.

Sara (Machico)

Sara (Machico) – Roll Over and Die Season 1 Episode 3
  • Character Summary: Sara is a ten-year-old girl who works under the central church of Lord Origin, mainly focused on keeping the streets safe. Like Maria, her idol, she came from a more rural part of the kingdom and relocated due to demons destroying her hometown.

Review and Commentary

Highlights

Flum Not Becoming Overpowered [83/100]

With the ability to use cursed equipment in notable ways, and a healing factor which rivals some of Marvel’s top anti-heroes, it could be easy to imagine things slowly, but surely, becoming easy for Flum. Yet, that doesn’t appear to be the goal. If anything, her lack of notable training keeps things level, so as much as she can heal, move quicker, and swing a weapon, it doesn’t make her an A-Rank Adventurer all of a sudden.

This helps maintain her journey towards something better, even if becoming the strongest and fastest isn’t her goal. But, as said before, by committing to this line of work to sustain herself and Milkit, and her showing a spending habit that raises an eyebrow, she’ll have to get better. Never mind, with getting on Dein’s bad side, who runs things at the guild, she may need to seek new employment eventually and show that, despite the slave mark and her looks, she is formidable and worthy.

Maria and Sara’s Dark Side [82/100]

What’s developing increasingly is the sense that there is more to everyone than meets the eye. Yes, Sara and Maria are good-natured, generally, but both have traumatic pasts. Also, as good a person as Maria is painted to be, even to the point of leniency regarding church rules, it can be discarded that Jean told her not to waste mana on Flum, back in the day, and she listened.

Not having it where anyone is absolute in terms of good or evil will make Flum’s journey all the more tricky, especially since she is a young woman. Take note, if Sara is 10, Flum likely is no more than 18. Which, yes, in that world might be old enough for a grown woman, like the guild’s receptionist, to think you could become a sex worker, but that doesn’t mean Flum has experienced life by much.

She still can experience the grey, be befuddled by trickery, like she was with Dein, and this will make the story richer. Though I will say, I wonder what the endgame here will be, beyond exposing Jean?

How The Introduction of Demons Is Handled [82.5/100]

There is a notable world outside of Flum’s purview and seemingly beyond the heroes. We know there is a class issue within the kingdom, a demon problem, but the demons introduced in this episode are different. They are presented as people who don’t necessarily want war, and it leads to the need to question: could the church be fostering resentment to maintain power?

Could it be that, with them curtailing people’s ability to heal themselves, they have not only created a monopoly but are also creating the need by corrupting beings like werewolves? Antagonizing demons so that they will attack and then blame it on the demon lord as if they control every demon in existence? The world-building here is notable and interesting, and I’m wondering where they may take this, especially with other shows, like Sentenced To Be A Hero, having a similar setup.

Overall

Our Overall Rating [82/100]

Roll Over And Die, admittedly, may not become the best anime of the season. However, it holds steady in such a way that it doesn’t feel like it is going to burn out, its best days are behind it, or anything like that. If anything, it is going to be a steady climber, and while it may not get to the point of being a 9 or high 8 on some of the cumulation lists out there, it feels safe to say it will leave you satisfied.

What To Check Out Next

Visit our main TV shows page! There you’ll find other shows we’ve covered or look below for more of our coverage for this series:

TV Shows We’re Covering This Season

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Amari is the founder and head writer of Wherever-I-Look.com and has been reviewing media since 2010. He approaches each production with hope, rooting for every story to succeed, and believes criticism should come from unmet potential, while praise is reserved for work that meets or exceeds expectations.