Roll Over And Die: Season 1 Episode 4 – Recap and Review
Stuck at the bottom of a pit, discovering others who became trapped there, will Flum and Sara make it out alive or learn why Flum’s name was on that monster?
Spoiler Alert: This summary and review contains spoilers.
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Episode 4 “Darkness and Light” Recap and Details
- Public Release Date (Crunchyroll): January 30, 2026
- Check out more of our “Roll Over and Die” coverage.
The Lab Of An Evil Genius?: Flum, Sara
After escaping the ogre, Flum and Sara stumble upon something that feels very out of place in the world of Roll Over and Die. What we’ve seen thus far has given us a medieval fantasy world. But as they enter a lab that reads sci-fi, things immediately feel off.
Though the real red flags are the monstrosities someone created and the weird vortex faces not being limited to monsters, but capable of being imposed on humans as well. A young woman, around Flum’s age, draws her in and tries to suck her into their vortex face. Luckily, Flum has gotten used to ripping her limbs off, but that skill doesn’t help with a new monster chasing them.
The Cavalier Arts: Flum, Sara, Gadhio
With feeling outmatched, Flum channels memories of Gadhio’s training. While the training was more watching him than being taught how to be a swordman, Flum taps into his Cavalier Arts technique to convert all her stamina into a power called Prana. While she does this, Sara buys time, which allows Flum to unleash multiple strikes that defeat the monster in the labs, but then the one from the surface appears.
With both being exhausted, depleted, and at this point accepting they may die, it seems the fight is over.
Neigass’ Rescue: Flum, Sara, Neigass
That is, until the Demon Chief Neigass shows up, defeats that ogre, and takes the girls back to the surface. As you can imagine, with the majority of humans indoctrinated to fear and distrust demons, both are perplexed. Sara, in fact, immediately goes to attack Neigass before being cast into an impenetrable bubble.
Flum? Well, with encountering Neigass before, when she was a hero, she is as confused as she was the last time. Neigass refusing to harm her and pushing the idea that demons don’t seek to harm humans for benefit or pleasure remains contradictory. Note: She doesn’t deny that during the war, demons certainly killed humans, but does present the idea that was then, and this is now.
Then, as both Flum and Sara are coerced to acknowledged the church’s symbols down in the lab, paired with how the kingdom likely financed the experiments, even Sara finds herself forced to apologize. Leaving Neigass a bit red with embarrassment. But, things end on a positive note with Dein’s men nowhere in sight, but the flower Sara and Flum came for being acquired.
New Characters in Episode 4
Neigass (To Be Determined)
- Character Summary: Neigass is one of the Demon Chiefs, whose affinity is Hematophage, and her total stats are 33,624. Despite her appearance and race, she is far kinder than most humans assume, and despite her title making you think she itches for war, it seems she spends more time researching humans.
Review and Commentary
On The Fence
While You Could Assume Something Was Up, Things Felt Rushed [73/100]
Pacing might be a long-term issue when it comes to Roll Over And Die. The reason being, it doesn’t really allow, or maybe have time, to sit with the weight of anything that is going on. From the multiple betrayals Flum has experienced to these fights, which often require her to lose a limb, less and less do you feel the weight of the moment.
Even with the realization that demons are being used to protect the heinous experiments of the church and state, it feels like we rushed right by that. For Flum, that can make some sense, since she has met Neigass before and could draw such a conclusion based on how she has been treated. Sara? The girl who lost her family and village and is not even 10 yet? It is harder to believe she would so quickly shift into accepting she has been lied to.
But, how long could a show, which likely will max out at 12 to 13 episodes, dwell on such topics? It’s a balance, and unfortunately, while Roll Over And Die is covering Flum’s story, it does seem like the weight of the situation she and others are in is being sacrificed for time.
Overall
Our Overall Rating [73/100]
While we’re invested in Flum and what comes next, it seems clear that this might be the kind of anime where the full weight of what is going on may only be achived reading the manga. The show? It will give you the highlights, touch on key parts of Flum’s story, but you getting to fully understand how this weighs on her? It doesn’t have time for that.
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:
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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.
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Roll Over and Die: Season 1 Episode 2 – Recap and Review
As Flum rewrites her hero’s story, it becomes more and more clear that her part of the larger hero group had more value than given credit for.
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Roll Over and Die: Season 1 Episode 1 – Recap and Review
It’s a bit of a gender swap from what we often see, when a hero is betrayed by one of their own and forced to start from nothing against a world that looks down at them.
