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For Critical Role's Laura Bailey, the 'beauty' of The Legend of Vox Machina's heist episode is in Liam O'Brien's writing. Well, that and Smart Grog

De Rolo's Eleven works for a great number of reasons, but for OG Critical Role star Bailey, it all comes down to family interactions and one brillaint barbarian

News by Grant DeArmitt, Staff Writer

Published on Wed Aug 12 2026

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Spoilers for Critical Role season 4 follow.

As befits the penultimate season of a series, The Legend of Vox Machina season 4 was filled with some of fans' favorite moments yet, and I'm not just talking about fans on our side of the creation table. Critical Role's own Laura Bailey was singing the season's praises even before it began; in particular, the OG Roler pointed to how costar (and series writer) Liam O'Brien wrote episode 5 of the season, the infamous 'heist episode' entitled De Rolo's Eleven, penned by himself and Marisha Ray.

That's what Bailey dove into during an interview with The AV Club published shortly before Vox Machina's fourth season dropped on Prime Video. Bailey, who has been the real-life avatar of the half-elven Vex'ahlia since Critical Role's 2015 debut, has played sibling to O'Brien's Vax'ildan across ten plus years and two mediums, and

"The beauty of Liam writing the scene with the twins," The Mighty Nein voice actor said, "Is that he knows our voices so well [...] It just felt like words coming out of our own brains. They were so funny and so perfect, and the scene was so wonderful. Everybody’s moments in [episode 5] are some of my favorites of the season

And speaking of character moments, Bailey seemed especially delighted by a moment in season 4, episode 5 that focused on neither Vex or Vax, but their barbarian pal Grog Strongjaw, played by Bailey's real-life partner Travis Willingham. And heads up - here's where that spoiler warning comes into effect.

At one point during the heist sequence, the famously dopey Grog accidentally downs an intelligence potion meant for Ashley Johnson's Pike Trickfoot. What happens next is what Willingham himself once teased as his character's "journey into cerebral and intellectual realms," as Grog is suddenly able to solve problems with his mind and not his muscles. Bailey, who spoke highly of the sequence, has dubbed this character development as "Smart Grog," probably inspiring a tweak or two of his wiki page and absolutely going down as a Critical Role fanart category.

One of the tamer ones, I presume.

With two animated series on Prime Video, Campaign 4 in full swing, and so much more Exandrian lore to come, Critical Role is showing no signs of slowing down. That's why the adventuring party at Popverse are here to bring you everything we can from those nerdy-ass voice actors & Bo., including:

...and much, much more. Roll initiative, player. Magic awaits.

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Grant DeArmitt: Grant DeArmitt (he/him) likes horror, comics, and the unholy union of the two. In the past, and despite their better judgment, he has written for Nightmare on Film Street and Newsarama. He lives in Brooklyn with his partner, Kingsley, and corgi, Legs.