Critical Role Campaign 4 Unveils Chained, Blood-Harvested Angel — Fans Spot Neon Genesis Evangelion Vibes
Critical Role Campaign 4, Episode 2 ends with a scene in which a bound angel is being harvested in an underground vault beneath House Halovar — a sequence that several viewers have noted visually resembles a famous image from the anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. The episode also advances plot threads around the Falconer’s Rebellion, the Crow Keepers, and The Light religion tied to House Halovar and the Candescent Creed.
- House Halovar vault and the Prismatic Retort
- Parallels with Neon Genesis Evangelion
- Open questions the episode raises
Episode summary
In Campaign 4, Episode 2 of Critical Role, the party visits Villa Aurora, the seat of House Halovar. Brennan Lee Mulligan is the Dungeon Master for this campaign. During the episode, Teor Pridesire (played by Travis Willingham) appears at the villa seeking work, and Yanessa, the Photarch of House Halovar and Wicander’s grandmother, intervenes when necessary. Afterwards, Wicander Halovar (played by Sam Riegel) and the aspirant cleric Tyranny (played by Whitney Moore) are escorted to an underground area of the House Halovar complex.
House Halovar vault and the Prismatic Retort
On the way to the vault, the characters pass double doors inscribed with celestial writing. Inside the vault, they pass guard dogs that, in the episode, cast Dispel Magic by barking. Then they reach a large stone construct called the Prismatic Retort, described in the episode as a device the family uses to distill what they call the “essence of the universe” into a filament — a liquid with magical and divine properties. 
When the retort opens, the outward appearance is a massive 40-foot-tall stone sarcophagus bound by ropes of light. In the episode the sarcophagus is revealed to function as an iron maiden. Inside, a bound angel with a mouth full of rows of teeth is shown; the episode presents the creature’s blood being pumped out, which in the story is likely used to produce the filament. At the moment of reveal, Yanessa refers to the bound creature as Wicander’s “grandfather.” 
Parallels with Neon Genesis Evangelion
Episode 2’s imagery of a large angel-like being held in a deep, sealed facility and having liquid harvested from its body has been noted as visually similar to a scene in Neon Genesis Evangelion. In Episode 15 of the original TV series, the creature known as Lilith is kept in the NERV base, bound to a large cruciform structure by the Spear of Longinus. In Evangelion, Lilith’s blood drains and is collected as LCL, the liquid used to connect EVA units with their pilots. 
Therefore, both works present the concrete visual elements of: a) a large, angelic or semi-divine being held underground; and b) the extraction or harvesting of bodily fluid used for a technological or ritual purpose. Those elements appear in both the Critical Role episode and the Evangelion episode described above.
Open questions the episode raises
The episode presents several factual story points that lead to unanswered questions, including:
- Whether the bound angel has any canonical connection to the god Tansul, given the celestial writing found near the vault.
- What Yanessa means by calling the creature Wicander’s “grandfather,” and how that label fits into House Halovar lineage as presented so far.
- How the Prismatic Retort’s filament is produced from the creature’s blood and what properties that filament has, based on the episode’s descriptions.
- How this revelation affects Wicander and his relationships within House Halovar, given the presence of other aspirants such as Tyranny and her sisters.
What to watch next
Future episodes of Campaign 4 will continue to develop these threads and address some of the questions listed above. Meanwhile, Episode 2 stands as a concrete plot beat that reveals the existence of a bound celestial being within House Halovar’s vault and links that reveal directly to ongoing religious and familial storylines.
