Apple replaced Mythic Quest’s series finale after the show was cancelled

If you didn’t catch Mythic Quest‘s series finale when it first debuted last month, there’s a chance you may never be able to see the episode as it originally was.

Shortly after Mythic Quest‘s fourth season and its Side Quest spinoff hit Apple TV Plus, the streamer announced that it was cancelling the series. The news came as a surprise given how “Heaven and Hell” — the open-ended finale — implied that Mythic Quest might return for a fifth season. And there were so many unresolved plotlines that the sudden cancellation meant that Mythic Quest would always feel incomplete. 

Apple seemed to understand that last point when it announced its plan to debut an “updated” version of “Heaven and Hell” meant to tie up all of the series loose ends. The episode went live today, and it does deal with some of Mythic Quest‘s big cliffhangers. But in addition to dropping the updated episode, Apple confirmed to The Verge today that it has also removed the original cut of “Heaven and Hell” from its platform entirely.

You can kind of understand why Apple would want to direct viewers towards Mythic Quest‘s proper ending. But the move smacks of revisionist history and streamers’ recent habit of completely disappearing their own content. Apple easily could have left both versions of the episode up and made clear why there were differences between the two of them. Netflix has been dabbling with something similar for Black Mirror’s latest season to make a brilliant point about the Mandela effect. But going that route with Mythic Quest would have meant acknowledging that Apple axed the show with little heads up, which is something the company probably didn’t want to do.