Often, when a show needs that extra boost, writers will engage what I like to call the Joss Whedon Protocol – which essentially means someone’s going to die. The shock death is a true and true method in order to stir up either a bit of unpredictability to make you engage with the show more, or is included simply to raise the stakes or to keep the viewing bace off balance.
However, the shock death seen in Episode 8 of Twisted Metal amusingly doesn’t do any of these, but instead is used to highlight John Doe’s state of mind as the plot has deemed that his four-wheeled security blanket, Evelyn, is fit to car pool to that luxury, multi-storey car park in the sky.
While you may be wondering how on earth the death of a car could have such an impact on a show, just think: what if Knight Rider killed off K.I.T.T., or the Lone Ranger sent Silver to the glue factory? The repercussions could be huge.
After vaulting such hurdles as revenge fueled suicide missions and switchblade waving ex-girlfriends, it seems like the bond between John and Quiet has never been stronger, but after being bestowed the high honour of being to hop into the driver’s seat of John’s beloved Evelyn, Quiet goofs huge when she loses her pal’s only photograph of his forgotten childhood. While John’s quite an amicable guy – even when getting chased, shot at or tortured – if you screw with the rare links he has from his past, he gets pissed, so matters aren’t exactly improved when Evelyn is stolen while they look for the treasured picture.
If John was incensed before, he’s absolutely fucking raging now and after deducing that his beloved car was stolen by members of the murderous cult known as the Holy Men, storms off to get Evelyn back while Quiet desperately tries to get him to see sense. However, what Quiet fails to recognize and what we get to witness via some handy flashbacks, Evelyn means far more to John than just being some normal old car; Evelyn was there for him shortly after his eight year-old self list his memory and even managed to save his life when he was attacked by cannibals.
If John and Quiet are to swipe Evelyn back, they’re going to have to infiltrate the camp of the deranged Holy Men who believe that they are the true gods since they feel that the Lord has abandoned them during the end of the world. Thus, under the command of the impressively deranged Preacher, they believe that no sins should be ignored and in turn live lives of enthusiastic debauchery and if John wants to stop Evelyn from getting literally fucked in the tailpipe from one of these drug addled maniacs, he’s going to have to fight for her.
After a string of flashbacks for various characters including Agent Stone, Sweet Tooth and Quiet, it’s now John Doe’s turn to get some back story and while we remain none the wiser about who he was before he lost his memory or who else is supposed be in that photo he carries around, we do get the origin story behind his first meeting with his precious automobile. It’s hardly anything revelatory, but it does give us a slightly better understanding of Doe’s zippy demeanor as our hero has been in a state of arrested development since his fateful bonk on the head first occured. It’s a running issue for the show that Anthony Mackie’s Doe tends to be one of the weaker aspect of the show and his flashbacks continue in that unfortunate thread (how can you hope to compare with a young Sweet Tooth murdering a dog with a knitting needle), but on the flip side, EV3L1N manages to stick him front and centre.
The main thrust of the episode is that a careless, but innocent, mistake from Quiet threatens the friendship they’ve built together due to John’s inability to leave his car (aka. the only last he has) behind – in fact he’d rather go it alone against a band of horny, violent deviants than simply just leave with Quiet which proves to be very hurtful to her. After all, Quiet has only just come out of her shell herself, dtoping her similarly obsessive plans of revenge because John asked her too, so the fact that he’s too emotionally immature to return the favour must Sting like a bitch. Still, like a good friend should, Quiet dons a hooded disguise and enters the rowdy, brutal and sex smeared sodom the Holy Men have built for themselves.
It’s quite the sight, with fist fights and rampant drug use rubbing sweaty shoulders with whip cracking dominatrixes and casual crucifixion, although despite more random comedic one-liners constantly emerging from the group like a crowd scene in Family Guy, it’s nothing we haven’t actually seen before in other such comedic dystopian hellscapes such as Danny McBride’s crazed sex clan from This Is The End. What does help the Holy Men land, however, is the fact that they’re led by Jason Mantzoukas, a man well equipped to play wild-eyed, perverted maniacs thanks to roles in Brooklyn Nine Nine and Big Mouth.
Immediately looking the part with that scraggly beard and a beautiful gift for saying the most outrageous, psychotic shit with child-like glee, we even get the added treat that he also fights like a fucking animal as John immediately finds out after challenges him for Evelyn and whoever suggested that he should brawl while using the fighting style known as capoeira needs a goddamn raise because that shit is funny.
Alas, by the end of the episode, John is unable to stop Evelyn from going up in an impressive fireball (that also leads Quiet to believe she’s lost yet another loved one) and we are then treated to him mourning over her burnt out husk as Evanescence’s My Immortal that succeeds as being every bit as funny as it is oddly moving. However, while all the episode’s various parts work rather well separately, they don’t add up to an installment that gels particularly well and it succumbs to an over abundance of randomness that seems to effect the weaker episodes.
Still, it still get the job done well enough and also manages to keep up the high levels of crazy the show uses to propel itself along (cheaper than unleaded, I’ll wager), it just a shame such important details occur in an episode that, at times, dangerously feels like filler.
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