As Twisted Metal races towards the finishing line of its first season, it’s definitely proven itself to be one of the growing list of video game adaptations that are breaking the curse of questionable quality that used to hang over the once maligned umbrella genre. Treating its subject matter with a non-reverential hand (no car-based gladiatorial tournaments here) it instead used its story to set the zany scene of a ruined, alternative America where virtually every single person acts like the average news headline concerning a crime committed by a resident of Florida. However, in this world of off-colour humour, casual gore and hulking murderous clowns that fire chuckling missiles from a tricked-out ice cream van, one of the show’s main strengths has proven to be the turbulent relationship between lead characters John Doe and Quiet as both have struggled to make it through their personal traumas in order to cement their relationship as friends/lovers/partners/fuck buddies/whatever. However, Episode 9 sees the two at their lowest ebb; can they both forgive each other (and themselves) before we get to the potential chaos of the missile spitting season finale?
After their near fatal brush with the Holy Men, John and Quiet’s relationship was sorely tested when the former was forced to choose between his partner and his beloved car Evelyn, that had been stolen by the deranged cult. Essentially chosing to put them both in danger when he recklessly selected to save his automobile, instead of being smart and safe and finishing his job to get his mystery package back to New San Francisco.
The result was nothing short of disastrous and after a night of lunacy and violence, Evelyn went up in flames and Quiet, convinced that she’d lost yet another loved one to this fucked up world, left with the package to try and finish the job. However, while John isn’t dead, he’s naturally horrified that the car that he’s been driving since he lost his memory as a child is now burnt out scrap.
The two are eventually reunited thanks to the Convoy which is passing through and after being saved by Poppy and Watts, the two have to hash out their issues and admit who was wrong.
They’d better hurry the fuck up, because violent forces are gathering up their resources for a big push. The clown-masked maniac Sweet Tooth wants vengeance against Agent Stone for his murderous ways of keeping order, while Stone has laid a trap for Quiet and John as he’s narked them out as examples of everything he’s trying to snuff out with his particular brand of fascism.
Caught in the middle (as always) John and Quiet gradually re-bond over the creation of a new, heavily-armed, car that they name Roadkill, but their new vehicle is about to experience a trial by fire as Stone and Sweet Tooth spring both their respective traps as the exact same time. The shit is about to hit the fan belt.
On paper, dedicating your penultimate episode of a violent, goofy, dystopian action/comedy almost entirely to two people trying to iron out their personal shit, seems a little foolhardy – after all, in a world of hulking jesters, nazi-esque cops and lashings of casual gore, shouldn’t you be building to a big finish? The thing is, episode 9 totally does, but it doesn’t have to do it by spending it’s short run time of zipping around the place setting up the status quo. We already know that Stone’s a prick and after a brief, early scene that sets Sweet Tooth, Stu and a captive Mike on an intercepting path, we’re given a clean run to give John and Quiet the space they need to work past their grumbles.
Smartly, the episode fast tracks a bunch of it, using a cilivised chat between a grieving Quiet and a random scavenger to establish her mind set before the welcome return of the Convoy reunites the two in double quick time that saves us going over the same kind of material we saw in previous episodes (episode 6 in particular) and gets right down to the notty gritty. John, freed from the panic of saving his doomed car and having accepted the loss of Evelyn, finally sees what an immature douche he’s been and is trying to make amends, however, Quiet, who has been through more traumatic happenings than I’ve had hot dinners, is not so willing to open herself up again after life of brutal loss.
This sounds like an excuse for the notoriously cheeky show to go a bit too heavy with its drama, but luckily it’s tempered by the fact that Quiet and John are incredibly immature people and thus clumsily deal with their feelings the same way that teenagers do, parrying apologies with sulking and counteracting excuses with a childish insult. It works extremely well, because not only is Stephanie Beatriz incredibly good at this sort of balance of humor and pathos (Brooklyn Nine Nine had her playing a similarly closed-off character), but Anthony Mackie now has gotten more of a handle of the Ryan Reynolds, man-child, style of humour that the role of John Doe requires. As they build Roadkill – and thus rebuild their trust and respect – it establishes the bond between the two in a way that doesn’t feeling like a budget-saving way of spinning the show’s wheels before the real carnage starts and as they drive into Stone’s trap (to the welcome strains of Epic by Faith No More as the show performs yet another magnificent needle drop), all the personal stuff has been cleared up to make space for a big finish.
One thing the show has also been building up, alongside John and Quiet’s relationship, are the nods to the original games, which, despite an early reference that actually included a copy of the game itself (meta-implosion!) and the near-perfect presence of Sweet Tooth, have been fairly subtle. Well, scratch that, because the final moments of this episode is something of a throwback joygasm to anyone who is familiar with past incarnations.
Roadkill showing up is a major one, obviously, but not only do we get that, Miranda Watts desides to join the fight by hopping into her racecar, Twister, which is yet another mainstay of the games. However, both of these pale into the ether when held up to the episode’s final shot when Sweet Tooth, who has already pre-soaked his head in lighter fluid, gets Stu to ignite his skull as he races into battle to perfectly complete the striking look of his video game appearance.
So as we teeter on a final episode that promises a demolition derby like no other, Twisted Metal has wisely gotten its lingering dramatic threads in order to hopeful go all in of some of that damaged alloy the title so tantalisingly teases.
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