After a fairly fantastic run of episodes, Twisted Metal’s second season seemed to suddenly stall with its 8th installment that not only felt like the show was cheaping out on its own concept (car battles!), but it felt like the writers were worryingly running out of gas with four episodes still to go. However, with VAVAUM, equilibrium is instantly restored – but what is truly strange about this episode is that it somehow manages to achieve everything the previous episode couldn’t and it does it with even with less action, precious little gore and hardly a hint of cars at all.
For a show that’s set in the ass-end of the apocalypse and depends on anarchic chaos the way some people rely on energy drinks, how does an episode manage to single handedly turn the fortunes of a show around while relying on less than half the tools it has at its disposal? Turns out the answer is pretty simple – simple bang out a prom themed episode, hold off on the bangs and blood (mostly) and let the characters and heart onto the dance floor to do their thing.
After coming to Calypso to admit that they screwed up and made an extra wish, John and Quiet have to make amends by drinking from the wishing fountain where they first made the claim for their prize, should they win. While John seems pretty pleased that sorting things out ended up being so easy, Quiet simply can’t believe that a being as dickish as Calypso would let’s something that violated his rules slide without some sort of terrible punishment.
However, rather than being all vengeful, Calypso instead announces that he’s holding the Wintertime Solstice Promenade – basically a prom – and after everyone enters after a quick ritual that involves giving blood (Jesus, Calypso), it’s time to get the party started. Sweet Tooth is overjoyed to finally get a “prom episode” after enjoying similarly themed shows of TV and while everyone else gets into the spirit of things, Quiet still maintains a nervous look-out for any deranged fuckery that probably will occur.
However, as the night goes on, the prom atmosphere brings to effect everyone differently. Sweet Tooth’s excitement soon turns to jealousy when he sees his hated enemy, Mr. Grimm, come out of his multiple personality-ed shell and make time with a (slightly) spruced up Vermin. But when he messes things up by claiming that Grimm is only with Vermin for a bet via She’s All That, Grimm takes terrible vengeance on Sweet Tooth’s best friend, Harold. Meanwhile, after a night that sees Mike, Dave and Stu all finally bond, Stu is horrified that Dave has secretly fallen off the wagon and gone back to hid cannibal ways; however, after a fight, Dave is accidently killed and Stu has to race and cover his tracks. Elsewhere, Raven is reminded of her lost love and Axel us stunned to discover that Mayhem may be the baby he saved all those years ago (called it), but as the night reaches its crescendo and Quiet finally let’s her guard down, Calypso strikes.
So, to reiterate, VAVAVUM has absolutely no car fights, minimal gore and once again remains entirely confined to the interiors of the school, but unlike SDDNDTH before it, it takes those parameters, takes stock of the characters it still has to play with and instead gives us an episode that not only may be one of Twisted Metal’s stronger comedic entries, but also delivers on that big, beating heart the show relies on from time to time. The result is a textbook example how to keep a show moving if you can’t fall back on the main story thread (again, car fights) and you have to rely on your characters. Virtually everyone benefits – well, except for Dave who gets his eye fatally popped by a coat hanger – and there’s even some surprises in there that prove to be just as unexpectedly moving as they are darkly funny. Plus, it also helps that not only are the script and actors on fine form, but the costume department also does some incredibly funny work when giving the freakish cast a demented glow up. Be it giving Vermin a prom dress that looks like bug wings, to kitting put Mike and Dave in the orange and blue tuxedos from Dumb & Dumber, to simply putting Axel in a pique bib and bow tie and leaving the rest of him shirtless, there’s more imagination in this single department that there was in the entirety of the previous episode.
Everyone has something to do. Before Dave and Stu have their fatal spat, the “three bromigoes” actually bond something fierce before tragedy strikes with Mike even pulling out his old hacky sack like old times. Mayhem manages to overcome not being able to read, putting on her dress back to front and seeing a photo of herself for the first time (the prom has a photo booth!) until Axel notices that the tatty ribbon she uses to tie her hair with is the same material he used to blanket the baby he lost. Vermin and Grimm actually confess their feelings (before Sweet Tooth ruins it) and have sex which proves to be Grimm’s first time and even the emotionally armoured Raven breaks as the Prom brings up painful memories of her own and her comatose love.
It’s all genuinely sweet stuff – playing “Butterfly” by Crazy Town helps – and watching these demented fuck ups and manical thugs dancing to the Spin Doctors proves to do more for each and every character than a spot of random murder for a cheap laugh ever could. But possibly the best moment is the realisation of how Sweet Tooth, in all of his impressive psychosis, actually sees the world. It turns out that he sees everyone around him as a paper bag, but his actual paper bag friend, Harold, is seen as an actual person who not only genuinely loves him, but is even played by Devon Sawa from Dinal Destination and Chucky fame! Of course, nothing lasts for long in the Twisted Metal universe before soon crumbling to shit and tragedy strikes when a vengeful Grimm, humiliated by Sweet Tooth’s prank, takes Harold and burns him/it up with fire. The fact that a comedy show based on a video game can make you audibly gasp with the “death” of a paper bag just goes to show how far Twisted Metal has come when it comes to caring about these fucked up, murderous looneys; but it also means that matters will have reached their most complex peak the next time the drivers find themselves behind the wheel once again. Virtually all of them are now emotionally compromised one way or the other, either dead set on settling a score or faced with the prospect of slaughtering a potential loved one which, obviously, is what Calypso wanted all along. However, due to whatever messed up deal the Twisted Metal founder has cooked up, when John and Quiet wake up from the drugging everyone receives, they wake up in seperate cars, ready for battle with a devestating Watkyn’s storm approaches.
After that little skid on the turn that was episode 8, episode 9 manages to once again get the grip that’s needed to get the show past it’s little wheel spin. Seeing as the last three episodes are being released in one big clump, I guess we’re technically on the final bend so I’m glad the show’s at an emotional and dramatic high. However, I can’t wait to see how the remaining episodes handle all the tangled relationships because we’re at a stage where characters we actually care about can now potentially die (I don’t think anyone’s missing Frostbite, do you?). The possibilities are positively mouth watering and we’ve only got a week to wait.
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