Summary
Twisted Metal Season 2 pumps the brakes in Episode 4, providing a more contained concept with less action but big character.
Tortured vehicular metaphors being my speciality, I’m happy to say that Twisted Metal pumps the brakes a little here in “LZGTBZY”. Season 2 got off to an anarchic start, and since we already know where it’s ultimately heading, there’s no reason to go crazy all the way to the tournament’s starting line. This slower-paced, more contained chapter is very appreciated, especially since it provides some solid character work, especially as far as John and Quiet are concerned, without abandoning the show’s characterful weirdness despite the relative lack of action.
In this funny, weird, overblown diversion, the gang heads to Diesel City itself, which is home to S-tier special weaponry, an internal economy, strict no-violence rules, and a Caligula-style den of debauchery for the upper classes. For the span of a single episode at least, those upper classes include John and Quiet, who have to pose as Insiders to infiltrate the vault while Dollface gets the door open from elsewhere.
It’s a simple setup with a bunch of fun details packed into it. The underpinning upstairs/downstairs dynamic is brought into especially stark relief here, with the Insiders living literally like emperors, and not just lording their status over the Outsiders but actively using them for entertainment. There’s a lot of humour in John and Quiet trying to “blend in” and having a frame of reference so divorced from real privilege that they both stick out like a sore thumb. Anthony Mackie and especially Stephanie Beatriz both rise to the task, and the fact that they’re working together with Dollface separated gives them some of the one-on-one time they’ve needed since John’s escape from New San Francisco.
Dollface is kept busy, though. Episode 4 of Twisted Metal Season 2 brings her into contact with Sweet Tooth, who is trying to get around Diesel City’s pacifism laws at all costs, while Stu picks up supplies. Sweet Tooth purchases a cape so that he can murder people surreptitiously, which brings him into a brief conflict and then a reluctant alliance with Dollface, while Stu is taken away to be a kind of sexual exhibit in the Insiders’ party. Dollface doesn’t have the history with Sweet Tooth that John and Quiet do, so it’s a smart way of bringing Sweet Tooth into conflict with the main group without spoiling any of the potential payoff built up through Season 1. And it’s just funny to see more of Sweet Tooth, honestly. Even a dopey visual gag like the cape thing works incredibly well, and in a way very specific to this show since it’s intimately tied to Diesel City’s internal rules.
But the big payoff here is in John and Quiet’s relationship. The fact they’re forced to navigate an orgy clearly awakens something in both of them, and making use of Stu being abused as a distraction, they’re finally able to break into the vault full of those essential S-tier weapons. But by that point, they’re so distracted by each other that they end up having a dopey sex scene instead of procuring the goods, allowing Stu to grab them all for himself. In the height of their passion, John and Quiet also accidentally start a fire that burns the whole place down. It’s a ridiculous moment, but in context, it feels just right.
And Stu gets his revenge, if nothing else. On his way out, he turns his newfound arsenal on the Insiders, butchering them all and finally becoming properly acquainted with murder, much to Sweet Tooth’s delight. I suppose that also counts as character development of a kind.
The next stop is, of course, the Twisted Metal tournament itself, so we’ve got that to look forward to. But “LZGTBZY” doesn’t suffer for a bit less action and a tighter scope, and it’s still satisfying to see John and Quiet really take their relationship to the next level. One gets the sense they won’t get very many opportunities to do so as we progress.
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