Twisted Metal season 1, episode 2 recap: 3RNCRCS

The second episode of Twisted Metal starts exactly where the last episode left off. In fact, it starts twenty-four seconds earlier, as John and Quiet prepare to face off against Sweet Tooth. However, with none of the guns loaded, they quickly opt for their second strategy of running away.

They flee into an abandoned casino but get a flat tire, and both John and Quiet split up, trying to get away from Sweet Tooth. Quiet throws a bottle at John, causing a loud crash and alerting Sweet Tooth to exactly where John is. Sweet Tooth and John get into a fight, but John is not nearly as good at fighting with his hands as he is at fighting with his car.

The fight is clearly going Sweet Tooth’s way, but it turns out what Sweet Tooth really wants is for John to attend the performance of his show.

Twisted Metal season 1 episode 2 recap

Sweet Tooth’s big moment to shine

It turns out that Sweet Tooth has been working on a one-man show out in Las Vegas all alone, and has been forcing people to watch his show, though he does note that nobody has ever made it all the way through the show and lived before.

Sweet Tooth takes John on a tour of the abandoned nightclub where he lives, and also points out Quiet, who he had found and trapped at some point in the past half hour, and was now leaving in a cage to starve to death. Quiet clearly wants John to get her out of her cell, but since she’s done nothing but try to betray/kill/stab/etc. John since they first met, he’s not too inclined to help her out. Then she reveals that she has the keys to the car, forcing John to go to bat for her.

John tells Sweet Tooth that Quiet should join him in the audience, and since Sweet Tooth has never had an audience that big before, he agrees. The two of them watch Sweet Tooth perform a show inspired by the list of amenities of the hotel they’re in. It’s a very rough show. Both John and Quiet suffer through it, but of course at the end, when Sweet Tooth asks how it was, John assures him that it was a wonderful show. Quiet however opts for the truth.

Speaking for the first time in the show, Quiet tells Sweet Tooth that the show is boring and bad. Everything about the show from concept to execution is bad. John isn’t pleased with the truth-telling strategy, but Sweet Tooth loves it, as it’s the first bit of honest feedback he’s ever gotten on his show. Inspired by her feedback, he decided that he’s going to leave Vegas for the first time and see the world.

Also, he lets Jon and Quiet go, the first two people he didn’t kill after the show.

What Agent Stone’s been up to

Meanwhile, we meet a couple of new characters, Mike and Stu. They’re a pair of former security guards who are about to be eaten by Butchers, a tribe of cannibals that live in the wilderness. Before they can get eaten though, Agent Stone shows up with his lawmen who kill all the Butchers, saving Mike and Stu. Agent Stone gives them the opportunity to join his group, an offer that seems pretty enticing at first, given that it comes with hot water and hot meals, but the deal is too good to be true.

Agent Stone brings Mike and Stu to a supply truck that turns out to be bait in a trap set up to kill people who are trying to steal supplies. Stu is not comfortable about the idea of killing people, but Mike quickly shoots both would-be thieves in order to secure a spot in the group for the both of them.

For their next test, Mike and Stu, along with Shepard, are set up at a checkpoint created in order to trap drivers. Pretty soon John and Quiet show up, fresh from their encounter with Sweet Tooth and try to get through the checkpoint. While there, Quiet recognizes Shepard from her previous encounter last episode and tries to kill him. When John gets out of the car, both of them are zapped with stunners and taken into custody as the episode comes to a close.

Figuring out how Sweet Tooth works

Just like the first episode, this one started off feeling like it was trying too hard. Sweet Tooth is the most popular character from the video game franchise and even those who are less familiar with Twisted Metal might remember “that psycho clown car game on PlayStation.”

So, how the show utilized Sweet Tooth was always going to be a big deal and for the first scene or two, it kind of felt like they didn’t know what to do with him. It takes a little bit as the show works out the exact right balance of crazy and funny that the character needs, but by the end of the episode, the character and the episode feel like they’ve found their groove.

By the time the episode’s story concludes and the characters go their separate ways, Sweet Tooth has become a character where it will be exciting when he shows up later in the series, rather than just the obligation of him showing up because he is the series mascot.