Twisted Metal season 1, episode 4 recap: “WHZDARE”

After the escape from the Hoover Dam in the last episode of Twisted Metal, John and Quiet are back on their journey. But the seemingly peaceful journey is interrupted when a convoy of eighteen-wheelers shows up, trapping them and herding the car into the back of one of the trucks.

However, it turns out the kidnapping and capture is being done for a noble purpose.

Twisted Metal season 1, episode 4 recap: Just (another) simple job

See, the trucks are part of the Convoy, a group of tractor-trailers that drive the streets of the post-apocalyptic world together forming a sort of city on wheels. The citizens of The Convoy look after each other and provide those in need a kind of home out in the wasteland.

It seems that one of the matriarch figures of the Convoy, Granny, has pulled in John because she is requiring the needs of a milkman. John needs to go to the Pharmacist to pick up some medicine for her.

While the job seems straight forward, the previous milkman that was employed by Granny was killed by a group called The Holy Men, so it’s a dangerous job. While John still has his timetable to stick to, the deal is that the Convoy will set his car up will all the weapons that it needs.

Given that the car was stripped down just last episode, John can’t really afford to say no. John and Quiet are able to find Amber the Pharmacist, who seems sweet and kind at first glance, offering them refreshing tea.

But she thinks that John and Quiet are The Holy Men responsible for killing the previous milkman. The tea is poisoned, temporarily paralyzing John and Quiet so that she can interrogate them.

It’s not until she sees Granny’s list of needs, written in Granny’s own handwriting that she believes John and Quiet and gives them the things that they’re asking for.

Twisted Metal season 1, episode 4 recap: An abandoned movie theater hideout

As John and Quiet are making their way back to the Convoy, they can hear The Holy Men chasing them in the distance. In order to avoid the potential death following them, John and Quiet find an abandoned movie theater to hide out in for the night.

The theater has posters of movies like Punch Drunk Love, A Knight’s Tale, and Master of Disguise. Apparently, this isn’t a show that takes place 20 years in the future, but one that takes place in present day where an apocalypse event happened back in the early 2000s.

As John and Quiet are waiting for it to be safe to travel again, John finds a copy of Blankman for them to watch. For the first time, Quiet begins to show some vulnerability around John, telling him about her brother, and her relationship with him.

It seems like the two of them start to bond. That progress is unfortunately set back the next day, when John, trying to do something nice, washes their clothing, including the jacket Quiet got from her brother.

The nice gesture backfires when Quiet sees the now clean jacket that holds no more traces of her brother, leading to an awkward ride back to the Convoy.

Twisted Metal season 1, episode 4 recap: Stephanie Beatriz carries this episode

Stephanie Beatriz, who plays Quiet, is easily best known for her 8 years on Brooklyn 99, playing the no nonsense tough cop, Rosa. It’s a fantastic performance, but it’s also one that you could see potentially defining a career for better or worse.

The character from Brooklyn 99 is so well defined and so well portrayed, that it would be understandable if Rosa were a character that would cast a shadow across the rest of Beatriz’s career. It’s very possible to see how she could end up getting typecast playing other tough as nails characters, even though it’s clear from plenty of interviews that the character is a performance drastically different from Beatriz herself.

Even in the early episodes of this show, it felt like that typecasting for the actress was solidifying, with Quiet being another tough, angry, stoic character, very similar to the one that made Beatriz famous. But this episode really allowed Beatriz to open up the character emotionally and explore her.

It’s clear that despite their initial similarities, Beatriz is playing a very different character than the one she played on Brooklyn 99. In the scenes in the movie theater, we got a chance to see something in Quiet that had been unexplored before now.

It’s a touching moment, and in a fairly silly show that’s based on a silly game whose main appeal is the over-the-top violence, it’s a real character moment to watch Quiet open up about the memories she had with her brother. Getting to watch her light up and take joy in providing the dub for the silent version of the movie they were watching, brought the character to life in a wonderful way.

Its characterization that still fits with what we’ve seen from Quiet before, helping to make her a more three-dimensional character in a world of violent cartoons stand out. It’s a great moment for Beatriz and a chance to show off what she’s really capable of.

It’s a chance that she knocks out of the park in this episode.

What did you think of Twisted Metal season 1 episode 4? You can watch Twisted Metal season 1 on Peacock TV.