TV Review: ‘Twisted Metal’ Season 1, Episode 3
by Frank Martin
The third episode of Twisted Metal is arguably the weakest thus far. It’s not that it’s an inherently bad episode on its own. It just departs the most from the spirit and mythology of the games. And that’s not necessarily the episode’s fault. The series takes such a departure from the game’s story, there are going to be episodes that must explore the show’s original storyline and characters. For this particular hour, that means looking into the backstory for Agent Stone (Thomas Haden Church) and looking at how the world turned into the dystopian nightmare on display.
After being captured at the end of last episode, John Doe (Anthony Mackie) and Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz) are taken into custody. They are then tortured so that John would give up the name of the person who made the map that bypasses all of Stone’s checkpoints. Meanwhile, flashbacks reveal the moment the apocalypse began and what Agent Stone did in the days and weeks that followed. Eventually, John and Quiet convinced a guard to let them go and they take off towards Topeka, where Quiet says a sanctuary city resides. In actuality, it’s Stone’s headquarters because she’s determined to get revenge.
Agent Stone is more or less an original character for the show, but he is also the type of character that the Twisted Metal games would feature. He’s a fanatic determined to bring law and order to an extreme. So although the episode went into original territory involving the show’s storyline, it still tried to keep the essence of the games intact by making Stone out to be the ridiculous policeman that he is.
Twisted Metal is now streaming on Peacock.
