Abhiroop Das
The second season of Peacock’s ‘Twisted Metal‘ chronicles the eponymous race and the various eccentric drivers that take part in it. John and Quiet have their own layered motivations for participating, and it all connects to a promise made by the creator of the event, Calypso. With several rounds in place and rules that get flimsier by the second, the game turns into a battle of life and death in no time, and characters come together as quickly as they fall apart. However, everyone, including the protagonists, fails to see the big picture, and by the time John realizes that something is off, it is already too late. To that end, the race forces both an internal and external confrontation upon everyone involved. The cruel dance of fate culminates in a finale titled ‘NUY3ARZ,’ showing how all new beginnings exist in the shadow of the past. SPOILERS AHEAD.
Twisted Metal Season 2 Finale Recap
The season finale begins with a glimpse into the past, with Calyspo rising out of the wishing well in 1585. His supernatural nature is all but confirmed, as the centuries come and go without him ageing. In the early 2000s, he tried to pitch the original concept behind Twisted Metal to a board of executives at NBC, and a metacommentary ensued. Calypso’s pitch was ultimately rejected, and he left the place in fumes. The scene returns to the present, with his race now in full swing. Following a fearsome exchange of violence and chaos, where all rules are thrown out of the window, the list of survivors is narrowed down to a handful. Mr. Grimm, Vermin, Raven, and Axel are knocked out of the race, and Mike dies a swift and definitive death, leaving only an unconscious Stu, Sweet Tooth, John, and Quiet behind.
At this moment, Calypso takes the race up another notch with the release of a seemingly undefeatable robot called Minion. Its strength is established almost immediately by how quickly it takes down Sweet Tooth, and the protagonist’s desperate attempt to take it down ends in complete failure. John ultimately pays the price and is flung out of his car. In turn, Quiet rams her car into the Minion and rushes to John’s safety. However, the game is still not over, as the entire audience stands by and blows up right in front of their eyes, killing hundreds of innocent people. In the middle of the chaos, John, Quiet, and Mayhem escape and drive all the way to his childhood home, using a map drawn by Krista as a child. Once there, John is hit by a sense of nostalgia and decides to settle at last.
John’s life with Quiet and Mayhem takes a blissful turn as they have the time to relax, far away from the enemy’s reach. His and Quiet’s love life blossoms, and they begin to teach Mayhem in ways of socialising. This includes fishing lessons, which stray away from the traditional method as the trio realizes the appeal of shooting at fish. Mayhem also begins to learn to read, and as more time passes, they begin to resemble a family. John’s old pictures of his parents and sisters are joined by new ones, and everything seems to be going the protagonists’ way. However, their struggles are far from over, and Calypso is quick to remind them of that fact in the most painful way imaginable. The paths of many characters are bound to intersect once again, with a battle that has been taking place in the dark finally coming out into the open.
Twisted Metal Season 2 Ending: Who is the Winner of the Twisted Metal Race? Does John Win?
The sophomore season of Twisted Metal ends with the eponymous race coming to a close. After days of tears and blood being shed, the result is not quite what one would expect, as the last man standing after a brutal battle royale is none other than Stu. Despite being the first person to get knocked unconscious in the final round, he manages to persevere through it right up to the end, and wastes no time charging ahead upon regaining consciousness. Given that Mike has just died, Stu is filled with equal parts rage and sorrow, but that is supplanted by confusion and then joy when he is abruptly declared the victor. With the chaos finally coming to an end, he comes face to face with Calypso, who is eager to grant him his deepest desire, as promised at the start of the competition. Paying no heed to the scenery of death and destruction behind him, Stu prepares for his demand.
A flashback to the wishing well sequence reveals that, despite being a member of Sweet Tooth’s team, Stu wished to be somewhere away from this conflict and safe with Mike. Back in the present, Stu confirms his wish to Calypso, not knowing the disastrous consequences that are about to follow. With a flick of his wrist, Calypso bids the winner goodbye, and within a blink, Stu is transported all the way to outer space. His spaceship bears the mark of Calypso Industries, suggesting that he has been physically transported to that location, and quite some time has passed. However, he soon realizes the gravity of the situation when he finds the dead body of Mike still hovering inside the ship. Stu’s wish of finding safety and solace with Mike is technically fulfilled, but the result leaves him more helpless than ever before.
Calypso’s true intentions become crystal clear in how he treats Stu. The Twisted Metal Race is not meant to have a victor in the first place. Instead, he manufactures a monkey’s paw situation, exploiting the participants’ deepest yearnings and turning them on their heads, such that the choosers begin to regret it. While the game appears to be an exercise in pleasure, Calypso has deeper intentions, which are revealed in his conversation with Mayhem in the previous episode. His real aim with the race is to teach people a lesson in self-dependence and the absurdity of the lived experience. To this end, John and Quiet find themselves in a similar spot, having lost their race because of their desire to protect each other. However, the knowledge of Stu’s fate sheds new light on the protagonists’ respective wishes and the twists and turns they could have taken.
Why are John and Quiet Being Hunted?
Following their loss in the race, John and Quiet lie in a pickle, with the former’s heart no longer beating. It is Mayhem who eventually comes to their rescue, and with Sweet Tooth’s truck at their disposal, Quiet creates a makeshift defibrillator and uses it to jumpstart John’s heart, bringing him back to life. Without wasting a moment, the three rush out of the scene, with Calypso quietly keeping watch. He appears to have something far more nefarious planned for them, and this comes to light in the form of a television broadcast. In front of the entire world, Calpyso pins the blame for the explosion in the audience’s stands on John and Quiet, and relays the insider governments’ intention to launch a humongous manhunt, doubling as a declaration of war against all outsiders. Realizing that they have no way of surviving, the trio leaves their good life behind and runs away.
Notably, Calypso manipulates information by using John and Quiet’s own pasts against them. In the broadcast, he plays the clips of the duo making the wish to bring down all walls, and frames it as their desire to spread chaos. To make things worse, he creates an artificial footage of them planting the bombs prior to the show, cementing their culpability in the general eye. This action, while evil in its own right, also has a symbolic meaning. It adds a new spin to the Doll Gang’s wish to end the gap between insiders and outsiders, and shows how that might not be actualized without the spilling of blood. In a way, Calypso does fulfill Quiet’s wish, albeit in his signature twisted fashion. With the walls spiritually down at last, Quiet and her team have a two-pronged battle at hand: both their survival and a war with the insider governments who threaten to erase all their opponents.
This cruel turn of events also dampens the bond that develops between Mayhem, John, and Quiet over the brief time they stayed together. The three get closer and closer to a regular parent-child relationship, with Quiet acting as the aggressive but kind mother, and John taking on the role of both a father and elder brother. This also serves to keep the promise they made to Axel, who is Mayhem’s long-lost adoptive father. Axel’s sacrifice almost leads to the creation of a perfect life for the protagonists, but that goes against Calypso’s desire to torment the people he sets his eyes on. To that end, new strains in the trio’s relationship are inevitable, and with death knocking at every corner, it might be a while before they can have a moment to relax. The situation turns exponentially worse when the true identity of their foe comes to light, adding tragedy to the equation.
Who is the Minion? Is Krista AKA Dollface Alive?
When news about John and Quiet becoming public enemies comes out, the duo, along with Mayhem, prepare to leave the house. However, they are given no moment to process things, as the Minion storms the house and immediately goes on the offensive. It appears that the explosion was not nearly enough to take the entity out, as it is now stronger than ever. The Minion makes light work of Quiet and Mayhem, but John manages to distract it at the last moment, and the fight heads to his childhood bedroom. During the scuffle, he manages to unmask the robot, and in that moment, he learns the horrific truth: the Minion is none other than his sister, Krista. As Dollface, she died in the first round of the race; however, that narrative appears to have been overturned, as despite no longer being in control of her body, Dollface still appears to have life inside of her.
The possibility of Dollface being alive is further substantiated by her responding to John whistling the family tune. It manages to soothe her long enough for him to launch a counterattack, following which he finds her weakness at the back and momentarily disables her. He is helped in this fight by a mystery assassin, who turns out to be none other than Stu. Along with Quiet and Mayhem, John quickly escapes the scene, leaving Dollface in the dust, but still functional. Once a safe distance away, Stu reveals that he had to crash the spacecraft onto Earth in order to find his way back and that the time alone has fundamentally changed him. Together, the team realizes that the only way to end this fiasco once and for all is to kill Calypso. John also has a personal reason to go after the antagonist, as he is the one responsible for creating a monster out of Dollface’s body and mind.
In keeping with Calypso’s wicked tendencies, John, too, is granted his desire. While his sister does come back, she does so in a nearly unrecognizable form, and with seemingly no consciousness of her own. However, that does not stop the protagonist from reaching out to her, and her reactions to his cues generate hope. Armed with the possibility of bringing his sister back to life, John readies for one more battle, this time not just limited to the road, but extending to cover an entire system. His extended family finds its place in this conflict, too, as they all carry their personal vendetta against the insiders and what they represent. There are also some surprises in store, as the show ends with the confirmation of Sweet Tooth surviving the game and making his way to the Eastern Sovereignity, a new location with its own set of challenges. As such, while the future appears to be grim, John and his allies are more prepared than ever.
Read More: Is Dollface Dead or Alive? Is Tiana Okoye Leaving Twisted Metal?
