DISCLAIMER: This recap of Twisted Metal Season 1 Episode 3, “NTHLAW1,” contains spoilers. Read at your own risk.
Welcome, everyone, and let’s dive right into the next installment of Twisted Metal. “NTHLAW1” opens with two teenagers sitting in a mall in 2002. A young Agent Stone (Thomas Haden Church), who appears to be mall security, is arguing with them about being a real cop when all hell breaks loose. Suddenly, all electronics start going haywire, and everyone immediately starts panicking. As planes fall from the sky and chaos surrounds him, Agent Stone loses it.
Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz) and John Doe (Anthony Mackie) are being tasered by the Hoover Dam security crew. After being harassed a little, they are sent to the post-apocalyptic DMV. They learn if too many violations are committed, you get to walk the red line, which leads to screams. Meanwhile, Mike (Tahj Vaughans) and Stu (Mike Mitchell) search through John Doe’s car and talk about Agent Stone. Mike heard that when the apocalypse started, a group of terrorists invaded his hometown, and Stone “single-handedly annihilated everybody with extreme prejudice.” Stu finds the map John Doe had previously secured and gives it to Agent Shephard (Jared Bankens), who seems worried about it.
John Doe and Quiet are zip-tied at a table, and Doe provokes Quiet into a conversation. He says his mouth has gotten him out of a lot of trouble, while she says being quiet has kept her alive. Agent Stone explains he is using the Hoover Dam as a blockade from Southern Arizona to the Canadian Wastes; this forces everyone to go through him for anything. He has spent decades building routes and outposts, but John Doe’s map avoids every single one. Stone demands to know the cartographer’s name and where the map came from because “one leak could bring the whole dam down.”
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Flashback to a young Agent Stone bringing supplies as his pregnant neighbor follows him inside the house. Another neighbor hurriedly rushes his family into the car, and another vehicle burns in the street. You can hear gunfire outside as they casually talk about the looting and fallen police station. The pregnant neighbor pulls a gun on Stone as her husband runs in and grabs all his guns.
In the meantime, Stu and Mike have been tasked with getting the map information from John Doe. They begin the torture by blasting Aqua’s 1997 hit “Barbie Girl” over the loudspeaker and slamming them with an impossibly tall stack of forms to fill out. I think we can all relate to this torture, at least a little, after the recent release of Barbie and the recent resurgence of that song. They are given eye exams while being pepper sprayed and waterboarded.
John Doe refuses to give up the map maker’s name because he has known him for a long time, and is the only person he trusts. Agent Stone decides to send them down the red line and congratulates Quiet on being able to hug her brother again soon. Stone tells Shephard that if there are other maps out there, it could compromise them and says he is heading to HQ to handle it.
Rewind to a much less confident younger Agent Stone, who drinks and cries on his living room floor. A civilian rushes in a tells him that a group of terrorists has taken over his restaurant and he needs help. Stone breaks a framed memorial to his father, who was also in law enforcement, and grabs a handgun and ammo.
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Quiet and John Doe wait for their number in a DMV lobby replica. While they are waiting, John pesters Quiet into another conversation. She explains how Agent Stone made her brother kill himself. John says he cannot remember anything about his family, so she is lucky to have any memories with him. He explains that finishing this job and being a part of New San Francisco would make him feel like part of something again.
Stu is tasked with walking John and Quiet down the red line, which leads to a door that opens right off the top of the Hoover Dam. He tells them to jump, or he will shoot them. After some convincing, he decides to help them escape and run away with them. While Stu and John look for the keys to Ev3l1n, Quiet grabs her brother’s jacket and sneaks off, so they leave her behind.
Back it up to a young Agent Stone, who enters a jungle-themed restaurant and finds a handful of armed men. They explain that they only stopped here to grab supplies for their families. Stone begins a lecture on how that is no excuse for crime, but one of the men recognizes him as the mall cop. The survivor then starts picking on him for not being a “real” officer. This touches a nerve with Stone, and he unloads his gun, killing all the men immediately. A pool of blood runs from underneath a nearby table, and he realizes he also killed a mother and daughter hiding underneath. He then yells at the dead man that provoked him, saying this was all his fault because he broke the law.
RELATED: Catch up on all of our Twisted Metal recaps here!
Eventually, Quiet finds her way to Stone’s office, where she finds Agent Shepard masturbating and uses this advantage to pommel him to death with her gun. Mike finds proof that Stu helped the prisoners escape. As alarms begin to sound, Quiet notices a map in Stone’s office with Topeka, Kansas, flagged as HQ. Stu and John find Ev3l1n only to realize the dome light had been left on and the battery is dead. As John and Stu start pushing, Quiet comes out of nowhere to help.
John and Quiet make it back into the car, but as Stu tries to get in, the broken trunk flies open and knocks him out. He wakes up to Mike holding broken zip ties and a group of armed officers surrounding him. As they drive away, John asks if he can save time by dropping Quiet off somewhere. She tells him that she and her brother were just looking to find a city without walls or fear and heard that Topeka was such a place.
Twisted Metal Season 1 is now streaming on Peacock.
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