Last time, Arthur and Grace barely escaped a nightmarish orgy where lust was fatal. Welcome to Race Day 6, which begins in dear old Meadeville. The racers are stuffing victims into their engines to prepare for the day of a hard road ahead. As Grace dumps a bucket of severed feet into Sexy Susie’s thirsty engine, Arthur waxes poetic about their partnership:
“I really think we complement each other. You’re tough and street smart and sort of a murderer.”
Slink sounds off on the race PA system, informing the contestants that for the first time in Blood Drive history, they’ll be racing through the Savage Land. Or as we call it, Texas.
The Savage Land is full of fun stuff like heavily armed barbarian tribes. After the racers start their engines and Slink’s voice enters their vehicles, he has another surprise: each vehicle has been tinkered with to add a fun new challenge to the race in the form of a penalty for hitting the brakes.
Anytime the brakes are hit, it disables the engine for 10 minutes. That’s enough time for barbarians to attack the car and enough of a delay to push a racer into bringing up the rear.
Being the last one to cross the finish line is certain death.
Grace is excited because she has the location that her sister Karma was transferred to, Clearview Mental Rehabilitation Center for Women, and it’s on the race route. As she fakes out and distracts her race opponents into accidentally stopping, we check in with Domi and Cliff.
She’s still coasting on the joy of their recent revitalization as a couple, but Cliff is back to being a grump. He’s irritated because Domi pleasured herself without him during their marriage, an act as grievous as having an affair.
As they bicker, Christopher Carpenter watches them from Heart headquarters through his mechanical eye. By tapping the side of his head, he can cycle through the dash cameras of each racer. He finally finds Arthur’s car just as a naked Aki wakes up behind him.
Carpenter is now a Heart security guard, and he puts on the black uniform while Aki mixes him up a lunch of bread, raw eggs and shells topped with Bloody Mary hot sauce. When he tells her he’s going out with friends after work, she trembles with rage.
From her POV, we see several responses pop up on her HUD. Kill, Maim, Castrate, etc. Ultimately she accepts the news and becomes friendlier. Christopher needs time after his shift to explore the Hall of Secrets.
Back on the road, Sexy Susie and the other cars pass into the Savage Land. They are immediately chased by motorcycle riding bandits carrying powerful grenades. After some dizzying motorcycle stunts and bad driving that kills two racers, Arthur spots a crashed oil tanker truck blocking the road and forces Grace to hit the brakes.
The 10-minute penalty is activated and Grace pushes the oil tanker flat. It’s just a facade of painted wood made to look like a wrecked truck.
“We just got Wile E. Coyote’d.”
They are surrounded by barbarians. One them removes their motorcycle helmet to reveal a woman’s face.
So these are Amazons? Well, things should be fine and dandy, then. As we saw in Wonder Woman, Amazons are noble and just. Arthur steps forward to introduce himself and is swiftly knocked out.
What the f@ck?
I thought Amazons were all about Invisible Planes and secret islands, not attacking semi-innocent people.
I’m submitting a little something for Emmy consideration: Best Knocked Out Face by Alan Ritchson.
It’s mystery solving time back at Heart as Christopher finally penetrates the Hall of Secrets. Unbeknownst to him, Aki is watching his progress from a terminal in her lab. The well-lit chamber Carpenter discovers spins so that doors are located on the ceiling and floor. Due to Aki’s control over the system, her lover cannot access anything. He’s stuck, un l one door suddenly opens and Julian Slink emerges. When last we saw him, he was entering a Blood Gate portal that took him from the Atlas plant in Meadeville to Heart headquarters.
When last we saw him, he was entering a Blood Gate portal that took him from the Atlas plant in Meadeville to Heart headquarters.
Chris confronts the Blood Drive creator, who mocks his relationship with Aki and reveals that she is watching them through the cybernetic eye. Slink overpowers the security guard and exits the Hall.
Arthur is tied to Sexy Susie’s hood and Grace ain’t in a much better position as they are taken to the Amazon’s home in the desert. The leader of the militant women is Carolina and she introduces Grace to their village, Majora. Although Arthur is just a prisoner to them, Carolina clearly has an eye for Grace.
We see a faded sign for Wet Canyon, a resort and spa that was long ago turned into Majora. When they reach their destination, Arthur is painfully tasered several times as the pair are dragged to an uncertain fate. Inside Majora’s walls, Grace finds male slaves tending to relaxing Amazons in the atmosphere of a massage parlor.
Inside Majora’s walls, Grace finds male slaves tending to relaxing Amazons in the atmosphere of a massage parlor.
Now trapped in the Hall of Secrets, Christopher watches a woman enter a door marked Receiving. She emerges a few minutes later with a tube parcel and exits, while the security guard catches the closing Receiving door. Inside, he discovers….nothing. It’s a white cube of featureless glass. Observing this, Aki punishes her lover by causing him to horrifically vomit blue and red chemicals.
On the road, Domi is criticizing her husband’s sexual techniques and lack of effort.
“You know what your problem is? You’re emotionally immature.”
“You don’t even have emotions. Your doctor said so.”
If it comes down to full blown Civil War between these two, let it be known that I’m Team Domi.
All their arguing eventually causes Domi to stop the car, which engages the 10 minute delay. In come the Amazons!
In a cell at Majora, Arthur meets a male prisoner who explains what’s happening. The Amazons use a milking machine to suck out semen in order to artificially inseminate themselves. Arthur looks through the bars and sees a makeshift lab where an Amazon is attaching a hose to a groaning man’s dong. Overhead is a massive jar slowly filling with ejaculate, like a reverse IV.
While Arthur is down in the ha- filled animal pens, Domi is getting a leg wax and loving life at Majora. Grace points out that their heads will explode if they wind up last in the race or don’t show up at all.
During an escape attempt, Grace learns from Carolina that the residents of Majora ARE the former patients of Clearview Mental Rehabilitation Center For Women. They rebelled against torture and monstrous treatment and burned the hospital down.
Cliff joins the prisoners, who drink beers and listen to rock. Arthur urges them to escape, but they seem pretty against it. He makes a break for it but is outnumbered by armed babes.
In a Heart Enterprises board room, Julian meets with two executives who deeply criticize Blood Drive’s weak, uncool characters. They want more racers to wear sunglasses and smoke cigarettes, and higher body counts per episode. They also want Slink to stop using the Oxford Comma in his typed reports. Julian kills one of them with a throwing knife, and we meet the Big Boss.
He announces that the show’s ratings pick up when Julian is not featured in an episode and that Blood Drive is finally going public…without its creator. Julian Slink just got fired. The idea of simply killing him is on the table, until the half-dead exec on the floor explains to his boss that Slink cannot be killed.
At Majora, Carolina takes Grace to a shrine built in Karma’s honor. Turns out she died during the uprising against Clearview, but her bravery allowed others to live on. She’s a hero. Grace is given her sister’s hospital bracelet.
Arthur is taken to something called the Altar to be killed, and Cliff overhears that he’s next on the hit list. Using his wedding ring, he taps out Morse Code on the cell bars. She hears the clicks while soaking her feet in a basin of hot water, but hesitates until he taps out the magic words:
If I’m going to be killed, you should be the one to do it.
Pleased, Domi switches into Kill Mode. She drowns her male slave and stabs two Amazons to death in about 30 seconds. Damn, she’s good! She rushes to Cliff’s side on a tide of violence!
Episode 6 brings us more disturbing aspects of the Aki/Carpenter relationship, and we learn what her name means: Autonomous Kinetic Lovemaking Machine.
The bitter truth about Karma’s death and Grace’s regret over putting her in Kane Hill give this tale extra Feels. Christina Ochoa portrays Grace’s melancholy and grief quite wonderfully.
As evidenced by what happens at the Altar, these are not the noble kind of Amazons.
We finally get to see Domi covered in blood and in the thick of murderous action. She’s glorious! Towards the very end she gives Cliff a very sweet gift.
Grace reveals something being around her driving partner has taught her. It’s a touching moment.
