Twisted Metal continues to be a love letter to not only the video game that inspired it, but to the 90s and early 2000s era from when it thrived, as we saw even more pop culture references and music from the period.

And we actually had a flashback episode, where we catch up with Agent Stone from the day of the fall of society where he’s patrolling a mall and getting insulted by a pair of teenage girls, before we get computers going nuts and planes falling out of the sky. As the world starts to fall apart, Stone’s home gets invaded by his pregnant neighbor, and he’s tricked into a raid on a restaurant only to find people searching for food. When antagonized, he snaps, killing everyone including a young girl, cementing himself as an egotistical villain with a distorted outlook on justice.

Back in the present, Stone is interrogating John Doe and Quiet to discover the identity of the cartographer who gave Doe the map that sneaks him around most of his check points. They’re tortured in the “DMV” by having to fill out an endless number of forms and being waterboarded while listening to “Barbie Girl” by Aqua. They eventually convince Stu to let them loose but he falls behind during the escape. Quiet feeds Doe a story about a sanctuary city in Topeka which actually appears to be Stone’s HQ as the episode ends.

How the show managed to feature “The Barbie” by Aqua the weekend after the Margot Robbie movie opened is beyond me. But it’s the moment for sure. Added bonus by having Stone say it was “his jam” during the interrogation moments after Doe also complimented it.

“Steal My Sunshine” by LEN kicked off the episode. The timestamp of 2002 was a little after the song came out but still a pleasant nod nonetheless.

Also enjoyed the quick reference to the Motorola Razr which was the “must have” phone of the era.

And we also saw Stu give Mike “The Friendly Finger” the art of this post and the way the characters on “Friends” used to curse each other out.

License plate episode hint. Just like the classic song. “I fought the law” NTHLAW1 or and the law won.
Tell me what got by me in the comments below!

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