Twisted Metal Ending Explained: Who Is Calypso And What's The Deal With His Deadly Tournament
Spoiler Warning: The following article is an expressway of spoilers for Twisted Metal Season 1. If you have yet to watch Peacock’s video game adaptation and wish to avoid spoilers, please take your first exit.
After what seems like years of hearing about it, Peacock’s high-octane thrill ride that is Twisted Metal has completed its first season; a run of 10 episodes that was as fast and furious as the classic video game franchise on which it is based. With a combination of intense action, some over-the-top and hilarious music moments, and outstanding chemistry shared by its leads, Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz, there was a lot for viewers to enjoy.
While the show’s debut season didn’t offer up as much vehicular combat as longtime fans may have liked, the Twisted Metal ending sure did a great job of teasing what’s to come, both when it comes to the titular tournament at the center of the game franchise and the mysterious figure pulling all the strings. Here’s where the show has been and where it could be headed in the future.
What Happens At The End Of Twisted Metal Season 1
In true video game adaptation fashion, Twisted Metal Season 1 was essentially a 10-episode fetch quest that saw milkman John Doe (Anthony Mackie) be tasked with driving from New San Francisco to New Chicago in order to pick up a mysterious package for the even more mysterious Raven (Neve Campbell). However, In the season finale, we learn that the amnesiac delivery driver wasn’t picking up medicine, riches, or some biological weapon, but instead a pint of ice cream (the wrong flavor at that).
In the final moments, as John is about to leave the safety of the Bay Area to find Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz), who is on her own journey after their cross-country trip, Raven tells the milkman that this was actually a test to see if he could handle driving for her in Calypso’s upcoming Twisted Metal tournament, a vehicular combat contest in which the winner gets anything they desire…
Calypso Has Been Teased All Season, Who Is He?
Though he is never seen in the flesh, Calypso is a major presence that can be felt throughout Twisted Metal Season 1, with the first reference to the creator of the titular destruction derby with guns coming in the debut episode in the form of a “Calypso is real” tag on a highway sign.
There are a few more teases throughout subsequent episodes, and John Doe and Quiet even speak with the mysterious figure upon arriving in New Chicago in the “NUTHOUZ” episode. Even then, we only hear his voice (through an intercom) and never get to see his face. Then the biggest reveal about the character comes in the aforementioned scene in which Raven tells John about an upcoming tournament being organized by the mystery man. But, who is Calypso, anyway?
Ever since the Twisted Metal video game franchise was introduced back in 1995, Calypso has been a major figure in the series’ events, as he is the founder of the tournament from which the game draws its name. The malevolent, charismatic, and demented event organizer has the ability to grant any wish the winner desires, but more times than not, there’s a catch that results in the champion actually being the biggest loser.
From the first game’s hilarious canned endings to those comic book-like cutscenes from its sequel to 2001 reboot, Twisted Metal: Black, Calypso has long been a man who can pull off the impossible, but for a hefty price. How the character is depicted (and who plays him) in a potential second season is anyone’s guess.
All Roads Lead To The Titular Vehicular Combat Tournament
Though the Twisted Metal tournament itself doesn’t get mentioned until the final minutes of the new Peacock original series’ debut season, the previous episodes do a fantastic job of laying the groundwork for the vehicular combat contest with the aforementioned Calypso signs, the walled-off cities, and vast battlegrounds sprinkled throughout the Divided States of America. We don’t know where the deadly tournament will take place – the first game was in Los Angeles, the second was a “World Tour,” and Twisted Metal: Black was in the fictional city of “Midtown” – all roads lead to vehicular combat, possibly in New Chicago.
Unlike New San Francisco and Agent Stone’s (Thomas Haden Church) car blockade in the American West, the “Windy City” could be the best possible place for Twisted Metal to go down. It’s centrally located in the country, there are obviously multiple roads going in and out of the region, and the city is seemingly an automated fortress, which would be ideal for Calypso to hold and oversee his epic destruction derby. Just thinking about John Doe, Sweet Tooth, Quiet, and the rest of the possible contestants racing down Lake Shore Drive, blowing up landmarks like Wrigley Field, and recreating The Dark Knight’s “truck flip” would be sight to see.
If the combat in Twisted Metal Season 2 is anything like the showdown with Agent Stone’s cops in the Season 1 finale, then we’re in for one hell of a ride.
Who Are The Drivers Participating In Twisted Metal?
More than a dozen characters from the Twisted Metal franchise showed up in the first season, and many of them are still alive and well enough to enter the upcoming tournament.
In the final moments of the Season 1 finale, as Raven is telling John Doe about the contest, drivers from throughout the season – Preacher (Jason Mantzoukas), Miranda Watts, a.k.a. Twister (Jamie Neumann), Amber Rose, a.k.a., Flower Power (Diany Rodriguez) – are shown on a bracket, leading you to believe they’ll all be in the tournament. Interestingly enough, the board also featured Bloody Mary (Chloe Fineman), even though she was presumed dead after an encounter with John and Quiet earlier in the season. The brief scene also teased some of the franchise’s most iconic characters, like the motorcycle-riding spirit known as Mr. Grimm and Axel, a man who has long been trapped in a vehicle of his father’s creation.
But, that isn’t all, since Sweet Tooth (Samoa Joe/Will Arnett) could also be in the tournament, as it’s revealed in the Twisted Metal Season 1 mid-credits sequence that he somehow survived setting his head on fire, being shot, and getting hit by a car in that epic battle with Stone. There is also the Dollface situation, as John Doe’s long-lost sister confronted Quiet before the credits rolled. We’ll have to see if the pair form a team of their own or become bitter enemies on the road to Twisted Metal.
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Hopefully, the show is picked up for a second season so that we can see Calypso and his tournament in all their glory after the way things wrapped up in the Twisted Metal ending. But, while we wait for more information on the return of one of the most surprising shows on the 2023 TV schedule, now would be a good time to check out everything that comes with a Peacock subscription.