What's Inside Twisted Metal's Mystery Package Is The Show's Best Gag

Sep 25, 2023

Twisted Metal season 1 centers around Anthony Mackie's John Doe delivering a mystery package, and what's inside might be the show's best gag.

Warning: Major spoilers for Twisted Metal season 1 below!

Twisted Metal season 1 ends on a major twist for Anthony Mackie's John Doe, with the contents of the package he's delivering being arguably the best gag. The Twisted Metal video games constantly hit the reboot button, with titles such as Twisted Metal: Black or Twisted Metal 2012 presenting completely different takes on characters like Sweet Tooth, Mr Grimm and Calypso. It was only fitting for Peacock's live-action Twisted Metal series to take a similar approach, with the show having no story links to any of the games.

Instead of centering around the actual tournament, Twisted Metal's first season sees "milkman" John Doe tasked with driving across a post-apocalyptic wasteland to pick up a mystery package. Along the way, he encounters various Twisted Metal video game characters like serial killer Sweet Tooth (Samoa Joe) or Thomas Haden Church's brutal lawman Agent Stone, but in the finale, he succeeds in delivering the package to New San Francisco COO Raven (Neve Campbell). What he doesn't realize is that the whole thing was a test to see if John had what it took to drive in the upcoming Twisted Metal contest.

Related: Every Twisted Metal Video Game Character Teased For Calypso's Tournament

Raven needed a great driver to enter the tournament on her behalf, as the prize involves the race's organizer Calypso granting the winner their greatest wish. The final scene reveals other racers like Axel or "Bloody" Mary (Chloe Fineman) will be taking part, as will John himself. To underline how pointless the actual delivery was, it's revealed all that was inside Twisted Metal's mystery package was some ice cream. Not just any ice cream either; Raven was delivered some aptly titled "Rocky Road" all the way from New Chicago.

Twisted Metal's showrunners are no doubt proud of the "Rocky Road" pun (as they should be), but more than anything it reveals how little the central MacGuffin actually mattered. Raven could have ordered anything, but she knew it was all a ruse anyway. Not only that, but Rocky Road isn't even what Raven wanted, so after John spent ten days risking his life getting this delivery and experiencing some life-changing events along the way, she doesn't even like the ice cream.

Twisted Metal season 2 is promising that the actual tournament itself will be the focus next time. Whereas the first season fleshed out the main characters and established the post-apocalyptic world, the second season should have all the action and wild racing fans of the video games want to see. While Raven wants John to drive on her behalf, if he actually wins tt, maybe Calypso will grant John the one wish instead. That's only fair, considering he's doing all the work.