Synopsis of 1×01: Like Grace says, no one makes it to the Blood Drive without a little bit of psycho behind the eyes. Buckle up, everyone, it’s about to be a bumpy ride!
After wasting $500 worth of gas racing Grace down the open roads, one unnamed driver isn’t taking no for an answer. His friend relents to turning around and waiting, as Grace stabs him with her detachable gearshift and proceeds to feed him to her engine. To top off, she cuts off the other guy’s arm, but leaves him alive at least?
From there, more of the world is introduced through the lense of Contra-Crime, the privatized police force busting bums for stealing water out of an ATM. They have futuristic weapons and a quota of teeth to fulfill, but one cop – Arthur – lets a junkie go after questioning him about the marks on his arms and receiving a location.
With some needling, he gets his partner, Christopher, to agree to go to the warehouse with him later that night. They find the beginnings of the Blood Drive, as Julian Slink announces his presence and has people sacrificed to the engines. Arthur freaks out and has Christopher call for backup while he goes to try to stop what’s happening.
Unfortunately, Arthur is discovered and unceremoniously shoved from his hiding place – landing himself on Grace’s car, as she’s intending to race. She punches him for denting her car and they’re both restrained by an unruly crowd. With Slink demanding a show, Arthur kisses Grace and they’re paired together for the race through pulse charges implanted in their necks.
If removed or if Slink sets it off, it can torture and explode the heads of any of the racers at his command. Some of their competitors in the Blood Drive include Rib Bone, Domi and Cliff, The Gentleman and The Scholar, Clown Dick, and Fat Elvis.
When Christopher tries to intervene, he gets a bottle to the face and Arthur’s concern as he’s being shoved into Grace’s vehicle. She doesn’t care about Christopher and attempts to rally with the rest of the vehicles as they leave. As they take off, Arthur bails out to go back for his partner and Slink turns up the torture on their pulse chargers in retaliation. Due to the pain, Arthur is forced back into the vehicle and Grace knocks him out.
He comes to later, only to find the child locks on the doors now – so no repeats of jumping out of the car. She goes over the situation with him, explaining that she needs the prize money for her sister, but he realizes for the first time that the car runs on human blood and refuses to let anyone go in the engine. Grace’ll figure out that problem when it comes up.
Back at the station, Christopher is on administrative leave and has an eye patch for his troubles. While his supervisor doesn’t believe him, another cop does and offers to help him. Together they hunt down the junkie that Arthur cut loose before and investigate where the marks on his arm came from.
As Grace and Arthur drive by captive cheerleaders being fed to the engine of one of their competitors, Arthur forces them to stop and intervene. He confronts the other driver and gets into a physical fight for his efforts. Grace, meanwhile, uses spikes to stop The Gentleman and The Scholar so that they’ll fix her engine for her.
The Scholar fixes her car while Arthur and The Gentleman argue about freeing the cheerleaders. Arthur makes him promise to let them go before driving off with Grace. The Scholar reveals that their engine will only last another two or three hours and The Gentleman admits he won’t take any of the girls’ lives, but he said nothing about their tongues and fingers.
Christopher and Aki watch as a van unloads a bunch of bums at a warehouse. They follow behind them, only to find all of the junkies hooked up to machines that was siphoning their blood. Christopher finds an empty space meant for him just and kicks Aki right onto a pipe, realizing she led him into a trap.
Instead of dying, orange and teal liquid pours out of her wound and she removes herself from the pipe she was impaled on. An exact clone of her, dressed in leather, shows up behind Christopher and attacks him.
Grace knows how far behind in the standings they are, with the last car to arrive at the finish line killed, just as the engine gives out. Her and Arthur make quick work of fixing the engine, only to still find themselves in last place. Desperate, Grace reminds Arthur that adrenaline will short circuit their pulse chargers and she comes up with a plan.
“Do me or die,” is the plan that she comes up with, tying the steering wheel so that they can bang and drive at the same time. Somehow, they cross the finish line without their heads exploding and the crowd surrounds them chanting, “Fucking Cop! Fucking Cop!” It’s better than dying.
At the after party, Slink makes it clear that the same trick won’t work a second time and leaves Arthur with his card. Poor Arthur gets sick to his stomach when he flips the card to reveal the Heart logo on the back because Heart is the mega-company responsible for literally everything – the water dispensers, the police radios and weapons, the food, etc. etc.
He makes a deal to help Grace win if she’ll help him put all of the psychos involved in this race behind bars at the end of it.
Honestly, Blood Drive is wild from start to finish and I can’t wait to see more.
English