Synopsis of 1×03: Forced to make a detour, Grace and Arthur get in on some team-building synergistic meetings. Also, meet Domi and Cliff – that nice, suburban murder racing couple.
Surprisingly, they get the parts without much of a hassle and Arthur tries to get Grace to open up about her sister. Instead, she gets him to reveal what he’s writing in his journal and why he’s so hopeful all the time and they begin arguing and lose track of their location. They get to a dead end and fall into a trap as the path behind them is blocked.
Domi is complaining about the state of her life with Cliff and how they used to do so much more murdering. They signed up for the Blood Drive to get some of that spark back – spark Cliff didn’t know was missing – and now, here they are. Slow and steady on the way to Salt Lake.
Grace gets out of the car and is ready for a fight, only to change her mind as they hear people coming. A group of walking cliched suits, spouting non-stop office platitudes, take the car, but it’s nothing for Arthur and Grace to follow them. I’ve found a new group I want to avoid when the apocalypse hits: the office drones worshipping synergy. Team-building exercises are the worst.
When another driver catches up to the unhappy couple, Domi and Cliff realize he took their newlywed kill that they passed on earlier. Digging into their car cooler bag full of old remains, they toss a bloody bellhop onto the windshield of the other driver. It deftly covers his windshield and they celebrate staying that much further ahead of the competition.
Arthur’s idea of a distraction is to walk out and introduce himself to the supervisor. He makes fun of their jargon and she explains that it’s great for team-building and that they’re not going anywhere. While Grace gives him the middle finger behind the supervisor as he struggles to explain himself, they’re interrupted by something dangerous getting inside. They didn’t secure the doors behind them and it’s about to get very Pitch Black in here.
The Supervisor explains that the Glimmers used to be people until a new gasoline additive got into their water and turned them into the things they see on the edge of the light. She survived because she was on a cleanse when the water became tainted and now they worship her. They had food for a few years built up and there’s no way to power up the lights and the exit at the same time.
In a demonstration, the Supervisor shows them how the lights cause the Glimmers to explode while the gasoline draws them into their demise. Arthur agrees to get more gasoline with the Supervisor while Grace is planning to stay with her car. But when he tells her the car runs on blood, she double crosses him and leaves him locked in a room.
Grace discovers that the blood of the Glimmers will supercharge her car and goes after Arthur to share the news with him. While she frees him, the Supervisor almost makes a break for it until she’s stopped by one of her own people. Dismayed that she was going to leave them, he drags her out of the car and allows them both to be destroyed by Glimmers.
Arthur seems to break one of his own rules about killing when he’s lured to the help of a dead body by one of the Glimmers taunting him. After he dispatches it, he and Grace light flares and make a break for the car. Just before he gets in the car, he sees the dead Supervisor and also a sign that signals Heart Enterprises was behind the tainted toxins in the water of Steel City. Supercharged on Glimmer blood, they make their escape easily.
Waking up, Christopher finds himself with Aki and still restrained. She is working to recondition him with questions to test his conscious and his empathy. When the answer is wrong, he’s shocked. After Aki shows him Arthur and Grace’s fuck for survival, he tries to give her the less empathetic answer and he’s still shocked for his troubles. The torture for Christopher might just be ramping up.
Julian Slink is on a group call getting used to the new bureaucratic meddling in the Blood Drive. The hours drone on as Julian has to defend his artistic choices and gets notes like, “Have Grace show Arthur some affection,” and “Now there’s too much Arthur, where is the Gentleman?” It’s very meta and extremely hilarious.
He finally makes an appearance at the finish line to announce that Clown Dick and Grace and Arthur are the stragglers. Domi and Cliff made it to the end and celebrate with some weird kissing that passes a severed eyeball back and forth. Once they’re hustled along by Julian to the finish line, everyone is witness to Clown Dick stopping just short for some boobs. Grace and Arthur zoom by and barely make it through once again.
Arthur and Grace celebrate with booze for her and more notes for him. He wants to talk about Heart Enterprises behind the Glimmers, while she’s not all that hopeful in his fight against the company still. She questions his actions in Steel City over the killing and when he gets pissy, she tells him that it felt like he really had her back. Julian’s note for more affection between Arthur and Grace is fulfilled.
She leaves Arthur behind to make a deal with the Scholar. Trading some of the Glimmer blood for his knowledge of the bombs in their necks, she wants to be off the radar for a family reunion. The Scholar is skeptical, but offers to tamper with Julian’s box in order to get her what she wants… in the next episode.
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