Blood Drive: “In the Crimson Halls of Kane Hill” (S1; E4)

“Baby Driver” this is not.

Director: James Roday

Things are moving and shaking this week as Grace and Arthur take matters into their own hands. The pair decide to go off-roading in the attempt to find Grace’s sister at the Kane Hill mental institution.

But first.

Have you ever needed a quick high-fructose pick-me-up? Of course you have. That’s why HEART enterprises created Smax–a candy so good, you’ll kill for another bite. At least that’s what a commercial, complete with creepy bug-eyed customers, told me at the beginning of the episode.

And it’s a good thing they shared this sugar-pushing PSA, as the very next scene is a flashback at Kane Hill where the docile patients are celebrating Halloween with a sweet treat. That right boys and girls, Smax is in the building.

Meanwhile Slink has made a series of disturbing discoveries. He’s gotten word that his favorite set of trouble-making racers has taken a detour to Kane Hill. This would be bad enough, but when he goes to reprimand Grace and Arthur with a little shock to the old system, he discovered that his zap box has been tampered with.

Always a man of action, Slink deploys the deliciously dirty racer Rib Bone and his chihuahua pal Caligula to track down the pair and kill Arthur on sight. Grace, on the other hand, he wants alive.

Grace and Arthur arrive at Kane Hill without issue. Although Arthur considers this a good sign, Grace is less convinced. Turns out she’s right. The patients have taken over the asylum thanks to the nasty side-effects of Smax candy, and there is more to the story than meets the eye. You see it wasn’t mere neglect that lead the nurses to pass out such a dangerous confection. Perhaps HEART enterprises has a hand in this too?

As our heroes make their way through the asylum, Grace reminisces about her sister and how she got in this mess in the first place.

Everything is going not that well at all when Rib Bone shows up and locks our heroes into the loony bin. The doctors are dead, the patients are angry, and Grace’s sister is nowhere to be found. Can Arthur and Grace escape with their lives?

The answer is, they must. It seems that Grace’s sister has been transferred, but no one seems to know where. On top of that, the duo have uncovered a frightening fact about the Blood Drive’s creator Julian Slink.

Back in Aki’s cold-blooded lair at HEART enterprises, the still-naked Officer Carpenter is restrained on the table again. This poor guy’s been stuck on that table for what is starting to feel like forever.

Now Aki has decided to harvest all of Carpenter’s bodily fluids in case she wants to reproduce from them later. Although the original idea sounds titillating, as with everything this alluring robot does, it’s less pleasurable than expected.

What’s Aki’s ultimate goal? We’re still left to scratch our heads and wonder.

Rating: 3/5