Drive 1.11 - All Roads Led to This - Part 2

Drive: All Roads Led To This…. Part 2

Genre: Action

Executive Producer: Drew Goddard

Writer: H.G. Hansen

Based on the 2011 film by Nicolas Winding Refn

Cast: Dan Stevens, Jessica Paré, Bruce Campbell, Morris Chestnut, Norman Reedus, Noah Jupe, Owen Vaccaro and Kevin Bacon

Driver (Dan Stevens) is standing inside the elevator, eyes closed as he is almost in a trance. He remembers the first night this all happened. He remembers finding Mia's dead body. The blood. The destruction all around. Then in slow motion, he remembers how he found her lying on the ground. He screams, cries, and completely loses it. "Do you choose to be alone cause of who you are?" Mia's question can be heard in the background of him holding her tight.

Driver is sitting in the living room after being attacked from those mobsters. Mia(Jessica Paré) looks at Driver like she has no idea who he is. He can't speak as he knows the sight of blood on his shirt frightens her. He tells her he had to do what he did. Mia agrees but she noticed the way he killed them wasn't instinct. She asks for the truth of why they were attacked and how he could do what he did. Driver doesn't answer and looks away. Mia begins to grow angry by this to the point she screams a demand to know. He breathes deep turns his head and says "I don't know..."

He remembers a moment where Moses (Morris Chestnut) talks to him in the police car after being arrested. Moses tells him how he understands as he knows who he is. The guy who caused that LA fiasco and how he did monstrous things to some really bad guys. Driver doesn't answer which Moses asks were the weapons he was buying for those dudes. "No... they were for the people working for his brother." Moses nods as he knows about that. Family can make people do things they never would do otherwise. How they can change a person and then if they don't any, right or wrong don't have any differences. Driver then asks what if its best to leave it alone. He responds how then you never know who you really are. Driver hears those words and sinks back to his seat.

Driver grips the hammer in his hand as blood his own or someone else's or maybe both drips down. He can hear a crowd of voices some afraid of him, some believing he's not evil, some thinking they know who he is, while some say things he can decide for himself. This intensives till all he hears are Mia asking him does he believe he's a monster. He raises his head from Mia's body as his face begins to form into a monstrous rage. The elevator bells dings and total silence fills the room. Driver slowly opens his eyes and walks out.

We see Mr. S (Norman Reedus) standing in front of a wide window. Having such a view reminds him everyone else is just sheep. Driver begs to differ. S tells Driver as soon as that LA event happened he looked for him tirelessly. He then goes on how he killed Mia and how Driver was accepted by her after he sent the kill squad for them angered him. He's jealous that no matter how violent he is, Driver is always accepted. Driver makes a remark on how that might how S was always the teacher's pet.

Andie (Kevin Bacon) summons Derek (Owen Vaccaro) to talk to him alone. He gives a speech on how what he did was needed to help him. Andie laughs as he turns his back. With some time, Derek will think differently. But Derek grabs the hammer from the desk and starts beating Andie to death. Derek takes pleasure in each swing with the blood covering his face. He looks at Andie pleading with him to the point he shows his real color which makes Derek land one more strike. Samuel (Noah Jupe) is heard as he saw the whole thing. Derek drops the hammer and runs away.

S brings out that same hammer and how he always dreamed of using it on him. Drive smiles and this enrages him to asking why is he smiling. Driver just mentions that he won't get the chance to. They square off as they both use the hammer to strike each other but counter each movement as they know each other very well. As they struggle to get an upper hand, S asks if he felt good about betraying the only family they knew. Driver replies how they were part of a killing cult lead by a man too vague see the monsters he was creating. S thinks they were his chosen to which Driver counters how they were weaponry tools for a false cause. S screams his hatred at him as they unlock.

Herb (Bruce Campbell) is getting rid of the body from his trunk. He then hears on the police scanner about a car driving into a building and there are reports of gunshots. Herb rushes to the car as he knows the report is about Driver.

Driver gets up to his feet as he breathes deep. Mr. S ludges at him but Driver dodges and uses the nail remover to weak his knee. But he gets a fight pushed into his shoulder blade. Driver groans but sidekicks him in the chest. He tries to grab the knife out but S goes swinging the hammer at him with precision. Driver grabs his wrists and pulls him into a clothesline which he rolls on his other shoulder to take the knife out. Like a wild animal, S runs to tackle him. They do some BJJ and wrestling around trying to gain control of the knife. S gains full mount to aim at Driver's eye. He gets real close as Driver has to move to have the knife slash his face to get stuck into the ground. Driver throat punches him and as S struggles to breath Driver lifts him up and rushes full steam at a glass wall. They crash through as the camera follows the whole thing and flips over as they do.

Driver and S slowly get to their feet as they get up to trade blows but each other counters to come up with a better one. With each blow, we see how they met with Driver saving S from bullies, when Andie invaded their orphanage and burned it down, to combat practice in Paradise, to different paths after Driver killed Andie. We see Driver hustle on the streets while helping those in need. S just becomes hateful and dictates Paradise to the point he burns it all down. Driver does some street racing which leads to getaway driving gigs. S trains at the most ruthless of dojos becoming more calculated but vicious. S lands a combo with mai tai knees strikes to a pair of kidney punches to a heavier haymaker. This makes Driver remember all of the times he was alone. Driver snaps out of it and goes to land World Heavyweight Champion boxing strikes delivery head to chest to kicking the inside of his knee hearing a huge crack. With that sound, we see S looking for Driver till he hears of the LA scandal to the point he offers his services for Driver's bounty.

S smashes a vase onto Driver's head and another and another till he takes a fire poker and sinks it into the side of Driver's chest. Driver goes to one knee as he struggles to get through the pain. S looks at his handy work as he sees the hammer from afar. S goes to grab it but Driver takes the firepoker out and then shoves it into S's broken knee. S screams in pain but headbutts Driver down. He begins a speech how everything they've been through he threw it all away from some random woman and her child. He didn't need them but Driver thought they were the closest thing to family he had. "NO... you... didn't..." S looks insulted as he limps to grab the hammer. He talks about how he was his first and only family he needed. He picks up the hammer as Driver agrees. But he then looks up to look him in the eye and says "Then that man you consider a father took that person from me when you killed that innocent sweet kid..." S doesn't like this as he now walks over to him and grabs his hair telling how he won't have to worry about being a monster anymore. He raises the hammer up but is unaware Driver heard the elevator ding with someone going up awhile ago. Herb shoots S in the gut but Driver quickly catches the hammer he dropped and bashes S in the head with the same hammer he killed Andie with.

S drops to his knees as Driver begins to tear up as S weakly calls him brother but Driver just keeps bashing him over and over as blood flies. There's nothing left of S's face as Driver has killed the memory and drops the hammer next to him. He dries his tears as he now walks away. Herb stops him which makes Driver thinks he's gonna take him to prison but Herb has something else to say. "Shannon is my brother..." Driver is surprised by this and turns around to look at him.

In black and white, young Driver walks up to a body shop. A man is working the inside hood of a car. Driver tries to get his attention which leads to the man shocking himself. We see Shannon look up at him asking what he wants. Driver wants to know if there's a job open but Shannon can't afford the work. He goes back to the car and Driver tells him he's doing it wrong. Shannon is confused till Driver walks up and fixes the problem in no time. Shannon is beside himself and offers him a job making it seem like he's doing him a favor.

He asks for Driver's name through which leads to Driver's face now all bloody and bruised. Herb tells he went after him cause he wanted to complete one of Shannon's final wish to watch out for a driver with a broken road. Driver breathes deep and reassures him that who he is. Driver walks away leaving the hammer he brought with him.

"A Real Hero" plays in the background as we see Driver driving down a dark road with only the dash and radio shining bright neon light to his cut beaten up face. He leaves a note for Daisy, narrating what he wrote. He cleans out his apartment and takes one last look before turning the lights out. He talks about how she was right he isn't a monster, but he isn't a hero either. At least he doesn't deserve it.... yet but he will try now since he's done running.

He leaves Moses's family with a lot of money. Herb finishes the paperwork for the whole event but then looks at a photo of him and Shannon. He begins to fix it where it doesn't mention Driver. Flashes of Mia fill the screen to the point we see the conversation of if he thinks he's a monster. He answers her "Yes..." Mia looks at him with love as she doesn't think so. She believes in the opposite, she loves him and knows he'd protect her. The driver asks her to marry him and she quickly agrees.

Driver answers if Mia knew, she did and still loved him for him even though it caused her death, he knows she'd do it over again if it meant saving him. Teardrops land on his blood-soaked satin jacket as he cries not tears of sadness but a tear of joy to feel free. He finishes by thanking her for seeing him differently and with how he needs to stop running from himself. He's not a monster or hero, but a human being looking for a purpose which why he's going back home. The camera stops following as the car drives down the dark road and into the night as the song begins to end.

While the show can definitely be improved for its second outing, you can't denied that we were given ten episodes of non-stop violence, all choregraphed by Drew Goddard, a surprising turn of events for the man who directed light-hearted shows such as The Good Place.

It was a gamble to tackle a character like The Driver, but the attempts at recreating the vibe of the feature film failed for me. The original Driver was mysterious, clinical and direct and for me, this Driver is the exact opposite.

I think that everytime someone died in the show, my hopes of seeing it get better diminished. What started off as an intriguing mystery ended in a by-the-book, brother vs. brother (and his group of thugs) vengeance story tied to their messed up childhood (of course) that went in every direction in order to stretch it to ten eleven episodes. It had a few redeeming qualities, but the momentum loss was too important to ignore.