"Drive In"
Directed by: Eduardo Sánchez
Written by: Manny Coto
Teen couple Chad (Rhenzy Feliz) and Kelley (Madison Bailey) attend a screening of Rabbit Rabbit, an infamous horror film that was infamously pulled from release decades earlier when it seemingly drove anybody who watched it into a violent frenzy.
"Drive In" contains examples of:
- Apocalypse How: Type 0 or Type 2, depending on how many people viewed Rabbit Rabbit on Netflix at the end.
- The Bad Guy Wins: While he doesn't live to see it, Bitterman is more than thrilled to know that his movie has been sold to Netflix and will be viewed by millions of people around the world, engulfing it in chaos.
- Big Bad: Larry Bitterman, the director of Rabbit Rabbit who knowingly engineered a film that causes anybody who watches it to go into a violent frenzy. His motive? Making art.
- Brown Note: Rabbit Rabbit causes anyone who watches it for long enough to become enthralled in a murderous frenzy. Even Chad, who only watches a little bit of it, goes overkill on someone who he kills in self-defense.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Despite Chad and Kelley successfully destroying the last print of the film, it's soon revealed that Bitterman sold his film to Netflix (and spent the proceeds on a brand new Rolls Royce), allowing anybody in the world to watch it. The episode ends with a shot of Los Angeles thrown into chaos.
- Defiant to the End: Bitterman has absolutely no remorse and ultimately gets the last laugh.Larry Bitterman: I got a fucking Rolls! You wanna know why?! Ask yourself why! You won't like the fucking answer! (laughs maniacally)
- Disproportionate Retribution: Why did Bitterman create a movie that would drive people insane? Because he was pissed that The Exorcist, which he worked on, lost the Best Picture Oscar to The Sting. Then, after he was sent to prison for attacking Tipper Gore, he decided to "refine" the film and spread it across the world to make them all pay for denying his "art."
- Eye Scream: One of the employees at the drive-in is stabbed in the eye with scissors as a result of the film.
- Failed a Spot Check: Chad and Kelley never think on the question Bitterman yelled out to them in his dying moments: How does a guy living in a trailer manage to afford a Rolls Royce?
- Gay Best Friend: Dee is Kelley's very flamboyant gay friend who isn't afraid to talk about sex.
- Gay Guy Dies First: Dee is the first of the friend group to meet their demise.
- Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Chad and Kelley engage in this after killing the director of Rabbit Rabbit, blissfully unaware that the film has made its way onto streaming...
- Groin Attack: Possessed Dee proceeds to bite off Milo's genitals before mauling to death in the car.
- Historical Domain Character: Amy Grabow briefly appears as former second lady Tipper Gore, who famously crusaded against "obscene" content in music during the Reagan administration.
- Hormone-Addled Teenager: Chad is introduced trying to talk girlfriend Kelley into having sex, but she disappointingly to him rejects his advances, which leaves him feeling sexually frustrated.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: Chad and Kelley stumble upon a zombified Quinn the morning after the screening, and the former calmly tries to remind him who he is. It doesn't work.
- Mad Artist: Bitterman considers his movie, which gets people killed, an accomplishment and a cinematic work of art comparable to cinema's most famous directors.
- Meaningful Name: Larry Bitterman is a man who is bitter about the the sidelining of his directing career.
- Our Zombies Are Different: The movie has the effect of turning anybody who watches it into violent, mindless zombie-like creatures. It's implied that its victims are actually being possessed by a demonic force.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: Tipper Gore was absolutely right to pull the film from distribution and have all the prints destroyed. But she did so because she considered the film "obscene" and not because the film posed a real physical threat to public safety. Decades later, this ends up generating publicity for the film and allows it to be shown again.
- Shout-Out:
- The premise of a possessed film turning the audience into bloodthirsty zombie-like creatures is a direct homage to 1985 Italian horror film Demons.
- The opening titles of this episode show off a certain red 1958 Plymouth Fury being restored as one of the cars at the drive-in.
- The few frames and scenes we see of Rabbit Rabbit are actually from Faces of Death.
- Slept Through the Apocalypse: Well "slept" is a different term here but at the end of the film, Chad and Kelly are so busy having sex that they fail to see the computer showing how Netflix is now streaming Rabbit Rabbit and outside, Los Angeles is descending into chaos.
- Spotting the Thread: When Bitterman claims the copy of the film was the only one, Chad knows he's lying as the film he saw contained no taped reels, meaning it was a copy and the original is still out there.
- Too Dumb to Live: The people at Netflix probably should have thought to at least test screen their movie, with its infamous reputation, before putting it on their platform. Whoops.
- Word Salad Title: Rabbit Rabbit has no real meaning given that the film itself, from what we can see, is a narrativeless assault of violent imagery, grating noises, and subliminal messages. One of the friends claims that it's a British phrase said to denote good luck.
