Season 1: Recap

Finish Line: Season 1, Episode 13

Welcome to Blood Drive 101. Here's everything you need to know about the Blood Drive, the people involved, and the terrifying tale of Grace, Arthur, Julian Slink, and some poor fools who signed up for salvation in an alternate timeline where 1999 was a sad hellscape and cars run on blood.

First of all, this is Grace. Our heroine. She drives that red car, feeds people into it, and ultimately all she wants is to find and rescue her sister, Karma, who is in a mental institution somewhere in America.

This is Arthur (on the left) and Christopher (on the right). They're both cops that work for a privatized police force called Contracrime. Acting on a few things they've heard from a few sketchy types, they find themselves investigating people who've had their blood "fracked" - taken out. It's a bleak, 1999.

Their investigation leads them to this dude: Julian Slink. Turns out he is the host of a race made up of a LOT of these cars that run on blood. The prize is ten million dollars and it's called…yep. The Blood Drive. So…central premise of the show. Ya been told.

So Grace and Arthur end up on the Blood Drive as a team. And since Julian Slink has put miniature remote-control bombs in their heads to keep control of them, they have sex as they race toward the finish line because the adrenaline can override that. Either way, the race is on.

Also, in this version of events, there's something called "The Scar." What ruined the world was a huge fracking accident that tore a huge hole down the middle of America. Nobody goes near it…but of course the Blood Drive is headed right there.

Christopher, meanwhile, decides to help Arthur by going into Heart Industries, where a robot named Aki collects a bunch of samples from him. There are lots of Aki units. But this one and Christopher actually end up falling in love.

So, it turns out that Julian Slink is producing the Blood Drive as a television show for a division of Heart Enterprises. These people have their fingers in a LOT of pies. Blood cars. Drug experiments. You name it.

Arthur and Grace head to an insane asylum to find Karma, but she's been transferred somewhere else. They blow the place up and also learn that Julian Slink is behind Karma's disapearance. He's how she was committed to the Institute and why nobody can find her now.

Meanwhile, back at Heart, Aki shows Christopher the repair job they've done to his eye. Good news? It's bionic! Bad news? He's only allowed to leave Heart when he's worked off the MILLIONS of dollars it cost. It'll take almost a century. But Aki and Christopher do continue to fall in love a bit.

When Arthur and Grace find a spa in the middle of nowhere, they learn that Karma didn't survive an uprising at a rehab center. Grace has finally learned that her sister is dead. Now she and Arthur have the same mission: to bring down Heart Enterprises.

Continuing along their journey, Arthur and Grace and another racer named The Scholar come across a town near the Scar. It's a town with no electricity whatsoever. And so, The Scholar, Grace, and Arthur are able to remove their brain bombs! Slink can't blow up their heads now!

The Scholar, by the way, was one of the few characters in season one to a.) survive and b.) meet a good ending. He got off the Blood Drive in this town in Colorado and wasn't seen again. So, good for him.

Then, there's a major turning point in the relationship between Slink and Grace. Turns out Slink didn't want her in the Blood Drive at all, he just wants her dead. For some reason the Heart Industries Executives have been super focused on her. And now she wants to know why. Also, during her fight, Grace sets Slink on fire. So there's that.

When Arthur is shot in that town with no electricity, Grace is forced to get him to a place near The Scar. Things get super weird for Arthur on his trip into the subconcious. Or temporal plane. Hard to say. He makes it out, driven more than ever to take down Heart Enterprises.

In yet another town along the way, Grace and Arthur defeat a bunch of insane brainwashed mutants. And finally confess that they love each other. In a pile of goo.

Slink decides to get Grace and Arthur to do one last adventure. The deal is - they can all get to the bottom of Heart Industries obsession with Grace, and Slink gets to save his skin. Plus? Grace and Arthur are in love now. They can do anything together.

The final test for the Blood Drive contestants is a fight to the death in a sort of cage match called The Battle Dome. And this guy, Old Man Heart, the Heart Industries bigwig, shows up to say the finale will be shown in the closed circuit cameras and the Blood Drive is being shut down.

And then…Old Man Heart takes off his clothes. And also his skin. And is revealed to be…Grace's sister Karma. She's been behind this the whole time! Turns out she's always hated her sister for abandoning her to the mental institutions. Twist!

After some monologuing and sadness, Grace and Karma have one last epic battle. Grace gets the advantage, and pushes her entire raison d'etre into the car. Make no mistake, this time, gang. Karma. Is. Dead.

Wait. Hold on. No she isn't. Thanks to some Heart Enterprises technology, Karma gets a new life as the Soul Reclamator re-animates her in the basement of Heart Enterprises.

When it all proves too much for Grace and Arthur, they part ways. And Arthur is crowned "The Primo." As the winner of the Blood Drive, Arthur heads to what will ultimately be the tribute ceremony in his honor.

When he finds out that the ceremony is actually where Heart Enterprises KILLS him, he marches right out of his holding area and REMOVES SLINK'S HEAD! (Don't worry, Slink is a robot who gets rebooted in a new body with all his memories.) But Arthur, lost in a haze of confusion, also kills his former bff Christopher.

After they make up, Grace puts Arthur's cop badge back on, Slink pulls up and convinces them that he has enough explosive to blow up Heart Industries. The three of them have a plan - they're going to put an end to Heart Industries once and for all.

But at Heart Industries, Karma tells Christopher and Aki what she did (make a fake Christopher from his semen so he could sabotage Slinks' Primo plans), Christopher asks for the full modifications. He wants to be even more of a cyborg for revenge. Arthur "killed" him, now he's ready to kill Arthur.

When they get to Heart Industries, the plan goes awry… Slink manages to get the bombs planted, but… Arthur is forced to kill the robot version of his friend Christopher. Which breaks Aki's heart. She's become human during the course of the story, and her emotions are getting the best of her.

As Slink finally blows up the building, killing himself in the process. Grace can't leave her sister, and so she pushes Arthur through the blood gate to an island prison.

Grace goes to Karma in her final moments. It's unclear if Grace has forgiven her sister for all the times her life was in danger, but Grace's honor is intact, and she and her sister endure the destruction of Heart Enterprises together.

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