American Horror Stories – Drive

By: Kelly Kearney

When the club follows you home, music isn’t the only thing that’s pounding in your head. Jumping off of last week’s high-tech horror, this week’s episode of the weekly anthology finds a city’s nightlife terrorized by a serial killer – or so everyone thinks when rumors start circling the club scene about people vanishing. Party-girl Marci isn’t about to let a few missing people stop her from going out and hooking up; she’s living her life and loving doing so, even with her husband Chaz’s permission. She might be secure in her marriage and radiate body positivity, but when a red jeep follows her home from a night of dancing, everything in her life changes. 

Marci’s Playground

The music is pumping and the drinks are flowing as friends Marci (Bella Thorne) and Piper (Stevanna Jackson) are dancing the night away. When Marci spots an attractive guy across the bar her bestie is a bit peeved he doesn’t have a friend. She’s not into being a third wheel so Piper bounces and leaves Marci to her new guy, but not before she warns her to be careful. “Stranger danger” is the theme of the night ever since rumors started about locals going missing from the club scene. Piper just wants Marci to play it safe but all that goes out the window when the man, who we learn is named Wyatt (Austin Woods), approaches her at the bar. After a short chat the two hit the dance floor and in minutes they are all over each other. By the last call they’re naked in the backseat of Marci’s car having a bit of not-so-impressive sex. Wyatt’s performance and his attitude left a lot to be desired and once Marci’s dressed she kicks him out of the car. There won’t be any exchanging of phone numbers between these two; Marci isn’t into misogynists.

With that sad encounter abruptly over she heads home, but on the way she notices a red Jeep in her rearview mirror and it’s driving erratically. The vehicle is swerving, honking its horn and flashing its high beams and all Marci wants is the creep to pass her by. She puts the pedal to the metal and guns it; leaving the Jeep in her dust. However, a few minutes later the Jeep catches up and slams into the back of her car. At first it’s a hard tap, almost to get her attention, but then it continues to bump and honk at her like it’s trying to drive her off the road. She eventually loses it at a turn-off and quickly parks her car behind a building hoping he doesn’t spot her as he drives by. 

Once Marci makes it home safely her husband Chaz (Anthony De La Torre) questions her about what happened. He’s concerned this Jeep guy followed her home and wants to know what he looked like so he can keep an eye out for him. She didn’t see the driver’s face but he reminds her about the serial killer rumors and just wants her to be safe. When he agreed to their open relationship that didn’t mean he stopped caring about her – even though she tends to make him feel like a backup to these people she dates. She accuses him of trying to use Jeep scare as an excuse to go back to their monogamous life, but he assures her that isn’t it. He does seem to care for her, even though it appears that Marci has trouble expressing it in return. It’s obvious when he tries kissing her but she pulls away sort of proving his point – he is second best to whatever she currently has going on. The two go to bed but around 3 AM Marci wakes up to the sounds of dogs barking and a banging noise upstairs. She goes to check it out–ready to fight, but it’s not the Jeep stalker. It’s just Chaz.

Urban Legends or Real Life Killers?

The next day Marci meets up with Piper who shows her a news article about another missing woman from the club scene. Marci’s Jeep story reminded her of that old urban legend about the woman driving home at night and a van pulls up behind her honking its horn and flashing its lights. It was only when she got home did she realize the driver of the van was trying to warn her about someone hiding in her backseat. That woman’s friends later found her head placed on the hood of her car like an ornament. Marci is unphased by these spooky tales and rumors and has no plans on letting them slow her nightly hook-ups. 

The following night we see her back at it but this time with a woman (Kendall Chappell) in the front seat of her car. The two women barely have time to get dressed before Marci spots Piper outside the car glaring in the window. She promised her bestie she wouldn’t bring hookups out to her car and here she is doing just that in the parking lot of the club. The unknown woman leaves the scene of this uncomfortable argument just as Piper tells Marci she feels used. She’s just a stand-in on her friend’s quest to find a nightly sex partner and she is done playing the third wheel. She asks Marci if she is a sex addict or if this is some psychological response to the trauma she survived in her past. We’re not sure what that means but she could be referring to the large scar on Marci’s face we saw her covering up with makeup. Marci accuses Piper of being jealous and the two trade insults until the best friend storms off into the night. Piper is officially done and for a supposed best friend, Marci doesn’t seem too upset about it. Back inside the club Marci lets the room’s mood guide her to her next lover but surprisingly it winds up being Chaz, who she runs into by the dance floor. He followed her and she’s angry for interfering in her night as those weren’t the rules they agreed upon. She gives him an ultimatum – you leave or I will. And, like a sad puppy, Chaz leaves his wife for her night. 

At the end of the night, while Marci walks to her car, she spots a young guy getting into that same red Jeep from the night before. She memorizes the license plate and plugs it into a free background search site in the morning. Chaz watches her diving into her research and decides it’s the right time to tell his wife he’s moving out. He doesn’t think he can continue feeling more like her roommate than her husband. She doesn’t like this idea but she also can’t quit her dating life. She admits she’s fueled by this hunger that seemingly cannot be satiated. She can’t quit but doesn’t want him to give up on her; however, if he wants a break she won’t stop him.

Marriage is a Partnership From Life to Death

After she finds out who owns the Jeep and scours his social media accounts, she stops by his work to force the truth out of him about why he followed her. She quickly charms him into admitting his name is Paul (Nico Greetham) and, after a very strange conversation about cutlery and murder, she quickly leaves before she chokes on the unspoken tension wafting off the both of them.

Later that night Marci tracks down Paul’s house and breaks inside while he’s in the shower. She swipes a knife on her way through the kitchen, makes it to his bedroom and finds it covered in newspaper clippings about the recent disappearances. She tries hiding from him but he eventually finds her. Despite that he is armed with a bat and her with a knife, they finally talk about what really happened that night. Right away he is shocked that she found him, but not as shocked as she is to learn Piper was right! Paul was flashing his lights and running into her bumper to warn her, not kill her! 

In a flashback from that night we see Paul leaving the club just as Marci cuts him off at the turn out of the parking lot. That’s when he sees it –someone rises from her backseat and then crouches back down when he tries to signal to her. Having heard the stories about the possible serial killer targeting the nightclub scene he was trying every way he could think of to help. When he couldn’t find her car he assumed he failed and she didn’t make it. When he saw her car near his house he assumed the killer might’ve seen him and was coming to finish the job. Marci is stunned and kind of impressed at how far this guy would go to help. She thanks him but the fact that she is alive is proof Paul might’ve been seeing things and right now what he’s seeing is a very flirty Marci ready to thank him the best way she knows how – WITH A SEDATIVE SHOT to the jugular vein! Before Paul falls unconscious he fights for his life, knocking Marci to the ground and strangling her. That’s when Chaz hits him over the head and tells his wife she needs to start using stronger drugs – assuming he means one that knocks out her victims before they can fight back. Marci never worried about the club-killer because her hunger for sex included a thirst for murder! She’s the killer and Chaz is her cleanup crew – literally, he disposes of the bodies. Not for long apparently because Chaz found an apartment and he is officially moving out. This will be his last body and Marci doesnt love the idea but she has much bigger things to take care of, like Paul who is tied up in her secret torture lab behind a fake wall!

Bound and wearing nothing but his briefs, Paul starts panicking when he looks around at her sterile kill-room, which resembles some horrific surgical theater. She tells Paul not to worry as she always explains to the guests what’s about to happen – she finds their fear delightful and makes the murder all the more enjoyable. As he struggles in his restraints and ball-gag, Marci admits to someone being in her backseat that night but it wasn’t a killer…it was her sixth victim! The media hasn’t caught up to her crimes because her victims haven’t been missed. She makes sure Paul knows she doesn’t do this for fun–it’s more of public service for, “ridding the world of entitled a**holes who think they’re all that.” She killed Wyatt because he was a misogynist and then “good samaritan” Paul showed up and almost ruined it–including her car. She wipes her makeup off to show him her scar and that’s when it all clicks – they know each other. He was one of the many popular kids in school who bullied her over her facial imperfection and now she’s exacting her revenge on him and anyone else like him. Without the warning she promised him, she stabs Paul in the thigh and starts removing body parts slowly until Chaz pops into her mind. Usually, she takes her time and gets all arts and crafts with her kills but her husband is exhausted and deserves an early night. She haphazardly drops her machete blade into the side of Paul’s head like a placeholder for later and then goes to talk to Chaz about an idea she had while preparing Paul for his death. She tells him she doesn’t want to do this anymore without him. She wants him to stop cleaning up her messes and start joining her in the kills and she has the perfect first victim. When the camera pans to the secret torture room sometime in the near future we see Piper tied to that same chair and Chaz and Marci tag-team murdering her…all in the name of love. I guess that the Jeep that followed her home really did change her life; for the better for Marci and Chaz’s marriage, but for the worse when it comes to her body count.