Black Summer – Season 1 Episode 2 “Drive” Recap & Review

The Chase Is On

Keeping the consistency seen in the first episode, Black Summer returns with its second episode that divides up its 40 minute episode into different chapters.

We begin with the Korean girl, Barbara and the man that saved Barbara all driving together, trying to find a way to the stadium via an old map. As they start to get to know each other, they notice a truck in the distance following them. While this is going on, we cut back briefly to catch up with our other characters which sees Rose, Spears, Ryan and a fourth man walking together where they witness a zombie attacking a couple in the distance.

The story then jumps back to Barbara and the others in the car. They are attacked by people and manage to escape but not without having sustained damage to the car. The Korean girl gets out and sees there’s a bicycle stuck under the tyre. With a scene very reminisce of 28 Days Later, she begins to free to bicycle while one of the infected runs toward her in the distance. Freeing it at the last second, she narrowly avoids an attack from the walking dead and bundles back in the car again. Unfortunately, the zombie manages to climb on top of the car but the Korean girl grabs a hammer, hitting him hard enough to cause him to fall off the car.

As they take a moment to catch their breath, the truck from earlier returns and continues following them. It tails them and draws closer, prompting our survivors to speed off and lose the truck. Succeeding, they come across more survivors begging them for refuge but, not able to trust anyone, they leave them behind and carry on.

At this point the episode slows down briefly, as the characters introduce themselves properly. The Korean girl is called Sun while the man who saved Barbara is called William. Unfortunately these pleasantries are short-lived as the truck returns and repeatedly hits Barbara’s car. William decides to turn the tables and crashes the car head on, sending Barbara flying out the windshield. Given the sheer power of the impact, she turns instantly and starts chasing both them and the people from the truck. Hurrying toward a nearby diner, they manage to get inside and lock the door behind them, ending the chase and the episode.

Although the content of the episode itself is pretty good and the chase sequences intense, the scene jumps and blocks of text breaking these up really offsets the tension at the worst times. It’s a shame too because there’s some really good material here but this does hold it back from being a better episode. Still, we finally get some much needed characterisation from our lead characters and the bicycle scene is easily one of the most tense of the series so far. Quite what future episodes hold for our characters is anyone’s guess but for now, Black Summer does enough to keep things interesting.