Bullet Points: Warrior (S2 Ep7) “If You Wait by the River Long Enough…”
Last week’s cliffhanger ending multiplied my anticipation of Episode 7 at least ten fold.
If you have been anticipating this week’s Warrior recap, I won’t make you wait any longer… but I should point out there are SPOILERS ahead….
- Out With the Old: Episode 7 begins right where Episode 6 left off… Young Jun (Jason Tobin), Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) and Hong (Chen Tang) enter the home of the Hop Wei and are staring down Father Jun (Perry Yung) and the rest of the Hop Wei having to answer for Hop Wei’s missing funds. Things do not look good for the ambitious trio, especially when Father Jun decrees to Young Jun that he is going to “burn him out” and he does… Father Jun takes a sword, heats it up in the fire place and then burns out the Hop Wei brand on his son’s forearm… to his credit, Young Jun stands up to his father and takes it. Ah Sahm speaks up and explains they did what they did for the betterment of the Hop Wei. At first it looks like it will get him killed, but Ah Sahm’s words start to sink in and the soldiers of the Hop Wei side with Young Jun, effectively making him the new head of the Hop Wei.
- Guilty as Charged: Another big part of Episode 7 was the trial of Zing (Dustin Nguyen). As you may recall, Zing was made the fall guy for the “Chinese Swordsman Murders” thanks to a deal made between the head of the Chinatown task force Bill O’Hara (Kieran Bew) and local businessman and no fan of Zing, Wang Chao (Hoon Lee). O’Hara presents his evidence to the judge and a jury of Zing’s “peers”. Zing is found guilty and the judge orders that Zing will be hung at San Quentin. Mayor Blake holds a press conference after the trial on the steps of City Hall, tooting the horns of Bill O’Hara and his men…. but things are already starting to unravel as the episode goes on. Like when Officer Lee (Tom Weston-Jones) returns the pocket watch to the widow of one of “Zing’s victims” and finds out that Bill O’Hara paid her a visit prior to their arrest of Zing, which raises an eyebrow. Even worse for Bill is when a bunch of skintraders are found dead by sword… they were killed by the actual “Chinese Swordsman” Ah Toy (Olivia Cheng) and her protégé Lai, so Ah Toy could free the poor Chinese women who were being held captive as they waited to be sold to the highest bidder and give these women a new life at Nellie’s farm in Sonoma. Speaking of Ah Toy and Nellie Davenport (Miranda Raison)… things are officially hot and heavy between the two ladies.
- Family Feud: Penelope Blake (Joanna Vanderham) is still reeling after the explosion at Mercer Steel, but to her credit she is doing her best to pick up the pieces, even negotiating a new deal with Mr. Merriweather, that will help her get back to business… Meanwhile, Penny’s sister Sophie (Celine Buckens), returns to the arms of Dylan Leary (Dean Jagger) for the first time since the night she helped orchestrate the explosion at Mercer Steel. Leary mentions how he was approached by Deputy Mayor Walter Buckley (Langley Kirkwood) about getting into politics… Sophie encourages this, realizing Leary would have the working man’s votes all tied up. Later that night, Dylan escorts Sophie home, Penny sees her own sister with the man who was responsible for their father’s death and she is rightfully pissed. When Sophie gets in the house, Penny tells her to go upstairs and pack her things because she is no longer welcome. Sophie storms off and that’s about the time a very drunk Mayor Samuel Blake shows up. He just had an evening getting his balls busted at “the rich white guy’s club” including Merriweather dropping the bomb about the deal he cut with Penelope, a deal Samuel had no knowledge of. The husband and wife begin to argue, Samuel tells Penny he wants her to sell, Penny tells Samuel she wants a divorce and then Samuel hits her… Penny’s response is to punch Samuel right in the face! Samuel eventually overpowers Penny and is on top of her, but Sophie shows up and jumps on Samuel’s back. Samuel throws Sophie off and she hits the floor hard and is knocked out… Penny is crawling over to help her younger sister, when Samuel mounts her and starts choking the life out of her… things aren’t looking good for Penny until her man servant, Jacob, brains Samuel with the fireplace poker, killing him in the process… the show ends with an aerial shot of the carnage at the mayor’s mansion.
Wow! For the second straight week the show ends with a major cliffhanger. The death of Mayor Samuel Blake is going to send shockwaves throughout Chinatown and next week’s episode is going to be must see TV for me… even if it means I have to watch that no good piece of shit Walter Buckley gain more power.
Now, for some question filled Bonus Bullet Points…
- How will Mai Ling (Dianne Doan) and the Long Zi respond to the change in leadership over at their rivals the Hop Wei?
- Speaking of Mai Ling, who knew she had some dominatrix in her? If he didn’t before, Li Yong (Joe Taslim) sure does now!
- Will Zing make it to San Quentin? I feel like he is going to manage to escape death and make things very interesting where the Long Zi and Fung Hai alliance is concerned.
- Will the damning photograph that the private investigator was able to uncover featuring Walter Buckley be enough to ruin him? Or will he some how weasel his way out?
- Lastly, will Young Jun be an effective leader of the Hop Wei? That moment where Young Jun realized he may have been a puppet for Ah Sahm this whole time, was a rare look at a Young Jun that lacked confidence.
