Bullet Points: Warrior (S3 Ep10) “A Window of F*cking Opportunity”

I am still reeling from what I witnessed in the season three finale of Warrior. This was a show filled with emotion, action and loose ends being tied up and some teases of things to come. This recap is filled with spoilers, but if you’ve been following my coverage of Warrior this season you probably already know that, however I felt that the Season Finale deserved a spoiler warning since finales hit different. Let’s get into it…

• The Revenge of Ah Toy: Last week, Lai attempted to take out the wealthy and powerful Douglas Strickland and as the finale begins it looks like Nellie Davenport is going to pick up where Lai left off… but Nellie and her shotgun don’t come alone, we also get the sword wielding Ah Toy. Strickland once again finds himself in a sword fight, but this time he is completely outclassed… Meanwhile outside of the Strickland mansion, the new Chief of Police, Bill O’Hara is stopping his friend Dylan Leary from going inside and committing murder. Big Bill had a hunch Leary might be there after finding some of Strickland’s security team dead at Leary’s bar. While Bill and Leary are debating the pros and cons of what Leary is about to do, Leary notices a body laying on the ground near one of the entrances to the Strickland estate. Time to go in for a closer look… Back inside Ah Toy has soundly defeated Strickland, who is now laying helpless on the floor bleeding out, Ah Toy delivers the definitive death blow just as Bill and Leary show up… Nellie fires off a couple of rounds to provide a diversion and the two ladies leave in the dark of night… now the Bill/Leary debate turns to, should Bill use proper police procedure to handle the death of Strickland or should he help Leary dispose of the body. Fortunately for Leary, Bill knows the perfect place to make a body disappear…
• Ice, Ice Baby: As expected from the events of Episode 9, we were going to get one hell of a showdown at the ice factory that is housing the joint counterfeit money operation of the Long Zi/Hop Wei… We see Agents Mosley and Lee gearing up along with members of the SFPD’s Chinatown squad… We see Isaac and Happy Jack’s men getting locked and loaded… But before either group arrive, Ah Sahm has made his way to the ice factory and finds Hong there supervising since Yan Mi didn’t show up for work (for obvious reasons). Ah Sahm tells Hong that the cops are coming and they need to get the plates and get out… when they get out into the hallway they find themselves in the middle of a three way stand off, the cops, the Happy Jack crew and the Hop Wei providing security. Agent Mosley spots Ah Sahm with the plates and demands he turns them over, Ah Sahm places them on the ground in the middle of it all, but when Agent Lee goes to retrieve them all hell breaks loose… Ah Sahm snatches the plates back up and makes a run for it, he and Isaac have a brief battle before Ah Sahm hands off the plates to Lee, Lee then gives him his word that he’ll set Yan Mi free… When Ah Sahm goes to exit out a backdoor he is knocked the eff out by one of the cops stationed outside to make sure nobody escaped. Fortunately, Hong hung back and is there to take the loopy Ah Sahm back to Hop Wei HQ.
• Conspicuous By Her Absence: When the whole ice factory raid was going down, there was no sign of the Long Zi leader, Mai Ling. Mai was called to a meeting with Mayor Buckley as a courtesy to her and to make sure she was not present for the unpleasantness that was going down as they spoke… Mai Ling assumes that means her deal with Buckley to protect Long Zi territory from police interference is over, Buckley advises that had she informed him of what was going on, he could have protected the operation (for a cut of the action of course) but since she didn’t there was nothing he could do, Buckley also points out that Mai Ling’s short-sightedness is a weakness. And things started off so promising on this episode for Mai Ling, who got a measure of revenge on her socialite “friend” Eliza, who had Mai Ling arrested back in Episode 4. Things will get even worse for Mai Ling before the episode is over…
• Opportunity Knocks: Ah Sahm wakes up a few hours after receiving a knock out blow and sees Young Jun assembling the troops for an attack on Mai Ling and the Long Zi… it’s the perfect opportunity to strike, her soldiers are defecting, her own husband has seemingly left her. Young Jun does not expect Ah Sahm to join in on this attack BUT he is not going to let Ah Sahm stop them from going after Mai Ling. Ah Sahm then has the tough choice to make is he with his sister Mai Ling or his brothers in the Hop Wei… moments later, Ah Sahm makes his decision and finds himself taking on his Hop Wei brothers… including Hong and Young Jun! The Ah Sahm/Young Jun battle was probably inevitable… but it was still something I kind of hoped I would never have to see. Their fight ends with Young Jun on his back on the street and a bloodied and battered Ah Sahm stumbling away, heading to try and save his sister from the Hop Wei attack… meanwhile Chao, realizing Ah Sahm is not coming to pick up his “go bag” from him, goes to the train station and delivers the bag and some sound advice to Yan Mi, who has no choice but to get out of town with or without Ah Sahm… At Long Zi headquarters, Mai Ling finds herself all alone as the Hop Wei infiltrate her home. She grabs her gun and tries shooting her way out, taking out Hop Wei soldiers along the way… by the time Ah Sahm gets there, he finds Mai Ling worse for wear after fending off multiple attackers and nearly being drowned in her home and for the first time since the series began, they are family.

Episode 10 was perfectly executed. If it turns out to be the series finale and not just the season 3 finale it works… The show began with Ah Sahm coming to America to find his sister. When he arrived he found Mai Ling, a woman who used to be his sister. Then after three seasons of Ah Sahm and Mai Ling being on opposite sides of Chinatown’s tong wars, Ah Sahm got his sister back. That’s full circle. Obviously I would love to know what is next for the siblings, but if it had to end here, there is at least some closure.

There’s plenty of meat on the bone for the other characters too and there are some teasers thrown out in Episode 10 for a fourth a season… Like Dylan Leary forcing himself into a partnership with one of Strickland’s rivals, proving he learned a few things about how the world works during his time with Strickland… We see Lee contemplating a return to the police force now that his friend Bill is the man in charge… We also see Li Yong ascending to the tong throne… We find out Ms. Archer, after accepting Mayor Buckley’s marriage proposal, was using the poor bastard and has been in cahoots (and bed) with Buckley’s campaign manager/advisor. (Did Season 3 really make me start to not hate Buckley!?!?) And there are few characters who we have to question if they survived Episode 10 or not…

Ohhh, one last thing… ZING RETURNED!