Into the Badlands is not slowing down with their second episode. We are given three fights in this one episode. Not only do we get to see kick-ass fights from Sunny, Lydia, and MK, but we get to know a bit more about what happened to our characters and some political symbolism. We caught that, Into the Badlands writers.
Sunny must get past The Wall
After Bajie snitched on Sunny, the mine boss wants Sunny to fight his big man, ironically, named Mouse. If Sunny wins, he’ll become the mine boss’ new fight man. The mine boss then locks Bajie up with Sunny because the mine boss doesn’t trust a rat (Bajie) & wants the fight to be harder for Sunny. Now, Sunny must battle Mouse while being chained to Bajie. They battle it out in a hilarious, but still cool, fight with Sunny using Bajie as a body slam tool. When Mouse is down, Sunny and Bajie make a run for it down the stairs. They are chased by the mine boss’ men and Mouse. Sunny and Bajie escape through a fan vent, which they are able to stop with a sword. They are able to go through it and kill Mouse when the fan breaks the sword to begin again. They escape with the mine boss saying he’ll find them. Sunny and Bajie goes out into the field through the sewage. As they are walking towards the Badlands, Sunny sees a giant wall built around the Badlands. Bajie tells him the wall was built before the barons were established and he knew his way around it.
First off, we probably will see the mine boss again and Sunny is probably going to kill him in the best way possible.
Okay, second, the wall. I honestly felt like my mind was blown. Into the Badlands is set in a post-apocalyptic time in the future. The wall was completed way before the barons came into play as well. It seems the writers are playing a bit with politics in today’s world where a wall is potentially going to be built separating the United States and Mexico. I can’t wait to see the writers explain more and parallel this with today’s world problems as Sunny and Bajie attempts to cross the wall.
Learn from your elders
Tilda tries to sneak up on Waldo who catches her. He confronts her about thr murder of clippers and not following her mother’s orders. He tells her a regent who cannot follow orders is not acceptable. They are at war now. She needs to follow orders. Waldo brings up Sunny as a great regent who held everything in until he couldn’t anymore. Now look where he is. Waldo thinks Sunny is dead. Tilda says she doesn’t know what happened to MK too. Waldo gives her some advice as regent – Don’t let your emotions get to you.
It seems Tilda is overstepping her power as Regent, which could destroy the Widow’s control. Waldo does seem to miss being a Regent. He could be helping or hurting her, but one thing is for sure – he’s Team Widow. Maybe, Tilda should listen to him before she loses her job for her convictions. Sunny was a great Regent until he started questioning himself. That is something to think about. Be careful, Tilda.
Ryder calls for a conclave (meeting between all the barons) to get assurance for his claim of the Widow and Jacobee’s territory. Waldo tells the Widow, who is still considered a baroness, that she needs to attend to show her power. Also, the other barons don’t want a war. The Widow will need to fight her case and if that doesn’t work, kill them all.
Lydia: There’s a badass still in there
At Lydia’s father group, there is a wedding happening. Everyone is happy and living peacefully, until some nomads show up and kill some of them. Just as a nomad attempts to kill Lydia’s father, Lydia intervenes by killing the two nomads. The village and her father are disgusted with her actions. Lydia goes to Ryder asking for protection. He grants it to her, but after she insults him over his ruling, he tells her she’s on her own.
Lydia seemed to have changed for the better until her motherly instincts kicked in and fought to the death. Lydia cannot fight off her tough side. I only wish that her clan would be accepting of it. Of course, they are stuck in their ways – even if it means some of their own people are killed.
Although Lydia has lived in a peaceful society, she can’t help fight off her motherly duties to protect her family. Even with Ryder, Lydia wants to give her son the best advice possible, even though she knows he’d get angry because of it. Lydia needs to comes to terms with one life and stick with it.
MK vs MK
Back at the temple, the Master attempts to train MK on how to control his powers, but something is blocking him from truly taking control. Something from his past. The Master allows MK to go deep inside himself and find the answer. He finds a possessed version of himself inside a boat filled with dead people… and it was because of him. He wakes up distraught. He realizes he killed all those people in the cargo hold on the ship when he first arrived in the Badlands. The Master tells him it’s not his fault, but it is the dark one inside of him. He is angry with her for making him remember that. She tells him that he must face his dark side again. He tells her no.
As he continues his training, he is troubled by what he saw and wants to go back and fight his demons again. The Master sends him back into his mind where he is now in the forest. He hears his mother cry for him and runs towards the voice. He is stopped by possessed MK and they fight in an epic fight scene, which was cut beautifully. Possessed MK begins beating MK, but he is quickly woken up by the Master.
First, that was the best martial arts work I’ve ever seen Aramis Knight do. The way the scenes were cut were not chpppy at all. It flowed so well. He and his stunt man did a fantastic job.
Second, the lesson that MK must overcome is to face your past and defeat it. MK cannot control his powers because he is still holding on to his guilt via the dark possessed one. You could see the parallels between MK and Sunny as they both want to run away from their past and move on.
The Return of Quinn
Quinn has begun recruiting his loyal men to fight for his cause. He begins preaching, as he did last season, to be loyal to him. Veil watches from far away.
Veil is singing to her child, who she named Henry in honor of her deceased father. Quinn, who killed her father last season, compliments on the name. We find out that Veil saved Quinn as he laid dying and he now owes her, but she and Henry are kept as prisoners. Quinn names Henry the next heir/baron and begins to do a ritual to honor Henry. Quinn kills one of his men, who was peeping at Veil earlier, and uses that blood to mark Henry as Quinn’s new heir.
Poor Veil. Although we got to hear her beautiful voice, it’s getting quite sad for Veil as she wants to get out, but has really no place to go to. Where can she really go? Her parents are gone. Sunny is gone. Where else can she go? It’s no wonder she saved him. Also, the Hippocratic Oath.
It seems that Quinn has a sweet spot for Veil, which is freaking me out. I really hope he’s not falling in love with her and expecting anything from her. Quinn may be trying to protect her, but we know his intentions are wrong.
We’ll have to find out next week more about this.
Into the Badlands airs on Sundays on AMC.
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