M.K. just became popular again, and not in a good way, in this week’s episode of Into the Badlands. I loved the episode title as I feel like it went well with what happened. At the end of the recap I will tell you who I think are the Tigers and who are the Dragons. I also like how the title reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Let’s get to this recap shall we?
We start off in the episode putting The Widow’s words into practice. “The appearance of weakness is the greatest advantage.” Tilda, looking all pitiful with a dirtied shift and some blood on her face stops a car in the middle of a road in the woods. As she looks submissive, two guys get out of the car and get “butterflied” by two ninja stars. The Widow and her girls come out of hiding to see what the transport contains. They hit the jackpot with cases full of gold. The Widow then has one of Quinn’s men “clipped” to take the fall for the robbery. We learn whose gold got taken shortly.
Sunny and M.K. train on top of the Baron’s gate overlooking the poppy field. The kid surprises Sunny with a move he knows by instinct. Sunny tells him that he’s improving, but his moves are still predictable. They are interrupted by the Baron, who has been looking for Sunny. M.K. leaves so Quinn and Sunny can discuss grown up business. Sunny denies knowing what the Widow wanted with M.K. and asks if Quinn has heard from Jacobee about the parley. Quinn hasn’t heard from Jacobee but knows that Jacobee and all of the other barons are hating that he took over the Widow’s oil fields. Sunny gives Quinn reassurance that their Clipper numbers are greater than the other Barons and that he has his back. Quinn is right to be worried, as we see later. This scene had definite foreshadowing.
In a brief scene that was filled with innocence and fun the “Butterflies” are cleaning a room when one of the girls plays a record from the record player. The pleasant surprise from all of the girl’s faces makes you realize that it’s been a very long time since anyone may have heard recorded music. Tilda and the other girls dance to the beat of the song when the Widow ruins the mood by turning off the player and destroying the record. Tilda speaks up and asks why there is a rush to clean the house when there are no new recruits coming. The Widow pulls Tilda aside into another room so Tilda can get some stuff off her chest. Tilda is wondering what is the point. The Widow breaks it down for her by reminding her that she saved Tilda from her husband. She wants a safe place for Tilda and the rest of the butterflies so they are not at the whim of men. I immediately thought of Beyonce’s song “Girls Who Run the World” after watching this scene.
That night Sunny observes M.K. practicing and sees him almost cut himself so he could use his powers. In the house, Jade is going over the gifts with Mari (Jerry Tubbs), the maid, and Lydia. Jade has decided not to incorporate the gifts into the ceremony even though it’s tradition. Her reasoning is the other Barons won’t be there and because rivals don’t deserve a place of honor in her ceremony. Jade wants to try to get along with Lydia, even going so far as to try to have Lydia see her as a daughter instead of a rival wife. Sorry Jade, that would be a little hard when you are boinking “daddy.” Lydia decides to drop some advice on Jade. Don’t sleep with both daddy and sonny boy at the same time. Drops mike and leaves. Jade’s expression was priceless.
Quinn has Veil visit him to give a prognosis. She confirms that there is no cure and that she didn’t get a chance to learn more from her father before he died about tumors and growths. Shade, Veil, shade. I was wondering if Quinn was prophesying about himself getting swift justice when he lied to Veil about finding her father’s killers. Veil informs Quinn that there is her father’s concoction that they can try that may get rid of his growth but the downside is it will weaken him. She can create it using her father’s notes.
The next day Sunny takes M.K. outside of Quinn’s border to try to get him to control his power. It didn’t go so well when Sunny gets knocked out by the move M.K. showed him the prior day. M.K. still collapses after defending himself, which is also not good. As we will see later, that makes him very vulnerable in a fight against the enemy. When both Sunny and M.K. wake up from their unexpected nap, Sunny thinks that there is a side of M.K. that he doesn’t want to face, which is why he doesn’t remember anything when he turns. Sunny suggests M.K. try to focus on something positive and pure. How sad that Sunny couldn’t think of anything pure when M.K. asked.
Back at the house, the head of the Clipper the Widow killed earlier is delivered to Quinn with the word “Parley” written on his head and a note in his mouth. Ryder reports that the clipper was patrolling a part of their borders but never checked in. Well at least he had a good excuse as to why. The note is from Jacobee accusing Quinn of attacking one of his gold transports. Quinn guesses that the Widow is behind it to threaten the potential alliance. Ryder, poor thing thought it was a trap by Jacobee to pick a fight. He was right just about the wrong person. Baby steps Ryder, baby steps. Quinn wants Ryder to meet with Jacobee’s men to agree to the parley but at a closer location in his territory. Ryder thinks he doesn’t need scraps and Quinn “giving” him more responsibility is bs. For that belligerence Quinn brings up Jade knowing that Ryder was sweet on her. He even brings up how “she tastes.” I tell you one minute you want to slap Ryder, then the next minute you want to slap Quinn and yell at them:
Quinn does give some kind of advice: “A man cannot wait to be given what he wants. He must take it.” Using some reverse psychology, Quinn gets Ryder to go. Ryder goes a step further and decides to go alone.
M.K. goes to see Veil and asks about the book. She hasn’t been able to interpret it. Sunny walks in and notices the book. M.K. thinks that the book can help them find a way out of the Badlands. Sunny gets upset because he was under the presumption that M.K. already knew a way out. M.K. leaves in a huff when Sunny gets in his face. Veil informs Sunny that she didn’t know what the book could contain or that M.K. was their way out. I guess doctor patient confidentiality is out because after Sunny tells her Quinn is leading them into war she tells him about the tumor. She figures she can kill him sooner with the “concoction” but Sunny points out that if Quinn dies things will get worse with the other barons. So, Sunny, what’s the plan man?
Ryder meets with Zypher about the parley. Zypher got a few digs in about Ryder being Quinn’s errand boy. Ryder manages to get the meeting closer at City of the Dead, Cross Bend at noon the following day. After that business is taken care of, he has a proposal of his own. We don’t know the terms yet because we switched to Sunny visiting Waldo. Waldo tries to convince Sunny that even if he gets across the river the wastelands will kill him. However, after learning that Sunny is in love and expecting a baby, Waldo decides to help him out by giving him a toy soldier, which will grant Sunny an audience with the River King.
Ryder starts taking his father’s advice and goes to Jade’s room. Jade tries to convince Ryder that they are over now that’s she’s getting married to his father. Ryder then gets pissy about her abandoning him too and she tries to reassure him that is not her intention. When Jade says that she can handle his mother Ryder warns Jade that Lydia got rid of Beatrice, who used to be Quinn’s second wife. Mari, the maid, confirms that a week before Beatrice died, Lydia was picking a monkswood flower that’s used to help poison rats. Yikes!
M.K. is out at the training grounds sulking when Sunny has the rest of the trainees line up for orders. He selects a small group as scouts for the upcoming parley and totally disses M.K. Sunny doesn’t even explain just walks away. M.K. belligerently sneaks there anyway, which angers Sunny even more especially since he embarrassed him in front of Quinn. Reluctantly Sunny has M.K. act as look out.
We get to finally meet Jacobee! Quinn denies sabotaging Jacobee’s gold transport and explains to him that the Widow’s vendetta is personal and him taking the oil fields was for everyone’s benefit, not just his yada yada yada. Jacobee doubts Quinn’s intentions, and tells him that his father only aligned with him because of mutual interests, which may not be so mutal anymore. Tilda gets a major fight going by throwing an ax towards Quinn. When that happened I was like:
Seriously though, I’m like that during every fight scene on this show. Back to the action: M.K. actually managed to be a lookout for once since he prevents Quinn from getting killed when Sunny was able to stop the ax. A fight ensues between Quinn and Jacobee’s Clippers. Their Regents, Zypher and Sunny go at it for a few minutes. Quinn and Jacobee also trade a few licks. M.K. chases Tilda and yells at her about the Widow while trying to catch her. She cuts him with her butterfly star and that’s when things go downhill. M.K., with his black eyes, toyed with her for a few seconds before proceeding to choke her with one hand. She tries to talk to him to let her go and….it actually works! M.K. somehow hears her and snaps out of his trance, but then collapses again. Sunny keeps having the best timing because he witnesses the choking and M.K. collapsing and you can see the wheels turning in his head as he saw it go down. He tries to catch Tilda but she gets away by throwing another star. Sunny manages to stop Quinn from being double teamed by Zypher and Jacobee by throwing the star to Zypher and yelling this was the Widow’s doing. With the new evidence, Jacobee will delay the other barons but tells Quinn that he needs to deal with the Widow quickly.
After that disaster, Quinn, Sunny and the others come home to devastation. The Widow’s been busy while Quinn was occupied with Jacobee. Loyal Mari told Sunny and Quinn what happened. The Clipper force has been killed and the majority of the cogs went with the Widow after she offered them gold. Quinn orders Sunny to find the Widow so he can set an example of her across the Badlands by brutally killing her.
Zypher takes Ryder to a secret location and instead of meeting with Jacobee, he meets with The Widow. I find it sad that everyone seems to know about Ryder’s family issues. Anywhoo, The Widow wants to help both Zypher and Ryder become Baron in their respective territories. In exchange, the Widow wants M.K. She describes him as a boy that wears the pendant. Ryder agrees. After that look Zypher and the Widow gave each other, I thought of Beyonce’s song again!
Sunny, using Waldo’s toy soldier, gets to speak with the River King. The King thinks he can help him out, only because Waldo holds Sunny in high esteem. The River King shows Sunny one of his boats where a massacre took place. The last person that died was able to identify the killer. Take a wild guess who it is. None other than M.K.! The offer to Sunny, bring M.K.’s head and the RIver King will take Sunny and Veil to a place where they won’t be found. Dilemmas galore!
And that’s a wrap on another great episode! In regards to the title of the episode, I think the two tigers represent The Widow and Zypher and the Dragons represent the Barons. There are two women that are trying to change the game and take out the men that rule the lands. It’s ambitious and a part of me is rooting for them. Only two episodes left guys! I’m not ready to say goodbye to this show yet! What do you think Sunny will do? Will Ryder bring Jade into his plan to become baron? What about Veil, will she still try to poison Quinn in the pretense that she’s trying to help him? What about Lydia, will she try to kill Jade? Will M.K. learn to control his powers? Do you want the Widow to win? Sound off below in the comments! On that note I will leave you with this video:
2 comments
Great Review!
Thank you so much. This was a fun episode to recap!
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