Time for more stunning visuals – but not quite as many
fight scenes
Sunny has just been betrayed and is now being used in the
arena – but the boss guy doesn’t especially want a crafty, manipulative rat
like Bajie running around either. So, twist, he chains them both together for
the gladiatorial combat so Sunny has a disadvantage
Ok, this show could have gone very badly with this –
portraying the fat guy as the inept comic relief. But, in general, it doesn’t.
Sure Bajie isn’t a skilled fighter but nor is he utterly physically inept and
he is the one who directs their escape. He even manages to save Sunny – (of
course Sunny does most of the fighting and the attacker ends up well and truly
splattered)
They do escape and cross the long grassland. Again we see
competence from Bajie – he can find food (and I wish it were more a case of
them both being hungry and Bajie getting food for them rather than Bajie
stopping to eat while Sunny wanted to continue on) and he’s the one who can
remove their shackles
And while Sunny attempts to leave him behind, he may need
Bajie to get across the huge wall that separates them from the Badlands
I’m curious that they have made Bajie competent – in a
show that is so utterly physical, that is defined by these beautiful, amazing
fight scenes, it would be easy to turn the fat guy into inept comic relief. Especially
since Nick Frost has spent no small part of his career playing that role.
Over to Lydia who has joined her father and the
Totemists. And they’re all very peaceful and kind and very religious and Lydia
is super happy there (though next time save your speech about how happy you are
to be home for an event other than someone’s wedding – way to make the day all
about you!)
Until they’re raided by vicious nomads who are there to
steal and rape. The Totemists are utterly pacifistic and refuse to fight back,
all kneeling. Except Lydia who fights – killing them both to save her dad from
being killed and the new bride from being raped. Even as she desperately
struggles for her life, none of the Totemists help her
After the nomads are killed her father is furious “who
are you to kill in our name!” he demands – killing is completely forbidden in
their religion, even to defend themselves.
Which sounds a lot more noble when they didn’t all kneel
and watch one woman nearly be raped, an old man nearly be murdered and another
woman desperately fight for her life.
It seems even more hollow when Lydia goes to see Ryder to
appeal for Baron protection – which is what Quinn used to do. It seems that
Totemist pacifism existed behind a shield of Baronial violent protection. Lydia
even has a side for Ryder – most cogs (workers) share the same religion of
Totemists and respect them, providing protection would boost moral and stop
more defections
Of course, Ryder hears any criticism to his less than stellar rule and has a temper tantrum, remembering his mother’s less than supportive words on how well he’d do as Baron without her he adamantly refuses to help or to accept her advice
There may be no love lost between Ryder and his mother
but it’s clear he needs some help despite his huge territory.
To which we move to the Widow’s territory where Waldo is
acting as mentor and advisor. And he’s not happy that Tilde slaughtered the
Clippers last episode – no matter her moral outrage, The Widow let them go and
a Regent (chief clipper) who doesn’t follow orders is useless
Of course, we could point out The Widow is trying to
produce a new system where people are not bound by orders. The flip side of
that is that Tilde is actively undermining the Widow by doing things like that
(“you’re free to go. Oh but we’ll murder you”)
Waldo emphasises Sunny used to be awesome because he was
emotionless, cold – and it’s clear he isn’t troubled by the abuse the clippers
caused which prompted the killing. I can see the party line drawn now – we have
the practical, cold Waldo and the empathetic, more emotional Tilde. The two
sides pulling at the Widow who wants a new system but still has to work within
the old one
And we’re going to see that up close because Ryder has
called a Conclave – a very rare event. Basically calling all the Barons
together to discuss the Widow’s attacks on the oil refineries. The Widow would
quite like to murder everyone but Waldo advises reserving that for option B.
Ultimately, the Widow’s forces aren’t strong enough for all out war with the
other Barons – and the other Barons don’t want war anyway. So diplomacy will be
the name of the game, despite the Widow’s distaste
And they can always turn to massacre plan b if it turns
out to be a trap
Over to MK – he is being taught by the Master who now has
a hall of mirrors in which MK can confront his darker self, his terrible
memories so he can bring his gift under his own control. As the Master points
out, the gift is his, it doesn’t belong to his dark side. Especially since his
gift is super powerful
This means delving into unpleasant memories of the
innocent people MK has killed and since suppressed. He vehemently rejects
facing this and tries to leave, wallowing in a lot of self-hate. It’s only when
Abbot Ava tells him they’ve all killed innocents – if they all have the same
gift/curse that’s understandable – that MK returns to the Master
This time to go into the reflections and fight his shadow
self – and this means lots of awesome fight scenes… which MK loses. The Master
has to pull him out of the trance and she looks very disturbed when she does
Possibly relatedly – MK keeps calling for his mother in
the trance.
Still clinging in there is Quinn and his loyal followers
and Veil and her new child Henry. Quinn has an almost cult like following and
definitely plans for more. He also has clear plans for Veil and her child: he
seems to want to take on Henry as his heir and I think he has designs on Veil
as well. He stabs one of his followers in the eye for looking at her when she
was breastfeeding and this could be a defence of her privacy but it feels far
more like a statement of possession. Especially since Veil is clearly a
nicely-worded prisoner.
I don’t have high hopes for his fatherhood either – since
he baptises Henry in blood, after drinking that blood himself. Yeah this is not
a good sign
I also kind of think, plotwise, that maybe Quinn was one
plot too far. Or maybe Lydia was. There’s a lot going on and everyone is
leading very separate lives: I think Sunny, The Widow, MK would suffice as main
plot lines with only Ryder as the foil for The Widow.
