Sunny and Bajie have
arrived in a giant shanty town on the river which has lots and lots of gritty
signifiers with lots of violence and dog fighting and dangerous gambling games.
And a contact of Bajie’s who is playing said dangerous gambling game which
involves impaling your hand because that’s fun. Her name is Lily, she’s accused
of cheating which leads us to a whacky fight scene - which involves
considerably more octopus than usual and Sunny letting Bajie fight his own
battles at least for a little while
Which does remind us
that while Bajie is no Sunny, he can actually fight
Eventually they end
up on a boat sailing away and Lily is annoyed because she insists she would
have been fine and got the money… it looked doubtful. But she’s ornery anyway,
really not a fan of Bajie and not moved by sob stories of sick babies. She does
want money to pay her considerable debts - so Bajie gives her a pouch of coins.
Which is nice but that was the money she was winning at gambling he managed to
steal so doesn’t exactly thaw her any
Oh, and the fact she’s Bajie’s ex-wife doesn’t help matters. They have unresolved issues: but during the night she does explain her history with Bajie to Sunny. How he was a pirate with her and cunning and devious and killed the captain and they managed to live a great life. Until Bajie heard a rumour about Asra, took all their money and abandoned her.
Yes she has some good
reasons to be pissed. And it also very much shows how much this search for Asra
has consumed Bajie’s life and why he was less than thrilled with his old
mentor.
Sunny’s also having
more childhood flashbacks of being on this boat.
Bajie tries to bury
the hatchet with Lily with some booze - it doesn’t go well. I really like the
acting here, there’s real chemistry and Lily does a great job of portraying
ALMOST being sucked in and then ferociously pulling back
She’s also sold them out to the River King because the bounties on their lives are worth a whooooole lot of money which does a lot of paying down her debts. And the whole hating Bajie thing. The River King and Sunny also have history so, yep, it’s time for another pretty fight scene
I do so love these
fight scenes.
With everyone
properly dead and the River King now held at sword point - and Lily continuing
to dance that complicated line on deciding which side she’s on by not stabbing
Bajie and saving Sunny, the River King offers a deal: his life for help in
getting to Pilgrim.
Back to the Widow’s
territory and Odessa is furious with Lydia for becoming a baron and abandoning
the refugees so they can be attacked by Chau’s forces. Lydia still holds that
you need to be in the system to change it while Odessa has doubts about what
real change is going to happen. She’s also out - she’s done with fighting
But Tilda won’t
abandon the refugees - which means, in Odessa’s eyes, she’s abandoning her
That doesn’t seem to
sway Tilda who goes to the refugee camp and faces the judgement there of the
new leader who needs supplies but, above all, need protection.
Tilda goes to the
Widow with a deal: to fight on her side to bring Chau down. The Widow tries to
be affectionate towards her but Tilda is clear: they’re only about business,
she’s not the Widow’s Regent and certainly not her daughter
The Widow also has
Castor, holding him imprisoned by acupuncture. Being a proper fanatic he won’t
give up any info on Pilgrim so Nathaniel wants to cut off his head and send it
to Pilgrim as a warning
Yes, it’s a very very
very very very stupid idea which would get them all murdered.
The Widow has another
plan
Pilgrim greets all
his new enslaved refugees and ensures them they’re all free to go but first
have a nice speech about Asra… which they buy. And honestly that seems a little
convoluted especially since he just used soldiers to kill their friends and
family, enslave them and transport them to him to work: do any of them even
know what Asra is? I think by not working more on showing Pilgrim convince them
and connect to them it also makes him look kind of exploitative - like he’s
using his charisma to control people
Which kind of colours
his meeting with the Widow - she arrives with Castor and actually returns him
to Pilgrim as a gesture of friendship (and doesn’t mention the people that
Castor and Chau’s men murdered). She assures him she’s not his enemy - but he
is clear that anyone who is after power is his enemy. And also asks if she’s
going to humble herself before him
See, this whole
“everyone after power is the enemy” matched with “everyone has to humble
themselves before me” is the kind of thing that makes me suspect people. The
Widow is all for peace not power, honest, but hell will freeze over before she
humbles herself before any man.
Nathaniel still
doesn’t get why they’re giving away good leverage - but the Widow needs Pilgrim
to see her as a potential convert rather than an enemy to conquer - long enough
for her to defeat Chau. With both her and Chau’s armies she thinks she can
bring down Pilgrim and his Dark Ones
Ok… but there’s like
2? I get it, they’re powerful… but there’s still only 2 of them. You need an
army each? You have explosives!
Pilgrim has his own
conflicts - including a screaming argument with Cressida about how disposable
Castor is. Pilgrim sees him as a person (despite exploiting his gift) whole
Cressida sees him - and by the look of it - everyone as just a tool to reach
Asra. Pilgrim ends up threatening her
Castor is also
furious with Pilgrim since he promised him and Nix would be in Asra together -
he accuses him of lying and wonders what else he was lying about. Again I’m
sensing more of a sense that while Pilgrim may be a fanatic he’s also really
exploiting people.
Castor and MK have
another fight before Pilgrim arrives for some alone time and another of his
powerful speeches: he talks to Castor about honour and sacrifice and how
amazing he was which is all very enthralling… and then he kills Castor.
He seems genuinely
grieved by this but I’m still torn: how much of Pilgrim is being a true
believer - and how much is he exploiting? Or is he doing both: being a True
Believer and using that faith to exploit others is not mutually exclusive
