Con SuiteThe Reactor

Recap: Into the Badlands – Leopard Stalks in Snow

By Miclpea

SPOILER ALERT-Do not read if you have not seen season two-episode six of Into the Badlands.

Quote of the week: “Maybe there are no good men.”

The episode opens in the aftermath of the explosion from the booby trap in Quinn’s bunker. Lydia staggers to her feet, and stumbles to the entrance. Her men are either severely injured or dead. Quinn and his men exit the bunker to kill of Lydia’s people who are still alive. After they have dispatched the last remaining survivor, Quinn captures Lydia.

Later, in the bunker, Quinn confronts Lydia. Quinn observes that Lydia always told him the unvarnished truth. Lydia reveals that neither of his pretty little girls, Jade or Veil, ever loved or will ever love him, no matter how hard he tries. This just reinforces what Ryder said in Quinn’s hallucination. Ryder’s apparition told Quinn that women are his weakness. It seems this is true as Quinn gives Lydia the same chance to kill him that he gave Ryder. Unlike Ryder, she takes it and tries to plunge the dagger into his heart. Quinn stops her, but the dagger penetrates his skin enough to draw blood. Quinn takes the blood, and in a bizarre travesty of the blood ceremony he performed on Henry, he wipes the blood onto Lydia’s lips. They kiss and fall into a powerful lover’s embrace. Lydia truly hates Quinn for killing Ryder, but there is an animal passion between them that has not died.

In the forest, Veil carries Henry as she tries to escape Declan who was sent by Quinn to recapture her. Veil is saved at the last minute by a mysterious old woman. The old woman is part of a group bringing deserting Cogs to The Widow. Veil and Henry are taken to The Widow’s estate by truck.

At The Widow’s sanctuary, Odessa tells Tilda she is leaving because The Widow is planning to make a deal with Quinn. In order to explain why she is loyal to The Widow, Tilda relates the story of her abuse under The Widow’s dead husband. After killing her husband, The Widow apologized for not doing it sooner. Odessa agrees to stay not for The Widow but for Tilda. She kisses Tilda. They are interrupted by Waldo. As Tilda goes to meet The Widow, she sees Veil leaving the truck. She takes Veil to The Widow.

Emily Beecham as The Widow

The Widow wants to know the location of Quinn’s bunker. She also wants Veil to decipher the book about Azra. Veil agrees and takes the book to translate. The Widow leaves a message at the bunker for Quinn to meet her alone. Of course, he does not. He arrives with several of his men and kills one of her Clippers. The Widow naturally expected this. The lights come on and The Widow is there with all of her Butterflies, Tilda, and Waldo. Tilda kills one of Quinn’s men to even the score. The Widow makes the offer of an alliance to Quinn. He asks if they can be alone to discuss the details.

Quinn has one condition for this proposed alliance. He wants Veil and Henry returned to him. He promises that they will not be harmed. He was not fooled. He knew that there was no way Waldo had found him. It had to have been Veil since he had not found her. The Widow is reluctant to give up Veil and Henry. Quinn says he will give her time to consider his counter-proposal but not too much time.

Madeleine Mantock as Veil 

When The Widow (Minerva) calls in Veil, she asks for progress on the translation of the books. Veil explains that she has not made any progress. Minerva tells her that is unfortunate. Minerva shows her the bottle that Veil had given Tilda to kill her. Minerva tells Veil that if Veil believes she is such a monster, then maybe Veil should go with someone who would keep her safe. Quinn comes out on the balcony to greet Veil as she stares in horror.

Meanwhile, Sunny and Bajie arrive at an old apartment complex inhabited by Gaspers. Bajie refers to it as “a poor man’s opium.” Portia had directed them there to get medical help. An old man, Doc Cloud, is able to stabilize Portia and save her life. The old man thanks Sunny for bringing her. Sunny confesses that he is responsible for her injuries. Doc very wisely tells Sunny that he has seen a lot of bad men and, in comparison, Sunny is not that bad.

Bajie has managed to entertain himself with the local recreational drug. As he comes out of his drug-induced haze, he notices that the Abbots have arrived. He runs to Sunny and tells him that they have to leave. As Bajie is getting fuel, the Abbots are getting closer. Bajie submerges himself in a tank of some fluid which throws off the device the Abbots were using to track MK. The device had zeroed in on Bajie! He is one of the people with the gift. What is most interesting is that the tracking device, used by the Abbots to track the dark gift, is revealed to be tech from Azra. Remember, the case which holds the tracking device also holds the same book that The Widow wanted Veil to translate.

At the car, Sunny asks Bajie what he knows about the Abbots. Bajie feigns ignorance; he just wants to get away. Sunny says that they have to save MK but Bajie is clearly afraid to help save MK from the Abbots. There is something in Bajie’s past which makes him afraid of encountering the Abbots. Whatever it is, he is very reluctant to share with Sunny. He is also torn as he truly wants to help Sunny but he cannot get past his fear. Sunny leaves without him to save MK.

The object of the Abbots’ pursuit is still managing to keep ahead of them. MK stops to steal a carrot at a campsite and is caught by the leader of the camp. He knocks MK down and bloodies him, but MK’s gift is not triggered. The leader prepares to kill MK when an axe into his skull stops him. It is Eva. She escapes with MK to a deserted old hotel.

Aramis Knight as M.K.

Around a campfire in the deserted hotel, MK tells Eva about his vision, which revealed he killed his mother. Eva tells him that all the visions are not necessarily true but MK has no doubts regarding this one. Later, MK wanders through the deserted hotel where he makes a startling discovery. He finds a Wired magazine with a cover that shows Azra. MK rushes to show Eva the magazine as proof that the Master lied. As he is showing her the magazine, they hear a noise. The Abbots have arrived.

They attempt to escape but a hand grabs MK from behind. It is Sunny. They confront the three monks. Sunny tells MK to cut himself. MK tells Sunny that his power no longer works. Eva invokes her power as do the Abbots. Eva takes on two Abbots as Sunny fights with Cyan, who previously defeated him when the Abbots took MK. Cyan makes short work of Sunny before joining the other two Abbots to defeat Eva by impaling her on a broken girder. As one of the Abbots prepares to kill Sunny, Eva is able to kill him by putting two fingers through his throat before she collapses.

Meanwhile, a truck bursts through the wall and knocks Cyan several feet through the air. It is Bajie to rescue. In a very revealing scene, Cyan addresses Bajie as ‘brother’ before they began an epic battle. Bajie is able to deliver paralyzing pressure point blows to Cyan’s neck. This stops Cyan long enough for Bajie and Sunny to rally and defeat him. However, Cyan delivers several key blows to Sunny’s body before Sunny slices his head in half.

Cung Le as Cyan 

As MK kneels over a dying Eva, Sunny says that they have to go. MK is devastated as Eva dies. Sunny goes to comfort MK but he collapses. The chi blows delivered by Cyan have had a delayed effect on Sunny’s body.

In this episode alone, MK is responsible for five deaths and possibly one more if Sunny does not get help. Where was MK going? It is obvious that he had made no clear plan before he escaped the Monastery. Remember, he had to take clothes from a dead body. If Eva had not followed him, he would probably be dead. Death is her reward for saving him. Youth is a time to learn, but one’s education should not cause so many deaths. Also, MK needs serious psychological help. His time in the mirror vision gave him closure on what happened to his mother but crippled him mentally so that his gift is locked away from him. MK is a magnet for chaos and death.

Veil, on the other hand, is now paying the price for her attempt to kill The Widow. Do we believe this is why Minerva is giving Veil to Quinn or does this just further her own plans? One never knows if they are dealing with Minerva or The Widow.

But let us not forget the most startling revelation of the show: Bajie, a Falstaffian con artist, was an Abbot! Why did he leave the Monastery? How did he become a con man? Why was he in the mines? How will he help save Sunny? Why do the Abbots have Azra tech?

We thought that we knew what was happening in the world of Into the Badlands. We were wrong. Bajie was an Abbot, the Abbots use tech from Azra, and MK was correct about The Master. She clearly knows about Azra if the Abbots are using Azran tech. This show just continues to get better and more intriguing with each episode.

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Miclpea

I love going to conventions around the US and Canada. I'm an ardent fan of all things science fiction and especially The Expanse. I'm a senior writer for Friends of CC and I have co-written a science-fiction script called Punctuated Equilibrium.