2021 has been a year of surprises both good and bad. Changes have been happening slowly but there is always something hindering that change. HBO Max has been off to a rocky start with it’s launch as content has been questionable.
I love “Warrior” and hope for a season 3 with its new home on HBOMax. Here we are with the finale of Season 2. And we’re going back to the main philosophy of the series which is finding one’s purpose.
Here we are and we are going to get real. This episode is a hard one to watch, as it came out on Bruce Lee’s birthday but also released after one specific death that occurred in May 25, 2020.
If the episode 17 was about the choices, this is about the consequences. This episode goes into the start of what consequences the characters will encounter.
People are given choices, we make choices for better or worse, sometimes we can’t make the choice ourselves. Sometimes the choice we are given is enough to get by or not enough at all. This episode explores our characters’ choices and how they act upon it.
The most obvious reference this episode makes is “Enter the Dragon”. Granted we can argue about that any movie started the mad man holding a tournament troupe but here we are. This time it goes back to the stand alone episode while still connecting to the main storyline, going back to the main theme of the series: finding one’s purpose.
Trust is a hard thing to come by. You trust your family, you trust your friends, hell you trust the people at McDonald’s not to spit in your burger. This episode explores the theme of trust and the characters who experience it.
I should mention this as it will come out in a later review but over the past few weeks, the US has been experiencing attacks on the Asian community recently. On January 28th, Vicha Ratanapakdee was attacked in the driveway of his home and died in the hospital. Two other Asian elders have been attacked by slashing and beaten due to Racism.
After winning another fight at the Barbary Coast, Vega proposes to Ah Sahm participate in a tournament for a bigger reward. He declines as Wang Chao enters to watch the fights. Chao speaks to Ah Sahm, knowing of the deal with Happy Jack but is suspicious of his relation to Mai Ling. Ah Sahm brushes it off but Chao assures that Chinatown will suffer because of his and Mai Ling’s quarrel.
For those who don’t know, Bruce Lee’s film “The Big Boss” was to be given the title of “The Chinese Connection”, capitalizing on the popularity of the film “The French Connection” as both films deals with drug smuggling. The problem was the titles were switched as “Fist of Fury” was given the title of “The Chinese Connection” and “The Big Boss” was titled “Fists of Fury”.
Teddy Boys – A British subculture that young men wore clothes that were inspired by dandies of the Edwarian period. Originally started in the UK in the early 1950s of post WWII, it was associated with American Rock and Roll music. It was to differentiate the teenagers from the adults. On 1956, at a screening of the film “Blackboard Jungle”, the Teddy Boys rioted in theatres where the film was shown.
Episode 10 starts a week after the events of episode 9, a man wakes up Chinese coolies switching up those who worked the night before for those who are ready for the day. Among them is Ah Sahm, who has given up.
Episode 9 starts with Leary negotiating with Byron on hiring his men for the railway contract while Li Young and Ah Sahm prepare for their match.
David Bloomer/Cinemax/WarnerMediaThe episode immediately starts from episode 7 with the Hop Wei and the Long Zi charging at each other in the streets of Chinatown. Both sides experiencing casualties in a bloody battle.Penny wakes up to Mayor Blake and Buckley discussing a solution for the Chinatown brawl. Buckley tells Mayor Blake must side with Senator Crestwood with handling the Chinatown violence leaking out. Penny hears the news as she worries and Blake gives the railway contract to Byron, inviting him to a dinner in Crestwood’s honor.Wang Chao visits the Hop Wei to discuss a resolution with Mai Ling, Father Jun accepts the meeting as he tells Young Jun that they must fight smarter and wanting to understand Mai Ling’s motives as he knew Long Zii’s.Father Jun and Young Jun meet with Mai Ling and Li Young coming to terms of not breaking their truce. Lao Ting proposes a fight between a fighter from the Hop Wei and a fighter from the Long Zi. If the Hop Wei wins, the truce still stands 5 more years but if the Long Zi wins, they get a piece of Hop Wei territory to sell opium independently. Father Jun and Mai Ling agree to the terms.O’Hara and Lee continue their route in Chinatown as O’Hara is still haunted by Damon. Finally the Foon Hai come to collect which causes O’Hara to snap and beat down the men. Lee stops O’Hara, trying to reason with him on how they can resolve the payment. O’Hara tries to find a way out of being in the Chinatown force while Lee continues investigating the Foon Hai.Ah Toy speaks with her business partner Patterson about the property she wishes to buy, only to be outbid and to be blackmailed Timmons. Ah Toy chooses to pay along with the plan of silencing Timmons. Patterson goes to pay for the land as Timmons try to persuade him to conduct business without Ah Toy. She intrudes on the meeting and kills Timmons, cementing her claim on her property.Ah Sahm visits Penny as she opens up on her concerns, knowing it has no future. Ah Sahm tries to reason with Penny only to be dismissed of what they have done. He returns to the Hop Wei only to be tested by Father Jun has chosen him to fight Li Young.David Bloomer/Cinemax/WarnerMediaAh Sahm agrees to the fight but goes to the brothel to drink away his emotions, even fighting a white customer on the treatment of the women. Ah Toy stops Ah Sahm, telling him that she is done looking out for him as he has no purpose and will not beat Li Young. He leaves to be greeted by Mai Ling.Mai Ling urges her brother not to fight as Li Young is stronger and sees right through Ah Sahm’s motives whereas Ah Sahm asks her who really killed Long Zii, seeing through her motives.The episode ends with Ah Sahm and Li Young training for their fight, Lai finding Ah Toy’s sword, training with it. Byron hiring Leary’s men while Buckley watches from afar and O’Hara and Lee find the body of Timmons, suspecting the swordsman is spilling out of Chinatown.This is not going to be easy on who or what to focus on after re-watching this episode because I only focused on one scene when I first watched it. Now we are going to focus on Ah Toy, O’Hara, Penny and Ah Sahm.With Ah Toy being highlighted in the previous episode, her business partner Patterson has informed her of Timmons and what he plans to do if she does not step away from buying the property. Ah Toy shows how she handles business if she is not heard, from scarring one girl for bringing the Long Zi into her brothel to disfiguring Zan and Holbrook. Ah Toy goes so far to get what she worked hard for.Because Ah Toy chose to run a brothel, she still wants to be seen as an equal businesswoman but as my mother put it, it’s a glass ceiling. Being Asian, a woman and a boss in a world of men.O’Hara has been dealing with the fallout of Damon’s death since episode 6 and it is slowly catching up to him when the Foon Hai approach him in person. O’Hara is desperately trying to resign his position in the Chinatown force but both Lee and his wife Lucy still stand by him.O’Hara being the one that quotes the title of the episode, he tells this to Lee as he never had to think outside of doing his police work. And it is a talk with Lucy that brings him back to the reality. Lucy knows what Bill has been up to, even understanding that they are in trouble. Lucy reassures that she will still stand with Bill and urges him to fix it.O’Hara’s internal conflicts have finally come out and now with the help of Lee and Lucy, this brings him back onto his path whether he likes it or not.Penny’s decision to call off the affair with Ah Sahm has impacted her emotionally as she attends Crestwood’s dinner party. As she sees her father attending, she overhears Blake and Crestwood discuss the problem with the Chinese population and how they affect the city.Penny openly expresses her opinions on Crestwood’s views on the Chinese and Mayor Blake tries to silence her but she defies both of them. Though her opinions fall on deaf ears, Penny is coming to and breaking away from the community she knew of.With respect for Jacob and what she has experienced with Ah Sahm, Penny is ready to have a voice for herself and finally come to make something of her own. Something we will see in the second season.Now we come to Ah Sahm and his pursuit of purpose, when Lu gave him a boost of confidence back in episode 5, Ah Sahm wanted to be with Penny. As we saw in the episode prior, he had to back out of his date with Penny to save his sister. This was brought up along with the Tong fight in the streets by Penny. Hoping she would reach him on how his lifestyle will be a dead end, she ends the affair as he tries to reach out to her with a better life. The scene itself brings it back to the moment they met where Penny only sees Ah Sahm for what he is, prompting him to leave.This loss of purpose and a probable goal is added to his emotional state when he is chosen to fight for the Hop Wei. And after assaulting a drunk man, Ah Toy has no support for his antics and cementing the fact that Li Young is training and will win the fight compared to Ah Sahm. The spiral continues to go down as he sees Mai Ling.Mai Ling knowing her brother who always has to prove himself, states he will not win. Ah Sahm seeing that Penny, Ah Toy and Mai Ling left him in a state of mind where he has nothing, pushes him to train for the fight. This mindset and internal conflict is not over yet.Reviewing this episode definitely hits on a personal level for me, among other episodes and especially when we get to Season 2. Ah Toy, O’Hara and Penny are finally coming to accept what they are capable of but Ah Sahm is heading down a spiral that will lead to something else.
Based on a Chinese folktale about a tiger and a fox, it is told by Mai Ling within the episode, and I’m not a history buff or an expert on Chinese idioms, metaphors and philosophies. I do know it is interesting that a show with this much depth and history really opens your eyes to so many little details that the creators and Bruce Lee have put in. As always, it is up to the reader and viewer to find its meaning.
This link was shared by a friend on Facebook and I wish to share it on this review as San Francisco’s Chinatown is slowly vanishing. As the main setting of the series and the entry point of many Chinese immigrants who managed to make a better life for themselves and their families, it has come to a point where it might disappear. This is history and this community has survived through the Chinese Exclusion Act, Black plague, gang wars and natural disasters. After this review, please click the link and help support San Francisco’s Chinatown.
“We’ll be back in the blood and the shit soon.” –Ah Sahm
“3 weeks, after that, you’re taking a trip to the White Mountain” –Jack Damon. I have been trying to find anything and everything if there is a definition for this term as most of the episodes have a nice nod to old terms or characters saying it in the episode. The only think I have found thanks to my mother, it is probably referring the White Mountains in California. And maybe how people died climbing up mountains but who knows.
John Chinaman – Boy this one is not a doozy to talk about. First off, the term Chinaman did not start as a negative term before the 1870’s. It was used for Chinese immigrants in America as a form of identity. Whereas adding John as a prefix, it was given by Census takers at the time when getting the identities of various new Chinese immigrants who would not give their names. Thus they were named John Chinaman which is a way of saying John Doe.
Duck – A term for the white population coined by the Chinese. The term in that time was to make fun of the way most white people walk with their chest puffed out and waddle as they walk. And thus the rest of San Francisco is known as the “Duck Pond” outside of Chinatown.
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