It’s possible the ends justified the means for San Diego’s finest, Sgt. Bill O’Hara (Kieran Bew). Of course, that all depends on what happens in season three of hit HBO Max series, Warrior, which is set to arrive in June, and while we await the next update, I’m continuing this short series of articles to discuss some of the key arcs that play out in the current two-season run. As noted last week, this series dives into spoiler territory, so if you haven’t seen the show yet since it began its run in 2019, turn back now and feel free to come back to this piece another time.
The show’s roaring introduction to the role of Ah Sahm (Andrew Koji) extends further into the first season as the fledgling hatchet man for the Hop Wei’s first brush with the law sees him get thwacked by O’Hara, who has plenty of his own problems to worry about. Wilfully mistaken as the aggressor despite defending the San Francisco Mayor’s wife, Penelope Blake (Joanna Vanderham) and her servant, Jacob (Kenneth Fok) from a pair of Irish goons, Ah Sahm is arrested and processed as “John Chinaman” with hardly any legal representation save for a drunken and discouraged defense lawyer, all while O’Hara and his newly installed Chinatown squad are facing pressure to catch an elusive “swordsman” performing retribution killings.
Adding to O’Hara’s woes is his obligation to Irish Workingmen head Dylan Leary (Dean Jagger), the result of O’Hara’s ever-increasing debt as a gambling addict, forcing him even more to toe both sides of the fence, including trying (and ultimately failing) to get Ah Sahm killed while locked up before the next court date. As the season moves forward, worse comes to worst when O’Hara’s debt lands him in the throes of a collector’s threats when former SF flatfoot Jack Damon (Brendan Sean Murray) emerges as a debt collector for the Fung Hai, giving him three weeks to pay his dues or be taken to what Damon so illustratively names as “the white mountain”. Out of options, O’Hara turns to Leary knowing the begrudged Irish workingmen boss’s disdain for the Chinese surmounts any of his past dismissal of O’Hara’s debts, and being the formidable pugilist he is, Leary takes matters into his own hands, punishing Damon for otherwise betraying his own people, just short of killing him to which he leaves O’Hara the responsibility.
Little does O’Hara know that apart from the internal afflictions that will arise going forward, including a near-fatal assault on his partner, Henry Lee (Tom Weston-Jones). Having become a target for the Fung Hai, discovered by their leader, Zing (Dustin Nguyen) and therein propositioned to take the position previously held by Damon as a collector for the Tong, O’Hara is forced to carry the burden of collecting what’s owed to the Fung Hai, that is, provided he can keep THIS secret from Leary, who is already entrenched into his own agenda in assuring the Workingmen are hired to build the railroads contracted through the city, by hook or by crook.
As the show progresses into season two, in a stunning move after a long period of collecting for Zing, O’Hara decides to absolve himself of any responsibility for the Fung Hai, an action that will soon find O’Hara and Lee on the defense in an explosive showdown with Fung Hai hitmen who invade his home in an attempt to kill him and his family. They survive the attack and manage to dispatch the Fung Hai would-be assassins, though victory has come at a dire price. As the story would have it, O’Hara’s wife, Lucy (Emily Child), knows him more than anyone. She knows him for the hardworking and strong-at-heart family man he is. Equally, she knows him for the stoic, stubborn, and possibly sick man he’s become behind his gambling. Provenly, it’s her love for her family that helps their unit stick together for as long as it has, between her marriage and their three children. Needless to say, however, Lucy has always borne a quiet air of worry in her resolve, for the albeit ominous disaster that loomed as the result of her husband’s excesses and corruptive means.
Despite his shortcomings and constant rule-bending, it’s fair to say that O’Hara is a good person. He’s fucked up. He fucks up. He thinks he can fix his fuck-ups while fucking up even more, and even when he unfucks something, other things get so fucked to where things might reach the point of no return. With any luck, he hasn’t come to this kind of impasse by the end of season two with partner Lee, after resigning himself to Lee’s esoteric traits as an investigator and getting to know him better as a person, seeing Lee past his yesteryear mistakes and defending him from an opportunistic outlaw looking to collect a bounty on Lee’s head following a revenge murder for the death of his beloved (to add, his partnership with Lee is really one of the few things holding him together, no matter how much he verbally abuses Lee or gaslights him in ways that convince even the typically diligent and even-handed Lee to quit the force after being discouraged by the corrupt inner workings and culture of the SFPD). The same can perhaps be said of O’Hara no-frills cordiality with Ah Sahm with whom he’s come to have a mutual understanding despite their rivaling stripes.
Near the end of season two, however, the answer to that question is left somewhat suspensefully between him and Lucy following that deadly evening, wherein Lucy shoots and kills one of the attackers. The incident is a principal game-changer in several ways, including one that now directly affects O’Hara’s family as his embittered wife is whisked away by carriage along with their children for safekeeping, for better or worse. With the issue of O’Hara’s marriage remaining intact after all said and done now lying in wait, it’s not until he consults with Wang Chao (Hoon Lee) that any plans he and the boys in blue have to raid the Fung Hai that he finds himself on pastures that couldn’t be greener right then. Days later in a perilous operation coordinated quietly with the help of Long Zii lieutenant Li Yong (Joe Taslim), O’Hara, and the San Francisco police have successfully caught their long-since evasive “swordsman,” pitting all the murders of the Irish on Zing.
The arrest is one of the most important moments finalizing season two, leading up to Zing’s sentencing. Zing, regardless of his methods, has always approached the subject of honor through a twisted lens. He’s a bully and a killer, but he’s not stupid, and O’Hara knows that only for as long as Zing is locked up and doesn’t somehow escape the island prison he’s on, can he keep himself and his family safe. As for his time as a collector for Fung Hai, suffice it to say, Leary eventually learns the truth and as he tells the beleaguered cop, “that bill is gonna come due…”
It’s fun wondering if it will or not, but you can almost guarantee that this will be the case in some way shape or form as O’Hara’s story continues in season three. That leaves only the question of “how?”. By the end of season two, Leary, after beating the pavement and ruling the party with an iron fist for as long as he has only to be met head-on by Ah Sahm following the violence stemming from Jacob’s lynching by the Workingmen, and losing a bare-knuckle contest in Leary’s ring outside his pub, the Banshee, is forced to recalibrate his methods by tuning his methods and running for office. In the wake of the Mayor’s murder, it will be interesting to see how this move affects the SFPD, and accordingly, O’Hara in his family.
Just how will the bill come due? Will Zing get his vengeance? What will become of Lucy and their children? Important questions for a very important season three of Warrior, coming in June!
Tap below to read the first Unsettled Scores post in this short series!
Lead photo: David Bloomer/Cinemax/Warnermedia