S01.E13: Transformation

[Trini]

In the explosive season finale, Nicky learns what is needed to open the forge. Meanwhile, an emergency at home threatens to derail Althea and Dennis’ tea ceremony.

Joe Menendez directed the episode written by Christina M. Kim & Robert Berens.

Airdate: 7/21/2021

 

 

[Trini]

When started watching this, I was not expecting so much magic and mysticism. Looks like they'll be keeping that going next season.

I wish we could have seen more of the wedding festivities, but I'm glad that Althea & Dennis got to have their day mostly drama-free.

Wow, lots of exposition and new information in this finale. ... And I'm still not sure what biange is. Don't really have much to say about the magic stuff, but it was cool to see Kerwin again for a few seconds.

Speaking of - Kerwin's alive?? I didn't necessarily like that he got killed off, but he seemed like a short-term character anyway, so I'm wondering what the plans are for him outside of Zhilan. So I guess Russell Tan is the main antagonist for next season? It's good that they're connecting him back to Nicky and her hometown, then. And with the setup of a corruption storyline, it makes Evan relevant.

Zhilan is bound to be back at some point, right? If only to be forced to work with Nicky to thwart R. Tan, or have an awkward/angry reunion with Kerwin.

So Aunt MeiXue had a daughter? It wouldn't be Berlanti without a surprise relative coming in to disrupt things.

[paigow]

3 hours ago, Trini said:

Zhilan is bound to be back at some point, right? If only to be forced to work with Nicky to thwart R. Tan, or have an awkward/angry reunion with Kerwin.

Nicky will have to Suicide Squad break Zhilan out of a Mongolian Supermax to save San Francisco/ Oakland/ Vancouver

[tv echo]

This was a surprisingly enjoyable episode...

Pei Ling: “Bian ge is neither good nor evil. It can lead to great destruction, but also change. It is the spark of transformation. The world needs bian ge… Being a warrior is not about wielding a weapon. It is about that desire for change.”

For a moment there, I thought they were going to end this season with the alternate reality where bian ge (or biange)* never existed (and Nicky never went to the monastery, but instead became a lawyer and stayed Evan's girlfriend) - which I would've hated.

(* Like a nerd, I Googled the meaning of "biàn gé" because I couldn't remember if we were ever told what it meant on the show prior to this episode. In Chinese, it means "to transform" or "to change." So if you knew this meaning ahead of time, this episode's reveal that it means "transformation" wouldn't be a surprise.)

Of course, Nicky defeated Zhilan, but only by using the Force bian ge against her. Even then, it was still a strain on credulity that she beat Zhilan in a physical fight.

I'm glad Henry didn't die, although he spent most of this episode just standing around, watching Nicky do her thing.

Too little Althea and Ryan. But at least they're still alive for next season. I liked their use of the sibling code and that Nicky showed intelligence for once.

When Althea told Dennis the truth about Nicky, I thought there was going to be a shocking end reveal where we see Dennis meeting with Russell Tan at the end. But, no, thankfully.

I see they managed to give Evan a storyline of sorts, with him looking into Russell Tan's criminal activities.

Kerwin's still alive! That's a surprise. Though he's apparently in an ICU coma.

I'm actually looking forward to seeing Nicky's long-lost cousin, who's apparently Mei-Zue's daughter and "the key to everything" (like the success of this show?). Please, please have them cast someone really good for this role. And please make her character turn out to be good and not just another Zhilan. I don't want simply a repeat of this season. And maybe this cousin can eventually replace Nicky as the warrior heroine? 😯

Edited July 23, 2021 by tv echo

[Trini]

1 hour ago, tv echo said:

When Althea told Dennis the truth about Nicky, I thought there was going to be a shocking end reveal where we see Dennis meeting with Russell Tan at the end. But, no, thankfully.

I don't want them to, but it would be very easy to connect Dennis' family to the Tans; and I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

[Camera One]

I agree this episode was better, especially the first half.  Maybe because there was some momentum and a clear narrative?  

I liked how they were able to include the family in San Francisco.  Those scenes with the secret code and helping to find the Sorcerer was fun.  Though it was also kind of simplistic to the point of ridicuous... Zhilan's thugs were conspicuous as hell.  Plus for all Nicky knew, they could have planted explosives or there were others waiting in the wings.  No one could or should have been confident that Nicky's family was indeed completely safe.

I feel sorry for The Sorcerer.  She can't hide with those "Here I Am" blooming flowers inviting death.  Of course, we hardly got to know her before she was murdered.

Speaking of which, how did Businessman Tan already know where she existed?  And that she was hiding out?  His plan also made no sense.  He just ran off after Nicky and Zhilan absorbed the green light.  He knew Nicky would release Bian Ge to the world?  Why did the stupid green power go into the Evil Zhilan?   When the descendant of the original Warrior, Nicky, was right there?

All the Bian Ge mumbo jumbo sort of made the second half of the episode a little goofy.  I did like Nicky defeating Zhilan by "letting it go".  I love alternate timeline dream sequences, but this one was too ill-defined and short to have any power.  The only conversations I liked were with the Shi-fu.  

4 hours ago, tv echo said:

When Althea told Dennis the truth about Nicky, I thought there was going to be a shocking end reveal where we see Dennis meeting with Russell Tan at the end. But, no, thankfully.

I was really dreading what the cliffhanger was going to be.  I was imagining Dennis making a call to Russell Tan after Althea told him about Nicky, or about Althea finding Dennis murdered when she came back to the room or something.

So thank goodness no major character died for the sake of shock value.

But I was underwhelmed by the teasers for Season 2.  Random cousin groomed by Russell Tan?  Meh.  At least this person will be redeemable even though she will probably act like a total brat for half the season.  Russell Tan "buying" important people in San Francisco, including Evan's boss?  This should have been a recurring arc in Season 1 that could have tied to Episode 1 with that mob boss guy.  Throwing it in now just feels random.

2 hours ago, Trini said:

I don't want them to, but it would be very easy to connect Dennis' family to the Tans; and I wouldn't be surprised if they did.

That is what I'm guessing.  At least it will give Dennis a storyline, I guess.

I hope the showrunner and writers sit down and have an honest look at the sloppy worldbuilding and plotting of the first season.  The show has a lot of potential and all the main characters are actually quite likeable and charismatic.  But the writing sometimes feels like amateur hour.  

[possibilities]

Why did the sorcerer take biange out of the world and put it into the weapons, and then into herself, in the first place??? 

[owenthurman]

The strengths of this show are the characters, the family, the culture, and decent fight choreography.

The weakness of the show is the dull, made-up magical McGuffins: magic sword! Magic weapons! Magic forge! 

It’s so strange that they went to the effort to invent their own magic system and made it so cliched, when Chinese and Chinese diasporic populations are full of fascinating cultural material: hopping vampires immobilized by paper talismans pasted to their foreheads, seductive fox maidens, ghost weddings, the tales of Pu Songling, the strange creatures populating the Shan Hai Jing……

[Camera One]

Quote

DEADLINE: What was the process of putting that jam-packed season one finale together and bringing it back to the monastery? 

ROBERT BERENS: I think, it’s interesting to go back and look at what we had planned for the finale. Ultimately, we ended up taking a different path to get to the place we wanted to get. The intention was always to have a jam-packed blast of a finale. It was always really important to us that we found a poignant way for Nicky to have to leave her family behind and return to where it all started. Once that was clear, it became almost a two hander with Zhilan and Nicky, like we really wanted to bring them head-to-head in a rich way that opened up of both of their characters and sent them to a new place.

CHRISTINA M. KIM: It felt right to have a full circle thing that Nicky would return to the monastery.  It was really fun to figure out how that would come about and how that would all culminate in the finale.

I wonder what their original "path" was.  Comments like this from the showrunners seem to confirm the sense that they were making things up as they went without really having a clear set of mythological rules and backstory worked out.  On a genre type show, I think this is a major weakness, and it shows.  Of course, writers need to be flexible with their stories, but knowing they wanted a jam-packed finale and Nicky returning to the monastery are a tad vague.

[thuganomics85]

Ah, so Zhilan was smart enough to have thugs stationed near the Shen household, so that's why Nicky couldn't just simply take her out since it would risk her family's lives.  Too bad Zhilan didn't hire goons who couldn't be just a little less inconspicuous and not make it as easy as they did for Ryan and Althea to spot them, once they got Nicky's coded message.  It's hard finding good help these days!

But, hey, it all leads to Nicky and Zhilan both absorbing this "bian ge" power that all the weapons possessed when together, and Nicky finally getting a win by unleashing the power into the world and giving herself a shiny green power-up in the battle.  Hey, it still counts!  And now Zhilan is in cuffs and getting hauled away.  But I suspect she is far from gone.  She'll either pop up again and make Nicky and her family's lives hell or they'll go down the other popular route: a bigger threat (Russell Tan, maybe?) will force Nicky to align with Zhilan.  And thus will begin a classic "redemption" arc, where Zhilan will go from villainous bad guy to snarky anti-hero, who will never really pay for her past deeds.  Hey, I'll certainly be down for more Yvonne Chapman here, but I hope they surprise me on this front.

Wish we got more of Althea/Dennis tea party and even the wedding itself, but I'm glad it at least went off without a hitch and we got some nice family moments.  Plus Althea finally looped Dennis in on the whole "Nicky is a chosen warrior who can possess magical powers from time to time" thing, so hopefully this will get him more involved and out of the "nice, but insignificant" archetype.

Kerwin somehow survived that throat slash and is simply in a coma.  I guess I can somewhat buy that Zhilan really wasn't that thorough since she did seem to have real feelings for him, but that still seems far-fetched.

Looks like next season's obstacle is going to be some kind of cousin of Nicky's that Russell Tan has been secretly grooming this entire time.  Uh oh!

All in all, I enjoyed the season well enough, despite its flaws.  The writing was definitely spotty at times, romantic relationships were rushed, and I really do wish they could find better ways to have Nicky fallible without simply coming off incompetent or weak (still can't believe that one episode where two half-drunk frats were able to foil her mission), but the characterization is already pretty solid and the show really excels with the family dynamics.  Those are more than enough to keep my interest.  Plus, if nothing else, I'm glad this show introduced me to Shannon Dang, who I think has been stealing the show as Althea, and I hope she gets more chances to shine next season!

[tvwatchergordis]

I enjoyed the finale. Good use of Chinese magic and tradition. And hey! Nicky was finally able to beat Zhilan! Not entirely the way I wanted Nicky to but still--. She had to use the biage magic, but I guess it wouldn't have been believable for Nicky to just beat her with her Kung Fu skills since she basically couldn't. Zhilan always destroyed her in those fights.  So instead it was Warrior vs. Guardian and the Warrior finally won.

I guess no redemption for Zhilan she was far too gone in her revenge plot to even want a normal life. All she cared about was getting the weapons and seemingly destroy the world. There were moments I almost felt sorry for Zhilan but just couldn't because revenge mattered more than  anything.

Interesting that Nicky and Zhilan will always be connected. Surprise who the real villains are, Cohen's dad and his minions. Oh and lookie Cohen isn't dead after all. 

So what will happen with the magic that Nicky returned to the earth? It's very susceptibble to end in evil hands which I'm pretty sure will happen *face palm*. Oh the black sheep family member cliche with the mystery cousin, I don't know how I feel about that tbh. Guess I have to wait and see how that goes next season. 

P.s Never expected Althea to spill all about her Warrior sister to her husband. I don't expect that going well but I guess we will see. 

[william0102]

I enjoyed the finale, but there were some pretty big plot holes. You guys already pointed out Zhilan's henchman.  And Kerwin still being alive. How about the fact that she didn't notice she was being tailed? There is also her plan- what was she going to do if Nicky didn't figure out where the forge was? Like really, what was her plan? Because Zhilan won everything this season, books, fights, the weapons, while Nicky had Henry and that library. Zhilan didn't know about the aunt's secret stash. So was her plan really just to wait for Nicky to show up? Lazy writing there show. Plus, Tan already knows how to call the magic back? How? Someone already pointed out how weird it was that he knew about the sorcerer. I just- I said it before: they had two storylines they wanted to write about, and they both got short changed to tie into each other.

This show's saving grace really is in it's characters, and after this episode I think it's really mostly to do with the actors. I might have been able to believe that fight between Zhilan and Nicky, and to give some credit, I think they did show enough about Zhilan that her character progression (but mainly the actress) got to the point where she was desperate and could make mistakes. But I literally noticed Zhilan just standing there while Nicky hit her in that battle after waking up. Just... sigh. And honestly, a little more special effects of showing Nicky pulling/absorbing the energy from Zhilan as she beat her could have done it. I could have bought that she was disoriented and that Nicky was taking advantage of that. Just have them both turn green for that last fight, with Zhilan losing her color while Nicky's got darker- like I'd have given it to them since Nicky was at the monastery for 3 years. I'd have bought that she'd find a way to commune with the power, but oh well.

Here's to hoping that Kerwin comes back full on baddie, and then he and Zhilan can fall in love again. I think it'd be a smarter move if Tan ends up blackmailing Dennis and by extension his parents and Althea, so he really will have control over San Francisco and over Nicky. Like they really didn't do much with Dennis' parents, so I can see the writers having one of them be bad, but it would be better if he blackmails Dennis, and there's always his sister too. Also, loved the Shifu scenes with Nicky and Zhilan. Solid and had me hyped up for Nicky being able to beat Zhilan, at least until I saw the fight itself lol. Can we keep Pei Ling and Kerwin? I'd really like it if Nicky's Shifu just stayed. Nicky had the force, so she could still technically be able to see (or imagine) Shifu.  We saw the force growing on the sidewalks in San Francisco- okay but seriously how does Tan think he's gonna be able to recollect the power from all over the world? It's so dumb. He killed the sorcerer. Whatever, I still like all the characters, except for Nicky's men, they can go away, mostly Evan can go away. Henry's fine, takes a battle axe that should have gutted him and only gets hit in the shoulder. His jacket wasn't even torn. But he's mostly fine in my book.

[AnimeMania]

So the magical mystical "Forge" was nothing but a flat rock with no power, and the sorcerer was the important bit.  It makes you wonder why the "Forge" deserved a star in the constellation.

Nicky gave back all of her Biange magical energy, but did Zhilan? Maybe that will be how she escapes prison or maybe she can heal Kerwin.

I would really like it if they introduced Kerwin's brothers and sisters that he kept referring to and their competitive ways.

Dennis' family are definitely going to be business partners with the Tan family. (The actor that played Dennis' father has a part in new season of "The Sinner" which is probably why he wasn't around much in this series, I don't think Dennis' family was even at the wedding).

So much money wasted on the wedding and all the activities leading up to it, they could have used that money to save the restaurant without having to resort to criminal loan sharks. I am still not sure how they paid off all those medical bills from Baba's beatdown. At least they seem to still have a nice house even though neither of the parents will be employed after they close the restaurant.

[Camera One]

2 hours ago, AnimeMania said:

Dennis' family are definitely going to be business partners with the Tan family. (The actor that played Dennis' father has a part in new season of "The Sinner" which is probably why he wasn't around much in this series, I don't think Dennis' family was even at the wedding).

So much money wasted on the wedding and all the activities leading up to it, they could have used that money to save the restaurant without having to resort to criminal loan sharks. I am still not sure how they paid off all those medical bills from Baba's beatdown. At least they seem to still have a nice house even though neither of the parents will be employed after they close the restaurant.

I saw Dennis's mom at the wedding (and of course the sister).  I'm assuming Dennis' family paid for the lavish wedding and all the events?  I hope they pay more attention to everyday details like the question of Baba's medical bills.  The whole criminal loan shark was dropped after just the pilot, but with Russell Tan buying San Francisco power players, this would be a way to connect back.

[tennisgurl]

I am a bit surprised that they are doubling down so much on the magic, but I am good with that. The myth arc of the show is pretty interesting, even if I wish they used more actual Chinese mythology instead of their made up magic weapons chosen one story, although I do like the real things they do use, and its certainly better than their cases of the week, which tend to be on the boring side. In general, the best parts of this show are the characters and the magic backstory, so I am glad that they are setting both of them up to be major aspects of last season. 

Zhilan might be in jail, but she is certainly not done yet, and with Russel Tan possibly being set up as the next Big Bad I can see her ending up in a "enemy of my enemy" situation with Nicky, possibly even leading to a redemption arc where she joins the good guys as the token "redeemed snarky former bad guy with the get out of jail free card" character that CW shows love so much. At least the actress is good enough to pull off a story like that. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Kerwin is alive, but I actually am, its pretty hard to walk off a slit throat I would think, but I am glad that he's alive, even if things will probably still be pretty awkward between my favorite evil power couple. I am not surprised about the long lost cousin though, I wondered right away if her aunt had a daughter out there. Those long lost relatives, always showing up when you least expect it. 

I am glad that Althea's wedding actually went pretty smoothly, thanks to her, Henry, and Evan easily defeating the worlds most obvious thugs, and I am glad that she told Dennis the truth about Nicky. The whole magic legacy thing is probably a bad thing to keep from your husband, especially when it could affect your future children, hopefully this means he might get a bit more to do next season. I like him and Althea and would be happy with seeing more of them. 

This show has some real flaws in its writing, a lot of plot holes, underuse of promising characters, bland cases of the week, but its helped greatly by its fun characters who are played by talented actors, and a premise with a lot of potential, so I will be happy to watch another season. 

[Trini]

Aw, I guess I'm the contrarian in that I don't want Dennis to be involved in any of the mythology shenanigans. With so much going on with everyone else, I'm happy to have one or two characters outside all the DRAMA.

I do hope they flesh out Henry more.  We had a couple episodes that mentioned his backstory, but we've hardly seen him outside of being Nicky's helper.

[Camera One]

2 hours ago, Trini said:

I do hope they flesh out Henry more.  We had a couple episodes that mentioned his backstory, but we've hardly seen him outside of being Nicky's helper.

That's a really good point.  We've seen less of Henry's outside/personal/work life than even Evan, who gets his own scenes in the office.

I thought for a moment that they would make Henry a long-lost son of Russell Tan, or Pei-Lin's secret son she gave up.  But if they were going there, they could have teased something while Henry was in China during this episode.

I think part of the potential for this series is that there is still a lot to flesh out.  But as it is, the characters are so loosely drawn and simplistic that they aren't very interesting to think about, even though they are all likeable.

[tv echo]

Here's one media recap of this finale in a two-paragraph nutshell...

The Cast and Showrunners of ‘Kung Fu’ Recap Season 1’s Finale and Preview Season 2 in a Roundtable Chat
By Max Gao • 07/27/21 
https://observer.com/2021/07/kung-fu-season-1-finale-roundtable/ 

Quote

After engaging in an international game of cat-and-mouse for eight enchanted weapons, Nicky (Olivia Liang) and Zhilan (Yvonne Chapman) returned to the battlegrounds of their fateful first encounter to access an ancient forge of 变革 (biàn gé), the green-glowing force that powers the ancient weapons and could cause great destruction if ever wielded by one person. When they discover that the last sorcerer has taken the source of biàn gé to a remote mountainside, the two archnemeses — along with Nicky’s boyfriend, Henry (Eddie Liu) — race to the sorcerer’s side, only to discover that she has been stabbed by Russell Tan (Kee Chan), a wealthy and powerful businessman who hopes that all of the power will return to the weapons.

Instead, the energy possesses both Nicky and Zhilan, knocking both of them out and placing them in an alternate universe where biàn gé — which is Chinese for “transformation” — does not exist. What ultimately ensues when they both wake up from an emotional conversation with Pei-Ling (Vanessa Kai) is another death-defying battle, in which Nicky gains the upper hand and releases biàn gé back out into the world. But when she is given the opportunity to kill Zhilan, who insists that she has nothing — and no one — left after sacrificing everything to wield biàn gé, Nicky walks away, showcasing the contrast between two young women who walked similar, but divergent paths.

 

Edited July 28, 2021 by tv echo

[Quark]

I've just finished watching this series. Overall, it was entertaining, the cast are very attractive and the fight scenes were great.

The acting was pretty mediocre, especially from the lead actress. The actress playing Althea was probably the best of the bunch.