S02.E06: Leopard Stalks in Snow

[formerlyfreedom]

Sunny and Bajie meet a friend, but must also confront an enemy from their past; the Widow makes an unholy alliance.

[Stardancer Supreme]

I. Love. This. Show.

So many layers to this onion. 

I was happy Veil got to the Widow, but then I remembered that Veil was the one who gave Tilda that poison. Doh!  The Widow popped her right back to Quinn. Damn.  But what happened to Lydia? Quinn doesn't take to kindly to people who fail to kill him.

Sunny got his boy back and a whole lot of trouble with him.  So now MK can't hulk out? Figures. Back to the Master! Who knew Bajie was one of the acolytes (I don't know what to call them)? So it was possible to escape the compound alive. 

[JohnSmithSensei]

1 hour ago, Stardancer Supreme said:

But what happened to Lydia? Quinn doesn't take to kindly to people who fail to kill him.

Lydia hunted Quinn and took her shot at him when he offered it. Ryder stabbed Quinn in the back and cowered at every chance Quinn offered to take him out up front.

[SimoneS]

I cannot believe that Sunny and M.K. are still on the other side of the wall. At this rate, they won't be rescuing Veil and the baby until next season. At least, Sunny and M.K. are reunited. I was surprised that they didn't hug each other. Guess, they are too manly for that.

Frankly, both Quinn and the Widow need to go. His craziness and her self-righteousness are downright annoying. The obvious plot development would be Sunny and M.K. would return with the Master and her monks and kill all the barons including Quinn and the Widow. Probably why the writers are stalling their return. They cannot figure out a reason why they wouldn't kill them all.

I am sure that M.K.'s "gift" isn't gone. He is just traumatized by learning that he might have killed his mother I expect Sunny will get more than just recovery from the Master.

So Azra is a tech city. Odd. Is the gift some type of medical experiment? 

Edited April 24, 2017 by SimoneS

[Ed McCauley]

I enjoyed this episode because so much happened but, at the same time, I think it sort of went off the rails. So Bajie’s special now? Can’t say I saw that coming or that I welcome that revelation. The series has suddenly moved away from a point where the “special” people are special because, in part, there are so few of them to now there is almost a whole underclass of special people, a la the Divergent series. I will miss Ava. I thought she was being set up to be part of a romantic triangle with M.K and Tilda, but, alas, it was not meant to be.

I had totally forgotten the thing about Veil and the poison, but I was still a bit surprised that the Widow turned her back over to Quinn so easily. But I don’t really like Veil at this point anymore, and will be fine if they kill her off just as Sunny finally catches up to everyone.

The sprinkled in bits showing a pre-collapse American society were interesting but a bit jarring at the same time since the series hasn’t really been trying to play up an angle that this is a post-collapse America. Little seems to have survived outside of the language and some bits of technology (but a paper issue of Wired does?). And now we have to ask, did society collapse so quickly that Christmas decorations would still be up? And why would they still be up anyway? Wouldn’t’ time or looters (since apparently there ARE so many people on the other side of the wall) have destroyed that place by now?

Cover your heart, Sunny! Cover your heart!

[that one guy]

So this episode had to be a high point for me. One thing I love about these shows with comparatively short seasons is that there's not much filler, and SO MUCH CRAZY SHIT goes down in an episode. I DID suspect Bajie used to be an Abbott - in fact (pure crazy speculation here) noting the tinge of red in his beard I suspect he's Minerva's brother. Definitely metaphorically - Bajie and the big badass monk greeted each other as "brother," but possibly biologically as well.

Sunny needs to go home now, if for no other reason than all sides in the Badlands seem to remember him fondly, while he has managed to piss off every major player in the outlying territories and not kill any of them. The Engineer, Nos and the Mechs, the Abbots, and presumably Nathaniel Moon all want to kill his ass at this point. The only person who has liked him was that one hooker's dad, and then he goes and tell him "It was my fault she got stabbed." At least Quinn, the Widow, and Jade would each probably offer him a job on sight right now, although he did manage to stab two of them on the way out of town. I want to send that guy a copy of "How to Win Friends and Influence People." He's doing it wrong.

3 hours ago, Ed McCauley said:

The sprinkled in bits showing a pre-collapse American society were interesting but a bit jarring at the same time since the series hasn’t really been trying to play up an angle that this is a post-collapse America. Little seems to have survived outside of the language and some bits of technology (but a paper issue of Wired does?). And now we have to ask, did society collapse so quickly that Christmas decorations would still be up? And why would they still be up anyway? Wouldn’t’ time or looters (since apparently there ARE so many people on the other side of the wall) have destroyed that place by now?

Everything on this show is Rule of Cool. On Miller and Gough's other post-apocalyptic show with swords, the Shannara Chronicles, they did the same thing, and it was annoying. There was a fight in a buried high school gym that still had prom decorations up, a ruined truck that was being used as a planter that still had rubber tires intact, and a party with a functioning turntable. Allegedly this was hundreds of years after the apocalypse, and yet paper and rubber hadn't decayed. They're doing the same thing here - I have magazines that are 20 years old and in worse shape than the ones in the hotel. How does the roof not leak and destroy everything. But while it bugged my on Shannara, I'm cool with it on Badlands because I had already suspended my disbelief over the functioning automobiles, and also the Christmas party fight scene was made of awesome. The monk that turned the lights on with her magic dark chi touch! Reindeer and Christmas music!

I'll miss Ava, if she's actually gone. The Master could use dark chi powers to heal people, or at least herself. Could MK figure out how to do it? But I think she's toast, because most of our characters are in the dark about what's really going on, and Ava knew stuff.

Ah, my poor Widow. She's definitely the character I identify with the most. She didn't want to be Baron but presumably after killing her husband she could either rule or be killed. She has no idea what she's doing and is increasingly desperate to keep everyone alive. The way she said "I can't" to Quinn when she knew she didn't have a choice was heart rending. She sounded absolutely defeated. At the beginning of the season when I heard Ally Ioannides say Tilda would increasingly have doubts about  her mother I though it would be because  the Widow was too murdery. In fact TIlda's the hardliner and is having doubts about her mother's compromises, which is a way more interesting choice. 

I don't know why the rest of the world isn't obsessing over this show the way I am.

[johntfs]

Quinn clearly believes the Widow is hot and is right about that.

He also thinks he can "tame" her and he is completely wrong.

Tilda getting a possible girlfriend doesn't really surprise me.  M.K. always did seem a little girly...

[KaleyFirefly]

This ep was a mixed bag for me. I did not like Nick Frost's character turning out to be an ex-Abbot. That made no sense. Why couldn't he get himself out of the mines then, if he'd had these superpowers all along?

I was frustrated that we watched how many episodes of Veil trying to escape Quinn, only to see her finally escape, and then be turned right over to Quinn again. Ugh. Can they just kill off Quinn already? It's a case of keeping a character around too long just because people like the actor (we'll call it Sylar Syndrome, for those who remember "Heroes.")

And can I also say how much I HATE HATE that trope of "woman tries to kill man, man kisses her, woman melts in his arms." UGH. Lydia kissing Quinn made no sense. He killed her son (and mistreated her in other ways as well.) Then suddenly she's all in love with him again? Stupid, and insulting to strong women.

I also don't understand why MK wanted to leave the Abbot sanctuary. It was a beautiful, peaceful, safe place, which is hard to find in this post-apocalyptic world, and they were teaching him how to use/control his power, which would be really useful. So is he just an idiot for running away?

That being said, I did love the visual aspect of the fight in the hotel with the Christmas lights. It made for a pretty backdrop for all the ass-kicking. Honestly I mostly watch this show just to see Sunny (and the Widow) kicking ass.

Edited April 27, 2017 by KaleyFirefly
adding a paragraph

[SimoneS]

1 hour ago, KaleyFirefly said:

And can I also say how much I HATE HATE that trope of "woman tries to kill man, man kisses her, woman melts in his arms." UGH. Lydia kissing Quinn made no sense. He killed her son (and mistreated her in other ways as well.) Then suddenly she's all in love with him again? Stupid, and insulting to strong women.

It is some men's sick fantasies. 

Quote

I also don't understand why MK wanted to leave the Abbot sanctuary. It was a beautiful, peaceful, safe place, which is hard to find in this post-apocalyptic world, and they were teaching him how to use/control his power, which would be really useful. So is he just an idiot for running away?

I get why M.K. wanted to leave. Initially, he wanted to find his mother which was his same motivation to escape Quinn's clutches. Even if his mother is really dead, like he told his Ava, he was still worried about his friends (Sonny, Veil, and Tilda) and that they need him, which in fact they do.

[johntfs]

3 hours ago, KaleyFirefly said:

So is he just an idiot for running away?

Yes.

Well, there was some weird, hinky shit that he saw happening with the other dude with the needles, but generally speaking if the question is "Is M.K. being an idiot" the answer is almost always "Yes."

[Rambler]

OMG That monk totally knew the secret Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique! Who knew monks from the future were such fans of Kill Bill. I hope Sunny didn't take five steps afterwards.

[jhlipton]

On 4/23/2017 at 11:14 PM, Stardancer Supreme said:

But what happened to Lydia? Quinn doesn't take to kindly to people who fail to kill him.

Lydia didn't fail for lack of trying.  That made her "hot" to Quinn.

9 hours ago, KaleyFirefly said:

I also don't understand why MK wanted to leave the Abbot sanctuary. It was a beautiful, peaceful, safe place, which is hard to find in this post-apocalyptic world, and they were teaching him how to use/control his power, which would be really useful. So is he just an idiot for running away?

As @johntfs said, if the question is "Is M.K. being an idiot" the answer is almost always "Yes."  He saw what looked like a terrible procedure and just assumed the worst.

[sugarbaker design]

23 hours ago, KaleyFirefly said:

And can I also say how much I HATE HATE that trope of "woman tries to kill man, man kisses her, woman melts in his arms." UGH. Lydia kissing Quinn made no sense. He killed her son (and mistreated her in other ways as well.) Then suddenly she's all in love with him again? Stupid, and insulting to strong women.

We don't know what's going on in Lydia's mind, she could be concocting some diabolical plot of revenge for all we know.

[thuganomics85]

Kind of bummed that they already killed off the Abbott played by Cung Le, because I liked how he was such a unstoppable force in last season's finale, that he gave Sunny the biggest ass-kicking he ever got.  Rather it had ended with Sunny earning his victory, instead of getting an assist from Baije of all people.  Still, it looks like the Abbott gave Sunny a "parting gift", so he'll get some form of revenge from the grave!

Normally, I should be thrilled that two main characters are finally reunited, but since I'm so bored with M.K., I could care less.  And, of course, it friend ends up dying instead.

Lydia is now captured by Quinn and... is still attracted to him?  I guess she really didn't love Ryder!  I almost feel bad for him.

I totally forgot Veil tried to have Tilda poison the Widow, so I guess that's an easy way for The Widow to give her back to Quinn, in order to solidify their new alliance.  Either way, I suspect the Widow was going to find some way to agree, because she really does need to make this alliance.  But I wonder how long she can keep this going, before some of her own people turn on her.

[jhlipton]

16 hours ago, thuganomics85 said:

Normally, I should be thrilled that two main characters are finally reunited, but since I'm so bored with M.K., I could care less.  And, of course, it friend ends up dying instead.

I would so much rather have Ava (I think her name was) as Sonny's companion than M.K. (does M.K. stand for Mind Knumbing???)

[Canada]

Did Sunny die at the end there?

[that one guy]

On 4/27/2017 at 6:39 PM, Rambler said:

Who knew monks from the future were such fans of Kill Bill.

Same fight coordinator, I believe. Huan-Chiu Ku AKA Master Dee Dee.

[millennium]

On 4/24/2017 at 6:17 AM, SimoneS said:

 

Frankly, both Quinn and the Widow need to go. His craziness and her self-righteousness are downright annoying. The obvious plot development would be Sunny and M.K. would return with the Master and her monks and kill all the barons including Quinn and the Widow. Probably why the writers are stalling their return. They cannot figure out a reason why they wouldn't kill them all.

 

Quinn and the Widow are. the. show.

Sunny feels like a forgotten character and M.K. is almost as annoying as Robin the Boy Wonder.

Martin Csokas is so over the top as Quinn that even if you hate him you can't help but love the character.  I can't imagine the show without him.   His craziness is offset by the Widow's low-key menace, doomed idealism and deadly skills.  

While great in battle scenes, Sunny is kind of vanilla compared to the other two.   I came to this show believing Sunny was the main character but Quinn and the Widow have stolen it right out from under him.    They are controlling the primary plotline; Sunny, meanwhile, is wandering through Mad Max land, from one contest to another, with no end in sight.