S02.E10: Wolf's Breath, Dragon Fire

[paigow]

SEASON FINALE:

Sunny faces the toughest showdown of his life; Bajie's loyalties are tested to their limits.

[SimoneS]

Very good finale. Damn, I didn't think that Veil would die. She went out a warrior. Sunny and Veil's reunion was so sweet and romantic. At least, they had that moment before the end.  

Sunny slicing and dicing Quinn's clippers was such a blood bath. I cannot believe that they kept coming. I (and everyone with a brain) would have gotten the hell out of there. This is always the most unbelievable part of these good guy vs. bad guy confrontations.

It was so unbelievable that Quinn could have lasted that long in the fight with Sunny. I fully expected Quinn to get up and kill Sunny when he was reuniting with Veil and Henry so of course, he had to get up from his second mortal wound and grab Veil. Unfortunately, Quinn will likely magically be alive next season because he never will die.

Eh, I knew that Bajie wasn't dead. I am chalking up Bajie's agility to magic. He was pretty brave. I thought Nick Frost was pretty funny this episode. Where is that building he went to? The cliffs and view were gorgeous. So the compass and the book were part of a sequence to signal Azra using a satellite. I expect that won't end well. 

Yay to Lydia for saving herself from Quinn's clippers. Maybe she will reunite with Sunny. 

Again, not surprise that Tilda isn't dead. I am glad that Tilda's girlfriend came to rescue her after messing up last week. 

Edited May 22, 2017 by SimoneS

[KaleyFirefly]

I hated that ending. NO WAY could Quinn have survived, what is it now, THREE run-throughs with a sword? Just...no. And Sunny didn't cut off his head? No.

[Stardancer Supreme]

Me: Sunshine. Make sure Quinn is dead. Please. Make. Sure. Quinn. Is. Dead. This. Time.  Sunny! Make sure... Dammit Sunny!

Season 3 will be fire.  Tilda is alive, Bajie just sent signals to god knows what, and now Waldo might be Baron of something.

We'd probably have to wait nine months for the next season, too!  

[FlowerofCarnage]

Jesus! That fight...I can only imagine how deadly Quinn was in his prime.

Dammit! I wanted Veil to be the one to take out Quinn but not die in the process. 

[paigow]

If the ocean / lake is that close to the Badlands - i.e. a tank of motorcycle gas - why is the River King so powerful? Azra is supposed to be on the river? Why is the radio station away from the river?

[ratSenoL]

Well that was quite a left turn at the end!  I wish I had time to go back and watch all the episodes for clues about Azra to see how they lead to that last scene.  (Can Baji turn the power back on?) I'm try to remember anything other than the Widow's untranslated book, Baji's compass, and the magazine picture.

I'm glad we got the payoff of Sunny and Veil's reunion, but I've had a feeling that Veil wouldn't survive ever since she had to kill Edgar earlier in the season.  

The fight scene with Quinn definitely required a level of suspension of disbelief.  I kept having to remind myself that Quinn was once a formidable clipper who was able to rise to Baron.  Since we never saw the guy work out, it's difficult to swallow that his skills remained on par with Sunny's.

Edited May 22, 2017 by ratSenoL
inserting Edgar's name

[sugarbaker design]

5 minutes ago, paigow said:

i.e. a tank of motorcycle gas

For all we know Bajie could've been on the road for a week, siphoning gas as needed.

[paigow]

What is happening with the weather? Sunny drives up to Underground Quinn in snow, but the ground is soft enough for Lydia to dig her own grave? Or are those blossoms falling to the ground?

[Shriekingeel]

11 hours ago, KaleyFirefly said:

I hated that ending. NO WAY could Quinn have survived, what is it now, THREE run-throughs with a sword? Just...no. And Sunny didn't cut off his head? No.

And not just a sword, a sword with *chain links* on it. 

[that one guy]

Bajie! Always so reliable with the save by flying axe from stage right! Where were you, man? As soon as I saw the chair was empty, I though you were going to show up out of nowhere with a timely axe to Quinn's head. Instead? You were stealing Sunny's motorcycle to go "save the world." You've been waiting to send that signal for 20 years. You couldn't wait 10 more minutes? I'm starting to understand what the Widow's been trying to tell people about you. Affable, useful, a cunning ally, but not really that dependable. About equally likely to show up at the nick of time and save the day, and to steal your stuff and run out on you.

So glad Tilda's not dead. Not just because I like Tilda, but because killing her would make the Widow irredeemable, and that would make her a less interesting character. Having said that, my biggest disappointment was that MK and the Widow didn't get their powers back. I really thought the whole season was set up for the Widow to try to save the day with her powers, really meaning to set things right, and to tragically kill somebody instead (Veil, Waldo, Odessa, somebody). That's how I would have ended the season, anyway.

Because everyone else ended up being connected, I'm gonna be the first one to guess that Bajie was sending a text to Minerva's missing dad. It was his book, right? I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess he'll be a British character actor who can pick up the scenery-chewing mantle dropped by Marton Csokas. Ciaran Hands would be perfect.

[polyhymnia]

15 hours ago, KaleyFirefly said:

I hated that ending. NO WAY could Quinn have survived, what is it now, THREE run-throughs with a sword? Just...no. And Sunny didn't cut off his head? No.

Seriously - no way after Quinn survived the last time they fought would Sunny not have just cut off his head to make sure.  It sort of cheapened the rest of the scene for me.

[Netfoot]

ALL IS LOST.  SEND HELP.

But who is sending the message and who is receiving it?

Quin had better not survive two through-and-throughs from Sunny's sword, especially (as noted by @Shriekingeel), one with keyrings attached to it's spine! (I once tried to attach rings to the spine of a blade, but after burning out two drill bits without penetrating the hardened steel of the blade, I gave up on the idea.  Still have the blade today, complete with a tiny dimple where my blade-drilling failed.)

I was rather expecting (and hoping) that Quinn's end would come at the hands of Lydia, wielding the sword Sunny gave her.  Cruel show! Not to give Sunny & Veil a little more time together...

[Ed McCauley]

None of the Tilda-Widow animus from the previous week made a lot of sense from a writing standpoint, but I’m wondering why they initially moved the Widow towards being a tragic but enlightened character mid-season only to return her to a cold-hearted, well, you know, for the last 2 shows. It’s almost like the writers sensed that some fans were starting to wonder who the central character of the show really was (and that it wasn’t turning out to be Sunny), so they needed to make some changes fast to shore up his hero status.

Sunny, as a character, just wasn’t so interesting when his only goal was to save his family, but now that has been accomplished (sort of, he obviously saved who he wanted to), perhaps he’ll have something more interesting to do next season. The real problem is that I don’t think Daniel Wu is that dynamic of an actor (not fighter), but perhaps it’s just the writing. The real problem is that the character who they wanted to be central to everything, M.K., is just terrible. Daniel Wu is Olivier next to Aramis Knight.

The ending begs some great geography questions. We have seen snippets of plantation lands representative of the U.S. deep South (Louisiana in reality), the wall at the border of the badlands that had a sign “Mexsol” on it, suggesting a possible (ancient) U.S./Mexico border crossing point, the hotel/gift shop that M.K., and Ava found that was in an area that hinted of the U.S. pacific northwest, and now Bajie comes to a high promontory coastal area that looks like something out a James Bond film. Except, exactly where would this be since it’s been established that this is ancient North America and mostly in the United States, and it doesn’t fit anything that would be close to the other areas already established?  It was a beautiful closing teaser shot, but why tie in to real America (Wired magazine, anyone?) if you are just making up everything else?

Last questions: They should probably let Bajie die off, but they probably will have the “Asrans” “rescue” him. It probably won’t be the good type of rescue. I’m guessing Lydia doesn’t come back as a regular, but she might get an episode or two to finish off her story line. Where’s Jade? Did Quinn kill her off? She shouldn’t return either. It looks like Odessa may become more important, but they may sacrifice her quickly to preserve a possible Tilda/M.K. pairing.

[sugarbaker design]

9 minutes ago, Ed McCauley said:

Where’s Jade?

She was exiled.

10 minutes ago, Ed McCauley said:

Except, exactly where would this be since it’s been established that this is ancient North America and mostly in the United States,

Isn't it future North America?

[FlowerofCarnage]

46 minutes ago, Ed McCauley said:

None of the Tilda-Widow animus from the previous week made a lot of sense from a writing standpoint, but I’m wondering why they initially moved the Widow towards being a tragic but enlightened character mid-season only to return her to a cold-hearted, well, you know, for the last 2 shows. It’s almost like the writers sensed that some fans were starting to wonder who the central character of the show really was (and that it wasn’t turning out to be Sunny), so they needed to make some changes fast to shore up his hero status.

Sunny, as a character, just wasn’t so interesting when his only goal was to save his family, but now that has been accomplished (sort of, he obviously saved who he wanted to), perhaps he’ll have something more interesting to do next season. The real problem is that I don’t think Daniel Wu is that dynamic of an actor (not fighter), but perhaps it’s just the writing. The real problem is that the character who they wanted to be central to everything, M.K., is just terrible. Daniel Wu is Olivier next to Aramis Knight.

The ending begs some great geography questions. We have seen snippets of plantation lands representative of the U.S. deep South (Louisiana in reality), the wall at the border of the badlands that had a sign “Mexsol” on it, suggesting a possible (ancient) U.S./Mexico border crossing point, the hotel/gift shop that M.K., and Ava found that was in an area that hinted of the U.S. pacific northwest, and now Bajie comes to a high promontory coastal area that looks like something out a James Bond film. Except, exactly where would this be since it’s been established that this is ancient North America and mostly in the United States, and it doesn’t fit anything that would be close to the other areas already established?  It was a beautiful closing teaser shot, but why tie in to real America (Wired magazine, anyone?) if you are just making up everything else?

Last questions: They should probably let Bajie die off, but they probably will have the “Asrans” “rescue” him. It probably won’t be the good type of rescue. I’m guessing Lydia doesn’t come back as a regular, but she might get an episode or two to finish off her story line. Where’s Jade? Did Quinn kill her off? She shouldn’t return either. It looks like Odessa may become more important, but they may sacrifice her quickly to preserve a possible Tilda/M.K. pairing.

The should answer your questions about the location of the Badlands

http://www.amc.com/shows/into-the-badlands/exclusives/the-world

[Canada]

How stupid are these people??  Make sure someone is dead before you turn your back on them!  Bajie is dead/disappeared because he didn't finish off the sidekick the first time.  Veil is dead because Sunny didn't finish off Quinn.  FFS, Quinn has even done this before.... Sunny thought he'd killed him but he was still alive.  Chop their head off, then walk away!!  Stupid.

[Gudzilla]

Dammit Sunny...double tap !

[that one guy]

The coastal area at the end was the first time it was obvious we were looking at Ireland rather than the US. Nothing in the are the AMC Website identifies as the Badlands (Parts of Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Southeastern Colorado, Oklahoma, North Texas) looks remotely like that. We can fanwank that the coastline has been radically transformed by the cataclysm that ended modern civilization, I guess. In addition, the characters move around too quickly for the map to be accurate - and how does the Widow hold her territory (basically all of Oklahoma) with what seems to be a few dozen ninjas and a couple hundred Clippers? My guess is the Badlands are smaller than they look at first blush, and the mountains on the map are new, a result of the cataclysm like the coastal cliffs, and are closer to the Mississippi than the actual Rockies are. Or maybe the river has shifted west?

29 minutes ago, FlowerofCarnage said:

None of the Tilda-Widow animus from the previous week made a lot of sense from a writing standpoint,

I didn't find the trajectory of their conflict that difficult to follow. Essentially the Widow is Stalin and Tilda is Trotsky. (Waldo is Bukharin?) The Widow is pursuing a policy of "Socialism in One Country" - she has established a Sanctuary and freed the Cogs in a certain territory, and is acting to consolidate control over that territory by whatever means necessary - defeating enemies on the battlefield when possible, securing the borders through alliances with non-revolutionary allies (Quinn) when practical. Tilda wants a doctrine of "Permanent Revolution," and demands that revolutionary forces support the workers' struggle everywhere. So when the Widow spares the abusive Clippers as possible future allies, Tilda kills them. Tilda cannot accept trading Veil back to Quinn because Veil is a Cog and Quinn is a class enemy. The Widow believes that consolidating power in a limited territory is necessary or they'll all be killed. Tilda's not as concerned with self-preservation, and feels they've promised to fight for the Cogs and that's what they should do. Her willingness to die for the cause is pretty clear. She's betrayed by the Widow, not personally, but politically. It's tragic because personally they love each other, and there's actually a sound case to be made for either strategy. 

Tilda's right, though. The Widow's actions are driven more by her personal demons than her stated reasons. Quinn didn't appear to have many men, although they were repeatedly shown to be an effective and disciplined strike force. Politics more than might has been her strength - by the finale she appears to control about 2/3 of the Badlands, and it certainly looks like many of the other Barons' Clippers have joined her. Sacrificing the principles that have won people to her cause for momentary tactical advantage ends up being a huge unforced error. She loses her only ally at the same time she loses a potentially powerful asset in Sunny, she's losing the allegiance of her Butterflies including Tilda and Odessa, and alienating Waldo at the same time she wants to set him up as a Baron will inevitably set up another questionable ally she'll have to fight in the future. She fails to keep allies because she's afraid and doesn't trust anyone. Chucking a shuriken at Sunny's head after the suicide bombing was the single stupidest thing she's ever done. You can see the panic on her face before she does it - he knows she betrayed Veil, she doesn't know how he'll react, and she makes a sloppy attempt to kill him just in case he attacks her (he probably wouldn't, it wouldn't help his cause. He'd still rather attack Quinn with an army than without one). 

Anyway, the split is caused by politics and the Widow's paranoia, not by the characters' personal relationship. Which is tragic - one glowing review praised the scene for never forgetting that it was about the end of the most important relationship in these characters' lives. I wish I remembered where I read that. But I think it was the best scene of the season, not just the fight but the writing, acting etc. and the finale paled a little bit by comparison. It was a classic Game of Thrones style season, where Episode 9 was the climax and Episode 10 set up the next year. The big Quinn/Sunny smackdown didn't have the same resonance, because Quinn and Sunny haven't seen each other since the last time Sunny ran him through with a sword, and they haven't even been at odds this season because Quinn thought Sunny was dead until Episode 8. Sunny hasn't seen Veil all season either, so the tragic reunion was a little muted as well. Neither had the emotional heft of the Tilda/Widow fight, because the entire season led up to that one. 

[Kimmel77]

Quinn's fighting style went up a notch; didn't think he could or would pull off a double high-kick like that, and then the movement on the beam was sweet.

As for Sonny not finishing off Quinn when he lay on the ground after two clear stabs through the chest and significant impact trauma, that was when I knew Veil was due to die. Anyone else would have stabbed Quinn several times in the back and watched him bleed out for good measure.

The finale was a bit of tease with several characters near death but brought back. For me, Tilda should have died and would have served as a decent mental haunting for The Widow throughout season three. I find it lazy writing that the second in- command defects and will ultimately become the Widow's downfall. And its getting annoying how Quinn's wife (cannot remember her name) remains alive after having no defensive skills (ha, i guess survival is one).

This Azzra plot needs to be revealed now. Initially I enjoyed imagining and wondering what the place was but i'm tired of getting teased without much allusion.

[Destiny74]

On 5/21/2017 at 10:11 PM, KaleyFirefly said:

I hated that ending. NO WAY could Quinn have survived, what is it now, THREE run-throughs with a sword? Just...no. And Sunny didn't cut off his head? No.

That's exactly what I was telling at my TV...cut his damn head off!  He already lived through one "fatal" meeting with Sunny.  If I were Sunny I would've chopped his head off for good measure before I checked on Veil and Henry.  The stupidity!

[SimoneS]

@that one guy I agree with your analysis of the conflict between Tilda and the Widow. The Widow's biggest misstep was giving Veil and Henry to Quinn. Not only did it alienate Tilda and Waldo, but instead of having Sunny in her debt by giving them safe haven, she made him into an enemy. Even after he found out what she had done, she might have been able to salvaged a truce, but instead she panicked and threw the shuriken at Sunny. Now she has M.K. and is foolishly attempting to harness his dormant gift. She couldn't control her gift and it was taken from her so I don't know why she thinks that M.K. could control his if he got it back or if he could, why he would help her after all she has done. It is only a matter of time before Sunny comes to rescue him, putting her in more jeopardy. 

Ultimately, I see Sunny's only means of survival in the Badlands is to take Quinn's lands and reluctantly become the next Baron. He is far more likely to be the Baron that the Widow wishes she could be, if only because he has never craved that power.

Edited May 23, 2017 by SimoneS

[paigow]

On the AMC map, the Armadillo eastern border is the Mississippi River... if that is where Bajie sent the message from, then when would the river flood over the giant cliffs on its banks????  

[johntfs]

1 hour ago, SimoneS said:

Ultimately, I see Sunny's only means of survival in the Badlands is to take Quinn's lands and reluctantly become the next Baron. He is far more likely to be the Baron that the Widow wishes she had been, if only because he has never craved that power.

I don't think Sunny will be a Baron, but he might end up finding Jade and supporting her to provide a safe place to raise Henry.

[Netfoot]

8 hours ago, paigow said:

On the AMC map, the Armadillo eastern border is the Mississippi River... if that is where Bajie sent the message from, then when would the river flood over the giant cliffs on its banks????  

It seems plain from that map that the Mississippi has hugely burst it's bank, probably caused by what ever "catastrophic disasters - some natural, some man-made" that virtually wiped out human society as we know it and brought about the feudal society we observe on the show.  (Some sort of tectonic movement perhaps?  Atomic war?  Comet strike?)  The map shows nothing but "swamped and flooded territory" (lots of thin horizontal lines) east of the holdings of Quinn and Broadmore.  All the territory to the east has been inundated.  The course of the old Mississippi can be seen a distance to the east of the current east coast.  So, I assume those giant cliffs are not supposed to represent any part of our present-day coastline.

Current east-coast territories are not shown on the map, so we can't tell whether they are also inundated or survive as separate islands/land-masses.  My knowledge of American physical geography is too skimpy for me to guess whether that part of the USA would be above water or not.  Except I note that close to Quinn's holdings the eastern area is more "flooded" whereas the further east you go the more "swampy" it becomes.  This might indicate a shallowing of the water as you go east, perhaps eventually leading to dry land?

[Bec]

I was yelling “double-tap!” and “cut his damn head off!” with everybody else here. Why don’t TV characters ever listen when I yell at them through the screen? Heh.

That coastline near the end reminds me of Newfoundland (I’ve been told Newfoundland looks a lot like Ireland). I don’t think Baijie is in Newfoundland, though.

How is Sunny going to do anything now that he has a baby to take care of?

[sugarbaker design]

36 minutes ago, Bec said:

How is Sunny going to do anything now that he has a baby to take care of?

Badlands Daycare!

[Ed McCauley]

3 hours ago, Bec said:

How is Sunny going to do anything now that he has a baby to take care of?

Anything such as feed that baby. My wife pointed out that Veil was breastfeeding that baby, and I don't think Sunny is equipped. Who's going to volunteer to be Henry's wet nurse? Walking Dead had the same problem with Judith, but they schluffed it off by having Rick (or others) always find formula, and then they had her magically grow so, ostensibly, she could be eating on her own.

Edited May 23, 2017 by Ed McCauley

[SimoneS]

I am pretty confident that Sunny will run into Lydia soon enough and she will help out.

[paigow]

Lydia might not have much left in the tank....but Jade is a better candidate....

[johntfs]

I hate the death of Veil, but I suppose that means Sunny is single again.  Jade seems like a pretty decent person who kind of wants good things for the people under her care.  Kind of like The Widow but without the rhetoric.  It would be nice if she was with a man(or, hell, person) who wasn't a cowardly shit or otherwise a complete failure as a human being.  Actually, Jade would be cool with Waldo.  I think I now officially 'ship Sunny and The Widow.

I can't see Baije, because he's probably dead now because Nick Frost is almost certainly doing something else with Simon Pegg.

Edited May 23, 2017 by johntfs

[Ravenya003]

My feelings can be summed  up with a post I saw on Tumblr (paraphasing):

Me: Hey writers, you can literally chose to write about anything!

Writers: Hmmm... how about the billionth reiteration of sadman deadwife? Genius!

Not sure I'll be back for season three. When every character backstabs and betrays every other character with wild abandon, and one half of the only two people that had genuine devotion to each other is killed off, what's there to care about?

[SimoneS]

I thought that Jade was gone, but maybe she will be back with Veil out of the picture. Yet I cannot imagine 

I agree that Nick Frost will not likely be in season 3 because he will be doing projects with Simon Pegg.

[sugarbaker design]

Simon Pegg makes comedies, not epics.  I bet his film shoots last 6-8 weeks.  Plenty of time to work around the ITB schedule.

[johntfs]

Baiji still feels like a one-off character.  The last scene was pretty indicative of "dying alone at peace with accomplishing his goal."

Besides, this seems to be a set-up for new characters from the wider world.  Veil's gone, Rider's gone, surely to goodness Quinn is finally dead.  The Baronies are mostly gone now.  There's plenty of space opened up to bring in new stuff.

[sugarbaker design]

21 minutes ago, johntfs said:

There's plenty of space opened up to bring in new stuff.

Great time for contract renewal, from a producer's standpoint.  In addition to the dead character's above, Tilda, Lydia and Jade are all in badlands limbo.  The only sure things at this point, IMHO, are Sunny, MK, The Widow and Waldo.

[paigow]

Maybe there will be a time jump ... Old Baron Sunny with teen Regent Henry facing off against Baron Tilda/ MK...

[Doyounot]

Awesome episode the set up for next season and fight scenes were perfect! Scissors really?

I was worried 16 episodes would not be good for this show as with 10 they already had some stuff to me felt like filler (like sunnys dream). But azra could be good and sunny could do whatever now. It did suck she died but sick that she was the one to finally kill quinn. Hopefully they dont just spread out the fight scenes though.

[Bec]

Quinn better be really dead this time. No more miraculously coming back. I am sick of his schtick. Also, I would hate for Veil's sacrifice to be for nothing.

[that one guy]

I was sad to see Veil go. I pretty much suspected she would die all the way back when Nathaniel Moon told Sunny he would leave a trail of bodies between Sunny and his family, "and theirs will be the last." And I suspected she'd go out killing Quinn. But I guess I was a little let down by the way it went down? If she'd planned it instead of it just being a spur of the moment thing, it would have come off as more heroic. The situation just didn't seem hopeless enough to warrant her actions. I guess in part because Quinn was so beat up at that point, I could imagine her agreeing to the deal and then killing him 10 minutes later when he finally passed out from blood loss, you know? And still dying of brain cancer. This just seemed like a permanent solution to a temporary problem.

As for everyone who thinks Bajie's dead, obviously he's dead if Nick Frost is not available, but since the writers have indicated the show is a very loose adaptation of Journey to the West, and Bajie is one of the main characters of that novel, I think he'll be back if Frost wants to come back. The book's about a monk who goes on a quest, and the show has introduced one his four companions each season: Sunny (Sun Wukong the Monkey King) in Season 1 and Bajie (Zhu Bajie AKA "Pig:) in Season 2. I'm guessing there will be a new character added for Season 3, or maybe even one per 8 episode half season, who will be analogues for the other two guardians. Then they'll probably go on a quest to Azra, whatever that ends up being.  MK I think ends up being the main character, his active resistance to becoming a monk notwithstanding.

Thanks everybody for clearing up the map. Now that I can see that the Mississippi has flooded its banks and become a sea, and enlarged the map until I saw that Bartlesville OK is actually marked, it makes sense to me. The Widow's land is just the northeast quarter of Oklahoma, and the Badlands extend from the Texas Panhandle and Southwest Kansas (Chau) in the West to Southern Missouri and Northern Arkansas on the East. The Wall (the southern border) roughly folows the course of the Red River. It still defies logic how quickly our characters can travel across the Badlands, but the territory is only about 1/4 the size I thought it was, and doesn't include any of Louisiana or non-Panhandle Texas. Even so, Quinn's old territory looks to be at least 400 miles from top to bottom, and the Badlands as a whole about 700 miles east to west. I don't understand how people zip back and forth so quickly! Even in a car, it would take several hours to get from the Fort to the Widow's Manor and back. But judging how the seasons have changed, I guess travel days were just edited out, and events that appear on the show to take an afternoon really took a week. How the hell news of the Widow and Sunny teaming up got back to Quinn so quickly is beyond me, though. Do they have telegraphs or something? Carrier pigeons? Bajie found a sattelite dish, maybe the Barons have phone service somehow?

[johntfs]

2 hours ago, that one guy said:

maybe the Barons have phone service somehow?

Phones and telegraphs are both 19th century technology.  It's possible, though you'd think we'd have seen it by now.

[paigow]

In the old Beauty and the Beast TV series, the underground dwellers used Morse code on steam /water pipes to communicate. Maybe the Badlands has dedicated cogs using old oil pipelines to tap out messages.

[jhlipton]

On 5/21/2017 at 11:11 PM, KaleyFirefly said:

I hated that ending. NO WAY could Quinn have survived, what is it now, THREE run-throughs with a sword? Just...no. And Sunny didn't cut off his head? No.

I was part of the group that was yelling for Sunny to Finish Him!  With all of us raising a ruckus, it's surprising he didn't hear!!!

On 5/22/2017 at 9:38 AM, ratSenoL said:

Well that was quite a left turn at the end!  I wish I had time to go back and watch all the episodes for clues about Azra to see how they lead to that last scene.  (Can Baji turn the power back on?) I'm try to remember anything other than the Widow's untranslated book, Baji's compass, and the magazine picture.

"Here's a magazine with a painting of an imaginary city -- that proves Azra is real!!!!"  Whenever they show the Wired cover, I have to laffffffffffffffffffff!!!!

[millennium]

Abysmal finale.  Anticlimactic battle.  Stupid ending ("No, I won't make sure Quinn's really dead this time ...").  Not to mention Sunny carrying Henry off with no Pampers, no Beech Nut, and no breast milk ("Veil, don't die.  But if you do, where do you keep the diaper bag?")

[Assman]

Yeah dang what the hell...First the Widow is proving herself as just another baron, then Bajie ok, not getting into this one.  But the fact Sunny didn't lop off Quinn's head. That is so camp, using an old worn out movie trick of "ooops I forgot the most important detail" that ends up costing the protagonist dearly, seriously... Then there's Quinn's rhetoric, he's the only one for whom I have to turn captions ON because I can't hardly wnerstan'is sofspeesch load of bullshit he's constantly spewing. The man is sicker than sick, there's no way he'd have an army of followers even if he did promise them bullshit but enough is enough, this almost popular drama series keeps reeking of small plot excuses to keep the momentum of a slash-and-gore show going... The Abbots which I thought the world of at first (during the first showings) turn out to be more Star-War'esque midichlorian bullshit too.

Yeah, the KungFu's usually all right but I'm debating watching another season of what's turning out to be torturous wind-around drama.

[jhlipton]

2 hours ago, Assman said:

The Abbots which I thought the world of at first (during the first showings) turn out to be more Star-War'esque midichlorian bullshit too.

I hated the decision to make the Abbots, and especially the Master evil.  Yuck,

[KaleyFirefly]

1 hour ago, jhlipton said:

I hated the decision to make the Abbots, and especially the Master evil.  Yuck,

Because they had to give stupid MK a reason to leave the monastery and not continue his training. I know -- it's stupid. I basically don't care about the MK character, even less now that he's lost his powers.

On 5/26/2017 at 2:09 AM, jhlipton said:

"Here's a magazine with a painting of an imaginary city -- that proves Azra is real!!!!"  Whenever they show the Wired cover, I have to laffffffffffffffffffff!!!!

Yeah, I still don't get the whole Azra thing either, or the thing with the compass and the book.

[johntfs]

13 hours ago, jhlipton said:

I hated the decision to make the Abbots, and especially the Master evil.  Yuck,

Except there's no real reason to believe that they are evil.  They might be opposition, but they aren't evil opposition.  The Master finds people with the Black Eyes "gift" and brings them to the monastery to control that gift.  Because otherwise whenever they get a paper cut they murder the fuck out of everyone around him.  Those student that are unable or unwilling (including those trying to escape) are given the needle-treatment to render them "harmless."  It's a harsh but entirely reasonable thing to do given the situation.

[thuganomics85]

Damn, I know Quinn is tough, but being able to still stand after getting impaled twice was just a bit of a stretch to say the least.  After the first one, Sunny really should have just decapitated him and be done with it.  Alas, instead he gets Veil, and then Veil stabs herself and Quinn at the same time, killing them both.  At least I certainly hope so.  They better not suddenly resurrect Quinn again.  As much fun as it is watching Marton Csokas ham it up to the extreme, his character needs to be done with.

It's too bad about Veil, but I wasn't surprised over how underutilized she was used this season.  I'm guessing they'll try to pair up Sunny with someone else next season.  Maybe someone new, or they'll try something with a returning Jade for some reason.  Or maybe even Lydia.

I guess they're setting up The Widow to be the new main antagonist since she's basically admit she is going to imprison M.K., until they find a way to get his power back.  I wonder what her reaction will be when she finds out Tilda and Baije escaped and if she'll ever find out Waldo helped.

Did Baije die or did he just pass out?

Solid ending and I'm looking forward to the next season, assuming Quinn is actually dead, because I want to see some full-blown Team Sunny vs. Team Widow material, and not have him interfering.

[jhlipton]

15 hours ago, johntfs said:

Except there's no real reason to believe that they are evil.

I think that we're supposed to believe they're evil.  MK said so (and I think Bajie did as well).  So although I may think that helping those with The Gift learn to harness and use it, and that it's a Good Thing to remove it from those who can't or won't harness it, the narrative says otherwise (unless and until there's another turn-around, like they've done with Minerva).