We are at the midway point for this series (only six episodes) and this week’s show revved it up and has started to converge several of the story lines into one complicated plot.

The episode starts at a run with Baron Quinn and his clippers (assassins) invading the Widow’s mansion. It is a bloody awesome battle and the cherry on top is the fight between the two antagonists, Quinn and the Widow. It ends up a stalemate when Quinn goes down due to his brain tumor and the Widow runs to fight another day as Sunny shows up. I can’t wait to see these two battle it out again, but so many want Quinn dead I don’t know if the Widow will get another chance.

The Widow and her people escape, as they are we see MK (who is now Sunny’s shadow) steal a book from the Widows office that has the city of Azra on its cover, just like the ones we see he and Sunny owned before. He also is caught by Tilda helping the others in her house out, but she lets him go. Now that the mansion has been overrun they all go to a safe house that not even Tilda knew about, although I doubt her mother lets her in on many secrets as she is treated more like a goon than a daughter.

We go back to Baron Quinn’s place then and find out that Ryder has still not woke up from last week’s injuries. His mother and his girlfriend/Quinn’s new wife Jade are very worried and finally the girlfriend goes to Veil to ask her for help. We find out that the two used to be (are?) best friends and Veil is assured that Jade is still the same girl she grew up with. Not sure what that means other than to establish that these two are friendly. Perhaps she will be a sympathizer and help Veil, Sunny and MK leave the badlands? We’ll have to wait and find out.

Veil although happy to see Jade doesn’t want to help Ryder. She doesn’t want to be involved with that household, especially after Quinn murdered her adoptive parents and wanting to keep her precarious situation with Sunny from being found out. Still it’s one of those offers that can’t be refused so Veil, who is smart, kind and good (a rare combo in this series so far) goes to help. Lydia, Ryder’s mother doesn’t want her help though when she sees that Veil intends to drill a hole into Ryder’s skull to relieve pressure on his brain. She eventually agrees, but only because she fears his death and has Jade’s reassurances.

We get a spectacularly creepy scene afterwards with Quinn thanking Veil. I didn’t know if he was going to be sincere, cut her throat, proclaim he knew about her affair with Sunny or try to make her his new wife right then and there. It was so creepy on so many levels. Kudos to Marton Csokas.
Sunny’s face at seeing Veil in Quinn’s mansion is also worth a mention and it allowed their storyline to progress a bit as you can tell that he very much worries over Veil, even if he proclaims to be a bad man sometimes. I hope we see more of these two together. I complained before that Veil was the only woman character without any agency of her own, but I think I was premature in the complaint. She is becoming more and more involved and I think she and not just the fact she’s pregnant will be a central part of the story soon.

I didn’t think Quinn would top his creepiness scene with Veil, but boy was I wrong. He proceeds then to do it with Jade in the very next room while his wife is still holding vigil over their possibly still dying son in the very next room. The door is open by the way and they aren’t quiet. So yeah, just wow on that.

Sunny goes to visit Veil and they are interrupted by MK barraging in and being a c-block. He likes asking Veil all sorts of questions and Sunny finally orders him out. Veil teases that MK will make good practice for their own kid one day. It was a very sweet scene.

We next get some great scenes between Sunny and MK. Last episode left off with them agreeing to be comrades, helping each other out of the badlands. This week we see that while they are both sincere in that promise they have very different ideas about how to make that happen. They will have to learn to trust each other and compromise. We see this strife some when MK complains that Sunny is being too slow in teaching him how to fight. It is part typical teenager vs adult and also not understanding that half of fighting is using your brain and not your muscles. Sunny even shoves MK off a ledge once to make his point which felt a bit extreme (What if he bled Sunny? Don’t do that!), but definitely got his point across. Sunny tries to explain again about how MK only sees what’s in front of him and not the entire picture. MK isn’t buying it though so finally Sunny takes him to Waldo.

Waldo is the character we met last episode that gave the toast ‘to freedom…and cages.’ We find out that he helped train Sunny and no we don’t find out why he’s in a wheelchair. It’s irrelevant anyways as Sunny tells MK he’ll teach him to fight if he can land one blow on Waldo. At first MK balks at hitting a man that is seemingly defenseless, but is goaded into it by Waldo; “I won’t even use my legs!” was the best line in the series so far. As I’m sure we all knew, but still very much enjoyed, MK proceeds to fail at even laying a finger on Waldo, let alone an actual blow.

Ryder finally wakes up and he immediately tattles on who set him up, so Quinn orders Sunny to go and talk to the ‘doll’ and get some answers from her. He goes and takes MK with him and orders him to go up to the balcony if anything should happen. MK of course is distracted and doesn’t do it at all because Tilda shows up. She punches him in the face for joining with Quinn, not understanding that he did it so he and Sunny can escape. This episode should have been called everyone is done with MK today. Tilda seems to forgive him without much explanation though, why she has such a soft spot for MK I’m not sure yet. Does she like him? Does she see that he is a good person who has to make seemingly bad choices to survive like herself? Maybe both?

Sunny and the doll get into a fight because of course she is only playing at being a doll and is in reality one of the Widows own henchwomen. They do some major matrix stuff jumping off buildings, but Sunny eventually corners her. She refuses to talk and refuses to be taken back to Quinn to be more than likely tortured for information and then killed anyways, so she speeds up the process by throwing herself head first off the balcony.
I wanted to complain here that MK didn’t do anything to help Sunny or even do as he was told, but I was more struck by the fact that neither did Tilda. Tilda didn’t do one thing to help her mother’s henchwoman out. Why? Did she not want to be discovered by Sunny and possibly killed/captured? That seems the obvious answer, but she is her mother’s top assassin, fighting is par for the course and with her and the doll fighting together, I’m sure they could have gotten away as Sunny had no real back up. Yet she didn’t, instead she told her mother that she was sorry, but Sunny had already got to her. Maybe Tilda doesn’t agree with her mother’s choices, but feels she has to for the time being? What other choice would she have other than to go with it? None really. I have also been wondering how Tilda feels about the fact the Widow killed her husband, who was probably Tilda’s father. I’ve seen a few people assume that he was probably just like Quinn and while I’m sure he was tough, ambitious and sometimes ruthless, it doesn’t mean he was a bad person like Quinn is. It is clearly stated that he (and the other barons) don’t want war again and that is the exact opposite of what the Widow wants. I hope we find out more about it soon.

We go back to Quinn’s mansion where Ryder and his mother have a conversation where she tells him that he is on his own now and that she has done enough for him. She eludes to when (and I missed the exact wording) someone or group had him and how she fought to get him back. I’m wondering if this has to do with that messed up foot he has possibly. Send the baron a few toes to let him know they were serious about their demands kind of deal? Ryder of course takes this terribly and I’m torn between wanting to give him a hug and punching him in his admittedly pretty face. He is being a douche, but he’s a douche for reasons! I’m hoping the next few episodes that we will watch Ryder grow and become much more ruthless and conniving to take his father’s place. While he no longer has his mother’s support, he also doesn’t have her to hold him back anymore either.

The last scenes I’ll talk about is where Sunny and MK go separately and make new alliances with people. MK goes to Veil and asks her to read the book he stole. They are interrupted by Quinn coming to visit (so creepy again). Sunny goes out into the night and meets with a blonde woman named Zypher who is aligned with a third Baron. She too talks about how they don’t want war and asks Sunny to kill Quinn. Sunny refuses for reasons that baffle me. I suppose it is part of this bigger picture he was talking to MK about, but Quinn dying would make it much easier for them to leave too. I wonder if Sunny still feels some loyalty to the Baron because he did save him as a child or if he is just waiting for the perfect opportunity. Zypher also alludes to a past possible relationship with Sunny. She can step right off a cliff if that’s true. Veil all the way!
Overall I liked this episode, I thought it had good pace despite a lot of things happening. Plot lines are starting to come together and relationships are deepening and becoming more complicated. I can’t wait to see Quinns descent as his brain tumor gets worse, Ryder’s new plots to take over and what the Widow has planned next because I know she has to have something still up her sleeves and of course Sunny and MK trying to figure a way out of it all.

The next episode comes on December 6th at 10:00 pm on AMC. Here is a sneak peek at Two Tigers Subdue Dragons:

What did you think of this episode? Tell me in the comments below or let us know on our twitter @thenerdygirlexp or on my personal account, @quietlikeastorm. We’re quite active and love talking with everyone, so give us a follow!