Into The Badlands “Monkey Leaps Through Mist”

Sunny sat out the previous episode, so if you were worried he would have a whole episode where he doesn’t get into a massive fight with, like, eighty guys or something for two episodes in a row, then you clearly don’t get what Into the Badlands is all about.

See, there’s stuff a’brewin’ in and out of the Badlands.  Ryder may be dead, but that just means Jade is now the Baron, and we get to see a Baron Initiation, so kudos to the show for coming up with customs and the like for a series as batspit insane as this one.

Her first act is to go to Lydia to see if she knows where Quinn might be hiding, and Lydia will help out on one condition:  Lydia gets to kill Quinn herself.

OK, this all makes sense.

Quinn, meanwhile, is still cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, but now he’s seeing Ryder everywhere taunting him.  And yes, he will threaten Veil for trying to escape.

M.K. tries to escape too.  Somehow, I don’t think he’ll be any more successful.

And the Widow, well, she makes her own calls.  Tilde gets away with disobeying orders because, well, her instincts were good and kept the Widow and Waldo alive.  Waldo’s advice is for the Widow to take Quinn down herself and ingratiate herself with the other Barons.  That plans makes sense.  Quinn is clearly the worst thing in the Badlands.

So, naturally, the Widow decides instead she wants to team up with Quinn.

That…doesn’t make much sense at all.  Why would she think Quinn of all people would…you know what?  Never mind.  Into the Badlands runs off the Rule of Cool anyway.

So, that all happens, but where’s Sunny and Bajie?

OK, they have a possible route into the Badlands.  They just need to trade the killer Clipper’s sword to a guy calling himself the Commandant that Bajie swears rather enthusiastically is his friend.  Normally, a set-up like that would say the guy wasn’t Bajie’s friend, and…he actually is Bajie’s friend.  And he trades in metal, so he will trade an escape for that Clipper sword.  Sunny may not like the man and his ways very much, but he really wants to get back to Veil and the baby he’s never met.

But there has to be a complication to provoke a giant fight of some kind.  That comes when a young girl comes by Sunny’s tent to say her mother will be there shortly.  Sunny, well, he’s not interested in a night of sex with some woman he’s just met.  He’s trying to be good.  And this woman, Portia, weaves a sad story about how her daughter will soon be around 12 and therefore made into another pleasure doll by the Commandant, so would Sunny please kill him?

Sunny declines, but he lets the woman stay in his tent to remove suspicion.

She gets caught by the Commandant later anyway because he heard she wanted him dead.  For that, he slashes up her face and promises to take the girl as a Doll earlier.  Sunny, feeling like a good man in a terrible place, offers to take both women with him since the sword is probably worth more than just the rustbucket car the Commadant gave them.

Comm responds by stabbing Portia.

And Sunny responds by doing what he always does:  defending himself and getting into a massive fight.  Bajie helps a little, mostly by tossing Sunny a weapon at the right time and knocking the Commandant out while starting the car, taking Portia and her daughter out to…wherever it is they’re going.

Oh, and Lydia was good for her knowledge as she easily finds Quinn’s hideout.  It’s booby-trapped of course, and the resulting explosion forces me to wonder how that opium district has any Clippers left since those guys drop like flies every two episodes or so.  But there’s gonna be a fight next episode, and Veil uses the explosion to try and make another break for it with baby Henry.

Sunny can’t get back to the Badlands fast enough.