Into the Badlands season 3, episode 1: Enter the Phoenix
Into the Badlands came back and caught us up on what has been occurring over the past 6 months. The Badlands have changed, and there is a new player that will soon make their presence felt.
Into the Badlands returned for its third and longest season and wasted no time jumping right into the action. The intro to the show let us know that all of the barons have been removed from the field except Chau. The Widow and Chau are entrenched in a battle for control of the badlands and the war is taking its toll on both sides.
The episode starts with a beautifully shot (in typical Into the Badlands fashion) war scene that ends with a heroic butterfly being killed by a hail of arrows from Chau’s side.
The Widow
Early in the episode, The Widow tracks down Nathaniel. You’ll remember him as the warrior that Sunny fought early in season 2 before taking his hand, and refusing to take his life. She wants him to be her regent but he refuses saying he only wants to fight Sunny. They have an epic battle that ends when she is about to push him off of the side of a tower but stops. She tells him she’ll help him find Sunny if he’ll join her.
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Sunny
We catch up with Sunny traveling with his son Henry. They apparently haven’t eaten in some time and we learn that being a father has changed Sunny. He is about to shoot a deer before he sees that it has a baby and instead decides to go hungry.
Later, Sunny is sleeping in an RV when he is attacked by three men and finds that there is a 500 gold bit reward for his capture. The men are easily dispatched but Henry has a fever and Sunny needs to find help. He goes to a couple who has a small child as well and while the wife wants to help, the husband is wary. Sunny confronts the man when his wife leaves saying that he knows the man told the bounty hunters where he was and he only won’t kill him because his kids deserve a father.
Twice in this episode we see Sunny hesitate to kill so as not to orphan a deer, and then children. We have to believe this will come into play at some point down the line.
Tilda and the Iron Rabbits
A butterfly caravan is riding down a road when we see a group of girls set upon the vehicles. It’s Tilda and her team attacking the caravan looking for food. Instead, they find Bajie. He’s been taken prisoner and is being transported back to The Widow. Tilda and her crew are referring to themselves as the Iron Rabbits and they take Bajie back to the refugee camp.
The refugee camp is being run by Lydia and when Tilda arrives with Bajie it causes a problem. Bajie knows that Lydia was Quinn’s wife so he doesn’t like her. He also has a problem with the religious so she’s got two strikes against her. Lydia tells him that he can’t stay, which is perfectly fine with him. She also tells Tilda that the Iron Rabbits need to leave for a while as well. She doesn’t want The Widow to show up to the refugee camp looking for them.
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M.K.
We find M.K. locked up at the sanctuary, sort of. A gate has been put up in the room but he’s got a nice bed and there are two women in it. When we find him, he’s at the window smoking a pipe. He doesn’t look great and we find out why.
The widow has been cutting him, a lot, and in a lot of different ways. He hasn’t gotten his gift back and he tells The Widow that she’s wasting her time with him. He suggests that Sunny is coming back for him but she doesn’t seem to think that will be happening after six months.
Sunny arrives at the refugee camp
The couple that Sunny initially took Henry to was unable to help with Henry’s fever and the wife suggests that Sunny take Henry to the refugee camp. They have a healer there so Sunny makes the trip. The healer agrees to help Henry but asks Sunny to give her some space. That’s when he finds Bajie hustling a group of guys playing some version of mahjong.
Bajie said that he expected that Sunny and Veil had run off to live happily ever after, before Sunny has to break the news to him that Veil died.
Meanwhile, the healer is trying to draw Henry’s blood but accidentally cuts him and something happens off-screen that scares her. She finds Sunny and tells him that Henry’s eyes went black and we now know that Henry has “the gift.”
Bajie says he’s never see the gift manifest itself in a child so young. Sunny wants to go to Azra but Bajie shuts it down saying that Azra doesn’t exist.
Pilgrim
At the very end of the episode we meet our new players. Pilgrim (Babou Ceesay) arrives along with Castor (Dean-Charles Chapman, Game of Thrones) and Nix (Ella-Rae Smith) at a Chau checkpoint. They ask the soldiers to lay down their weapons and submit to their messiah, which they of course don’t do.
When they raise their weapons the two kids step up and cut themselves. They too have the gift and they make short work of the soldiers at the checkpoint. When only the leader remains, Pilgrim tells him to tell his people that the reckoning has come.
“Join us or Die”
Next: Into the Badlands Season 2 on Netflix
Summary
A lot happened in this episode. We know that M.K. is The Widow’s prisoner and that The Widow is at war with Chau. We also know that Sunny and Bajie are together and that they now know Henry has The Gift. Tilda has a new group that she’s leading and she is helping the refugees while she waits for her shot at The Widow. All of these parties are oblivious to the threat posed by Pilgrim and his new people as they enter the badlands.
The preview for the next episode seems to indicate that they will be making their presence felt and I for one can’t wait to see what they’re capable of.
Into the Badlands returns next week at 10/9 Central on AMC.