Into the Badlands season 3, episode 5: Carry Tiger to Mountain

Last night on Into the Badlands Sunny finally made it to The Witch. We also learned about The Widow’s ties to Gaius Chau, and MK meets Pilgrim.

With the third season of Into the Badlands being longer than the previous two, we thought the show would slow down the pace. We were incredibly wrong as the pace seems to have ratcheted up. What has happened is that the story has gained more depth. We’ve spent most of this season learning a lot more about the pasts of our main characters as they navigate this current landscape. The latest episode was no different, so let’s dive in.

Gaius and Minerva

At the start of the episode we see Lydia and The Widow arriving back at their gates when they hear something in the trunk. It’s Gaius Chau stowed away and he seems to be familiar with Minerva.

We then get a flashback to when they were both teenagers. The Widow was a cog for the former Baron Chau (current baron and Gaius Chau’s father). She spills drinks and Baron Chau orders Gaius to strike her. He says he can’t and, instead, Juliet Chau strikes her. This history lesson adds to the weight of the two being the last of the surviving barons.

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Back in the present, Gaius offers to help The Widow take down his sister. The Widow, unsure if she can trust him but clearly wanting to, has him imprisoned.

Pilgrim and Baron Chau

After the events of the previous episode, Pilgrim arrives to meet Baron Chau. He delivers the heads of Gaius’ men and tells her she is now at his mercy. He wants 1000 workers for a job that he is working on and she will be forgiven. She is surprisingly accepting his offer but says that it won’t be easy.

As they leave, her regent points out that Gaius’ head is not among those that were delivered.

The Witch

Sunny and Bajie finally reach the summit of Vulture’s Peak and find that the witch is living in an old plane. When they walk in they see several paintings on the wall, including one of Azra.

Ankara recognizes Bajie and asks if he came to kill her. When Sunny presents Henry to her she immediately recognizes that he’s a dark one. She initially asks why he was brought to her but then she says she can hear the energy inside him. Ankara describes it as 1000 bolts of lightning flashing at once and that’s what’s making him run hot. She thinks Bajie should be able to hear it but he’s apparently lost that gift. The witch tells Sunny that she can only offer temporary relief.

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Healing Henry

Sunny will take what he can get so he hands him to her. She violently submerges Henry underwater which makes Sunny run to her. The hand on Henry is glowing and she puts the other one on Sunny’s chest, telling him she needs his strength as that hand begins to glow as well. In the water, what looks like a black ink starts to come out of Henry. When she stops, Sunny rips Henry’s lifeless body from the water. When he opens his eyes he’s a healthy, normal baby.

The Catalyst

Sunny knows that he still needs a permanent solution and asks where he should get one. The witch tells him that the answers lie within him before she puts a hand on his forehead. She then tells him that he is a Catalyst, an artery through which the dark gift flows. She tells him that it’s buried deep inside him, sleeping, but it will emerge if he wakes it.

We see a flashback to his childhood when he was on a boat and someone locked his gift. She then flies across the room. She says that the power within him is something to behold and she’s never seen anything like it. Whoever locked Sunny’s gift is far more powerful than she is. With Sunny being the Catalyst, she says that fate brought he and Bajie together. Bajie, still fed up with her prophecies, tells her he sent the signal and no one replied.

That’s when she pulls out a transmitter that is receiving a morse code signal. She says that Pilgrim answered his call and Bajie realizes that the signal is different from the one he sent out.

MK

Back at the old temple, Nix is nursing MK back to health. Pilgrim comes in as MK gets up to leave and he tells him he needs to rest. MK then goes dark on command to fight him but Pilgrim deactivates it. This, of course, shocks MK but he tells Pilgrim that he has to kill the man who killed his mom.

Pilgrim talks to him about his plans to find Azra and this gets MK’s attention. He also tells MK that he is not a prisoner and that he can leave or stay but he’d like to find Azra with him.

After this exchange we seen an angry Castor watching the whole thing.

Castor

While Nix is showing MK the pictures in the viewfinder that she and Castor looked at when they first arrived, Castor shows up. He’s still angry and accuses Nix of replacing him with MK. He knows MK is more powerful because he doesn’t have to cut himself and he asks if MK is sharing her bed as well. When Nix points out that his nose is bleeding, Castor tells her not to pity him.

Pilgrim and Cressida see this exchange and Cressida tells Pilgrim he needs to let Castor go. Pilgrim is clearly attached to him and refuses. This is the second time they have had this discussion.

Pilgrim’s message

Back on the mountain, Bajie is piecing together the message that Pilgrim sent and is alarmed by the word cleanse. The witch confirms that Pilgrim is set to bring murder and chaos (more somehow) to the badlands to cleanse it.

Before Sunny and Bajie leave, the witch gives Sunny a map. Sunny is willing to let Bajie go but Bajie says he’ll accompany him to see this through.

Cressida has her own plan

Castor goes to Cressida for help. He asks her to make him a potion to help heal him but she flat-out tells him he’s dying. She tells him he can extend his life by not going dark again, knowing he won’t accept that. When he doesn’t she sends him on a mission to meet Chau’s men and make sure that the carry through on delivering the 1000 workers.

Earning The Widow’s trust

The Widow and Lydia discuss the Gaius situation. The Widow is afraid to trust him because Juliet has tricked her before. Lydia points out that he’s been imprisoned for a long time and she doesn’t think Chau would play a game that long.

When the Widow goes to speak to Gaius he brings up what happened after his sister beat her. She was placed, bloody, in the pig pen. He asks her if she ever wondered how she got free, alluding to the fact that he let her out. Gaius says that night changed everything for both of them. It’s clear that Minerva wants to believe him but the memory is painful and she accuses him of lying. She says that there was something left behind and if he was there he’d know what it was.

Without hesitation he says that it was a dagger with the words “No Mercy” inscribed. She doesn’t say anything to him but it’s clear he was correct.

Attack on the refugee camp

Earlier in the episode, Chau ordered her men to attack the refugee camp to get workers for Pilgrim. This was the convoy that Cressida sent Castor to meet and he does. When he arrives he tells them he’s there to lead them in.

Moon and the Widow

Nathaniel made it back from his meeting with Sunny and tells The Widow he let him go. He tells her that Sunny does not want revenge and he didn’t want to make his son an orphan. She tells him that if Sunny comes for her she’ll kill both of them.

Later, Moon arrives to tell The Widow that his scouts spotted Chau’s convoy headed for the refugee camp. (She’s holding the dagger that Gaius described earlier). The Widow orders Moon to release Chau, give him a sword and take him to the fight.

The Battle

Tilda and Odessa are happy to know they have enough supplies to make it and share a kiss before it all falls apart. Chau’s forces arrive and start torching the camp and killing people. Castor is killing people while riding his motorcycle until Tilda lassos him and pulls him off. He cuts the rope and goes dark, then loses it, but is still beating Tilda pretty easily.

An explosion breaks her free from him as The Widow shows up. She tells Tilda to get the people to safety and begins to fight Castor. Meanwhile, Gaius is handling his sister’s men until her regent steps up.

Odessa is fighting two of Chau’s Clippers when Moon (previously captured, imprisoned, then tortured her) shows up and saves her. As Gaius loses the upper hand to his sister’s regent, Moon steps in to save him as well. The three (Moon, Gaius, and Odessa) line up to face the regent before he decides to cut his losses and flee.

The Widow makes short work of Castor and before she knocks him out to take him prisoner, he says that Pilgrim will come for him.

Cressida’s vision

At the end of the episode, Cressida is painting frantically in what looks like blood. She is clearly drawing the marks on Sunny’s back. As MK walks in with his new gear on, he recognizes the marks. Cressida says that the man who bears the marks is the Catalyst and that he’s journeying to them.

MK then says that he’s going to kill him but Pilgrim forbids it saying that he will be welcomed like a brother. MK doesn’t appear to argue in the moment and Cressida says that he’ll be arriving very soon.

Next: Into the Badlands S3, E4 recap

Summary

Every week I say that I’m going to work on making these recaps shorter. Then every week the writers give me five new pieces of history and five first interactions for characters. Next week’s episode promises to be more of the same. The most shocking revelation being Bajie’s ex-wife coming into the picture.

Into the Badlands returns next Sunday at 10/9 Central on AMC Network.