Tough situations call for tough measures, even if those measures mean aligning oneself with their mortal enemy.
Mai Ling and Young Jun were arrested but ended up in different places on Warrior Season 3 Episode 5, causing them to reevaluate their business model and associates.
One thing that everyone can be sure of when arrested is that you will be taken to jail.
No one likes jail, but Young Jun would have preferred to be in prison rather than that camp. It was not only a violation of the law to lock Americans up like that, but it was also inhumane.
That’s not to say that Mai Ling was fairing better in jail because it also had challenges. For someone used to the luxuries being a tong leader provided, being hosed down like a slaughterhouse’s floor was demeaning.
Deeds of our past will always catch up with us, and whatever we put out into the world will always bounce back to us.
Young Jun being confronted by people whose lives the Hop Wei had ruined was very satisfying to watch.
Like we don’t care when some tong guy beats an onion an inch to their death, it was the same attitude Young Jun had carried all his life. He would leave people suffering and drink whiskey like it was another Tuesday for him.
It is good when people face the consequences of their actions, even dire ones. It might be the only thing that forces them to reevaluate their lives and actions.
But knowing Young Jun, that altercation only hardened him up more. He will give San Francisco police a run for their money in bursting heads.
But something happened in that sea of desperation. Young Jun reunited with his father.
It has been so long between Warrior Season 2 and Warrior Season 3 I forgot what happened to Father Jun. As someone who didn’t rewatch the previous season, I could have sworn he died and Young Jun was hallucinating.
They were both happy to see each other and despite all their differences, they realized they could rely on no one other than themselves.
The message Father Jun came bearing was disheartening.
I always thought I’d find something better out there. But I was wrong. We have no power outside our own bull.
Father Jun
All his wandering had shown Father Jun there was nowhere like home. There’s nowhere like Chinatown. It was all they had, and without it, they were nothing.
Walter Buckley’s anti-Chinese campaign heated up, and to prove that it worked, they had a whole operation that included rounding up anyone of Chinese descent, locking them up in cages, separating little children from their parents, and physical assault.
Hearing his speech rang eerily familiar. As we said in the Warrior series premiere review, it sounded straight out of Donald Trump’s playbook.
This deportation center marks a bold new era in our city, one in which we will no longer tolerate the damage being done to our society by the lawless encroachment of the Chinese. Murder, prostitution, and slave labor have gone unchecked for too long. Through the efforts of my office and the San Francisco Police Department, we will put these criminals and interlopers where they belong. Not on our streets. But on boats. Back to whence they came. As mayor, I will work hand in hand with the governor to ensure that the Exclusion Act passes. Together we will restore America to her former glory. And bring prosperity to the honest, hard-working citizens who built this great country of ours.
Walter Buckley
Were it not that the script was written post-Trump, one would think Trump copied it directly. Is it wild to think they based the character of Walter on Trump or your regular Republican politician?
It was true immigration was a cause for concern, but they were concerned about all the wrong things.
Separating mothers from their children and shipping mothers across the sea was not the right thing to do because there were concerns about “overcrowding.”
Chief Atwood: Argent O’Hara, stand down.
Big Bill: So this is what we do? Separate mothers from their children.
Chief Atwood: We enforce the law. There were more than a dozen Chinese squatting in a domicile that made for four.
Big Bill: These are not criminals, for fucks sake; they’re just regular families.
Chief Atwood: What about this situation seems regular to you, Sergeant, because what I see are a bunch of people crammed together like vermin spreading disease. And it is my job, as it is yours, to clean this mess up.
Big Bill: That boy was two or three years old. What happens to him when his mother is put on a boat?
Chief Atwood: He’ll get taken to a nice Christian orphanage. And then, when his mother goes back to China, she goes with a clear message to those who haven’t left yet that there is nothing for them here.
Sometimes someone witnesses something so disgusting it changes their entire perspective. Big Bill had been in Chinatown for a long time, learned how they operated, and figured out a way to tame the chaos in the town.
Yet, Chief Atwood had upset that fragile harmony in a short period. You can only push people so far before they fight back.
Walter had met a woman who stood at the front lines cheering him on and catering to his every need. But what did she want? No one is that good simply because they are. In politics — and even in life — everyone has an angle.
What was hers?
After a demoralizing attack on Warrior Season 3 Episode 3, Ah Toy acted like she’d given up hope but was secretly planning her revenge.
Ah Toy might be the smartest person in Chinatown because she didn’t just react to things.
She wisely went home to plan and heal and then came prepared to exact revenge for her girls.
It was admirable how she stuck to her plan despite strong forces pulling her away. Wouldn’t it have been nicer to resettle somewhere else on a 50-acre beach property with her lover?
Some things, however, cannot be forgiven. Killing the girls she had risked her life to save was not one of those things.
Maybe she will move to stay with Nellie sometime in the future. But for now, there was some unfinished business.
She was also protecting Nellie from the war that was to come.
Elsewhere, Lee found himself in danger when it became clear that it was in different factions’ interest he died.
Wang Chao will always put Wang Chao first, and realizing that Happy Jack was out for blood after learning he’d been cheated, Chao was fully aware he had a debt to pay. A debt for his life.
He sold out Lee despite them having a relatively cordial relationship.
Toward the end of “Whiskey and Sticky and the Rest Can Wait,” a significant shift teased an even bigger war in Chinatown.
Here’s the gist: A secret service agent had been murdered in cold blood, and a police officer abducted in Chinatown. That’s enough excuse for Atwood to rain holy hell on the place.
That’s not even half of it. One powerful Tong is a problem. Two powerful tongs whose business interests were aligned were a menace.
Finally, Father Jun was back in town, and Young Jun had learned something important. All they had was Chinatown; if they let it go, it was over for them. He will do anything to keep it, even if that means going to war with the police.
Hong: What’s the story, man? How how the hell did you two end up in there together?
Young Jun: Whiskey Hong. Whiskey and sticky and all the rest can wait.
I pity the regular person trying to survive in that environment. They will hurt the most.
Warrior Season 3 Episode 6 takes us to the second half of the season, where the future seems bleak as clouds for another war gather. Alliances are shifting, and it makes even that more fragile. Who will come out of this alive?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments section.
Denis Kimathi is a staff writer for TV Fanatic. He has watched more dramas and comedies than he cares to remember. Catch him on social media obsessing over [excellent] past, current, and upcoming shows or going off about the politics of representation on TV. Follow him on Twitter.
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