User Reviews

Another possible title could've easily been the pain you feel is good because it means you're alive. Definitely one of the best episodes of the season so far. The entire episode felt as if a storm was coming and by the last act I felt myself tensed and waiting for the thunderclap and boy did it ever thunder.

Basically what I saw was the Hop Wei got reinforced just as Ah-Sam and Young Jun's business is starting to take off which goes on while they are also continuing to supply security for Mercer Steel. Ah-Sam and Young Jun meet a new recruit named Hong who is much more than he initially seems and adds to the conflict between the Hop Wei and Mai Ling. Sophie gets to know Leary a bit better as their relationship continues to develop. By now we know Leary is one of the fiercest characters on the show so it will be interesting to see where this goes as rough and polite society collide. Lee continues his investigations into the swordsman and gets a bit of personal revenge as well. Big Bill continues to work for Zing as an enforcer, but wants to break free. Later we witness a dinner being held by Miss Davenport the social crusader for the abused Chinese women whose blunt speech gets the attention of Mayor Blake's wife who has been ordered by Blake to get rid of the Chinese security. Meanwhile Hoon Lee's (who has been woefully underused this series) Chao business continues to suffer and he too is getting tired of Zing and appeals to Mai Ling who does nothing. Later we see him talking to Li Yong possibly working to hatch yet another scheme. I love Chao of course. Finally, Lee who is looking kind of ragged is having dinner yet again with the O'Hara's who have come to regard him as family. He doesn't want to impose so he goes to leave while Bill sits on the porch looking at Lee's many police sketches. At that moment we see a hatchetman holding a blade to Bill's sons throat; I'm guessing this is Zing's doing; and when we fear the worst Lee kills the man out of the dark and a fierce fight by all ensues. This is one of the most fingernail biting fights I've seen in awhile but ultimately the O'Hara's & Lee prevail mostly unscathed. Mostly I felt bad for Sally and her kids because that was danger close. All in all a 10/10 for me. I love this show being a fan of period shows and especially of Tom Weston-Jones whose done other top quality period shows such as Copper, and had a delightfully evil role in the holiday series Dickensian which is also highly recommended viewing.

If anyone else was wondering about Buckley's latex gloves they were invented in 1894 at John Hopkins so I guess it's plausible. I do feel like the show's character count is at about the critical limit for easy viewing ,and I can't say as I am a fan of the closing music. I once looked at the traditional local methods of preparing dishes such as our popularized Pho and animal blood is often an ingredient in certain broths and sauces so Wang Chao was correct talking about the meal with Li Yong.

Wow! Great story and showing more of the character's story. Leary's story and ability to show some pain in his past, was great to see. I really hope this show continues to another season.

The last scene, I knew something was up with the camera angles showing O'Hara's son in the background. But the scene was great! Suspenseful!

That ending was shocking, holy crap. And as it was playing out, I was expecting something cliché to happen, like Ethan accidentally shooting someone, specifically Lee; or Bill. I like that the scene wasn't written to be a little cliché like that. Zing is becoming more and more dangerous. I wonder if he expected that to succeed because if it didn't, and it didn't succeed, the police would probably really come after the Fung Hai. I'm going to assume that he's smart enough and considered that and that he didn't really put much thought into the possibility that it would've turned out so differently. He may be super reckless; to be fair, that's probably more of a certainty than being an uncertainty. But there's no way he's reckless enough to where his intelligence is strongly affected. He's an extremely wild card. He probably didn't care that if it failed, the police would go after the Fung Hai. Putting a cop in the hospital is one thing. But going after a cop's family in their own home is much worse and entirely different. Even Chao is in danger. But Chao had a point with what he told Li Yong: killing Zing isn't an optimal solution.

While Zing is the topic of discussion, I liked the subtle detail of his ring. I guess there's a chance that I'm wrong, but I think the ring was the one Bill collected as a substitute for money from that one guy in the premiere of this season. It can be seen on Zing's ring finger of his right hand in the scene at the beginning of the episode and when he took out the money to give to Chao. It may have been seen in the scene where Bill came to him, too. But I wasn't paying attention to look for it in that scene. Again, I could be wrong. If not, that's a nice little detail. It tells a lot about Zing's character.

And while I'm on the topic of subtle details, I liked the ones with Mai Ling in this episode. The first one was in the scene at the beginning of the episode when she came to Zing. Her closing piece of dialogue to him was, and I quote: "And you'll find yourself out of the opium business just as quickly as I put you in it." Buckley said something similar to her, specifically that last part. He may have said it to her more than once. I don't remember. But the instance that I'm remembering was back in the first season, I think. And I'm pretty sure it was their first shown meeting. The second subtle detail in this episode was in the scene where Chao asked her for help. And her closing statement to him was, and I quote: "Be thankful for your pain, Chao. It means you're still alive." Zing said the same thing, with obvious differences, of course, earlier in this same episode. It seems like Mai Ling is adopting some of the traits of other characters, just like Walter White did in Breaking Bad. The only difference is that she's aware of them. Most of, if not all of the traits from other characters that Walter adopted; were done more in a referencing sort of way. In the show, he was unaware of most of them.

I think it's a good thing that Hong was introduced in this episode. He's the last new character in this season to be introduced. Two others were introduced in the premiere, and the third was introduced in the previous episode. I really like that all four have already been introduced, and we're only three episodes into the season. That was a good call.

As far as Hong is concerned, I'm a little bit wary of him. He's too charismatic. That's not a bad thing, but I do think it's weird. He just arrived in America, and he's already using the terminology and vocabulary of the Hop Wei. The way he talks is as if he's already settled in and been in America for a little while, and that wasn't the case with Ah Sahm, at least not to the extent with Hong. And the first thing he did was approach Ah Sahm and then hung out with him and Young Jun. There's a good chance that he's trying to be friendly and fit in with the Hop Wei, but I'm not sure. He could have been told by Father Jun to get close to Ah Sahm and Young Jun and spy on them. He also mentioned that it's true that the Fung Hai IS still around. I may be looking too much into that specific thing, but that line seemed a little weird. I'll be having my eye on him.

I was going to mention this in my review on Season 1's finale, but I forgot. And, to be fair, I think it fits more to mention it in this review. Buckley seems very particular, you could say. By that, I'm referring to his obsession and habit of brushing his hand on his clothing to knock stuff off. There were several subtle instances in the first season showing him to be very particular in that regard. The one that prompted me to mention it was the scene with him and Leary in the finale of the first season where he puked after Leary left. But, as I said, I forgot.

It's like he's a germaphobe to an extreme degree. What else could that scene with him and the prostitute indicate? Honestly, I never thought such a thing could be so creepy: being a germaphobe and obsessed with cleanliness. But if anyone can do it, it's Buckley. At the same time, I wonder if his endeavors, whatever they are, with this prostitute, will have more significance than that. Is the fact that he's with a prostitute something important and effective enough as insurance for Mai Ling? He is the Deputy Mayor of San Francisco, so that may be the importance of showing us the scene at the end of the previous episode with him picking up that prostitute and the scene in this episode with both of them.

This episode focused a lot more on progressing plot threads a little further, and so there can be more focus to be done with progressing them in future episodes. I think Ah Sahm will end up going to the place that Vega told him about at the beginning of the episode. He's trying to find flaws concerning the way he fights. And he's trying to fix them and to improve his fighting skills. But the Barbary Coast fight pit no longer has people who are challenging for him to beat. And while he's not after the money, Vega did mention that the best fighters from all over the country are over at that place. It seems likely that he'll end up going there. Other two plot threads that set up more to be focused on in future episodes: Penelope may "fire" Ah Sahm and the other Hop Wei hatchetmen because of what the Mayor told her, or the Mayor will retract his threat to her because of the scene at Mrs. Davenport's house and what Penelope said, and Ah Toy will seemingly handle the interference from Bill and Lee in her partner's dealings, which may also include a find from looking more into Patterson's business. She'll probably pay Bill off, but I doubt that's going to work with Lee. Hell, it may not even work with Bill; this time around.

Overall, this episode was enjoyable. I liked the introduction of Hong, the final new character to be introduced in this season. His fighting style looks to be a nice change of pace from the usual sort of fighting we've seen throughout the show. I hope we'll see more of it, more extensively, in future episodes. I liked the subtle details with Mai Ling and how she's adopting traits from other characters, and I liked the subtle detail with the ring Zing is wearing. It wasn't a big deal, but there was a little editing inconsistency that I noticed. When the new soldiers for the Hop Wei were brought in, you can see Hong standing up in the background, and yet the next shot is focused on Hong standing up, even though you already saw him do that in the background of the previous shot. But, as I said, that wasn't a big deal. Anyhoo, I was entertained while watching this episode. It was decent.