The fight I’ve been waiting for since the show teased it last week finally happened. Round 1 of Sunny vs. The Widow. Also I thought it was another good title for the episode this week. Both Ryder and Quinn were acting like slithering snakes. Let’s see if I can plow through the rest of the episode. On to the recap!
Sunny wakes up from a chilling dream. It was about him confronting M.K. about the people he killed from the boat while practicing. M.K. tries to plead with him, but then turns the tables on him with his black eyes. Sunny then “falls” to his death only to wake up in bed with his girlfriend Veil. He looks at the book and turns to the page that has a picture and a black hole in it that is round enough to fit…a compass. Sunny takes the compass out and fits it into the book. It then spins and lands in the Northeast. Veil wakes up and asks about the compass. He tells her it’s broken, but I don’t know if he really believes that or not. Without going into too much detail, he informs Veil that the price for leaving may be steep.
Sunny goes to the training area to get M.K. Sunny tells M.K. how he thought M.K. was able to briefly control his power. M.K. genuinely doesn’t remember what happened since he blacked out. Sunny lets M.K. know that they will be going out hunting for the Widow that day. Meanwhile, the Widow is welcoming Quinn’s former cogs. She pulls young boys aside for testing to see if they are the boys she’s after. Now that the cogs are gone, Quinn is scrambling to figure out how to handle the harvest. Lydia thinks that letting the other barons know that the product will be less than previous years is a good idea. Jade butts into the conversation suggesting that treating the cogs with respect and a little education would bring more loyalty. Quinn thinks that educating the cogs make them vulnerable for a revolution. Wow that sounds so familiar. Wasn’t that the same excuse slave owners gave? Alrighty then. Quinn agrees with Jade’s suggestion of her training a small clipper force to help with the harvest until fresh cogs arrive. Lydia is looking at Quinn like she can’t believe that he would take Jade’s advice over hers.
Ryder skulks around the Clipper houses when he sees M.K. outside. He gets nosy about what M.K. is up to. I would think that he would know that Sunny was about to hunt for the Widow. As Ryder is turning to leave M.K. asks about his pendant. Ryder lies and says he traded it. I guess Ryder was also too busy plotting to see his father have a severe headache attack while trying to address the clippers about the upcoming harvest. While Lydia helped him back into the house, Quinn tells Jade to lead them. Jade tries to reassure everyone that their Baron will be fine. It would have been interesting to see at least some of the clippers expressions as they saw their fearless leader Quinn almost collapse in front of them.
Petri and Bale, M.K.’s friend, help him and Sunny search for the Widow in the woods. M.K. knows that Veil is pregnant and understands Sunny’s reason for leaving the Badlands. They talk about Azra. M.K. thought the Widow’s book would help. Sunny admits that the compass works in the book and it pointed in a direction.
Tilda fishes for information about what the Widow will do when she finds the boy aka M.K. The Widow thinks the book, which she was trying to translate, would help her train him so he can control his powers. The Widow also reveals that M.K. gets weaker every time he uses his powers unless he can learn to control it. The Widow isn’t stupid and is suspicious when she asks about the boy again to Tilda, especially since she is so curious all of sudden. The Widow cautions her daughter that “Men use kindness to get what they want.” She has Tilda check their traps around their area.
Well now we know where Ryder disappeared to after talking with M.K. He visited Waldo cryptically asking him would he still be loyal if things changed. Waldo likes to be on the winning side, but does caution Ryder to be careful of who he chooses as allies. Ryder also asks about the pendant. Waldo advises him to go to his grandfather, preacher Penrith (Lance Hendricksen).
The search for the Widow continues in the woods and Bale wants his first kill tat. The boy will learn soon not to underestimate a butterfly. M.K. notices a butterfly star stuck on a tree when Sunny throws him away from walking towards it. Right where M.K. was about to step he puts a branch there and a trap snaps. He then kicks a fairly high branch so leaves will fall. Several traps go off as the leaves fall in those places. Poor Petri didn’t get the quick memo because he got caught in one. I saw bone and it was gross! I have to give Petri props though because he toughed it out when Sunny opened up the trap to free his foot.
Jade teaches some of the clippers and their colts Poppy Harvesting 101. Lydia decides to join the party and help with the harvest. She insists when Jade tries to reject the offer. Meanwhile, Veil tends to Quinn by giving him a transfusion. She had a chance to poison the man and she didn’t take it! Even when he implied that it was Sunny that really killed her parents because the audience knows he used Sunny’s sword to do it. I was like:
It’s night time. Ryder finally makes it over to his granddad’s place, which has a communal atmosphere. I don’t blame Lydia for practically disowning her father. Ryder does mention to Penrith that his mother still practices their religion. Penrith tries to be subtle in getting Ryder to follow his footsteps. When asked about the pendant, he tells Ryder that Azra is a folktale cogs were told so they feel better about themselves. He supposedly doesn’t see any truth to the story. However, when Ryder leaves, he wants to round up his abbots to cleanse a “dark one” at the fort. Thanks Ryder, M.K. has yet another target on his back!
Back at camp, Petri gets his leg set by Sunny while M.K. takes the first watch. How convenient because Tilda approaches him later when everyone’s asleep. She tries to warn him about her mother being suspicious of him. Awww how sweet. They also discuss him not killing her in his black eyed state. He realizes that she is his anchor. Tilda also mentions to M.K. to not use his power so much because otherwise he may die. They get interrupted by Sunny, who wonders how long they’ve been cozy. Tilda gets tied up and briefly questioned by Sunny about the location of her mother. Bale and Petri wake up by this point. Bale tries his hand at interrogating and gets in Tilda’s face. He gets his ear torn off for his efforts. He probably went over the top by calling her the “b” word. No one had sympathy for him, not even his Clipper Petri. I chuckled at that because Petri shook his head like he was saying “the boy needs to learn.”
Lydia opens up to Jade as she is getting ointment on her hands. She admits it is not easy feeling like she is not enough for Quinn. I think a part of Lydia was trying to give props to Jade but at the same time placate her by having a “bonding” moment. The clincher was when they agreed that they don’t want to act as rivals. Play that game Lydia, play that game.
The Widow and a butterfly finds a part of Tilda’s robes and a dagger. She’s going to get Tilda back. She needs Ryder’s help getting into the dungeons. Quinn wakes up from a nap and finds Lydia sitting next to him. She reminisces about when she first met him. She reaffirms her loyalty and that it will always be her and Quinn. Yep she doesn’t want to be rivals with Jade at all. Riiight. Sunny enters and Lydia leaves. Sunny reports that he has Tilda and Quinn wants him to do what’s necessary to get the Widow’s location. As Sunny was leaving Quinn ordered Sunny not to see Veil anymore after Sunny lies about the seriousness of his relationship with her. The look Sunny gave was like “Excuse me, did I hear you right?”
Sunny goes into the dungeons and straps Tilda into a chair. She spits at him which I thought was really rude. Sunny appeared to not want to torture her if he didn’t have to. Bale is still two steps behind when he doesn’t understand why M.K. doesn’t want Tilda tortured. Back at the house Jade brings Quinn some soup she made. They discuss how Lydia pitched in and how he noticed her when she was 16 serving him soup. Ewww.
Jade suddenly collapses and Quinn calls for help. What happened to Jade? Did she inadvertently get poisoned like Beatrice? Lydia, you naughty girl.
The..moment…has…finally….arrived….
Back at the dungeons, M.K. tries to plead with Tilda to give the Widow up. Tilda refuses because Quinn will kill her anyway so it doesn’t matter what she does. Bale steps his foot in it again when he is attacked. It’s the Widow! I love how she’s all maternal when she tells her, “Don’t worry Tilda, Mother’s here.” Sunny appears from behind the doorway and the fight I’ve been waiting for begins! Sunny is determined that the Widow will be captured. While the adults go at it, M.K. opens up the dungeon door and starts un-strapping Tilda from the chair. Bale comes behind him and knocks him out but Tilda is loose enough that she starts defending herself. How did the Widow hide the swords she first fought Sunny with? The Widow can’t seem to land a blow against Sunny and gets thrown through a loose brick wall. The room she falls into happens to be a weapons room. There’s alot of defensive maneuvering for both the Widow and Sunny but she is unable to land a good blow. However, Sunny was able to kick her and hit her with a weapon a few times. After several minutes he is able to slice her in the ab area. The Widow’s down, will she be able to escape?
We quickly shoot back to Bale locking M.K. up while proceeding to kick at Tilda while she’s laying on the ground. M.K. initially watches helplessly until he decides to cut himself. Just as Bale got a sword M.K. with his signature move, opens the cell door with a huge gust of air and propels Bale into a weapons holder, impaling his former friend. Both Sunny and the Widow witness M.K. walk outside the cell with his black eyes. Tilda slowly backs away and Sunny lets her go while he tries to see if M.K. has control yet. Tilda is able to help her mother get up and they escape. When M.K. collapses again, Sunny tries to run and catch the butterflies but it is too late. Someone’s baron is going to be pissed. Speaking of Quinn, we see him in another section close to wear M.K. collapsed. Quinn looked shocked but you can see the wheels turning in his head. Poor Jade I guess is still seizing at the house. Good grief! Just another problem Sunny and M.K. will have to try to maneuver.
The last few minutes was worth a few re-watches. Fortunately AMC posted on their YouTube page the 2nd half of the Sunny vs. Widow fight and M.K. trying to help Tilda escape. I’m not ready to say goodbye to this show yet this Sunday! It was nice to see Lance Hendricksen on the small screen again! Since this is the first mention of a religious practice I have a feeling the show may be setting it up for more exploration next season. Here’s hoping we will see more of the character Penrith both in the finale and beyond. I think Ryder lost an opportunity to be in the loop about the poppy harvest and briefly leading when his father had his attack. It’s hard to tell if the Clippers are just as loyal to him as to Quinn.
So who poisoned Jade? The obvious is Lydia, but could it have been someone else? Quinn looked like he was struggling but he did get a treatment earlier so he may still be wobbly from that. What will Sunny do now that he has been ordered to no longer see Veil? Are we going to see Ryder finally fight in the season finale? Can anyone defeat Sunny? Sound off below in the comments! It looks like we are in for a treat for the first season finale! Can’t wait!
I’ll just post this here for your viewing pleasure:
*The gifs are from https://giphy.com/
