Warrior Season 3 Episode 6 Review: A Soft Heart Won't Do You No Favors
Denis Kimathi
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If you stay somewhere for too long, you might think that its problems are unique to the place.
Hop Wei, Leary, Lee, and Wang Chao left Chinatown on Warrior Season 3 Episode 6, and we saw how the world outside Chinatown functions.
And spoiler alert, it wasn't that much different. It was still a man-eat-man world out there.
Despite agreeing with Mai Ling about printing and sharing the chop, Hop Wei decided to broaden their horizons and strike a deal with some German acquittances of Father Jun.
Father Jun's return was a dividing affair as there was no telling what he might do. As it stood, Young Jun had established himself as the Hop Wei's leader, and the old guard's return might upset the existing equilibrium.
Young Jun would not have made a deal with Mai Ling if it were up to him because they were the gender-swapped version of each other, and he knew how she thought. To Young Jun, Mai Ling was a walking red flag.
Like she had fought to be the top dog in Long Zii, he also had done so for Hop Wei.
You (Mai Ling) want to rule this place. You've been plotting since the moment you climbed into Long Zii's bed. And you know what? I respect that. You scrapped like a motherfucker to get where you are. But don't think for a second that just because I was born into this, that makes me soft. Because that could be a big fucking mistake.
Young Jun
Going outside Chinatown without consulting Mai Ling when their agreement demanded a half-split was a recipe for disaster.
But the Germans provided something valuable.
The truth was that even if they got a place to print money, the operation wouldn't last long as the federal government would eventually find them before Warrior Season 3 ended. It was not a San Francisco police matter anymore.
Exchanging the fake chop for something universally valuable was a great idea. Even if they had to make a few cents on the dollar, it was still a better deal as they could just print more.
But things didn't go so well in the German camp.
Ah Sahm has always been keener than anyone else, and the first sign of trouble was seeing how the Germans treated their workers, who so happened to be Chinese.
There is something about seeing people from a group that you share specific characteristics with being mistreated that invokes a deep feeling in you. Maybe it is the realization that you could easily be in their position.
But he was willing to give it a pass because he had business to do with these people, however insane they seemed. But for insane people, they spat facts.
Ah Sahm: Why a church?
The German: Because nobody was using it. See the Spaniards? They came to convert the savages, but the savages didn't want their god, so they took their scalps instead. And then the Mexicans killed the savages and the Mormons killed the Mexicans. So much blood spilt in the name of God.
They didn't waste time with niceties which must have been the so-touted German efficiency.
Even their whores did not waste any time. The scene with Young Jun and the voluptuous wench was so funny. In Chinatown, no whore would dare slap him around.
Reminded me of when Lip from Shameless went to college and met an efficient girl for the first time.
The deal was made, and everything was in order until Ah Sahm witnessed an atrocity.
I expected it to be an ambush when the carriage stopped, but the sight was even more disturbing. Even if the child had stolen, it was too much to string up his dead body in the scorching sun. But maybe that was the point -- to evoke feelings. Too bad they evoked the wrong person's feelings.
The action scene was something to behold.
It had the allure of a Western duel as the music set the atmosphere and shooting started.
When Ah Sahm fights, he does so with a goal in mind. It is usually to injure or knock out someone so they can't attack him again.
But his fight with the Germans was fuelled by anger. He made sure to make them feel pain by cutting or stabbing them severally.
Ah Sahm: This is our fault.
Young Jun: Bullshit We don't know what happened.
Ah Sahm: They want us to see. See if we'd do a fucking thing about it.
Elsewhere, Father Jun -- who had been an absolute darling and knew his place the whole time -- played with a shotgun like a toy.
After being on the run for a long time, Lee finally came face to face with his aunt, and it was clear why he had been running away for so long.
I've been waiting a long time for this day. Oh, you got nothing to say to your Aunt Violet?
Aunt Violet
Aunt Violet was a menace. She was a big burly brown, teethed woman who was as ruthless as they came.
Women villains in the 19th century were hard to come across because of the gender dynamics of then, but there was always an outlier.
She was the exception, not the rule. She also had the anger of a mother whose child had been killed.
Wang Chao found himself in the middle of a family war, and when he could have just slipped away, he did something we never see Chao do. Earlier, Lee's scathing analysis of his behavior and loyalty must have penetrated the deepest parts of him.
It was no secret that Wang Chao's loyalty was only to Wang Chao. But hearing Lee call him out on it and seeing Lee jump in to save him from a whiplashing cleared up some things for him.
No one man is an island. He needed people to survive some situations. And they got out of it alive because he thought of someone other than himself.
O'Leary attended a party where it didn't end with bloody knuckles and broken bones and got to see how proper society wages its wars. Douglas knew what bringing him to that party would do.
See, he was used to rowdy gatherings where the conversation was whack and the alcohol even whackier. Tasting proper whisky for the first time was his biting-the-forbidden-fruit moment.
Once you taste the luxuries the world has to offer, you will do anything to keep enjoying those luxuries.
He also saw Douglas wage mental warfare and win without lifting a finger. O'Leary was learning proper politics.
"A Soft Heart Won't Do You No Favors" was a nice break from Chinatown's chaos. It was fun and intense and had a great scraping scene.
Going into Warrior Season 3 Episode 7, it is interesting to see how Mai Ling will react to Hop Wei going behind her back, what the police will do because a cop was killed in Chinatown if Father Jun survives, and what shenanigans Hong got into when his boss was away.
What did you think of this episode? Let us know in the comments section.
Denis Kimathi was 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 X.
