Review Verdict – 4/5
White Stork Spreads Wings was another solid episode for Into The Badlands. Now 3 episodes in, half way through the first season, War has broken out between The Widow and Quinn. The series continues to bring us stellar martial arts fights between Quinn and the Widow and M.K. with Waldo. During out interview with Aramis Knight (M.K.) he discussed the lengthy training process they went through to learn their martial arts moves and the practice came off very well on screen for the young actor against Steven Lang (Waldo). This episode gave us another view of M.K., that he is a spoiled brat. We felt sorry for him in the first two episodes after everything that had happen but he clearly has a complex and doesn’t like authority and Sunny is going to beat it out of him.
Veil has found herself right in the middle of a very dangerous situation after saving Ryders life, now Quinn wants her to save his life. Even knowing that he is sick is a death sentence for her if she cannot save him. Veil had several cute scenes with M.K., teasing Sunny that it could be good practice for the future (hinting about them having a child).
I took 1 star away from this episode for pacing. While the episode started off with a major fight, everything afterwards seemed to go in slow motion as they try to tie all the characters together into the larger plot. Adding former regent friends and quibbling between the wives felt out of place given the current situation with the Widow. I also found the lack of training we saw with M.K. given the description for the episode slightly disappointing.
Marton Csokas as Quinn and Madeleine Mantock as Veil – Into the Badlands _ Season 1, Epsiode 3 – Photo Credit: Patti Perret/AMC
Recap
The episode starts out with Quinn taking an army of clippers with him to The Widows home and storming it. The colts are told to stay behind and watch from a safe distance, while inside The Widow begins to evacuate her girls through an underground passage. Meanwhile M.K. goes into the home without telling the others to grab the book that had Azra’s symbol on it.
Downstairs Quinn and The Widow battle it out in an epic sword fight that ends in a draw when Quinn collapses in pain and the Widow is stopped from killing him by Sunny. And that is just the first 5 minutes!
Quinn’s two wives have an awkward talk about Quinn and how the home of a baron is a battlefield. Quinn and his first wife exchange words as she worries about their son Ryder who hasn’t woken up. The clippers are not spread over two territories, as they now control the oil fields. The last time war broke out there was food shortages and it lasted for nearly 2 years.
Sunny begins to train M.K. who has a bit of an attitude about it and in order to learn discipline Sunny gives him tough love by pushing him off the ledge when he mouths off. Sunny then takes him to his teacher and former regent Waldo to show M.K. just how little he knows about fighting. Waldo taunts him from his wheelchair and M.K. agrees to try and fight him in exchange for Sunny training him how he wants. However, M.K. soon finds out even in a wheelchair Waldo has him outmatched by miles.
Veil is asked by Jade to save Ryder’s life. The two being childhood friends had history together as COGS but have fallen apart after Jade became Quinn’s second wife. Although Veil refuses at first, Jade convinces her to come and help save Ryders life. Lydia isn’t all too pleased that Veil is there to operate on Ryder but agrees to let her help him.
The widow and her girls find sanctuary in a hidden abandoned plantation home where they plan to lay low. Quinn meets Veil in Ryders room and plays off that he has no idea how her parents died, unaware that Sunny already told her the truth. Sunny finds out that a girl at the doll club is who set them up and Sunny rushes off to find her before she vanishes in the wind. M.K. is brought along to watch from outside incase she tries to run. Tilda runs into M.K. as she is also looking for the same girl and when she sees him in the colt uniform she is pissed and slaps M.K. But before Sunny can get to her, she commits suicide.
Lydia tells her son that after the nomads took him when he was younger that the boy who came back was a broken thing, and not the innocent boy she knew. She then goes on to tell him he doesn’t have the will of his father and is not fit to be a baron. She knows he started this war by going after the Widow against his fathers orders. She tells him he is now on his own.
Aramis Knight as M.K. and Madeleine Mantock as Veil – Into the Badlands _ Season 1, Epsiode 3 – Photo Credit: Patti Perret/AMC
The other barons are not happy with Quinn’s recent actions. Sunny is sent to parley with the regent of one of the barons to try and setup an alliance ahead of the summit the barons of called. Quinn knows its a trap if he goes alone and without support. M.K. again sneaks around the house to get the book about Azra and brings it to Veil to try and teach him to read it. However, its in a language she doesn’t understand. After giving M.K. some food and a little small talk the baron walks in to see Veil, M.K. hides quietly. The baron asks Veil to save his life.
