(523-word review) I was engaged most with Ah Sahm and Yan Mi's scenes, especially the one with their conversation about the Lei Gong (Leigong)/Jade Emperor/Dianmu story, which had an air of foreign distinction about it: feeling like it "didn't belong" because of no prior scene in the entire show coming across like this - further enhanced by the successful delivery. That scene was great and the undisputed champion of this episode for me.
Elsewhere, I thought the tie-in of Leonard Pierce's competitor (who's "using his considerable purchasing power to strongarm these (steel) manufacturers into making him their sole client") being a particular character was a pleasant surprise and well done. I never would've predicted that, and most people likely didn't.
And another thing I took from this episode was how things are brewing and brewing for an inevitable but explosive climax - from ALL angles. Development is happening slowly but surely, and the intertwining of potentially every thread is on the horizon: beginning with what I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Specifically, which relates to that, I feel like Ah Sahm and Mai Ling will both fall and fall HARD; as an extension, the Hop Wei and the Long Zii - and considering Young Jun's leadership role, he'll likely fall, too. One or two of those characters, or all three, will fall at some point in this season; I'm calling it. A subtle conveying seems present of a big, hard fall/falls coming, and I'm very interested to see it/how it'll play out.
However (you knew it was coming), this episode didn't capture me to the extent the previous one did. Pin-pointing a specific reason is useless because it may not exist. What I do know is this: regardless of the feelings of mine, which I've expressed in the first two paragraphs, the wholeness of it was, to a degree, lackluster.
Also, I made two indifferent (potentially leaning into negative territory) assessments that are unrelated to my overall opinion of its entirety: (a.) this subplot with Hong and Marcel - while, hopefully, for a larger purpose than romance/giving Hong something to do (like creating inner conflict about being in the Hop Wei, possibly even due to Marcel getting hurt or dying because of them, indirectly or directly), didn't have my interest, and (b.) something about the ending felt empty. I don't know if it was the fight choreography, Dustin Nguyen's directing, the acting, the odd score cue used (which was also unlike the composers' usual work), or how it was written (for example, the main villain guy henchmen, Shaw, brandishing a whip); regardless, something was off.
Nevertheless, the most significant things to glean from this episode are (a.) that Catherine Archer and Eliza Pendleton are NOT mother and daughter. I thought there could be more to it because the actresses looked similar; spoiler alert, there wasn't - and (b.) that Adam Rayner looks and sounds quite similar in this to Murray Bartlett in The Last of Us.
Ah Sahm and Yan Mi's interaction scenes were the most engaging; it was enough for me. However, the collective components of the episode did not achieve that same level.
Elsewhere, I thought the tie-in of Leonard Pierce's competitor (who's "using his considerable purchasing power to strongarm these (steel) manufacturers into making him their sole client") being a particular character was a pleasant surprise and well done. I never would've predicted that, and most people likely didn't.
And another thing I took from this episode was how things are brewing and brewing for an inevitable but explosive climax - from ALL angles. Development is happening slowly but surely, and the intertwining of potentially every thread is on the horizon: beginning with what I mentioned in the previous paragraph.
Specifically, which relates to that, I feel like Ah Sahm and Mai Ling will both fall and fall HARD; as an extension, the Hop Wei and the Long Zii - and considering Young Jun's leadership role, he'll likely fall, too. One or two of those characters, or all three, will fall at some point in this season; I'm calling it. A subtle conveying seems present of a big, hard fall/falls coming, and I'm very interested to see it/how it'll play out.
However (you knew it was coming), this episode didn't capture me to the extent the previous one did. Pin-pointing a specific reason is useless because it may not exist. What I do know is this: regardless of the feelings of mine, which I've expressed in the first two paragraphs, the wholeness of it was, to a degree, lackluster.
Also, I made two indifferent (potentially leaning into negative territory) assessments that are unrelated to my overall opinion of its entirety: (a.) this subplot with Hong and Marcel - while, hopefully, for a larger purpose than romance/giving Hong something to do (like creating inner conflict about being in the Hop Wei, possibly even due to Marcel getting hurt or dying because of them, indirectly or directly), didn't have my interest, and (b.) something about the ending felt empty. I don't know if it was the fight choreography, Dustin Nguyen's directing, the acting, the odd score cue used (which was also unlike the composers' usual work), or how it was written (for example, the main villain guy henchmen, Shaw, brandishing a whip); regardless, something was off.
Nevertheless, the most significant things to glean from this episode are (a.) that Catherine Archer and Eliza Pendleton are NOT mother and daughter. I thought there could be more to it because the actresses looked similar; spoiler alert, there wasn't - and (b.) that Adam Rayner looks and sounds quite similar in this to Murray Bartlett in The Last of Us.
Ah Sahm and Yan Mi's interaction scenes were the most engaging; it was enough for me. However, the collective components of the episode did not achieve that same level.
