The Irish VS John Chinaman
With Ah Sahm in prison, we begin this week’s episode of Warrior with the ensuing trial looming. Revealing to Bill he can speak English, Ah Sahm is then ambushed by three Irish thugs in his cell who he dismantles swiftly. As news spreads of Ah Sahm’s arrest, his sister gets to work making amends. Along with a handful of trusted men, she storms the houses of the witness looking to testify at the trial. Threatening their children, the Irish family are scared off from showing up at the big day. This, of course, means there’s no witnesses and essentially no trial leading to Ah Sahm’s freedom and one angry mob. Impressed at his luck, Bill approaches Ah Sahm in private and gives him a secret exit to skip away from the crowds. Of course, freedom is a loose term and freedom from prison simply means Ah Sahm returns to the Chinese gang for business as usual. As the celebrations fly with a heady cocktail of prostitutes and champagne, the Hop Wei leader, Father Jun, arrives, changing the mood of the night instantly. Deciding to initiate him into the group properly, he beats him repeatedly, telling Ah Sahm to keep his hands down. After the celebrations, our protagonist visits the Mayor’s wife. He learns more about the corruption rife in the city and begins to understand more about the way things are. As we leave the episode for this week, Leary visits the family who didn’t show up to testify in court. Burning the house, the family flee while flames lick up the side of their house. Telling him to take his family and leave San Francisco, Leary walks into the distance, as his silhouette stands out against the raging inferno. Unlike last week, Warrior really feels like its own show now. I commented before that Warrior had echoes of Peaky Blinders and in a way it still does. The rival gang war that looms on the horizon looks set to explode in a flurry of gunfire and carnage which certainly has that Peaky Blinders flavour. This episode does a really good job building those tensions up and elevating Buckley as a believable threat to the Chinese. Ultimately though it’s these racial tensions between the Chinese and Irish that make this such an absorbing and interesting watch. Quite what will happen going forward is anyone’s guess but for now, there’s enough here to make for a thoroughly enjoyable and action packed episode.
