Into the Badlands premiere recap – “Fort”

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a martial arts series on TV. Hopefully, Into the Badlands will serve to reignite the genre, because I’ve been excited about it since I first caught an ad during TWD. Yeah, the idea of post-apocalyptic dystopia is all the rage these days, but this series presents it in a highly unique way.

• Missed the series premiere? Don’t have cable? Watch the full episode here!

• MORE: AMC’s genre-bending “Into the Badlands” lives by the sword

Prior to the premiere, I perused the interwebs to check out the show’s buzz. As with most new series, the reviews were mixed. So I wasn’t sure what to expect — and I’m far from disappointed. The fight scenes are beautifully choreographed, intense and bloody. The sets are visually appealing and the cinematography rocks. The characters are intriguing, and the story fleshes out well by the end of the episode. I hope Into the Badlands gets the accolades it deserves.

And so it begins…

The opening scene shows a dirt road flanked by a striking contrast of bright orange and green – poppy fields. A man hunches over the handlebars of a dangerously old-looking motorcycle. It’s clear he’s in a hurry (and has a great mechanic). I’m waiting for the engine to blow.

A kid’s voiceover fills us in. After the war, seven barons dominated the land and the remaining populace flocked to each for protection. The strong became assassins and the rest, slaves. The feudal world in which everyone lives is called the Badlands, and according to our young narrator, “This world is built on blood. Nobody is innocent here.” Sounds kinda like my neighborhood.

Sunny (Daniel Wu) is the man on the motorbike. He’s a Clipper and also our lead. Clippers make up highly skilled armies that are trained to protect and serve their baron. Each baron holds a commodity on which the others depend, and under such circumstances, civility would make sense … but power’s evil twin is corruption. Mankind’s foibles always create good drama.

Sunny is after a marauding group of nomads. Not everyone in the Badlands serves a baron.

He comes across a grisly scene. Slaves (and a Clipper or two) lay beside the dirt road, bloodied and fly-covered. One is a little girl. Her dead eyes staring to the sky and a slashed throat paint a pretty powerful picture of depravity. The slaves are chained together, but a broken shackle indicates the nomads took a souvenir. A spiral of smoke above a cluster of trees reveals their location.

When Sunny rolls up, he calmly dismounts, removes his shades, and leans his sheathed sword against the cycle. He won’t need it. Let the ass-kicking commence!

The first thug approaches with a large machete and school-yard-bully confidence. Sunny dodges every blow without breaking a sweat, and when he’s had enough, he snaps the guy’s neck. Eight more thugs surround him and are quickly dispatched by his skills and their weapons. The head nomad, who remained seated on a locked trunk during the fray, is the last to go, fittingly skewered on a spit with the pig they’d been roasting.

Sunny notices scattered coins. He examines the currency, sees a butterfly insignia and recognizes it immediately. The contents of the trunk did not come cheap.

Sunny breaks the lock, freeing a youngster who looks at him, then makes a break for it. Sunny snatches a bolas (lying conveniently at his feet) and expertly chucks it, rendering the kid’s legs useless. The boy face-plants into the dirt. He is M.K. (Aramis Knight) – our narrator from earlier.

Once M.K. realizes he’s stuck, he tells Sunny the nomads were paid to take him for reasons unknown. He’s a terrible liar, so Sunny hauls him back to a baron named Quinn (Marton Csokas). Quinn owns the poppy fields — and Sunny.

The scenery changes dramatically inside the high concrete walls of Quinn’s fort. The baron’s got quite the set-up; it reminds me of a sprawling Southern plantation. Actually, everything about the future (in the Badlands) resembles the past. Technology doesn’t really exist. Lamps are present, but it appears electricity is limited. Candles seem to be the major source of indoor lighting. Vehicles pre-date my parents. There’s antiquity in how the characters look and dress. It certainly strays from the beaten path where presenting the future is concerned.

In front of Quinn’s mansion, his army practices formations. Off to the side, a pit contains younger boys pummeling each other. They’re determined to become Clippers, and only the best will make it. For the rest, it’s off to the poppy fields. Sunny suggests M.K. pick the pit. M.K.’s not too keen on the advice.

A siren sounds and the hopefuls pour into a building resembling a church — but when Quinn enters toting an old Bible, he makes it very clear that God does not exist in the Badlands. Interesting … Quinn looks a little Amish to me.

He calls on Sunny, who removes his shirt to reveal tattoos covering his back. Each mark (404, to be exact) represents a life Sunny has taken. I think about the ten nomads — there’s not a whole lot of room left.

Then Quinn discloses a bit of Sunny’s story, beginning with, “No other Clipper in the Badlands is more feared or more loyal.” He was orphaned in the Badlands with no memory of his name or his past. Impressed that a child had survived alone under such circumstances, Quinn took him in and groomed a callous killer. As the baron speaks, the energy among the boys grows strong enough to come through the TV. And when he loudly asks, “Do you wanna kill in my name?” I almost shout “SURE!”

I’ll admit feeling a tad leery about the direction things are going, but this scene pulls me back.

Afterward, Sunny takes M.K. and the money to Quinn. For some reason, procuring this kid is worth plenty to The Widow (we’ll meet her later). When the baron asks why, M.K. once again does a crappy job of lying. Off to the pit!

Enter Ryder (Oliver Stark), the baron’s son. He’s pissed that Sunny was sent to take care of the nomads when he could’ve handled it. I sense resentment and an attitude problem. When Quinn tells him it’s a Widow issue and not a nomad issue, Ryder immediately wants to go after her. The baron dismisses his idea — no oil means no poppy processing. Besides, Sunny says it will start a war.

Ryder insists they’ll look weak if they don’t do something. Quinn blows it off, thanks Sunny, eyeballs Ryder and walks away. Ryder looks like his head’s going to explode.

Back in the pit, a wary M.K. enters. The medallion around his neck is immediately snatched by another young buck. M.K. jumps on the thief to retrieve it – I wasn’t expecting him to be such a scrapper! Sunny steps in to break it up, grabs the medallion and examines it. Clearly rattled, he takes it and walks off. Ryder, pouting atop the pit, sees it all.

Inside the mansion, Quinn’s wife, Lydia (Orla Brady), is prepping for his upcoming wedding – that’s how barons roll. She doesn’t seem real upset about that part, but she’s totally not happy that Quinn isn’t giving more responsibility to their son. Seems Quinn feels Ryder’s not ready for it. The heated discussion gives Quinn a headache, but we find out he gets plenty of those; maybe the reason Lydia wants Ryder to get some baron practice under his belt.

Sunny returns to his quarters. He has a compass with the same emblem as M.K.’s medallion – looks like a city. Before he has a moment to process it, Ryder storms in. Not only does he want the medallion, but he also wants Sunny to change Quinn’s mind about the Widow. Dad’s not thinking straight with the headaches and such. He needs Sunny’s protection — “By doing nothing, you’re digging his grave.” For a second, I think maybe Ryder’s not such a bad guy after all … which means he’s just a manipulative bad guy.

Outside the walls surrounding Quinn’s homestead, there’s a shanty town where those in servitude reside. Veil (Madeline Mantock) lives here. She’s Sunny’s girlfriend, and she’s also pregnant. This is not good news for Sunny. Clippers can’t have families. She suggests running away, but Sunny says there’s nothing outside the Badlands and refuses to be told otherwise. She tries to convince him that he’s a good guy, but he begs to differ and leaves.

Next we see him getting those new tattoos … I still can’t believe the tattooist found space. Based on Sunny’s expression, the flask from which he drinks heavily and the general conversation, job stress is a matter of contention.

In the barracks bathroom, M.K. is jumped by the same jerky kid from the pit. This time’s differently. When M.K. realizes his lip is bloodied, his eyes go completely black, and with a supernaturally potent kick, he sends his foe flying into a mirror across the room. The impact literally causes the glass to explode. M.K. snatches a shard mid-air, hurls it directly into the eyeball of his attacker and passes out.

What the hell was that?

M.K. comes to in Sunny’s room. Sunny caught the tail end of the event and wants to know the same thing I do. What the hell was that? We find out that’s just what happens when M.K. bleeds — when he wakes up, “someone’s been hurt, or worse.” It’s why he and his mother left home. They were separated by nomads, and he’s been looking for her ever since. Sunny shows M.K the compass. It’s a place called Azra — where M.K. is from — and it exists outside the Badlands. Finally, some truth.

M.K. wants his medallion back, but Ryder has it. Sunny reads M.K.’s mind, tells him not to pull stupid stunts and sends him back to the barracks. Afterward, we see Sunny staring into the distance from atop a concrete wall. Quinn sees him, too.

Sunny returns to see Veil but changes his mind. Between his preoccupation and the pouring rain, headlights in an alley go unnoticed until he’s surrounded by four sword-wielding gentlemen. Fight sequence number two! This one is far more dramatic than the first.

I’m really happy slow-motion exists. Without it, all the intricacies of martial arts would be impossible to catch. It turns the bloody battle into a work of art.

The men surrounding Sunny are far more skilled than his previous nomadic opponents. Four against one, Sunny regains focus. They fight around the car, over the car, on the car. A mysterious silhouette observes from inside the car, and when Sunny’s sword pierces it, drops of blood on a beaded glove seem inconsequential to its owner. I assume this is The Widow (Emily Beecham).

When the four goons lay dead and Sunny sheaths his sword, The Widow steps from the car. She knows M.K. is there, and she wants him. Sunny won’t abide. She knows this response has nothing to do with his loyalty to Quinn and tells Sunny to let her know when he’s ready to hand the kid over. Her tone makes it clear she’ll be a pain in the ass until she gets what she wants.

In Sunny’s absence, M.K. gets directions to Ryder’s room, sneaks into the mansion … and is caught (of course). Ryder grabs him by the neck and pins him to the wall. Luckily, Lydia hears the commotion. Ryder hands her the medallion M.K. was trying to steal (is it stealing if it’s yours to begin with?). He insists M.K. be jailed and executed as an example. Lydia’s distracted. The medallion impacts her much as it did Sunny.

When Sunny returns, he finds M.K. imprisoned. Why don’t kids ever listen? He asks Sunny about the compass. Sunny, per usual, answers with silence. M.K. gives up and begs Sunny to find his mom, to tell her he never stopped looking for her and that he loves her. Sunny can’t make that promise, so he springs M.K. instead. He takes him to a hole in the ground, opens the cover and tells the kid to jump in. It’s his ticket out — if he can pull it off.

Lydia sees it all happen, and next thing we know, Sunny is having a chat with Quinn. It’s obvious Sunny’s getting antsy and it must be nipped in the bud. Quinn informs Sunny he’ll be leaving the barracks and moving into one of the cottages, to be closer for the sake of protection. Only he and Sunny can stand against the trouble coming.

Quinn! Your son is already pissed off! Now might not be the best time to add fuel to his fire!

Sunny leaves Quinn in a quandary. He looks completely frazzled. He throws some bluesy stuff on the ol’ Victrola and fires up a bowl of his own product, while M.K. makes it out alive.

I have so many questions, so let us discuss this new AMC gem!

• What’s the deal with Azra?
• I only saw Quinn’s wife-to-be for a second, but I swear she’s the one who got naked in Ryder’s room at the end … am I right?
• If I am right, what else might Ryder be planning to screw with?
• Do you believe Quinn’s version of Sunny’s backstory?

Share your thoughts in the comments section below.

New episodes of Into the Badlands premiere Sundays at 10/9CT on AMC.