I think it’s fair to say that after an episode like this, I don’t think anybody would begrudge me a drink.

This is Night 2 of The Continental, also known as “Loyalty to the Master,” and things get a little more rolling now. Some people complained that last episode was a little slow for what The Continental is supposed to be and what the John Wick series kind of is. I disagree, but this episode continues more or less right where we left off, which is that Winston’s decided he’s going to put together a team.

There’s a huge issue with Winston’s approach, in that he doesn’t fully grasp what it is he’s walking into. I actually think that plays into this entire thing. There’s a little saying that the thing you don’t know is difficult for you is not difficult, and I think that’s exactly the situation Winston finds himself in. They literally say in this thing that it’s crazy to want to hit or take down the Continental. And he’s like, “It’s only crazy because no one’s ever tried it. No one’s ever tried it because they think it’s crazy. That’s why it’s going to work.”

It’s a bit of a trope. We’ve seen it in heist movies, we’ve seen it in other high crime movies. But overall, I’m actually quite impressed with how they execute the plan this time.

What Really Happened in 1955

Winston’s mission is very simple. He’s going to put together a crew in order to take out and essentially kill Cormac. Very cut and dry.

Then there’s a flashback that takes us back to 1955, the night we started last episode in. It’s in black and white again, but this time what you see is the actual thing that happened. The kids were hired by Cormac to throw a Molotov cocktail into someone’s window. They think it’s just burning down a business. Winston really wants to be the one to do it, he insists, and of course his brother’s going to let him. So Winston hurls it in, and then he hears people screaming. That’s really when it became real for him. He’s crying his eyes out, and Frankie’s like, “Come on, come on,” and they run.

That’s the thing in the police station in the first episode. Don’t tell them anything, don’t say anything to them, but if anyone asks, I did it.

Then we shift over to KD. By the way, KD is the name of that female police officer, the detective, whose name I couldn’t remember last time. Her whole deal, come to find out, is that she’s trying to find out who’s responsible for the death of her family. She finds out that it was Frankie. The issue is Frankie’s dead. So what do you do with that?

Yen Puts Everybody Down

Remember, Yen was down last episode because she got shot. While she’s out in the theater, she has a dream, and it’s a flashback to 1970-some-odd in Saigon. You find out she was supposed to be a suicide bomber during the war. For some reason the thing didn’t work, and she meets Frankie. Then she wakes up.

Meanwhile they’ve recovered Frankie’s body. They pay the coroner’s office guy to bring it, they have it cremated, and they have a little mini kind of thing, and there’s a little urn. That’s when Yen walks in, and she’s like, “Where’s Frankie?” Everybody kind of looks, and they see the urn.

And she’s mad. Man, she’s mad, and she puts everybody down. By that, I don’t mean with harsh language and witty repartee. When I say she puts everybody down, I mean she whoops their asses. Period. It is rough what happens. Then she storms out.

Yen, obviously, is unbelievable. She’s not really happy, she’s trying to find herself, and then she gets jumped. Cormac is wasting no time.

Why You Try to Fight Lady Shaft?

Now we have Lou. Lou is the owner of the martial arts dojo in Chinatown, and she’s dealing with some drama of her own.

She gets back to her dojo and there’s this guy installing a cigarette machine, and she’s like, “Hey, what’s this? What’s going on?” This is where she meets this guy who’s called the Orphan Maker, or the Orphan Master. Because everyone’s got to have fun, cool, code-namey, schlocky pulp names in this thing. The Orphan Master is this Asian gentleman who’s got a little kid with him, and he’s like, I don’t care what kind of deal your dad had, you have to pay your dues. He’s being real crappy about it. And she basically threatens him. She’s going to stand her ground, and she’s not going to be bullied.

Later on, there’s this kid who throws a rock in her window, and she chases him down, only for dude to have all these guys try to attack her.

Bro. She still whoops up on these guys big time. It is amazing watching her send these guys down to pound town. I’m talking just straight up martial arts, kapow and chapow. It’s amazing and well worth the price of admission. Finally dude’s like, all right, you’ve embarrassed them enough. He says in Chinese, you guys go home, you’re making me sick over here.

I’m like, why you try to fight female Dolemite? Okay? Why you try to fight Lady Shaft? She’s whooping up y’all bad.

Then she gets back to her place, and really in a sign of defiance, she takes that cigarette machine and throws it out. One of the guys they hire is this near-sighted sniper, which is a phrase I don’t think I ever thought I’d say. And he’s like, “Oh, so I take it we quit smoking?” It’s super funny.

She is bad. She’s a bad woman.

Three Days to Get Your House in Order

Cormac got a visit from an Adjudicator. If you’ve watched the John Wick series, then you know exactly what an Adjudicator means.

He’s in the middle of having dinner, and there’s this guy playing the cello, who will come back around later. She’s like, “Oh, that’s awfully celebratory.” And he goes, no, it’s comfort food, I promise. “Comfort food, nothing more.”

The Adjudicator is the lady with the mask. She sits there and she says, “Oh, don’t let me stop.” She takes her mask off. We don’t ever see her. She’s shot from behind. She takes a fork and she eats, and he’s like he doesn’t want to look at her face. So something’s going on with her face. We don’t know what, because by the time they show her again, she’s putting her mask back on.

And she basically says, you have three days to get your house in order. Three days to find the press and bring those who are responsible to our feet, or we will take you down until we can name a successor. She’s not playing. This institution, the Continental, is not going to be brought down because of Cormac’s goofy little butt.

Loyalty to the Master

One of the interesting characters in this is Charon. He’s trying very hard to stay who he is and stay the course. Remember, Charon is a very loyal person. This is just the younger version of the guy we’re going to see eventually in the John Wick movies, and you have to understand where he’s coming from. He’s extraordinarily loyal. He’s got family. His father’s a musician in this whole thing.

He has a conversation with the cellist, and the conversation is very simple. The guy’s going to go to a conservatory, and he says, Charon, you should come with me, we can go see anything, whatever you want. And Charon’s like, no, my future’s here. Very loyal.

So when Cormac finds out, he has the kid brought up, and he goes, play something that reminds you of loyalty. And the kid plays a bit from Don Giovanni. The theme is loyalty to the master. That’s where we get our title for the episode.

During this, Winston meets up with Charon, because he realizes Charon might be the in. Might be. He meets him on a bus that they’ve acquired, and he basically talks him through it. He says, look, I know how it was. I know what it’s like to be the kid that Cormac picks up. Because that’s who he and Frankie were. He makes him an offer.

I don’t know fully what happens, but as soon as dude gets back, Cormac has killed the cellist. He says to Charon that he’s tired of people trying to steal from him. And Charon spills the beans. Winston’s put together a team, they’re going to take you out. No question. The whole situation about loyalty? No question.

Charon asks him, “What did he try to steal?” And he goes, “You.”

I was like, oh, bro, stop it.

The Fights Look Like the Era

The fight choreography in this episode was top-notch. I thought the martial arts was dope. It looked very much the era, meaning it didn’t look polished or clean like choreography today often does. It looked real, if that makes sense. It wasn’t flashy or fancy, but it was genuine, and I believed it.

The city street looked more like a city street this time. It didn’t look quite so much like a soundstage the way it did last time.

The music is another story. In filmmaking there’s a thing called handling the audience. Music is designed to handle you, and they do that throughout the whole thing, and it’s always really present. Almost too much. At the end of the day, the music feels like it’s not even a character, but an annoying character. I like the needle drops. I don’t think we needed so many of them, but that’s just my own personal preference.

That said, the soundtrack’s dope. I want this soundtrack for real. I’m literally going to my Apple Music account later and I’m going to start building a playlist just based on the music in this episode. I’m going to call it the Continental, and the link goes in the description of the video.

The Adjudicator and the Queenpin

There’s a whole lot going on with the Adjudicator, and the Adjudicator’s a scary woman. After Cormac kills the cellist, she finds out. She’s told Cormac has killed on Continental property, and she says keep it quiet, don’t tell anybody, let them eat themselves to find the press. All she cares about is results. Without results, everything burns to the ground as far as she’s concerned.

We also get our first look at the Bowery, and one of the characters affectionately calls the woman running it the Queenpin. For those of you playing at home, the Bowery is that place Laurence Fishburne’s character rules over in the John Wick movies, all the homeless people. To give you a quick example, while she’s talking to Winston, because he goes to see her, these three SUVs pull up in front, and literally all these homeless people walking around stop, turn, kill the drivers, get in the cars and drive off. The street is clean again. Like, whoa. It’s the same nonsense you saw the Bowery King doing. I think it’s hilarious they call him the Bowery King, because they call her the Queenpin here. The two of those things jive.

A lot of you said last week in the comments that you could see Miles becoming the Bowery King. I could totally see that, too.

She’s awesome, because she’s like, I don’t need money. I don’t want their money, I don’t want yours. You know what I want? Love. And he’s like, what’s love? I don’t understand what you mean. And she tells him what you do when you take a homeless man off the street: you give him meaning and purpose, and then he embraces being invisible. That’s the whole premise of the Bowery. Even though later on the High Table’s like, you think we didn’t know you exist? We knew everything about y’all existing. Whatever. It’s an interesting setup, and I’m definitely here for those developments and seeing what that ultimately leads to.

My Prediction: Winston Sent Him Back on Purpose

It’s definitely gearing up for the climax with Winston and his crew.

I believe Charon telling Cormac the truth was designed to put him off kilter. Either Charon is lying, meaning telling him is part of the plan, or, and this falls more in line with who Winston is later in the John Wick movies, Winston is actually the one who, knowing Charon’s character, sends him back knowing he’s going to tell him.

And I believe firmly what’s going to happen is the Adjudicator’s going to have a conversation with Winston at some point. She’s going to be like, look, we just want the press. You want to run this place? Fine. You take him out and it’s all yours.

The Verdict

The Continental Night 2, “Loyalty to the Master,” gets an 8 and a half out of 10 on the Know-It-All Index.

I’m going a little higher than last week. I like what they’re doing, and this didn’t feel quite so set-uppy. I mean, it still did, obviously. They’re dropping so many subplots and threads that feel like they’re supposed to eventually take us somewhere as if this was an actual series, and I’m hoping that’s not the case. My fear and concern is all these threads, man. What’s happening there? I’m hoping it gets cleaner before it doesn’t.

But they’re scooting up. Shine them up, get them locked and loaded. Part three comes next week, and that’s where we’re really going to shine.

What did you think of the second episode of The Continental? Did you like how they’re setting things up, both in the story and in the greater Wick-a-verse? Tell me in the comments on the video above.