The Continental is open for the final time, and this one’s an extravaganza. It’s nearly a two-hour movie. If you’ve missed any of the previous nights, so help me, you need to go see everything first, because I’m about to spoil all of it. Figure out what you’re going to do with yourself.
This is the third and final installment of the Continental miniseries on Peacock, “Theatre of Pain.” Each of these has been a night: Night One, Night Two, and Night Three. It’s been an unbelievable ride. Some things were confirmed, and some other things, well, we’ll get there.
1955, a Car Trunk, and a Condemned Bank
The whole thing starts once again in 1955. You see Frankie and Winston as children, and their mother’s tucking them into the trunk of a car. She tells them they’ll be safe. Both Mrs. Know-It-All and I believe that’s probably the last time they saw their mother.
Then you cut to Winston, grown, looking in the back of a car at the old junkyard where all this rigmarole started. He has this look on his face like he’s really contemplating what this has been about the whole time. Come to find out, Mazie gave him a lot to think about.
So he asks her to meet him at an old rundown bank that’s been condemned. He tells her a story about his mom, and it’s sad. You come to realize Winston is like those people at the Bowery. He came from that life, and because of it he wanted to conquer things. He couldn’t get it out of his head that she didn’t want his money. So he tells her his story, and it’s very much the story of a child on the streets, impoverished, just like Mazie’s people. He tells her these banks stand here, even condemned, even with nobody in them anymore, like monuments mocking the people on the street, everybody who doesn’t have money.
Then he hands her the deed to the bank. There are suit racks on the side. She says she doesn’t really think a suit makes the woman, and he says no, but if he can put some of her people to work, he can give them some suits. You clearly get the understanding that Mazie’s on his side.
Lou Finds Out Who Her Father Was
The episode proper opens with Winston and the crew rehearsing. They’re trying to get it right and their heads just aren’t there. Winston has a quick couple of words with everybody and storms out.
Lou and Miles have a heart-to-heart about the nature of what they’re doing and whether they should be doing it at all. She’s torn apart. She tells him he needs to start telling her the truth, and she accuses Miles of wanting them to be diametrically different from their father. He literally tells her everything she thinks is a lie, and she doesn’t want to know what she thinks she wants to know.
Everything intercuts, but let’s finish her storyline. As everybody else is heading out to the mission at the Continental, the Orphan Master and his people show up in force. She’s already not feeling very much like giving a damn. He hands her a gun and tells her that her father murdered the people who lived here, didn’t care, took up residence, and operated out of here with impunity, and that’s going to end. She realizes her dad was the bad guy, and he has the gun to prove it, with the first part of her dad’s first name on it. She’s got to reconcile that.
The orphan kid doesn’t want to go with him anymore, so he stays with her. The little boy with the paperboy hat and the whole bit. When he came in earlier, he grabbed a little remote. A little bit later they’re sitting on a bench overlooking everything, he shows it to her, and she blows up the dojo with the Orphan Master and all of his people in it. That is seemingly the end of that storyline.
Before any of that, KD tracks down Lou’s place, then KD’s boss tracks down KD, and there’s this unbelievable telephone fight. I say telephone fight, I mean in a phone booth, between Lou and KD’s boss, that one detective guy. The choreography in this thing is really, really good. That’s all the stuff that started messing with Lou’s head.
The Plan Falls Apart, Except It Doesn’t
Gene finds the perfect spot to see virtually all the rooms, windows and halls at the Continental. It belongs to this nice little sweet lady who’s about his age. He sends her away on a trip, pretending to be the pest control guy. While he’s in the place, she comes home, and he’s got to gag her, but he’s really nice and sweet to her about it. That whole scenario is hilarious.
Meanwhile at the Continental, Cormac has literally lost it. It’s the last day and he’s cussing everybody out. He asks Charon about making his special gas. He wants the laughing gas, the good stuff, the fun fumes, I need my medicine. It’s really funny. He’s getting ready for it, and he’s got people tracking down Winston.
The person who tracks Winston down first is KD. Then the twins and a couple of guys show up and take him. As Winston’s coming downstairs he runs into KD, there’s a shootout in the lobby, KD gets hit (she’s not dead, though), and the twins are gone with Winston. Lou gets back to the hideout and tells everybody, and all I can think is, oh my God, the plan’s falling apart. It’s all coming crashing down.
Winston’s dragged before Cormac and he’s not backing down. He’s doubling down hard. So Cormac tells Charon to open the balcony. Obviously he’s going to throw Winston out, or have someone do it. They open the door and Charon turns on him, shotgun and all. This was the first part of the plan.
I was right. Mr. Know-It-All strikes again. I said it had to be one of two things: either Charon’s in on it and he’s that good of an actor, or Winston was depending on what his actions would be. Come to find out, he was that good of an actor.
The garbage truck shows up with the man in the chair, so to speak, and it’s 1970s high tech, so you’ve got these big tube TVs on a table inside a converted waste management truck. Cormac manages to get away because Charon can’t shoot him. The story’s really working, I’m seeing the parts come together, and Yen’s getting her revenge.
The Whole Hotel Is the Set Piece
Cormac makes it to the emergency station, he’s trying to alert someone, and finally the red light comes on. That’s it. Winston’s ready, everybody’s ready, it is on. You’ve got Gene from far away popping fools left and right in the halls, and people in suits everywhere.
People like to compare stuff like this to The Raid or the hallway scene from Daredevil. This is its own thing. Imagine a massive set piece where everything is part of the action. Every floor they go to, every encounter they have in that hotel, is part of the story and propels the narrative forward in a way I found extraordinarily satisfying. As a former TV writer and someone who’s been in the business, I was so excited for this. I wish some parts of Night One had this much energy, but at the same time I get it. The story was amazing. This third movie is a satisfying third act on a lot of levels. Until it’s not.
Cormac gets himself to the 13th floor, which is where they hide operations, tucked between the floors. There’s this nerdy guy there, nerdy for the 1970s, and Cormac wants to blow up the hotel. The guy’s like, are you crazy? This isn’t that kind of scenario. And as they watch on the cameras, little by little the team takes everybody out.
Yen faces off with the twins, which is an amazing fight. It culminates in one of the best dual fight scenes I have ever seen: Lou and Miles versus the male half of the twins. Dude’s covered in dust, and next thing you know it becomes an old-school blaxploitation kung fu flick, and I am here for it. Especially when homeboy grabs a pool cue, starts beating Miles down, breaks the cue, and stabs Miles in the shoulder. It’s awesome.
Then he’s got Lou in a choke hold. She looks up and you see, as far as I’m concerned, her newly adopted kid up in the rafters with her gun. He drops it. She catches her dad’s gun and blows dude’s head away.
Mrs. Know-It-All believes their dad wanted them to learn some skills other than guns. I believe Miles is trying to be like his dad. Then Mrs. Know-It-All chimes in and says, because Lou is like their dad. And I was like, ooh, that makes so much sense.
KD, 1955, and the Kill That Was Hers
KD gets her hands on Winston at one point, and he admits full on that he was the one who burned the place. That’s the connection. The business they burned as children in 1955 belonged to KD’s family.
She’s ready to kill him, and dude feels terrible. He tells her he didn’t know, they were told there wasn’t anybody there, he had no idea. He literally says, if you’re going to kill me anyway, let me just tell you I’m sorry. That takes her aback.
Right then Gene, just on time, because the lady had come home, fires and hits her. Winston’s yelling no, stop, stop. He tries to give her their wonder drug, the one John Wick takes later, the one that lets you keep fighting and ignore the pain while you’re tearing yourself up. She says no. So he very caringly tells her, look, I will be back. I’m going to come back for you. She’s surprised, like she doesn’t know what to make of it. It’s because Winston genuinely didn’t want to do that. And the reason she was after Frankie is that Frankie took the fall in 1955. Don’t forget, tell them I did it, you didn’t do anything, remember.
Later, Winston and them track Cormac down to the sub-basement, where there’s a train track and he’s trying to leave. They have a confrontation, Cormac’s about to go off, and KD shows up. Cormac thinks she’s just some bounty hunter and tells her the bounty’s off. She says this is my kill. He thinks she’s talking about Winston. She shoots him, then again in the head. Cormac is dead. And she decides to leave. She’s done.
Just then Cormac’s train escape pod shows up, because if the building’s coming down, there’s an escape pod. As the seconds tick away and the place is literally about to go down, Winston runs in and puts what looks like his hand on the manager’s panel. He cut off Cormac’s hand and brought it up there.
Where It Gets Weird
The next day the Adjudicator shows up and effectively shuts down all the services that happen there until they can sort things out. Winston’s standing on the steps while they talk, and this is the part where, for me, things get weird.
She asks what made him think he could come take this whole place. He proceeds to tell her about destiny, and that he has the press. He found it in the back of the car when they were kids, and then he put it in the safest place. Where do you put something of value? In a bank. The bank he gave Mazie.
The suits were to get her people in, because that’s how they helped fight in the hotel. The Bowery people were dressed in suits. They melted down some gold bars and made their own coins to get in and get rooms. So half the people sent to hunt down Winston were Mazie’s people. It’s all super planned out.
The Adjudicator’s really hardcore with him. It’s part of a system, you’re small to them, they’re not going to talk to you. So he steps down off the steps. He’s now off Continental property. He says, “They will now,” and he shoots her in the head. And we fade to black.
Don’t Spend All the Money Before the Last Episode
Some things in this were just flat-out ridiculous. If you’re going to make something like this, don’t spend all the money before you get to the last episode.
There’s a major moment outside the armory. To this point the armory’s been the objective. This is where Winston reveals that half the guys in the room are Mazie’s people, and it’s a Mexican standoff like you read about. Then the lights go off.
In the video I show you my own version of that scene first. It doesn’t look very impressive, and that’s because I made it myself, right here in DaVinci Resolve, using muzzle-flash B-roll I downloaded. Then I show you the real scene, and you can see the problem.
We’ve seen these kinds of moments in John Wick. This is the kind of moment where everybody’s running around doing stuff and the muzzle flashes should be the only thing giving us a strobe light into what’s happening in the room. It’s the same effect you get in horror movies, where you’re going ooh, ooh, and looking for stuff. The fact they didn’t do that was irresponsible and a huge letdown, and it took me out of the entire thing that fast. Not cool, guys. Come on. How are you going to spend the money everywhere else and not on the most important episode?
I’m also not a big fan of how it ended. The ending was a little lackluster. I’d told Mrs. Know-It-All I believed the Adjudicator was going to contact Winston at some point and say, obviously this isn’t working, obviously you’re giving him a hard time, so here’s what we’re going to do: you take him out, the hotel is yours, all we want is the press. Come to find out he’s holding the press hostage as his claim to the Continental, and the thing ends with him flexing on the High Table like nobody’s business.
I’m not okay with that. I’d rather he’d made a deal with them. And then they waste the reveal of her face on her death scene. Why didn’t we get her face at any other time? It could’ve been when she approached Winston about taking over the place, because Mel Gibson’s character, Cormac, had been such a dick. None of that happens, and I’m really disappointed in the way this whole thing turned out toward the end.
The Verdict
The Continental Night 3 is a 7 and a half on the Know-It-All Index.
It was an excellent show overall, and I like the connection points. The end just got kind of handwavy, and I’m sorry, but speaking as a gentleman, we’re all better than that.
Tell me what you thought of the three-part series, and whether you’d want more on the Continental, because I know there are other things coming. I’ve also never really taken a look at the John Wick movies here on the channel, so I may very well do some rewind reviews. Let me know one way or another in the comments on the video above.
