The CW’s Kung Fu returned on Wednesday with an all-new episode, and the return of Zhilan! In the latest episode, “Zhirwin” hook up learn more about each other, and Henry and Evan accompany Nicky in search of her relative. Directed by Geoff Shotz and written by Dan Hamamura, here’s what unfolded in “Isolation.”
Scarry Stories | Zhilan (Yvonne Chapman) and Kerwin Tan (Ludi Lin) have wasted no time getting to know each other. She went from the backseat of his car to his bedroom real fast. As Chapman told us in an exclusive interview, Zhilan has “been a lone wolf this entire time,” so we don’t blame her for wanting intimacy that fast.
Zhilan and Kerwin trade stories about the scars on their bodies. Zhilan’s scars came from lots of exploratory surgeries and spinal corrections when she was a child. “Pain is a constant for me,” she tells him. Kerwin, on the other hand, his whole right arm is pretty scarred up. Hesitant to share the story at first, he reveals that he had been in a car crash that happened after he had been drunk because of his father.
He tells her that he’s working with her for one reason, “and that’s to see the look on [my father’s] face when he realizes I did the one thing he failed to achieve.” That mission was to collect all 8 weapons. Zhilan tells him that he’s closer than he thinks. With what she’s acquired so far, and the three that they’re about to steal from Kerwin’s father, they’re left with two remaining weapons.
Kerwin proposes they go to Kengtung, Myanmar where his father had spent a great deal of resources into an archaeological dig. Kerwin had always suspected it had something to do with the remaining weapons. “We steal the axe,” he says to Zhilan. “It’ll be especially satisfying taking it right out from underneath his nose.
Road Trip | After receiving a box of letters from her mother that was sent by her auntie Mei-Xue, Nicky (Olivia Liang) talks to Henry about trying to find her. Henry (Eddie Liu) had been frequenting “conspiracy-adjacent” sites and found out that a mysterious woman was after the weapons in the eighties and nineties. She went by the name Sandra Yang, which Henry believes is an alias for Mei-Xue.
With the help of Evan (Gavin Stenhouse) and his friend at DHS, they head to “Sandra’s” last-known location: Canada. The three of them go on a road trip to Canada in the hopes of finding her. It’s a bonding moment for the two gentlemen, as well as a small battle of who knows Nicky more. They put on Dua Lipa on the radio and groove to the music, while Nicky smiles at the cute moment from the backseat.
Cabin in the Woods | After a quick brawl at a bar, Nicky, Evan and Henry track down a man named Duke, who knew Sandra Yang. Duke wants proof that Nicky is not an enemy before giving her details of where he last saw her. Nicky gets her mom on the phone and Mei-Li (Kheng Hua Tan) speaks about how her sister Mei-Xue was kind and loving. Duke gets the confirmation he needed and gives Nicky directions on where to find Mei-Xue’s cabin in the woods.
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Nicky sneaks out of Duke’s without telling Henry and Evan to find Mei-Xue on her own. She locates the cabin a day later, and upon entering, finds that it is deserted. She is touched when she sees a photo of Mei-Xue and Mei-Li from when they were younger. Nicky finds a big box full of cassette tapes as well as a cassette player, and listens to one of them.
“Though I never found the sword itself,” Mei-Xue says in the recording, “I learned more than I needed about the terrifying, corrupting power of the 8 weapons.” She goes on to say that in the wrong hands, the weapons could unleash Biange, and those hands could bend the world to their will. Mei-Xue says that isolation became her only choice to keep her secrets safe. “My journey had to end. But if you’re listening to this, yours has just begun.” Later, Nicky finds a grave for Mei-Xue just outside the cabin. But who buried her?
What are your thoughts on the episode? Let us know in the comments below!
Kung Fu airs Wednesdays at 8pm on The CW.