Nothing much of significant enjoyment and entertainment happened in this episode. Its primary focus was setting up more plot threads to explore in future episodes. It focused on character development, too. The main examples are that Chao has a daughter, Bill is getting addicted and a little too accustomed to the mildly luxurious lifestyle; thanks to Zing; Ah Sahm and Young Jun are going behind Father Jun's back by buying opium from a local source instead of from China, and they're using Mercer Steel as a front to store it; because of that, Penelope has good security to protect her Chinese workers from the Irishmen, which will undoubtedly reach Leary's ears, and that will lead to the Hop Wei and the Irishmen fighting, and then Leary and Ah Sahm; the plot thread and potential romance between Leary and Sophie was developed a little further; Lee is putting himself in harm's way by getting addicted to the laudanum and there could be more focus brought back to that girl, Abigail; him and Bill, well, HE actually tracked down Ah Toy's partner, progressing that plot thread, which takes the both of them and the police one step closer to Ah Toy, and I imagine that plot thread will be developed further with Leonard Patterson informing Ah Toy; Mai Ling is starting to get conceited, as proven when she asked Li Yong to bring Zing with him as insurance to "send a message" by taking out some of the Suey Sing tong, and when she seemingly has had enough of Buckley always giving her a subtle threat at the end of their every meeting and employed the services of Mr. Nichols to acquire insurance for her on him.
Nellie Davenport was introduced, another new character that will be a regular one in this season, like Sophie and Rosalita. Honestly, I like that these new characters are being introduced early on. For some reason, I guess I was expecting that not to be the case. The type of character she was showed to be; seems interesting. She's a widow; and rich. And I'm guessing she uses that latter fact to go around and help Chinese women who're prostitutes. That's an intriguing outline for her character, and it's a good-hearted thing to do on her part. At the same time, I couldn't help but feel a little irritated by her. She gave me that sort of impression, and I don't know why. As I said, not only is the outline of the character intriguing, and is it good-hearted of her to go that far for Chinese women being used and whatnot; there was still something about her that rubbed me the wrong way. It could be the performance of the actress. She could've been told to act the character out as being pretentious. I don't know.
There is only one character left that hasn't been introduced. According to IMDb, his name is Hong. And the actor is Chen Tang, who's in the title sequence of this season, along with the three actresses who play the three new female characters. It would be nice if he's introduced in the next episode. The other three characters have already been introduced in only the first two episodes of the season. At the risk of stating the obvious, I believe the character will be a new addition to one of the tongs. It's my opinion that he'll be in the Hop Wei tong. As for whether or not he'll be a character that was already apart of the tong but only now brought into the spotlight or if he'll be a new addition that recently joined or joins in the episode where he's introduced, I'm not sure. But I'll learn soon enough, and I'm interested to see what the outline of his character will be.
The two fight sequences in this episode were alright. The one where Ah Sahm and Young Jun fought some of Happy Jack's men was underwhelming. The sound distortion and having the focus of the sound design being on Young Jun's fighting with the sound from Ah Sahm's fighting being a little muted was immersion-breaking. It made the fighting in the background with Ah Sahm look telegraphed and fake, at times. On the bright side, the one with Li Yong, Zing, and men from both the Long Zii and the Fung Hai killing some of the Suey Sing's men and taking out the rest was better. It was nice seeing more of Zing's skills, and his outfit, specifically that jacket, was on-fleek.
Overall, this episode didn't have that many elements in it to make it super enjoyable. Plot-wise, nothing much of interest happened. There was a little plot progression with a few plot threads. There was also a little character development and contrast between Bill's current lifestyle and Lee's. I think the most relevant things that happened in this episode was learning a bit more about Chao; learning that he has a daughter; Sophie and Leary having another scene together, Mai Ling employing the services of someone to gather insurance for her on Buckley, and the introduction of Nellie Davenport. Other than that, this episode was definitely somewhat underwhelming and not THAT enjoyable but enjoyable, nonetheless.
