The Blood and the Sh*t

**The Blood and the Sh\*t** is the fifth episode of the first season of the Cinemax original martial arts crime drama *Warrior*. It premiered on May 3, 2019. The series has since been acquired by Max.

## Synopsis

Transporting precious cargo via stagecoach through the Sierra Nevada, Ah Sahm and Young Jun are forced to spend the night with three strangers at a frontier saloon in the middle of nowhere. The detour turns perilous when Harlan French, a notorious outlaw, shows up with his henchmen, looking for a lucrative payday.

## Plot

Ah Sahm and Young Jun are riding a stagecoach with the corpse of a dead relative through Nevada with a few other passengers: a married couple named Shepherd and Nancy, who aren't exactly pleased to be riding with two Chinese men, claiming that they carry diseases, a priest named Father Flynn, who is far more accepting of Ah Sahm and Young Jun, regardless of their heritage, and Mason, an unruly and racist cowboy, who refers to them as worms, even as Father Flynn insists that they're humans deserving of respect.

The stagecoach makes an unexpected stop in the middle of nowhere, and the passengers seek refuge in a nearby saloon for the night. Ah Sahm and Young Jun bring the coffin inside with them and sit it in the back. The saloon owner, Billie takes their order before telling Mason that the only beds come with a whore. However, he refuses to hook up with Wankeia, who's Native American and who Mason refers to as a "redskin." When Billie explains that her only other girl, Sally, is upstairs with a customer, Mason takes matters into his own hands. He barges in and kicks the man out before joining Sally in the room.

Lu, the saloon's Chinese cook, approaches Ah Sahm and Young Jun with a plate of drunken chicken and offers to bring them some rice wine. Lu is from Yubei, making him and Ah Sahm practically neighbors. His father even used to have a farm at the base of Dinghu mountain. Unlike Ah Sahm and Lu, Young Jun has never been to China. He was born in San Francisco, and still isn't even treated as an American. He belongs nowhere.

Mason returns and begins instigating a fight with Ah Sahm and Young Jun, referring to them as yellow and questioning the manner in which they eat. Ah Sahm stands to his feet as if to fight, but Father Flynn intervenes and offers to buy Mason a drink.

Ah Sahm heads into back to return the plate to Lu, who is a bit aggravated with how Mason spoke to Ah Sahm and Young Jun. He regrets not throwing Mason out when it first happened, revealing that he also owns the tavern that he personally built by hand. But before all that, he was a coolie, working ten years on the railroads, laying down track and growing fruit. After that, he did five years squeezing food out of a mining claim that ducks said was dry. He ultimately quit and came to Nevada when they wouldn't give him the going rate for his gold. He additionally reveals that Billie is his wife. She's his true gold mountain.

Meanwhile, Young Jun heads upstairs with Wankeia to have sex. Afterwards, he comes down with Wankeia and tells Ah Sahm that he thinks he's in love. He's like her — a stranger in their own land. Young Jun then goes to the bar, where he gets into an altercation with Mason after being shoved, but Young Jun maintains his composure until Mason notices that he's taken a liking to Wankeia and plans to take her upstairs for himself. When Young Jun reaches for his knives, Mason draws a gun, but he gets his head blown off by Harlan French. He and his crew have come to rob them of all their valuables, holding them all at gunpoint as they take all they have to offer. Meanwhile, Harlan remains at the bar to talk with Billie, whom he appears to be familiar with, remarking that it's been a while and that she's always been tougher and smarter than most of the men. On their way out, Harlan demands the coffin to be brought outside but Young Jun refuses. And so, Harlan orders his men to kill them. However, Ah Sahm and Young Jun manage to disarm Harlan's crew and kill them, all except Harlan, who manages to escape.

Nancy and Shepherd confront Ah Sahm and Young Jun about the coffin, questioning what could be worth risking all of their lives. So, Ah Sahm opens the coffin and cuts the corpse open. Inside his guts, Ah Sahm finds a bag of gold, which neither he nor Young Jun were aware of. Billie realizes that if Harlan is after the gold, then he'll be back. He and his crew have been wanted in Carson City ever since the train robbery a few back. And with his men having been killed, Harlan will return with an army to avenge his men and take the gold. Nancy and Shepherd proposes simply giving him the gold, whereas Father Flynn suggests they hide out in the desert, but Billie insists that they're going to have to fight. Ah Sahm then reveals to the crowd as well as Young Jun that he speaks English and that he has no intentions of leaving the gold behind. Young Jun simply recommends that he and Ah Sahm leave and take their chances on the road, but Billie pleads with him to stay. Lu then draws his gun, reminding Ah Sahm and Young Jun how they brought death into his house and that real men would stay and fight, like himself, as he refuses to leave his home. And so, Ah Sahm agrees to stay and help take down Harlan and his crew.

Ah Sahm encourages Young Jun to run whilst he still can, but he has nowhere to go. Outside of Father Jun, he has no family. But if he had a brother, he'd like to think that he's the kind of brother who would stay and scrap with him. He then asks how Ah Sahm learned to speak English, learning that his grandfather was American.

Young Jun discovers Sally and Wankeia sneaking out through a window to avoid the fight. She invites him to join them, but Jun refuses to leave Ah Sahm behind. Instead, he gives Wankeia a single piece of gold and exchanges names before kissing her goodbye.

As expected, Harlan returns to the saloon with a much larger crew, all armed with rifles. All that remains is Ah Sahm and the coffin. He holds Ah Sahm at gunpoint and demands to be taken to the gold, which he suspects Ah Sahm has already hidden. Ah Sahm offers Harlan a chance to leave with his life, but when he laughs it off, Ah Sahm rips out his throat and directs his attention towards the rest of Harlan's crew with help from Lu, Billie, Nancy, and Shepherd, firing from above. Young Jun manages to kill a couple guys from Harlan's crew before being tackled to the ground. Fortunately, Wankeia saves him by slitting his attacker's throat. Father Flynn even kills one of the crew members. By the end, all of Harlan's crew are dead and everyone else leaves with minor injuries, the worst of which being Shepherd being shot in the arm.

The following morning, Ah Sahm and Young Jun saddle up a couple horses and prepare to return to Chinatown. They prefer not to wait for the next coach. Before leaving, he apologizes to Lu and Billie for the mess, though fortunately, they've already called the martial, and they'll be able to collect the rewards on Harlan and some of his men. They wish Ah Sahm safe travels and hope that he'll someday find something worth fighting for.

## Cast

* Olivia Cheng as Ah Toy (credit only)
* Jason Tobin as Young Jun
* Dianne Doan as Mai Ling (credit only)
* Kieran Bew as Bill O'Hara (credit only)
* Dean Jagger as Dylan Leary (credit only)
* Joanna Vanderham as Penelope Blake (credit only)
* Tom Weston-Jones as Richard Lee (credit only)
* Hoon Lee as Wang Chao (credit only)
* Langley Kirkwood as Walter Buckley (credit only)
* Christian McKay as Samuel Blake (credit only)
* Perry Yung as Father Jun (credit only)
* Joe Taslim as Li Yong (credit only)
* Erica Wessels as Billie
* C.S. Lee as Lu
* Andrew Stock as Father Flynn
* Craig Urbani as Mason
* Rachel Colwell as Wankeia
* Bianca Amato as Nancy
* Ashley Dowds as Shepherd
* Jonathan Pienaar as Lem
* Annette Kemp as Sally
* Francois Groenewald as Sally's Customer

## Trivia

* The episode title, "The Blood and the Sh\*t," was spoken by Young Jun to Ah Sahm in reference to their cross-country journey.