Year of the Tiger: Part 2

'*Year of the Tiger:Part 2* is the second part of the Season 2 of The CW series Kung Fu. It premiered on March 16, 2022.

## Synopsis

TAKING DOWN RUSSELL TAN - In the midst of Lunar New Year festivities in Chinatown, Nicky tries to help her newly-discovered cousin Mia (guest star Vanessa Yao) understand her new reality. Meanwhile, as Nicky and Evan follow a lead involving one of Russell Tan's (guest star Kee Chan) mercenaries, Henry keeps an eye on Mia at the community center. Elsewhere, Ryan (Jon Prasida) meets Sebastian (guest star JB Tadena), Harmony Dumpling's newest line cook and Kerwin (guest star Ludi Lin) is paid a surprise visit by his sister Juliet (guest star Annie Q.) Finally, Zhilan is forced to confront her past. Tzi Ma, Kheng Hua Tan, Shannon Dang, Tony Chung and Vanessa Kai also star.

## Plot

Evan’s been digging deeper into Sasha’s dealings. He’s found a connection: a vehicle access pass to a warehouse on the docks — Tony Kang’s turf. If you don’t remember, Tony Kang put Jin in the hospital last season and was extorting Harmony Dumplings. As he relays all of this to our favorite fighting Shen, Nicky wants to flesh out the connection between Tony and Tan’s kidnapping plan in order to take him down. Evan can only hold Sasha for 24 hours, so the race is on. Evan calls in the bomb squad, but everything comes up clean. They’ve got nothing, and Mia’s still in danger of getting kidnapped by Tan’s goons. Nicky decides she needs to tell Mia what’s going on. She tells Henry to get her to safety. Evan offers to put a detail on Mia, but nothing seems to come of it. Nicky sees a Verdok truck.

Nicky decides to go this one alone, trading Ryan for her shift at the restaurant and leaving Henry to watch Mia. Down at the docks, she spots Kang and his goons. With Hughes onto Evan, Russell will know Mia wasn’t apprehended as soon as the mercs hit the system; he doesn’t think they’ll be taking Tan down today. So of course Nicky barges in, beats up a guy, and demands to talk to Kang. She proposes a deal: Tony gives her information linking Tan to the kidnapping plot and Kang reclaims his spot as the city’s top crime boss. While he refuses to give her any outright proof, he does give Nicky a lead on some shady people Tan hired to build the holding tank for Mia: Verdok Construction.

Harmony Dumplings is still booming as we saw in Part 1, and the local news wants to feature the restaurant for a Lunar New Year segment much to the chagrin of a camera-shy Mei-Li. Despite her nervousness, the humble and grateful Mei-Li conducts a great interview. In the meantime, Jin’s old friend Frank from the Chinatown Arts Collective comes in. In stark contrast to the Shens’ newfound success, Frank is delivering food as a side hustle to keep his finances going which obviously troubles Jin. Mei-Li comments on how blessed they are to be doing well, and Jin agrees.

When Ryan takes over Nicky’s shift at the (extremely busy) restaurant so she can go do her little crime-fighting, he finally officially meets Sebastian … who brushes him off and puts him on chopping duty. The two bicker until Ryan cuts his hand, so of course, the suave Sebastian has to help him clean up the cut. The two share a charged moment holding hands before a frazzled Mei-Li bursts into the kitchen. Later, Jin comments Sebastian is doing a good job while Ryan stares at the handsome new chef.

Evan looks into the company, which is leading the demo on lots of Tan’s new acquisitions. Everything seems above board. However, after ruthlessly pursuing the last property he needed at the marina to complete the set, Tan pulled his bid for the Red Pearl building that morning — suspicious. Althea discovers a purchase from the same morning by Verdok for a large amount of demolition explosives. Evan doesn’t think it’s a coincidence; there are signs that Tan sabotaged another property via explosion a while back to buy the property dirt cheap. Unfortunately, the property currently in question is smack dab in the middle of where the Lunar New Year festival will be. van pull up in an alley and follows the construction crew. In doing so, she finds the bomb in the basement of the building … which promptly blows up (hidden by the noise of the festival’s fireworks) before she can run away in time.
Likely due to that Biange-induced strength, Nicky is somehow not dead after being buried in rubble. She sees the construction guys pull out an artifact from the wreckage, which is what Tan was after the whole time. After nearly getting caught by the workers, Nicky relays to Evan Tan’s plans to recover buried artifacts. After the mission comes out as a monumental loss on all fronts, Henry comforts a battered Nicky.

At the Shens’ house, Mia listens to the tapes Mei-Xue left behind but is unable to derive any meaning from the encoded messages on them. Nicky presses her to try and find a connection, but Mia is clearly overwhelmed and retires upstairs to stay in Nicky’s room. There she finds a jacket of Mei-Xue’s that Nicky had previously discovered and kept. Nicky gives it to her. There seems to be something hidden in the lining; after ripping it, Mia discovers an old photo of Mei-Xue and a man. A message from Mei-Xue is written on the back. Mia doesn’t reveal what she’s found.
“Whatever fate wields or extinguishes before us, I carry your silhouette against the island waves.”

While Nicky’s off doing her thing, Mia and Henry hang at the community center. Mia is fixated on the research that she previously stole from Nicky and Henry. Henry shows her a panther symbol for one of the guardian families that Mia’s fixated on. Questioning why she’s so interested all of a sudden, Mia reveals the photo: she believes she’s the product of guardian and warrior bloodlines crossing. This is a reason Tan could be after Mia. Henry tries to help Mia find her dad. They sit down and try to isolate where Mei-Xue and Mia’s dad might have crossed paths based on Mei-Xue’s letters. Mia says she doesn’t recognize any of the places but fixates on a picture of Hebao Island, thinking back to Mei-Xue’s note and the line about the island waves. Henry gets Nicky’s messages and says they have to go, but Mia runs off. Nicky, Evan, and Henry look for Mia after Nicky’s blast incident. Nicky begs Mia to stay and let them help, but Mia shakes her off saying they may be related, but they’re not family. As she goes to leave, Nicky tries to stop her, but weak from the blast, Mia gets some hits in and runs.

Despite having just woken up from being in a coma for god knows how long, Kerwin is up and at ’em, pumping iron in the gym (to the chagrin of his healthcare team). As the nurse fusses at him, his sister, Juliette Tan, arrives. The two reminisce on their childhood and father over a glass of wine- Kerwin bitterly, Juliette, not so much. Kerwin wants to know why Russell saved him.
Meanwhile, Juliette confronts her father about her place in his empire and his plans for her, Kerwin, and Mia. Kerwin bursts into their meeting and questions why Russell saved him, demanding to know his purpose in his plans. Russell refuses to answer. Kerwin asks what happened to Zhilan, which makes Russell very angry. After the events at the festival, we see what Tan was after under the buildings. The artifact we saw the men recover was part of an ancient bronze bell Tan was rebuilding, which is now complete. Juliette is confused what this has to do with anything, and Tan tells her she’s ready to know his plan. Kerwin catches wind that Juliette is in on the plan. When he confronts her, she tells him that she’s the one that saved him and has been cleaning up his messes forever and that Zhilan will be dead soon enough as they have sentenced her to death.

Picking up where the last episode left off with Zhilan. Her sister's spirit tells her that she must face what she’s done. Having just lost the Zhang family pendant denoting their guardian status to the top dog inmates, Zhilan theorizes she’s going mad. Rather than embrace what Pei-Ling has to say, she lashes out. Zhilan isn’t sorry about her actions, only that she failed. She felt that all of her suffering would have been worth it if she had only succeeded in getting her revenge on Russell. Pei-Ling tells Zhilan that currently, she’s past redemption; she’s withering away in prison and needs to decide if she wants to live. Those words come in handy as Russell and Juliette Tan send mercenaries to kill Zhilan in prison. She does not go quietly in the night. Oh no, she takes out every single guard in a glorious but brutal display of skill. The inmate ringleader who had been messing with Zhilan witnesses the whole thing. The next thing we know, Zhilan has switched uniforms with her, leaving the inmate dead in the isolation area, and is seen walking out of the prison, having left the pendant on her body double.

## Cast

### Main

* Olivia Liang as Nicky Shen
* Kheng Hua Tan as Mei-Li Shen
* Eddie Liu as Henry Yan
* Shannon Dang as Althea Shen
* Jon Prasida as Ryan Shen
* Gavin Stenhouse as Evan Hartley
* Vanessa Kai as Pei-Ling Zhang
* Tony Chung as Dennis Soong
* Tzi Ma as Jin Shen
* Yvonne Chapman as Zhilan

### Recurring

* Vanessa Yao as Mia
* Ludi Lin as Kerwin Tan
* Fiona Fu as Po Po
* Françoise Yip as Diana Soong
* Marissa Cuevas as Nadia
* Chelsea Clark as Chloe Soong
* Kee Chan as Russell Tan
* Elfina Luk as Ziqi

## Quotes

Mei Xue's Recording- “Whatever fate wields or extinguishes before us, I carry your silhouette against the island waves.”

## References

1. ↑ http://www.thefutoncritic.com/listings/20220303cw08/