The Boar and the Butterfly

"**The Boar and the Butterfly**" is the eleventh episode of the third season and Chapter XXVII of *Into the Badlands*. It aired on March 25, 2019.

## Synopsis

Sunny and Nix seek information that could destroy Pilgrim. The Widow and Bajie team up with the Master. M.K. leads Pilgrim to a great source of power.

## Plot

At
the start of the episode we see MK follow Nix back to the place where Sunny has been hiding. He and an injured Sunny both ask her to move out of the way but she steps up to protect Sunny. The battle is intense as both go dark and MK is about to finish her off when Sunny stabs him through the shoulder from behind and pins him to a table, bending the bar over his back.

Now that Pilgrim will know that she’s turned on him, Nix agrees to go with Sunny.

Sunny and Nix finally make it to Ankara and find that she’s been attacked by the Black Lotus. She’s dying but offers to help Sunny if he can get her out of there. While traveling she explains to Sunny that the Black Lotus exist only to kill dark ones. Then she starts yelling and says she can feel The Master searching for her. There are great visuals in this sequence as we can see what The Master sees until she finally finds her, along with Sunny and Nix.

Back at The Monastery, The Widow is questioning if The Master caused her to have the vision she had in the last episode. The Master drives home her point in saying that The Widow would only cause destruction if she got her gift back and needs to learn to work for a larger good and not just her own.

Later in the episode Bajie arrives at the Monastery and both he and The Widow (or Flea as he calls her) are surprised to see each other. Bajie explains that Sunny was The Catalyst and that he and Pilgrim were the lost children of Azra and The Master is caught off guard by this. Knowing the history between the two, she encourages Bajie and The Widow to work out their differences through a fight with sticks. The fight ends when they accidentally destroy the car Bajie drove up in.

After having found them, The Master sends The Widow and Bajie to find Sunny and Nix and hopefully Ankara. She gives them one of her disabling needles (she can put a dark one into a coma) in case she resists. Along the journey, Bajie and The Widow open up about what went wrong in their past and Bajie finally apologizes for abandoning her when she was young.

It’s immediately clear that Pilgrim is no longer himself. He’s referring to himself as a God and even Cressida is somewhat alarmed. He snaps on MK for letting Sunny escape and accuses him of helping Nix. MK then tells him about the Monastery as a potential place where they can acquire more dark ones for their army. He says he never mentioned it before because he’s scared to go back and that The Master is the strongest person he’s ever met.

Pilgrim, completely cocky now says that he is the strongest.

Along their journey Pilgrim wanders off from the group and sees Castor. What is at first a joyous reunion goes South as Castor points out all of the bad things that Pilgrim did to him and Nix as well as attacking his insecurities. When he snaps back to reality MK is the one standing over him and the rest of the men are coming over after hearing the commotion. Pilgrim is asking for Castor and MK finally starts to see that he’s slipping. MK says they should rest but Pilgrim marches on instead.

The war is still ongoing and Lydia wants to find Chau to break the will of her soldiers. Gaius tells her that should probably try going to his mother and leaves with Tilda.

Before Pilgrim leaves to try to take The Monastery, Cressida convinces him to leave two Harbingers with her.

While Lydia and Moon are having a romantic moment, bonding over their lost children, the thought of what they missed out on and the idea of what they can have now, Cressida arrives. She threatens them, and just as Moon is about to fight two harbingers, Lydia stops the fight. She realized what was about to happen and offers to give Cressida what she wants. Food and supplies as well as Pilgrim’s banners hung to show their fealty.

Gaius and Tilda find his mother but she’s not willing to give up his sister’s location. After talking down on him and Tilda Gaius is unable to kill her himself and gets the information from his half-brother. When his mother says she’s going to warn Baron Chau, Gaius gives Tilda the go ahead to kill her and she releases whatever pent-up anger she had on the woman leaving her face covered in blood splatter. Gaius tells his brother that he’s free now as they leave.

At the end of the episode Sunny sees The Widow at the market. He chases her down and when he sees her an epic fight ensues. The Widow tried to explain that she was there to help but this is Sunny’s first real shot at her since Veil was killed and he’s angry. During the fight you can see the anger in his eyes while The Widow is calmly blocking his attacks. A stark contrast from
what we saw from her when she fought The Master, she’s learning.

Meanwhile, Ankara tells Nix that the gift isn’t all about killing and shows her that she can heal herself, before knocking Nix out and leaving. Bajie finds Nix later and, unlike Sunny, immediately believes her when she says she’s there to help.

When the two find Sunny and The Widow, Minerva has gotten the upper hand and now Sunny accepts that they’re on the same team.

Ankara goes dark in an attempt to get away when they corner her but The Widow comes up from behind her and stabs her with the needle. As she starts to go to sleep, Ankara tells them that it’s too late.

The closing scene is then MK and Pilgrim arriving at The Monastery.

## References

1. ↑ *Into The Badlands*- AMC
2. ↑ hiddenremote.com - Into the Badlands Season 3, Episode 11: The Boar and the Butterfly