Fist Like a Bullet

**Fist Like a Bullet** is the second episode of the first season of *Into the Badlands*. It aired on November 22, 2015.

## Plot

At a bar, The Widow approaches her former regent and is unsurprised at what he is doing there. She asks him to rejoin but notices an assassin nearby. The assassin throws his handaxe at her, but it hits her former regent instead and kills him. She expertly kills all the assassins and asks the only survivor who had hired them. He responds that Ryder did and she kills him immediately.

Somewhere along a forest, M.K. is running from his pursuers when he spots a young woman kill a squirrel. She later appears next to him saying how spying is wrong and he tells her he needs to escape and claims nomads attacked him and his family. Tilda allows him to come with her to her baron's territory. Dogs are heard barking in the distance; it is one of Quinn's searching parties, led by Ryder and Sunny. The two realize the boy has escaped into the Widow's territory; Ryder insists on pursuing him while Sunny refuses, stating that with a party of their size the other barons could consider it an act of war. The searching party turns back and leaves.

Back at Quinn's fort Quinn asks Ryder about the incident yesterday as there can't be any unsolicited actions done by them. Ryder does not answer his question. After finishing their meal, Quinn asks Sunny to ride along with him. They leave the fort's gates and Quinn tells Sunny a bit about his past, such as when his father was killed by a spotter for being accused of taking extra rations, and how he never defended himself. He later tells him how he went to the Baron at the time and wanted to become a Colt (a Clipper in-training) and the Baron agreed, putting him into the pit with his strongest Clipper. Quinn remembers how he dropped and killed the Clipper in 10 seconds flat.

In the Widow's fort, Tilda tells M.K. to stay outside while she talks with her. The Widow allows M.K. in and tells him to take a bath before guests arrive. She also knows he is lying about his claims of being a tobacco farmer due to his white hands, but leaves when her guests arrive. The guests are three nomads which she has invited for an offer. The Widow asks the nomads to side with her, but the nomads refuse, stating that if they move against Quinn, they will surely be destroyed. She offers them a deal; they will join her if Tilda can take down one of his men. The nomad leader agrees to this deal, only if they keep Tilda if she loses. Tilda fights and easily kills the man the leader selects, so the nomad leader now works for her.

Quinn and Sunny ride to Veil's foster parents home for a quick appointment with the doctor, who helped Lydia deliver Ryder. The doctor does a quick examination with Quinn while his wife talks with Sunny about Veil and the baby. The doctor tells Quinn he has an uncurable tumor and that he might live to see the winter solstice. Quinn leaves the house and asks Sunny to kill the two. Sunny is shocked by his order and refuses to do so, stating they aren't their enemies. Quinn says that they have "a weapon" which can destroy what he has built, but Sunny still refuses to carry out his order. Quinn takes his sword from him, enters the house and kills the two, leaves and says that while he normally doesn't give people second chances, allows Sunny to and presumes he had killed them. Before leaving, he asks him to burn the house to the ground.

Back at the Widow's fort, she asks Tilda to fight M.K., as she believes he is the one that she is looking for. Tilda initially refuses at first, but later accepts after she says there are always her sisters to do so. Tilda fights M.K., angry that he had lied to her. M.K. refuses to fight and Tilda quickly improvises by cutting her palm and placing it on M.K's cheek and telling him to scream. He screams and nothing happens, leaving out of "anger", while the Widow watches. At Quinn's barracks, Sunny asks Waldo what it is like to escape outside the Badlands, but Waldo tells him it's full of stories and even though he lets his birds out, they always come back at night. He also reminds him if he tried to escape, Quinn would hunt him down. He later finds a sobbing Veil, who asks him why her parents were killed and if one of his men killed them. Sunny tells her Quinn killed them and that he suspects Quinn is dying and is afraid of others knowing about it.

At an unnamed town, a prostitute begins to have sex with Ryder. Ryder notices the block of his father's opium and asks her where she got it from. She says she has "contacts", but he immediately knows and chokes her, asking her where she actually got it from. She responds by saying nomads had given it to her. Outside, a woman contacts the Widow and says he has taken the bait.

Back at Quinn's fort, Sunny arrives while his family are eating breakfast. Quinn asks Ryder to share his news with Sunny and tasks the two with dealing with the nomads at the turbine station. In the middle of the night at the Widow's fort, M.K. tells Tilda he needs to leave. They go into the office and search for a mechanism that the previous baron built to lead them to the woods, but the Widow and her nomads approach. She quickly kisses M.K. in time and the Widow asks her to leave, and that M.K. is no longer welcome in her fort. The nomad leader offers to take him as they could always "bolster" their ranks. Outside, the nomad leader says that M.K. has quite a bounty on him and must have pissed someone off. M.K. says that it isn't him before the leader knocks him unconscious and loads him into their car.

The next day, Ryder and Sunny scout out the turbine station and see a car stop and the nomads exit it. They enter, not knowing that M.K. is inside the car. M.K. regains consciousness and uses one of the shurikens he took from Tilda to break free. As Ryder and Sunny enter the turbine station, they are attacked by the nomads. Ryder is caught in a chain where he begins choking while Sunny fights off the nomads. He easily dispatches the nomads who attack him and he breaks Ryder free. The nomad leader attempts to choke him and is almost successful before he is stabbed by M.K. and dies. Sunny thanks M.K. for his assistance and wonders why he's here. He asks him to protect his wife but M.K. has no fighting experience (apart from his hidden ability), so he decides he'll train him instead. They return to Quinn's fort.

Ryder is quickly taken to the doctor for his wounds. Quinn meets with Sunny and M.K. He immediately recognizes M.K. as the boy who escaped from his dungeon and attempts to choke him. Sunny asks him not to, as without M.K's assistance the two would not be here. Sunny requests to take M.K. as his Colt, to which Quinn laughs as he knows Sunny had never taken a Colt before. Despite this, he allows him to after he has M.K. pledge loyalty to him. Sunny then tells him that the nomads planned to ambush them and were hired by the Widow. Quinn then declares war on the Widow.