Nicky Shen

**Nicky Shen** is the protagonist in The CW's *Kung Fu*. She is portrayed by Olivia Liang. A young Chinese-American woman who drops out of college, Nicky then goes on a life-changing journey to an isolated monastery in China, after a quarter-life crisis. When she returns to find her hometown overrun with crime and corruption, she uses her martial arts skills and Shaolin values to protect her community and bring criminals to justice — all while searching for the assassin who killed her Shaolin mentor and is now targeting her.

## Biography

### Pilot

For three years, Nicky, a one time Harvard University student has been living in a monastery in China's Yunnan Province, hiding from the matchmaking trip her mother sent her on. She stopped talking to her family when she realized that the “culture trip” was just an excuse to pair her off in an arranged marriage of her choosing. Not long after she ran away, she was rescued by Pei-Ling, who runs the all-female warrior team training at the monastery.

Pei-Ling mentors Nicky, teaching her everything she needs to know about fighting. But eventually she urges Nicky to make peace with her family and return home. She explains that she too had a difficult family life and that she doesn’t want Nicky to make the same mistakes she did.

That night, the monastery is lit on fire as raiders come after the warriors, but the women fight them off as Nicky desperately tries to get to Pei-Ling. As the fight rages, Pei-Ling faces Zhilan, the leader of the raiders and someone she seems to recognize. Zhilan incapacitates Pei-Ling and steals a mysterious sword from her.

As Nicky finally reaches Pei-Ling, Zhilan stabs Pei-Ling and vanishes. Nicky sobs as Pei-Ling begs her to retrieve the sword and dies.

Nicky pursues Zhilan, and the two fight. Nicky briefly holds the sword, but it makes a noise in her hand before Zhilan takes it back. As Nicky finds herself clinging to the edge of a cliff, Zhilan leaves her there and departs with the mythical sword.

After searching for Zhilan in vain, Nicky returns to her home and estranged family in San Francisco Chinatown where her father Jin welcomes her with open arms. Unfortunately, Nicky is quick to notice that Jin is sporting a black eye. She is further shocked to discover that her older sister Althea is preparing to marry Dennis Soong, an old high school classmate.

Nicky's brother Ryan and mother Mei-Li are both less than thrilled to see her back home, with Mei-Ling feeling especially resentful that Nicky chose to run away rather than to express her reservations about being set up for an arranged marriage. While Nicky storms out, Jin convinces his daughter not to run away to parts unknown again.

Later, Nicky reconnects with her ex-boyfriend Evan Hartley, whom she broke up with because she at the time had been feeling lost and pressured under her mother's expectations. Nicky reveals that she is investigating a new Triad gang extending their operations into Chinatown, and hoping that Evan's connections as the city's Assistant District Attorney can help. Their reunion is interrupted by Ryan's new girlfriend Sabine, to which Nicky takes poorly as she confides in a vision of Pei-Ling who appears to console her and encourage her to reconcile with her family.

Nicky's soul-searching comes to an abrupt end when she discovers Jin roughed up by a local mobster in a shakedown at his family restaurant.

After taking Jin to the hospital to recover, Nicky approaches Ryan at his clinic and reconciles with him over a game of ping-pong, but not before meeting a handsome grad student named Henry. He eventually reveals to Nicky the ancient history of the sword and continues his research based on the burn scars on Nicky's hand from wielding it.

As Nicky and her siblings begin asking local businesses for more information about their father's attackers, they are accosted by armed goons who are easily dispatched by Nicky.

In the aftermath, Nicky and Mei-Li finally have it out, with Nicky revealing that it was Mei-Li that pressured her to break up with Evan and micro-managed her life until she traveled to China.

Frustrated by the authorities inability to act, Ryan goes out on his own to take incriminating photos of the Triads at the docks, with Nicky rushing after him to save him. Nicky wows Ryan with her martial arts skills, dispatching the mobsters as the police arrive.

With the mob now off their backs, the Shens happily celebrate Althea's marriage and Nicky and Mei-Li formally reconcile.

In the end, Henry reveals to Nicky the fabled magical potential of the weapon that Zhilan now has in her possession. Nicky realizes she must defend her hometown from Zhilan as her sworn enemy who seeks to unlock the mythical weapon's powers.

### Silence

Althea, Ryan, Mei-Li, and Jin cook Nicky a welcome home breakfast and surprise Nicky with their cheerfulness. All four immediately demand Nicky’s time, with Mei-Li already suggesting both an eligible bachelor and a law internship. Nicky tells her she’s not going to law school as she notices the smell of smoke in the kitchen as the chicken burns. She’s transported to the night Pei-Ling died, and she awakens terrified in her own bed. As it turns out, it was all a dream, including the nice breakfast.

Nicky goes to the marina, where she intercepts Evan running his usual route. She tells him about her nightmare and asks if he has any leads on Zhilan. He jokes that all she gave him was a first name and an admittedly good and detailed sketch, and Nicky says she wishes she knew more. She further shares that in her dream, her family was happy, and Evan says maybe if she talked with them more now that she’s home, her relationship with them would improve.

Back at the house, everyone is rushing around for wedding planning as Ryan tells Nicky he needs her to help out with Jin more now that she’s home. Everyone leaves for their errands, and Nicky is alone.

Going to her room, Nicky meditates to remember more details about Zhilan. She remembers a distinctive necklace and sketches it, including a symbol of what looks like a crane.

At the community center, Nicky finds Henry. She gives him the drawing of the necklace, and he recognizes the style of the art. They make plans to meet at the library later to investigate the lead further. She goes to leave, and Henry asks if she’s trained lately. She says she hasn’t been able to find her groove since returning, and Henry shares that he spent two years training in Beijing and also had a hard time coming home. He offers to train her at the park, which she accepts. Just then, she gets a text from Althea reminding her about her bridal fitting. Nicky sighs, knowing she won’t be able to train like wanted to.

At the dress shop, Nicky tries on bridesmaid dresses as Althea tells a mysterious caller to stop contacting her. Nicky asks who it was, and Althea smoothly lies and says it was a wedding vendor. Althea flatters Nicky by saying she looks so good in the dress that she’s worried it will be a Pippa/Kate Middleton situation. As she looks at Nicky’s shoulder, she sees the scar from Nicky’s stab wound. Althea is shocked, saying that they all thought it was a fire at the monastery, not an attack. Nicky admits that she “left some parts out” as Althea pulls her into a hug. Nicky shares the story with Althea, who is incredulous that Nicky wants to put herself in danger again by going after Zhilan. Nicky, still hurting from reliving Zhilan’s attack, lashes out, saying not everyone can live in a “bridal fantasy world”. Althea gets serious, saying that a lot has changed in three years and that “believe it or not, my life is no fairytale” as she storms off.

Nicky goes to the park alone, and as she starts her training, she flashes back to her time in China and the night Pei-Ling died. She replays her fight with Zhilan, and loses again. She goes to leave in frustration, but sees a man assaulting a woman nearby. She pulls the gun from his hand and easily beats him. She turns back to the woman, who grabs the discarded gun and runs. Nicky notices her wallet on the ground and picks it up as she watches the girl.

Nicky looks at a picture of the monastery and flashes back to her training with Pei-Ling. Pei-Ling defeats her, and she tells Nicky that her fear was taking over. She notes that a “right action cannot flow from fear.”

In the present, Nicky sadly puts the picture away. Staring at the wallet, she hears Pei-Ling’s voice tell her to help the girl. Nicky goes to the family restaurant, where Evan is eating his lunch.

As it turns out, he’s been a regular there since Nicky left, telling her he actually had a better relationship with Mei-Li once they broke up. She tells Evan about the girl in the park. He offers to put her in contact with an officer who will take her statement, but Nicky is worried about involving the police. Evan leaves with his order as Henry texts Nicky. She goes to leave, and Jin sees her. He excitedly shows her that he saved a picture of their last game night together so they can pick up where they left off. They make a date for 8 p.m. as she leaves to meet Henry.

At the library, both Nicky and Henry are running into a wall researching. Nicky shares what happened with the girl in the park and shows Henry the wallet. He recognizes that a band in the wallet belongs to a local homeless shelter, and when the detective Evan knows calls, Nicky doesn’t answer. She goes to the shelter herself and spots the girl, who runs from her. When Nicky corners the girl, she pulls the gun on Nicky.

Nicky talks the girl down after a tense moment and takes the gun. The girl says her name is Ronda and that she thought Nicky was a cop. Ronda says the gun was meant to scare her mother’s controlling boyfriend Derek. Her mother was in an accident and has many health issues. Derek took over her mother’s appointments and medical bills along with her bank accounts, stealing from them both. When Ronda discovered this, he kicked her out. She wanted to scare him. Echoing Pei-Ling, Nicky tells Ronda that right action can’t flow from fear. She asks if Ronda is hungry.

Althea is running her cake tasting with precision as Nicky gives Ronda some of the food. Ryan and Nicky joke about the rating system as Althea sends them a death glare. Ryan makes a remark about Nicky “hunting down an international assassin,” and Nicky realizes Althea told him about Zhilan. Althea protests that she had to tell Ryan and that her plan is unrealistic. Ronda sees the cake, and Althea gives her a piece on the condition that she take part in the rating system. Nicky tells them about Ronda’s situation, and Ryan tells Nicky about transitional housing she probably qualifies for. Nicky’s stuck on how to get Ronda and her mom out, and Althea says Nicky should use all the years she studied law to find a way to help the young girl .

Nicky and Ronda go to Ronda’s apartment building, where Ronda tearfully reunites with her mother Carmen. Ronda begs her mother to leave with her, but Carmen says she can’t make it without Derek. Ronda says they can do it together and that Nicky has a plan to help them out. Nicky then tells them that they need to revoke Derek’s power of attorney, but before they can go further, Derek comes home early. Carmen stands up to Derek, and when Derek makes a move on Ronda, Nicky defends them by using her martial art moves on him. She also threatens him with legal action, saying she has a friend at the DA’s office aware of his crimes. He leaves in a huff, and Ronda and Carmen are relieved.

At home that night, Nicky realizes she missed her game with her dad. He’s asleep on the couch, and her mom watches as Nicky puts a blanket over him. Mei-Li chastises her, saying Jin waited up for her. She also says he waited for her after she left, never losing hope she’d be back one day. Mei-Li then confronts her daughter by saying how she thinks Nicky doesn’t really want to be back. In the end, she just had nowhere else to go. Nicky can’t deny this, but then Ronda calls and the mother and daughter conversation abruptly ends. Derek drained their bank accounts before Carmen could revoke his power of attorney. Mei-Li tells Nicky to just go, and she reluctantly leaves.

At the apartment, Carmen reveals that Derek is probably spending all their money on card games right now. Nicky calls Althea, asking her to hack Derek’s computer. Althea is able to help Nicky get into Derek’s computer by trial and error of common passwords he might have used. Nicky gets the address of the underground card game. Nicky then decides she’ll go get the money herself despite Althea’s protests.

At the secret spot, Nicky forces her way in and accuses Derek of stealing. The man leading the game tells them to keep playing, smirking at Nicky and saying “my rules, darling.” Her plea goes unheard, so Nicky decides she’s done talking. She beats up the bouncers and tells Derek it’s over, ending her speech with a “my rules, darling” of her own. She walks out, money in hand.

Back in her room that night, she meditates her way back to the monastery and tells Pei-Ling she misses her. Nicky tells Pei-Ling she was afraid to feel her grief, but now she feels better. Nicky says she doesn’t know what to do without her. Pei-Ling then tells her mindfulness will give her the clarity she is desperately seeking.

The next morning, Nicky surprises Jin with a game. Mei-Li comes down the stairs to hear Nicky say she’s not going anywhere. Remembering Ryan asking her father to go for a check-up, Nicky makes their game conditional on him going for a check-up at the clinic.

Nicky calls Evan later to thank him for his help, and he tells her they found out Zhilan is in Singapore. But more importantly, Zhilan is Pei-Ling’s sister.

In the stacks at the library, Henry tells Nicky that he found the symbol. It’s a symbol for one of the families guarding each of the eight weapons, which makes Zhilan and Pei-Ling part of these guardians.

### Patience

Nicky is finally able to see what Henry is capable of as the two spar, but Henry observes that Nicky is visibly distracted by the news that Zhilan has resurfaced in Singapore and is likely linked to the disappearance of Professor Chau due to his expertise on the mythical eight weapons she is on the hunt for. The sparring match is then awkwardly interrupted by Nicky's ex-boyfriend Evan, who confirms Zhilan kidnapped Chau by sharing CCTV footage of her approaching him forcefully in a parking garage.

Back at the Shen family restaurant, Nicky tries to help with the family business, volunteering to help at a special event involving one of Nicky's classmates, though her family is wary of her involvement. Finding her brother Ryan too busy at work to patch things up properly, Nicky instead befriends one of his patients named Faye, trying to form a union for protection from a manipulative local factory for the fashion designer King Kwong. After investigating Chau's office back at his normal San Francisco-based university, Nicky returns to the community center but is shocked to learn that Faye mysteriously collapsed at work. Determined to help, Nicky vows to take point on creating the union for the factory.

Accidentally barging into Ryan on a date, Nicky learns from Joe more about King Kwong and how he has been exploiting its workers for some time now. Althea takes Nicky into a fashion event thrown by designer Eddie Kwong and she informs him of her concerns over the treatment of the fashion line's factory workers.

While at the event, Ryan calls Nicky with his diagnosis of Faye, revealing the chemicals in Kwong's clothing production are harmful.

Confronting Kwong's right hand man, Brett, Nicky reveals she knows the chemicals that affected Faye aren't from the factory but from him deliberately poisoning her while he personally sabotaged her union efforts. Brett locks Nicky in a storage closet as he calls in a hitman to deal with her; recalling her training under Pei-Ling, Nicky breaks free and easily subdues the assassin. Using Kwong's hip, streaming tech, Nicky tricks Brett into confessing to his illegal activities, exposing him to the world and leading to his arrest. Shocked by what Brett did behind his back, Kwong helps Faye and gifts Nicky and Ryan with some free designer gear.

Nicky narrowly avoids an emotional argument between her parents but dutifully picks up a shift at the restaurant to let Ryan go on a new date.

Umbekownst to her that Evan has now launched a private investigation into Henry after learning he and Nicky broke into Chau's office.

### Hand

As the Shen family prepares for Althea's next marriage marital event ahead of her impending nuptials to Dennis Soong, Nicky finds that the burn on her hand inflicted by The Sword of Liang Daiyu is flaring up painfully mysteriously. Before Nicky meets up with Henry to discuss the origins of the ancient key they discovered inside the puzzle box, Althea teases her younger sister over her will-they/won't-they romance and advises her sister to act on the attraction she is feeling towards Henry.

Nicky and Henry's search leads them to a local, wealthy entrepreneur linked to the key who conveniently happens to be out of town so Henry suggests that he and Nicky could break into his palatial estate to investigate for additional clues. Henry displays a surprising amount of prowess in break-in techniques and contemplates stealing a Chinese artifact he finds in the home, believing it belongs back in China rather than a mansion in the California Bay Area. Just as Nicky finds the box to be unlocked by her key, though, she and Henry are ambushed by a masked cat burglar who recovers the box under orders from Zhilan.

As Henry meets with his aquaintance Randall, Nicky is quietly updated on Henry's past from Evan back in the car. Nicky challenges the thief to a fight, wagering the key if she loses, she eventually emerges triumphant and opens the box to recover the scabbard to the sword that burned her inside. Touching the scabbard ceases the pain in Nicky's hand and she relinquishes the scabbard to Henry for safekeeping, sharing a kiss with him after he confesses that he had a rough upbringing growing up impoverished with his grandmother before finding his true calling in Chinese history.

As Nicky and Althea catch up after the respective eventful evenings, Althea recounts that Dennis told his parents to drop the request for a prenup. Nicky however senses there's more her sister isn't telling her, and Althea reveals that her former employer sexually assaulted her while Nicky was training at the shaolin monastery in for those three years. An emotional Althea admits to feeling like she isn't strong enough to speak out about the incident and Nicky tries her best to console her older sister.

### Sanctuary

At the Chinese Community Center, Nicky and Henry are meeting up for an early training session where the pair trade blows while unabashedly flirting. When Henry teases Nicky by saying she is going easy on him and that she could have ended the fight already, Nicky quips that you “can’t blame a girl for wanting to make this last longer.” Not to be outdone, Henry fires back, “I’m all for a marathon session, but I’m just saying … you don’t have to hold back. I know you can kick my ass. I think it’s hot.”

Nicky pulls off a classic move and ends up on top of Henry, essentially straddling him when she goes in for a kiss. But as fate would have it, they are interrupted by two other gym goers, who were already scheduled to use the studio space.

After awkwardly grabbing their stuff and freshening up, Nicky and Henry take over the library and begin their quest to find one of the magical weapons. When Henry suggests that there was likely a time that all eight weapons were used together, Nicky remembers reading an ancient legend about a small band of Chinese warriors who won a battle with magical, green-glowing weapons. She recalls that the sword that Zhilan stole also glowed green, but beyond that, she also remembers being inexplicably drawn to the sword and seeing a mysterious woman in a hooded robe who disappeared after glowing green at the monastery in the Yunnan Province.

Nicky and Henry run into their own troubling incident in Chinatown, with an unarmed Black teenager named Andre shot by the police after being mistaken for a robber, dying the next day from his wounds. In the wake of protests against police brutality across the neighborhood, Mei-Li is horrified when the restaurant's storefront is vandalized. While Nicky and Jin initially give activists passing by bottled water, the protests turn chaotic when riot police are deployed, employing tear gas to disperse the crowd.

As the Shen family opens up the restaurant to allow activists a place to shelter from the police's unrelenting response, internal pressures between the family begin to form. Althea has concerns of her own, torn over telling Dennis about her past trauma enduring workplace sexual abuse from her former boss, with Nicky urging her to tell her fiancé as her sister's stress over keeping the secret becomes noticeable.

While Joe prepares to willingly surrender to the police, Nicky leads her family, which surprisingly includes Mei-Li in standing up and being volunteered to be arrested instead.

Later, at the library, Henry and Nicky are both still a little shaken by the protests, but they get their first lead from one of Randall’s sources, who has sent a video confirming the existence of an unidentified weapon in South America that also glows green.

### Rage

During her research with Henry, Nicky remembers that Randall mentioned the knife dig site was in St. Cristobal finds, and finds out that the specific site is none other than the Orura Silver Mine in Bolivia, which collapsed, taking two lives. She then discovers the mine was brought down intentionally. Henry subsequently finds out that Li Jiang, one of the victims, was thought to be a member of one of the guardian families by Professor Chau. The pair then theorize that Li Jiang brought the mine down to keep the dagger safe.

While Nicky is training, Henry calls and informs Nicky that the dagger is coming to San Francisco.

At the Shen’s restaurant, Nicki gets texts from Henry saying he’s set up a meeting between them and Randall for noon at the apothecary. Mei-Li then walks in and proceeds to comment on how Nicky’s been happy before not-so-subtly inquiring about Henry. Nicky deflects and leaves. Jin walks in and tells Mei-Li he wants to surprise her with a date night.

At the apothecary, Randall tells Nicky and Henry the dagger should be arriving in one day to the Reed Museum and that he plans to extract it. Nicky is unsatisfied with his timeline to remove it. He asks why she wants it so badly. She tells him that she needs to keep it from falling into the wrong hands, but Randall is unsatisfied with her answer.

Nicky brings Evan fried pickles as thanks for all of his help. Noticing she’s acting weird, he asks her what’s wrong. As she begins to tell him about being frustrated at hitting a dead end with Zhilan, Sabine, Evan’s girlfriend, interrupts the two, and goes on to invite Evan to the Reed Gala. Nicky leaves shortly thereafter.

After finding out about the gala, Nicky tells Henry that they’re going to break into the museum and get the dagger. He’s skeptical and needs a little convincing. Henry has to go teach a class, but asks Nicky to wait for him before making a plan.

Nicky then asks Althea to pull some strings and get tickets to the gala for her and Henry. She does some recon of the museum before meeting up with Henry, laying out a plan to steal the dagger.

Frustrated, Henry stops her, saying that her plan depends on a ton of luck, so they’re never going to get the dagger this way. She assumes that this means that he’s out, and gets upset. She then proceeds to tell him that she’ll do it alone if he won’t help her.

Back at home, Nicky talks to her hallucination of Pei-Ling about her true motivations for chasing the dagger. To which the hallucination of Pei-Ling proceeds to tell her that if anger is what is driving her, and if all she is feeling is rage, then the only possible result will be failure.

Later, Ryan, Althea, and Henry corner Nicky about her plan. Instead of trying to stop her, they’ve decided to help her.

Eventually, Nicky, Henry, Althea, Dennis, and Ryan arrive at the gala dressed to the nines. They go over the plan one last time: which has Henry mentioning how he will get to the server room and provide Althea remote access, that way she can open the doors to where the dagger is being held for Nicky and Henry during the mayor’s speech while everyone is distracted.

Unfortunately, Nicky bumps into Evan, who expresses surprise at seeing her at an event like the gala. Not long after that awkward encounter, the gang runs into Jin and Mei-Li, who the Soongs gave their extra tickets to. Ryan tries to distract them with an art exhibit, but they all get roped in. Mei-Li starts questioning Henry about his plans after graduate school. To escape, Nicky spills wine on Henry’s tux, which gives everyone a convenient excuse to slip away. Henry then enters the control room.

Evan suspiciously looks on as Althea and Nicky get into the security system.

Unfortunately, Nicky and Henry run into a security detail. Ryan distracts them by pretending to be inebriated and hassling the mayor about cutting funding. Althea buzzes them in. Nicky finds the dagger in a crate before the pair are accosted by men who demand she hand it over.

The three men pull guns on them, but Henry reminds them that shooting them will only draw attention, which is a surefire way to lose the dagger. They pull out zip ties, which gives Henry and Nicky the split second they need to jump into action. Fighting off the men in a flurry of martial arts madness, Nicky manages to pocket the dagger.

Later that night, Nicky tells Ryan and Althea that she’s leaving and to look after their parents, as more goons for hire could be around. As she’s waving goodbye to Jin, she sees that Zhilan is talking to him.

Zhilan’s posing as Charlotte Yang, a curator from the Beijing national museum. The two have a thinly veiled conversation about the dagger, in which Zhilan reveals she hired the men that Nicky and Henry fought. As Jin walks away, Zhilan threatens Nicky’s parents and Henry before patting Nicky down and taking the dagger. Previously believing Nicky to be dead, Zhilan says Nicky should take the second chance she’s been given and stop fighting Pei-Ling’s battles, citing how her sister isn’t worth the effort.

When Henry comes to get her, Nicky tells him what happened with Zhilan. Obviously worried, he begs her to be smart and not to go after her, saying that Zhilan will kill her this time.

Henry then mentions how ever since they found out about the dagger, Nicky has been driven by something dark that isn’t justice at all.

Eventually, Nicky tells Henry to get her family away from the gala before she goes after Zhilan. Outside, and at the back of the building, Nicky confronts Zhilan, demanding that she give the dagger back. Zhilan says that she will once again have to fight for it before the two begin to duel for it.

Rather quickly, Zhilan bests Nicky, leaving her sprawled on the ground, grasping her arm in pain. However, Nicky manages to briefly gain the upper hand with some new tricks by kicking the dagger that glowed green in Zhilan’s hand out of her grasp. She angrily accuses Zhilan of killing her shifu. As they fight, Zhilan paints a different picture of Pei-Ling by saying how anger has blinded Nicky, and she knows nothing about her or Pei-Ling. According to Zhilan’s version of events Pei-Ling was no shifu. Instead, what she is in Zhilan’s eyes is a thief and a murderer.

Zhilan claims that Pei-Ling murdered their father and stole The Sword of Liang Daiyu and proceeded to hide out at the monastery in the Yunnan Province]]. Zhilan once again gains the upper hand. As she is about to stab Nicky with the dagger, Nicky holds her hand up as if to beg for mercy. Zhilan sees the markings on her hand and is visibly shaken. She spares Nicky, telling her to “go back to Harvard, little monk. You’re not cut out for this,” before knocking her out and walking away.

### Guidance

Sometime after the fight, Nicky is discovered by her ex-boyfriend Evan Hartley, who helps her and takes her away from the scene as Nicky contemplates the bombshell revelation from Zhilan. Meanwhile, Henry is forced to watch from the sidelines.

Evan and Nicky seek refuge at Evan's hideaway just outside San Francisco . As the former couple shares a tender moment, Evan decides he needs to check up on his girlfriend Sabine, leaving Nicky to angrily confront a vision of Pei-Ling and demand the truth.

While Ryan advises Nicky to refrain from training and fighting to give her body a chance to heal - from injuries endured during the fight against Zhilan - Henry and Nicky are approached by a young man with concerns about his sister Phoebe's martial arts mentor Master Drake and his violent methodology. Investigating the matter for herself, Nicky is invited to participate in Drake's trials, which are a series of illegal fights that he quietly profits from. Althea hacks into a livestream of the fight to monitor the trials and expose this operation while Nicky learns she will be fighting Drake himself, who wants to publicly assert his authority over a bonafide Shaolin fighter. Though Nicky endures a nasty blow to her ribs, she rallies and humiliates Drake before his students as Evan and Althea work together to bust his operation.

In the aftermath, Henry admits he watched Nicky and Evan depart from the art gala without knowing where they went off to. Thus, until Nicky can resolve her lingering romantic feelings for Evan, he decides to pause any progression in their own romance. As Nicky returns home, she learns that her mother Mei-Li secretly watched her daughter battle Drake and saw firsthand that she has claimed her martial arts destiny, revealing that Nicky is fated to reclaim the Jade sword, as she is evidently linked to Pei-Ling and Zhilan as a long-lost family member, stemming all the way back to Liang Daiyu, which makes the inevitable rematch all the more personal.

### Destiny

WhiileEvan is on the phone with Sabine, who wants to talk, and is heading over to his cabin to do so, he hears a knock at the door. It turns out to be Nicky, who still reeling from Mei-Li’s revelations. She tells Evan everything, telling him she feels like her first independent action going to the monastery is now part of destiny instead. Nicky mentions how Mei-Li pushed her away from Evan, and Evan lets her know that Sabine is coming to the cabin. Nicky leaves, disappointed.

When Nicky comes home, she ignores Mei-Li. She then tells Ryan what’s been going on as she accuses Mei-Li of “nuking” her marriage to their dad. They all choose not to tell Althea as tonight is her bachelorette party. Ryan and Nicky leave to find Jin, with Mei-Li staying back.

In the car, Nicky and Ryan talk about what Mei-Li revealed. Ryan believes she’s truly the chosen one, but Nicky’s not as confident. She says that she just wants to make sure Jin is okay first, and everything else is secondary.

They find Jin at a motel the family went to every summer, and he tells them he’s not going home. The three gather over dinner, with Ryan telling Nicky she should go back to the city for Althea’s party. She wants to stay, but Ryan tells her he took the day off and he can stay with Jin.

At the party, Althea is stressed as Nicky broaches the subject of telling Dennis about the NDA.

Still at the venue, Nicky gives a speech in tribute to Althea and Dennis. After Chloe drops Mrs. Soong’s phone in a drink by accident, Nicky follows her as she flees.

Henry and Nicky decide to go after Chloe and not disturb Althea’s party. Henry notices a custom design on the car and calls a friend who might know the designer. As the party is dying, Nicky forces Althea to enjoy herself while she takes on Mrs. Soong. Mrs. Soong confides in her that Chloe’s friends Allegra and Kendall were the reason they sent her to Hong Kong. As it turns out, they were bad influences.

Elsewhere, Nicky tells Henry that Chloe’s friends are big time thieves and that TJ and Chloe were definitely involved. Nicky heard TJ say something is going down tonight, and Nicky sighs. She goes to Althea to tell her what’s going on, including that she lost Chloe in the process. Althea barely holds in a scream of frustration, but then tells Nicky and Henry to find Dennis, who is currently at his bachelor party.

Nicky and Henry eventually find Dennis. The trio then realize that Chloe and her group are going to break into their own house.

As Chloe tries to stop TJ and the girls from leaving, TJ pushes her down. Luckily Nicky shows up in the nick of time and beats the snot out of TJ and the other with Henry also assisting. Chloe admits that she is worried about what her mother will say, but Nicky says that no matter what, her mother loves her. Mrs. Soong hugs Chloe in relief.

At the party, Henry and Nicky fill Althea in. Ryan arrives and immediately starts drinking as Althea remarks, “That bad?” Ryan tells them Jin isn’t ready to come home yet. Nicky goes to the motel, telling Jin it’s time to come home. She tells him she’s mad too, but she knows Mei-Li is hurting as well. Jin reveals that when Nicky was in Yunnan Province in China, Mei-Li sent him to find her. He found her without Nicky knowing. When he saw how at ease she was in the monastery, he left her there without telling Mei-Li. He realized she finally belonged after talking with Pei-Ling Zhang. He says she was the real her, beautiful and powerful.

Back at home the next day, Mei-Li and Nicky talk. Nicky lets her know Jin is coming home, and she asks how Mei-Li knew it was her. Mei-Li tells her that at one year old, Nicky was carrying around Mei-Xue’s earring. Mei-Li knew she was destined to follow her path, and she didn’t want to lose Nicky too. Nicky says now she’s choosing this path to reclaim the sword, and choosing to forgive Mei-Li. But she needs the whole truth. Mei-Li agrees and opens a desk to reveal a box with everything Mei-Li knows about Mei-Xue. She gives it to Nicky.

### Isolation

Nicky starts going through Mei-Xue’s box with Mei-Li, trying to figure out if anything inside is important. Nicky wants to know more about her aunt, but Mei-Li tells Nicky to just read the letters Mei-Xue sent home, which became increasingly incoherent before stopping completely. According to Mei-Li, this is why she didn’t want Nicky to follow in Mei-Xue's footsteps.

Later, Nicky regroups with Henry to make a new plan to stop Zhilan. Nicky thinks finding Mei-Xue is the key to getting ahead of Zhilan, and they look at Mei-Xue’s last letter that arrived with a red panda figurine.

After Evan pulled records about Sandra Yang, who Mei-Xue's alias and found outthat she entered Canada and vanished 20 years ago. Nicky realizes that the date on her last letter is after her entry date and knows there must be a clue to her location inside. Nicky finds a small town in Canada that sells the red panda figurines and realizes Mei-Xue sent this on purpose.

Evan invites himself along on the impromptu roadtrip when he realizes Henry is accompanying Nicky. Mei-Li is worried about Nicky going to Canada, but Nicky tells her if this is her path, she needs to know what happened to Mei-Xue.

As Evan packs the car, he gets a text from Sabine confirming she’s moved out of their apartment. Nicky and Henry approach, and all three get in the car for what is proving to be a tension filled trip.

In the car, Evan turns on Dua Lipa to keep Henry awake as he drives, making both Henry and Nicky laugh as he dances along. The next morning, the trio arrive at their destination. While Henry and Evan understandably want to use records to find Mei-Xue, Nicky gets a gut feeling about where she is. The two follow her to a local bar. They ask the bartender about Mei-Xue, but she doesn’t have any information about her. She does point them in the direction of Hank, a local whose father Duke used to own the bar. Nicky tries to talk to Hank to get to Duke, who Hank shares is dead to him. When another pool player tries to get Nicky to leave, Evan steps in and gets punched for his trouble. Nicky takes over, and she and Henry tag team the other men. Evan even gets a shot in before Hank relents and gives them Duke’s address.

At Duke’s cabin, Nicky spots a red panda statue. They split up to look for Duke, and Nicky notices a carving of a woman. Duke points a gun at Nicky, and she pulls out the red panda statue. She tells him about Mei-Xue, and he lowers the gun. He raises it again when Evan and Henry emerge, but Nicky tells them to wait in the car. Duke wants proof she is really Mei-Xue’s niece, and Nicky calls Mei-Li. She asks Mei-Li to tell her about Mei-Xue and what she was really like. It convinces Duke as Mei-Li calls Mei-Xue her hero. She cries, and Jin comforts her.

Henry wants to go after Nicky, but Evan reassures him. He says he and Nicky used to go camping all the time, and she knows how to handle herself.

In the forest, Nicky finds herself facing a wolf as she gets closer, and it drags away her backpack as she twists her ankle. She splints it herself and continues on. Henry and Evan continue bonding while waiting for Nicky. They both note how Nicky is independent and really doesn’t need their help, laughing at the realization. Evan shares that he broke up with Sabine and that Nicky doesn’t know yet. Henry says that in the end, it’s Nicky’s choice whether to be with Evan or Henry.

Nicky is chased through the woods by the wolf, but it is caught in a trap. Nicky frees it, falling asleep until the morning. When she wakes up, Nicky is caught in a shower of plum blossoms, which was Mei-Xue’s favorite flower. Nicky follows the blossoms to a deserted cabin.

Inside, Nicky sees a picture of Mei-Xue and Mei-Li. Pei-Ling appears to her again and helps Nicky find a chest in the main room containing tapes of Mei-Xue talking, warning everyone about the power of the weapons and telling the listener that there’s more to find even if her journey is at an end. Nicky rushes outside to the plum blossom tree and finds a grave beneath it. It’s Mei-Xue’s, and Nicky wonders aloud who buried her.

Alas, Nicky makes her way back to the car and wakes up Evan and Henry, telling them what happened. As they drive home, Nicky listens to Mei-Xue tell her to not make this journey alone.

Later, Nicky tells Mei-Li what happened to Mei-Xue as they hug, Mei-Xue advising whoever is listening not to fight this battle alone.

### Choice

As Mei-Li listen to Mei-Xue’s tapes, Althea, Nicky, and Ryan wait in another room. While they wait, Althea bothers her siblings about who they’re going to bring as their plus ones to her wedding. Ryan claims Joe hasn’t even met their parents. Althea and Ryan then tease Nicky about being stuck between Evan and Henry now that Evan broke up with Sabine. Eventually, Mei-Li returns the tapes to Nicky, thanking her for giving her closure and warning her to be careful in pursuing the secrets of “Biange.”

Back at the community center library, Nicky and Henry are looking at Mei-Xue’s tapes and journals, respectively. Nicky can’t take her eyes off of Henry, and Henry notices something is up with her. Henry notes that in Mei-Xue's tapes starts talking about a place called “The Forge.” As she listens to the tapes some more, Nicky learns that the weapons, having continually lost their power over time, would unleash the terrible power they held only if all eight weapons were reunited where they were created, the place with the most Biange energy: The Forge. Thus, Nicky and Henry must find The Forge to protect it from Zhilan.

Althea then notices Nicky seems happy and starts prying for details on her love life. Nicky tells her about her and Henry’s kiss a while back but that it’s complicated now. She admits how she loves Evan; always have, and probably always will. She doesn’t want to tell Evan how she feels about Henry and risk losing him, especially since he and Sabine broke up.

Nicky then pays a visit to Evan, wanting to talk to him like Althea suggested. They agree to go get coffee before Evan gets a phone call saying Cody Long, his client that just accepted the plea deal, is innocent and there is video proof. Surprised, he tells Nicky this.

Evan and Nicky visit Cody in jail. Cody admits that he took a plea deal because didn’t want to drag out the trial since it was hurting his family’s reputation and the DA convinced him he’d lose if he went to trial. Evan asks Cody if there was any footage from the night of the party. He tells him Justin, the frat president, is obsessed with the frat’s image, which is why they kept a tight lid on things. However, he knows two members were constantly recording but doesn’t know where the footage is.

Althea asks Nicky if she’s talked with Evan yet, thinking she’s on this quest to delay having to talk to him. Nicky insists she’s just trying to help Cody and Evan.

Nicky proposes that whatever footage the frat has isn’t on the cloud. She plans to infiltrate the frat, find the video, and leave an anonymous tip so that Evan can follow up. A problem arises when they find out that the frat is having a party.

Nicky snoops around at the frat party with little success. There is one room upstairs deadbolted shut. Justin, the frat president, exits the room and directs Nicky away from it, calling it the “executive lounge.”

Back at the frat, Justin is watching Nicky, who is still trying to figure out a way to get in the room upstairs; she needs an easier mark. Althea directs her to a drunk senior who puked on Nicky’s shoes earlier at the party. As a senior, he has access to the lounge. Nicky swipes his keys, but not before Justin notices something is up.

Nicky infiltrates the lounge, which turns out to be a screening room. She finds some initiation and prank videos. In one, Cody is passed out on the couch. Justin and the frat are the ones who drugged the victim, Rick. It was all a cover-up. As Nicky is recording, Justin finds her and angrily asks what she’s doing.

Nicky confronts Justin and the other frat boy who caught her. They begin to fight, Nicky trying desperately to protect the phone while holding them off. However, the other frat boy smashes her phone with a golf club.

Althea confirms her phone and SIM card are damaged. Then, Nicky remembers a girl named Margot that was in the video and protested when the frat boys were drugging Rick.

Nicky, Althea, and Evan confront Margot. She was the one who called Evan. She was afraid to come forward because Justin threatened to ruin her life. Althea tells her that coming forward sucks and is complicated and messy, but the truth is simple.

Margot gives an official account back at Evan’s office. Evan’s boss is mad about how he went about solving this case, but Cody will be free by the next morning. Evan thanks Nicky for her help. He tells her that he’s been having doubts about his job, not sure that being a prosecutor is for him. His life is different than he and Nicky imagined for themselves in high school. Nicky tells him they’re different people, and Evan agrees. She tells him she’ll never stop caring about him, but she wants to be with Henry. Evan takes it well. He envies her for being able to find her own path. Nicky leaves the office with their friendship intact.

Nicky finds Henry and asks him to be her date to Althea’s wedding. In a long speech, in which Henry tries to interject quite a few times, Nicky reveals her feelings for Henry. She wants more. Henry tells her that things haven’t changed on his end and the two kiss.

### Year of the Tiger: Part 1

Year of the Tiger: Part 2
The Bell
Clementine
Reunion
Jyu Sa
The Alchemist
Disclosure
The Enclave
Destruction
Bloodline
Alliance

### Shifu

Risk
The Compass
Harmony
Harvest
Rescue
Villains
Betrayal
The Architect
Alias
The Scepter
Loss

## Skills

* **Expert Martial Artist**: Nicky is well versed in martial arts specifically Kung Fu.

### Former powers

* **Bian Ge energy:** Nicky possessed half of Bian Ge energy and shared the other half with Zhilan, the energy enhanced her physical skills.
	+ **Levitation:** Nicky was able to levitate.
	+ **Superhuman strength:** Nicky possessed enhanced strength that allowed her to throw a person easily.
	+ **Enhanced durability:** Nicky was capable of withstanding being thrown against a wall in a fight with Zhilan.

## Appearances

Template:Appearances S2

Template:Appearances S3