Last week on Kung Fu, Nicky and Henry had just learned of another one of the eight artifacts being discovered in South America. This week’s journey finds them fighting to get possession of the dagger before Zhilan finds it in a high-stakes heist. If you need a refresher, check out our recap of last week’s episode here. Without further ado, let’s get into what happened on this week’s episode of Kung Fu, “Rage.”
During research, Nicky remembers that Randall mentioned the knife dig site was in St. Cristobal and finds the specific site, the Orura Silver Mine in Bolivia, which collapsed taking two lives. She discovers the mine was brought down intentionally. Henry finds that Li Jiang, one of the victims, was thought to be a member of one of the guardian families by Professor Chau. The pair theorize that Li Jiang brought the mine down to keep the dagger safe.
At the dig site in Bolivia, archeologists are cataloging their findings. One of them is seen wrapping a dagger and placing it in a crate to go to the Reed Museum.
Nicky is training and continues to have flashbacks about protecting the artifacts that seem to motivate her. 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 walks in and comments that 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.
Ryan speaks to his supervisor, Dr. Chan. His hours have been cut; he wants to know why, especially when the clinic is struggling to meet the community’s needs as-is. She tells him their funding has been cut and that the clinic will be lucky to survive another month.
Althea is cornered in a parking garage by an attorney from Cloudrush Capital who represents her old boss, Chase Matheson. They want her to sign an NDA about her time under her boss since a reporter has been trying to get her to come forward for the sexual assault exposé. They offer her $300,000; when she declines, he levels some not-so-thinly-veiled threats, saying that the fallout won’t just hurt her but her family and their reputation, including the Soongs. He leaves her his card and tells her to think about it.
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 the answer. He still plans to extract the dagger himself (and sell it to the highest bidder).
Althea comes home to a romantic dinner planned by Dennis. She’s touched, but her earlier conversation is still weighing on her. She asks him what would happen if all of their money disappeared one day. Dennis says he doesn’t care.
“Althea, I don’t need to be tested. I know I’d love you just as much if you were head to toe in burlap and we were eating out of a dumpster instead of eating this.”
Nicky brings Evan fried pickles as thanks for all of his help. Noticing she’s off, 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, inviting 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.
Althea tells Ryan he needs to “schmooze” people to get funding for the clinic. Nicky 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; they’re never going to get the dagger this way. He’s out. Upset, she tells 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.
“If anger drives you, if what you feel is rage, you can only fail.”
Ryan, Althea, and Henry corner Nicky about her plan. Instead of trying to stop her, they’ve decided to help her.
Nicky, Henry, Althea, Dennis, and Ryan arrive at the gala looking very snazzy. They go over the plan one last time: Henry 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.
Nicky bumps into Evan, who expresses surprise at seeing her at an event like the gala. Right after, 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, giving everyone a convenient excuse to slip away. Henry enters the control room.
Evan suspiciously looks on as Althea and Nicky get into the security system. Althea says the firewall was already down — due to routine maintenance according the the system.
As Nicky goes to meet Henry, Evan corners her, saying he knows the Shens are up to something. He asks her to tell him the truth, saying he’s stuck his neck out for her and deserves at least that. She lies and says she’s just there for the party before walking off.
Jin asks Mei-Li why she was interrogating Henry. Mei-Li says she’s heard things around town about Henry’s past and his family. Jin reminds her that whatever happened in the past, Henry’s pulled himself up by his bootstraps and turned his behavior around; Henry reminds Jin of himself.
Nicky and Henry run into a security detail. Ryan distracts them, 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 hands it over.
The three men pull guns on them, but Henry reminds them that shooting will draw attention, a surefire way to lose the dagger. They pull out zip ties, giving 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.
A woman profusely thanks Dennis and his family in front of Althea. Curious, Althea asks what that was about. Dennis relays that her daughter was treated at the oncology ward the Soongs paid for, telling her about the different charitable endeavors they funnel their money into. Althea wasn’t aware of the breadth of their reach in the community and how extensively they give back. Althea is visibly shaken, seeing how much the community could lose if her reputation was damaged because of Matheson.
She calls the lawyer and accepts the settlement, telling him to donate the money to the Chinese Community Center Medical Clinic before rethinking and raising the price to half a million dollars.
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 she isn’t worth it.
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.
“Ever since we’ve found out about the dagger, you’ve been driven by something. And I don’t think it’s justice.”
Nicky tells Henry to get her family away from the gala before she goes after Zhilan. Evan looks on in concern as she marches away. Outside at the back of the building, Nicky confronts Zhilan, demanding that she gives the dagger back. Zhilan says that she’ll once again have to fight for it before the two begin to duel in a beautifully choreographed scene.
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 — she has been training, after all — 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.
“Anger has blinded you, child. You know nothing about her. You never did… Pei-Ling was no shifu. She was a thief and a murder.”
Zhilan claims that Pei-Ling murdered their father and stole the sword, hiding out at the monastery. 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.
Kung Fu will return to The CW at 7 p.m. CT on May 26. Until then, stay up to date with our content regarding all news concerning the show.
