2x08 All Enemies, Foreign and Domestic

Man, Buckley has all the cards. He's got Mai Ling in his back pocket, and now Leary and the Irishmen. I'm not sure how significant all of that would've been as Deputy Mayor, but now that he's the Mayor - well, Acting Mayor, those aspects are all the more significant. It seems like a major conclusion of everything is in sight. Chao has been dragged into this whole ordeal with Jacob, and Mai Ling has been ordered to find the latter by Buckley, in return for his help taking down the Hop Wei when she makes a move. But she has insurance on him. Chances are she'll pull out that card at the right moment during all of that and be the last one standing. Or at least that's probably her plan. It may backfire.

I am not interested in Ah Toy at all. Seriously, I didn't care one bit when those two butchers showed up and tried to kill her. I didn't care when she managed to kill both of them and survive. I don't care about her relationship and dynamic with Nellie. I don't care about her business dealings, her real-estate, land, and properties. In fact, the latter has felt extremely disjointed from everything else. Why exactly did she have to be written to be buying land on the side? Like, that wasn't necessary. It would've been better and more logical if she remained the character who's the owner of a brothel, one that the main character goes to from time to time with other people from the tong he's in.

Hell, even the whole plotline with Nellie and her land, and the girls, feels disjointed, too. Maybe there's an incoming twist regarding the latter; like she's not as kind-hearted as she seems. Still, even if that's the case, I hope something final happens with that to where if there's a third season, there won't be any more focus on that whole thing. It's not interesting or entertaining, and neither is Ah Toy and her plotlines.

This episode was slow. The previous episode felt the same way, but at least it was more enjoyable. In this episode, time was taken to take things slow and really highlight the after-effect of Mayor Blake's death. It was more so setting up the next episode, and maybe the finale, too, than anything else. The montage with Buckley's oath in the background was easily the best part of the episode, by far. It was pretty cool, I'll admit, and a little foreboding, too.

But ultimately, the only things that really happened in this episode were that the Hop Wei took out the Fung Hai, Buckley is the Acting Mayor, and we were shown a brief flashback of what happened to his leg, Jacob has come to Chao for help, and Ah Toy managed to survive the attempt to kill her by those two butchers who were hired by Patterson. That's pretty much it. And while those things may seem very significant when written down, it didn't feel that way. I hope the last two episodes are more enjoyable, regardless of whether or not they feel uneventful, too.