Wu 1×04 Review: Episode 4

Niran and the others are able to prevent the Six-Eared Macaque from devouring Pete, but they realize that he will need to get stronger if they want to be able to rely on the demon’s help to defeat Qi Rong.

Episode 4 picks up a little bit before last week’s episode left off, with the Six-Eared Macaque fully taking over Pete. (Again, Kudos to Nani’s acting here; there were a couple of moments where he genuinely seemed to move like a monkey. I wonder how many times he had to go to the zoo to get those down.) When it’s clear that Pete has no control, Jia Hao sprays him with a fire extinguisher in what may have been the funniest thing I’ve seen in a while.

We soon learn that Pete has no recollection of what happened after the Six-Eared Macaque took over, and that this is not the first time that has happened to him. There’s a moment where you can tell Pete is rethinking his entire history now that he has this knowledge. Niran reveals that the others don’t think it’s worth the risk to use the demon’s power, but he recognizes that they really don’t have a choice. The only thing they can do is make Pete stronger so that he can control the demon.

What follows is one of those hilarious training montages that I absolutely love. Niran moves into Pete’s house, having bought the property from Pete’s uncle, and promptly decides to co-opt Pete’s bedroom. When Pete refuses, they split the room in half using tape like something out of I Love Lucy or The Brady Bunch. Then we see a repeated string of similar days, with Niran blasting a whistle to wake Pete at 6:30 in the morning, stand still for hours, and run slowly.

Pete, who has lived on his own for so long and been left to his own devices, naturally chafes at the sudden strictness of his training. When he tries to take a break and game with his friends, Niran reads him to filth. It’s been pretty clear that Pete is lonely and depressed, but it’s probably the first time he’s been forced to confront that.

And he is forced to confront that a lot in this episode. He opens up about his parents, who apparently died in a plane crash flying to Korea to see him compete in a martial arts tournament. He seems to still blame himself, years later. (His parents died when he was 15, but we don’t know how old he is now. His younger sister is in university, though, so he’s got to be at least mid-20s. I was assuming 25 or thereabouts.)

I waffle back and forth with Niran’s decision to do this. On the one hand, that was a lot to dump on a man who has been living in denial for so long. On the other hand, it was clearly the kick in the pants Pete needed to turn his life around. After that, he gets up for training on his own. He seemingly quits smoking (whereas Niran had previously limited the number of cigarettes he could have a day). He even starts cleaning his house. He was obviously stagnating under the weight of guilt.

Later, when they try again to bring out the Six-Eared Macaque, he is forced to relive the last time the demon took control. I’m sure it’s partly the demon, but at least some part of Pete believes that his parents would be disappointed in him, that he should never have been born, or that it would be better if he had died, and that his parents’ death is his fault. (And from then, his estrangement with his sister and potentially everything that his life has become since.)

Pete literally fights his inner demon and is able to control it. (I thought the fight itself was well-choreographed, but something about the emptiness of the background made it look really weird. I felt like I was watching something fake, even though I’ve seen the behind-the-scenes and I know that was actually Nani filming. Maybe it was the black playing tricks on my brain.) If this seems too soon, remember that a) we don’t know how long it’s been and b) Wu only has nine episodes, so we’ve got to get moving.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister refuses to bow to Bao Cheng, saying that no one is above the law – including the two of them. This tells me that yes, whatever Bao Cheng was claiming happened back in episode 2 definitely happened, and the Prime Minister is some level of corrupt. But I also saw that as foreshadowing. If he is also not above the law, then hopefully that means the “law” will come for both of them by the end of the series. (It may not be the actual law, but I expect him to be taken down.)

Now, I still don’t like that the protesters are the ones being possessed, because they’re not wrong. But I think the student demonstration proves that the political unrest isn’t fully supernatural. There are legitimate protest movements, and Li Puo (whose name I have been spelling incorrectly for weeks because it’s apparently spelled wrong on the MyDramaList page) is simply taking advantage of existing discontent to destabilize things even further.

I hope Ploy pulls through, because if anything happens to her, it’s going to destroy Pete. And the audience deserves to see what their relationship would be like once it’s healed. I love Acare; I think she’s done extremely well in the few roles she’s had so far, and I want to see her in a more dramatic role. We haven’t seen much of Ploy, and I don’t want her to just be a plot device for Pete’s development.

Naturally, the relationship between Pete and Niran continues to develop. It’s not just this show using the after-credits scene to punch us all in the gut, with Pete doing the “give me your fear” bit that Niran did for him back in episode 1. (The moment I realized what Niran was doing with his hands, I legitimately screamed.) These are two broken, lonely men who are able to heal by helping each other. I love their dynamic, and I love seeing them become friends. I think both of them really needed a friend.

And I love the little tidbits we are learning about Niran as well. To know that he is considered an outcast among the Wu not because he uses his ability for financial gain, but because he had the gall to question authority? And he questioned authority because they just wanted the easy, quick fix that would eliminate the immediate problem, but do nothing to fix the underlying cause? Yes, I will wrap this man up and take him home, thank you.

That really hammers home my belief that this civil unrest isn’t just the cause of evil forces interfering. It looks as though a fundamental aspect of how the Wu protect the balance is by ignoring a lot of stuff because it’s inconvenient. Kind of like what they’re doing now. And a lot of this is tied up in classism, which I am excited to see if the show explores.

Author: Jamie Sugah

Jamie has a BA in English with a focus in creative writing from The Ohio State University. She self-published her first novel, The Perils of Long Hair on a Windy Day, which is available through Amazon. She is currently an archivist and lives in New York City with her demon ninja vampire cat. She covers television, books, movies, anime, and conventions in the NYC area.

Twitter

Help support independent journalism. Subscribe to our Patreon.

Copyright © The Geekiary