REVIEW: ‘Warrior’ Season 3 Episode 5 — “Whisky and Sticky, And All The Rest Can Wait”

The opening of Warrior Season 3 Episode 5, “Whisky and Sticky, And All The Rest Can Wait,” is another tough watch. We watch Mai Ling (Dianne Doan) stripped and sprayed, huddled in the corner of a cell. At the same time, Young Jun (Jason Tobin) is being deported to China, a country he doesn’t know. For both characters, no one cares about the truth. For Mai Ling, the accusation of prostitution is enough to force her into conditions that strip her of humanity and purposefully so. And for Young Jun’s assertion that he was born in San Francisco, a large part of his character goes ignored and ridiculed as he’s pushed towards a gate that will send him to China. But what makes

The Deportation Center is a focal point for Warrior Season 3 Episode 5, with language that anyone from an immigrant community knows. With the Chinese Exclusion Act being pushed by Buckley (Langley Kirkwood), the history of the United States and its racism is fully displayed in this episode. Not only that, it’s worked wonderfully into the story without losing hold of who the characters experiencing the hardship are.

Young Jun has to pay for the sins of the Tongs. He has to carry the weight of every decision to beat a tailor for not making their loan payments, to turn a restaurant into an opium den, or to cause collateral damage in Chinatown. Young Jun is Hop Wei, and in the Deportation Center, it means nothing, just that he has to pay for the Tong’s crimes against their people. It’s a humbling experience to see happen to Jun. Not only was he beaten by the police in the last episode with a force because he’s Chinese, but here, it’s his community beating him down.

The tension of Warrior Season 3 Episode 5 is a double dose of trying to find a way out of a painful situation for the two most powerful people in Chinatown. Mai Ling and Young Jun are the intimidating leaders of their Tongs, but while Young Jun is paying for his sins and his men are trying to save him, Mai Ling is left by her Tong. Sure, she has Li Yong (Joe Taslim), but the painful part of Mai Ling’s imprisonment is that her capture is good for the Long Zii. Whether it was Mai Ling’s choice to organize with the Ducks without the support of her Tong or because of her gender, Li Yong is the only one at her side, against Kong Pak’s better judgment.

The racism of the Exclusion Act and the forced deportations and separation of children from their parents is the larger element at play in this episode. Warrior has always been in conversation with history, and here, it’s even more in clear view. Racism shapes the path our characters have to follow, one that sequesters them in Chinatown until it rips them out of their homes for simply existing there. Stay in Chinatown, be assaulted by the cops, and be rounded up and deported. Leave Chinatown, be assaulted, rounded up, and deported. There is no winning in a system rigged against you, and somehow you have to hold onto your dignity and think about how to protect your community beyond just saving your skin.

At the halfway point of the season, Warrior Season 3 Episode 5 is tense and infuriating. Perfectly paced and a vital interrogation of real American history, “Whisky and Sticky, And All The Rest Can Wait” is one of the series’ best episodes. There is a particular moment where we see Bill become a mirror for those being forcibly removed from their homes in Chinatown. In Season One of the series, we meet Bill in a house with too many children, more than what should fit comfortably. And here, he sees Chinese children being pulled from their parent’s arms to be given to Christian orphanages because too many live in a house. It’s a stark reality for Bill and those who remember the series’ early episodes that offered peaks into Bill’s family. It’s a type of reflection that hits Bill and, hopefully, white viewers at home that the world works differently when race is concerned.

The truth is that the law is not built to protect Chinese citizens, and when Ah Toy (Olivia Cheng) meets Nellie (Miranda Raison) again, she has to carry that news to the woman she loves. Hope isn’t for those from Chinatown because it will be ripped from you. Ah Toy’s attempt at a new life is even mirrored in the Deportation Center when Young Jun finds his father…not thriving in New York but pushed to deportation after racist violence on the road.

Warrior Season 3 Episode 5 is a dense episode. It has layers of pain laid on each other, covering up anger and loneliness and questions of who we want to be versus who we have to be. It’s a hard episode because of the history, but it’s harder because of the hopelessness of such strong characters. No more stoicism is left for the strong; instead, it’s a push to survive and bury the most negative emotions in an attempt to live.

Warrior is available now on MAX (formerly HBO Max) and Netflix.