Warrior Review: To a Man with a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail (Season 2 Episode 6)

An entire episode focused on fighting, one of the show’s strong suits, sounds great in practice. As it turns out, it’s also great in execution!

Warrior Season 2 Episode 6, “To a Man with a Hammer, Everything Looks Like a Nail,” shares some DNA with an episode during the first season, a one-off where Ah Sahm and Young Jun help and defend a saloon against outlaws.

This is certainly a bigger scope and scale, but both feel like a genre hop where the focus is on having a great time while adding in some heart and emotion while they’re at it.

Something Warrior never forgets to focus on is the absolute fun of the fights. The championship sequence, with the montage of fighters that could easily be the focus of their own shows with how fascinating they all are, is a wonderful way to show off different fighting styles and stances, and it’s an exciting feast of mayhem.

It’s also shot marvelously, where both tight framing and wider, sometimes craning shots help to show the ferocity and the intensity of each bout. There’s also some props to give to the sound team, as some of those end battle crunches are felt when wearing headphones.

The town is one of the most interesting places the show has gone to, where every nook and cranny looks to have something to look for while the madness of the action happens in the foreground.

Some of the desert, especially during the quiet, intimate conversation between Ah Sahm and Vega, are also some of the episode’s best looking moments, where the expansive landscape helps add to their discussion about their pasts and open opportunity.

Hong continues to be one of the best things about the show, not only with his absolute enthusiasm and love of food (he’s eating nearly every scene, something I appreciate), but how he’s diehard in his loyalty to Ah Sahm and Young Jun.

There does feel like there’s a small window of something bigger coming out of this. While Hong does notice the henchmen eyeing up Ah Sahm, the way he protects him, along with his connection to back home and impeccable skill, could signal that he’s there to protect him in some way.

Maybe that’s just reading into things too much, though, and it’s just a great friend looking out for his buddies. Either way, more Chen Tang is something we need on the show!

A place where the episode strikes a chord is with Vega’s story. She’s been a great new addition to the show during the small scenes she’s part of, and Maria Elena Laas has been pitch perfect throughout. Ah Sahm and Vega have a solid chemistry, too, and they come across as old souls finding each other in a world they don’t entirely seem part of.

Here, we learn her backstory rather suddenly, with Rooker, the man running the fight championship, being the man who has taken away her land and family. This does come a little fast and furious in its execution, but that’s part of what makes it so effective.

There’s some subtlety at play, with the way Rooker boasts of “wearing down” his wife into marriage, and how Vega is rather interested in his gun that he waves about endlessly. But it’s the way Vega doesn’t mince words, and doesn’t take time to pontificate, that gives the reveal its power.

The bullet she uses on Rooker has been hanging from her neck since the very first scene she’s appeared in, and for it to be used to not only save her sister Marisol, but to take back her land is a genuinely empowering moment for her character, especially after she talks about invisible lines earlier on.

It’s a victory for her, even if short-lived, because she rights the wrongs done to her family and her people, much like the Chinese face every episode on the show.

While her death comes a little too sudden (why is Smits there? Does Marisol bring him with her, or has he traveled all of this way? It isn’t exactly clear), it does bookend her story, as she’s reclaimed what’s rightfully hers and effectively passed it on to her sister.

Their return to Father Jun may not spell things out, but it’s safe to assume he knows about the opium business (as he likely would not be angry about their trip to the fights). It’s been a long time coming, and though they may be caught flat-footed upon coming back, their new purse of cash may alleviate some of the problem.

Or this may be the time for the three to be thrown out on their own, and this will be the big push. With the way Ah Sahm is pushed out and effectively exiled during season one, that is probably not where things will head, and the war between Tongs will only grow more complicated if their plans are exposed.

While it’s not entirely certain what will happen with Warrior in the future, with the programming shift at Cinemax and all, if the show does continue, these one-off episodes every season are a fun reset before heading into the endgame of the season, and hopefully happens next season.

This episode is a fantastic reprieve from the drama in Chinatown, and a way to build characters like Vega to an emotional conclusion while digging a little deeper into Ah Sahm and what he really wants out of this life.

Plus it’s always great to focus on fighting, one of the show’s best strengths.

 

What did you think of this episode of Warrior? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Warrior airs Fridays at 10/9c on Cinemax.

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