Kung Fu (2021) s02e01 Episode Script

1 Come on! Gotta go! Sorry, guys.
Dead end.
Look, I don't want to hurt you.
Just give up the money you stole from the Changs, and we don't even have to fight.
Damian Wu? Your Uncle Roy know what you've gotten mixed up in? Sorry.
Roy's a regular at Harmony Dumplings.
He used to bring you in when you were yay-high.
Oh, man.
Come on.
Ok.
Screw that.
Ahh! Come on, let's go.
Some friends you've got.
I swear, if I'd have known we'd cross with the Nicky Shen tonight It's just you've got kind of a reputation these days.
That's nice to hear, but not the point.
- Sorry.
- No.
You're gonna return it to Mrs.
Chang yourself.
And you're gonna apologize to her face for raiding her till.
If you don't, I'll hear about it.
And cut those friends loose.
They give you any trouble, you let me know.
Thanks, Nicky.
I'm taking it right now.
I promise.
Hey, mama.
Hey, Mrs.
Fung keeps calling.
Why hasn't she gotten her soup yet? Sorry, just a few minutes behind.
Hmm.
Ok.
What happened? I might have gotten a little sidetracked.
Sidetracked? Meaning what? Fighting? Barely.
And it all worked out.
I was just helping out the changs.
Ok, but that soup better not get cold.
Don't worry, still hot.
- Hey, Althea.
- Where are you? On my way, I swear.
- Nicky - Love you.
Bye.
How's it feel now that it's official, Dr.
Shen? Hopefully you won't be ditching the clinic anytime soon.
- I like having you around.
- I'm still part-timing for now.
Just got to pay off that med school debt.
Don't buy the poor doctor routine.
Ryan's gonna be making real doctor money soon.
Hey, when do you find out where you matched? Uh, I should find out any day now.
Well, man, till then, live it up.
He is.
Trust me.
Oh, what's that supposed to mean? Just saying you've been very occupied lately.
A lot of extracurricular activities.
Wow, you're sex shaming me.
Wait, I thought you were with that architect.
The architect was ages ago.
Whose side are you on? Sorry, sorry.
Hi.
Congrats, brother.
Champers? Just because I don't drink alcohol doesn't mean I don't gift alcohol.
How'd the big presentation go? Killing it at your new job like we all knew you would? She's crushing it.
Yeah, I'm crushing it.
It's great to be back in the game.
Oh! Ha! You know this is my jam.
And you know you're dancing to it right now.
Let's go.
Come on.
Come on.
Hi.
So is tonight gonna be a Henry's place night? I thought last night was a Henry's place night.
Why can't I have you every night? Well, tomorrow is New Year's Eve and that "Eater" profile blew up our to-go orders.
So I promised mama I'd help staring early.
Aw.
Patience, Henry.
Hey, you made it.
- Hey.
Hey.
- Hey, man.
Any breakthrough on the Russell Tan front? More like a dead end, actually.
We know Tan is amassing this real estate empire in the city.
He's got everyone in his pocket, including my boss.
Every time I pull on a thread, some impossible deal Nothing shady? Just ordinary billionaire shady.
So we've got nothing.
Well, we know what we gotta do Keep keeping tabs, stay frosty.
But Until that other shoe drops - Oh, no.
- Oh, no.
Oh, yeah.
Tonight we dance.
Mama? Baba? Who are you? Nicky! Stay back! Nicky.
So we have a possible female suspect.
Assailant came in through the front window.
Discovered in here.
There was a scuffle.
Your daughter chased her out into the street.
Yes, officer.
Sounds like your daughter tried her best.
Hope you don't mind me saying, probably better not to pick fights with criminals.
But nothing was taken? No.
Checked everything twice.
Nothing's missing.
Thanks to Nicky.
All right.
Well, we're almost done here.
We're gonna wrap this up in a couple of minutes and be out of your hair.
- You ok? - Yeah.
How are your parents? Freaked out but putting on a brave face.
Henry, someone was in our house.
My parents I mean What if I hadn't come home when I did? Who do you think it was? Any chance it was retaliation? The last 6 months you've helped a lot of people from the community and made a lot of enemies.
Not to mention Tony Kang just got out of prison last month.
No.
If Tony wanted payback, he would have come for me already.
Besides, this didn't feel like anyone I've fought since we've been back.
This felt different.
When I walked into the house, I sensed her, her presence.
I felt something like a connection to her.
She was raw, sloppy even, but She was strong.
You know how we've been waiting for the other shoe to drop, for something big and bad to start up? I think it just did.
Uhh! - Yah! - Uhh! Hey, oh.
Oh.
Eh.
Hey, baba.
You ok? The break-in last night.
Yeah, Nicky had Evan put a police detail on the house.
Everything's ok.
Another party.
Excuse me, son.
Come, come, come.
This way.
Welcome, welcome.
Hey, mama, have you seen Nicky went to get more produce.
- Who's he? - Huh? Oh.
Here for an interview.
New line cook.
But I haven't had a moment to talk to him.
The orders just keep coming in.
- I'm back! - Oh.
Oh, no.
Totally forgot.
All's forgiven, but you're coming with me now.
Hey, where do you think you guys are going? Sorry, mama, I promised Ryan I'd train with him today.
Train? Since when did you start working out, Ryan? - Uh, mama.
- What? You're not even athletic.
Ok, well, we're going.
Hey, don't forget, tonight, New Year's Eve reunion dinner.
First time in 3 years we're gonna be together.
I am so sorry.
I will be with you in just a minute.
Table 7 sent their whole order back.
- Too spicy.
- What? They asked for spicy.
I Sebastian, right? - Mm-hmm.
- Come on out.
What's this? Daikon.
Specifically, a Chinese green lobak.
If it's the good stuff, you picked it up from Huang's Wholesale.
Only market in town that carries shao shan produce fresh from bolinas.
- Knife skills? - Never had any complaints.
Hmm.
Ok.
You are hired.
Take over.
Right.
- Man down! - Seriously? Sorry, Althea.
Hey, Gwen.
Any chance you had a moment to review my proposal? Oh, I'm planning to get to that soon.
Ok, great.
Well, it's just 'cause the software updates I'm proposing won't require a huge capital investment, but will go a long way towards addressing some of the core issues with the tech.
- Core issues? - The problem with the source code I briefed you on last month.
Mm-mmm.
Refresher.
Uh, 20% of our users encounter error messages.
I've isolated the bug, and if we just made a few tweaks, it would really improve the end user experience.
But why bother fixing it if it's just 20%? Look, Althea, I hired you because you're amazing and brilliant, and you are an incredible programmer.
- Thank you.
- Yeah, but I think there seems to be a disconnect, 'cause what's our motto here at Loungr? It's work hard, rest hard.
Ok, this is last year's sign.
But this should say "work hard, rest hard.
" And I so appreciate your hard work.
And, Althea, look, I know you're trying to make your mark, but the time for looking under the hood, um, it's over.
It's about focusing on that buyout.
Ok? So we can all get rich.
Oh! Got it.
I'm so glad you get it now.
100%.
Ok, good.
Yeah.
And, Althea, in the meantime, enjoy yourself here.
Get a latte.
Play some pong.
- Yeah.
- Get in a nap pod.
Yeah.
You get it.
There she is.
- Hey, girl, hey.
- What's up, what's up? Ha ha ha! Uhh! Whew.
That's got to be a record.
All right.
72 bpm.
Ok, it's official.
My sister's a superhero.
- Or I've just been training a lot.
- No.
No, you can't deny empirical evidence.
Months of data support my theory.
Your theory is wish fulfillment.
You've always been obsessed with comic books.
Sorry, but my brush with Biange energy did not turn me into a mutant.
Come on.
No one works out like you just did without spiking their heart rate.
Yeah, well, it definitely spiked last night.
Even superheroes have off days.
It's been a while since you lost a fight.
You may be Shaolin, but you're still my sister.
Even you have an ego.
Fair.
But it's not just that.
I've been at peace, happy, you know.
This whole time I've been telling myself that I was red Am ready for whatever's coming.
But But now? This woman, she got close.
It feels personal.
Any questions on strategy? I think we have our marching orders.
- Evan.
- Hey, Nadia.
Oh, D.
A.
Hughes.
Your meeting with Ms.
Penberthy is in 5 minutes.
I know.
What are you doing down here? I asked Nadia to bring me a copy of the affidavit for the Williams case.
And here it is.
Thank you.
Ahem.
Evan.
Is there something you want to tell me? What's going on between you two? Between me and Nadia? 'Cause we have very strict reporting procedures about office romance.
Oh, I assure you there's nothing romantic between us.
Good.
'Cause I don't need that headache.
I have something.
A highly-skilled mercenary goes by the name Sasha Beals just popped up in sf.
You think she's the one who broke into our house? She matches the description you gave.
I've been tracking her 'cause she's done jobs for dictators, shady multinationals, and Russell Tan.
She's a specialist in infiltration and exfiltration.
So theft and kidnapping.
Yeah.
What could you have that she wants? I can think of one thing.
Evan, I'll call you right back.
Henry, where's our, uh, spare key for our research stash? Card catalogue.
Top drawer, middle file.
What's up? Bad feeling.
She took it, all our research Biange, the weapons, the bloodlines.
It's gone.
How is Kerwin doing? No change since the flight from Shanghai.
Mr.
Tan, there's someone here to see you.
Sasha, did you get the girl? She's trained.
And she's been waiting for this.
I won't make the same mistake again.
If you want her, I'll need a better team.
I'll give you whatever you want.
Just get it done.
Why would Tan send Sasha to steal our research in the first place? You'd think he has everything we have and more.
Yeah.
The Biange energy went back into the earth, the weapons were destroyed.
It doesn't make any sense.
We've watched this like 10 times now.
Maybe there's nothing to see.
I haven't spotted her anywhere.
Too many people going in and the quality is pretty bad.
Ok, there's you closing up.
Well, it was empty when I locked up, and it was empty when I opened it in the morning.
What if she left a different way? Are there cameras outside? Yeah, front entrance and rear alley.
Is that Sasha? That's her.
Just keep it humming, Althea.
Your work doesn't matter, and you'll never leave your Mark here or anywhere else in Silicon Valley, but at least you have nice comfy nap pods and lattes on tap.
Thanks, Gwen.
I love feeling like it's all about money and I'm just wasting my life here.
Um.
Thought you might be hungry.
I brought takeout.
Heh.
You're perfect.
And I've completely lost my mind.
You know, you're not stuck here.
- If you hate it - I kind of am.
Stuck.
After Cloudrush, I was out of the workforce for a whole year.
That's a huge gap on my résume and I couldn't exactly add an item for planning wedding of the century.
Lucky to get an interview here, let alone actual job.
Maybe Gwen's right.
Maybe I've just got to go with the flow.
Oh, pebbles.
Bam bam.
Hey, Nicky.
Any chance you could hack into a cab company.
Like in my sleep or Althea.
Send me what you've got.
I think we need to start turning people away outside.
No, no, no.
No.
No.
Lo por, take a moment.
- Come.
- What? Imagine this.
Huh? Last year.
Last new year we didn't know if we could keep those doors open another month.
The dining room was practically empty, remember? We're busy.
I'm tired.
Good problem to have, huh? Yeah, but we have a long service ahead.
I haven't even started prepping for the reunion dinner yet.
What about the desserts? It won't be a Shen new year without my mother's ma tuan and your nian gao.
At the rate we're going, we're not gonna get dinner on the table till midnight.
I can pitch in.
You've got your hands full, no? I like a challenge.
You're comfortable making dessert? I'm pretty comfortable making anything.
I've worked in Beijing, honed my mala skills in Chengdu.
Also did a year in Paris.
Made ceviche in Peru.
No formal training, but, you know, picked up a few things over the years.
So should I get that nian gao started? - Yeah.
- Yes! Well, I can report that SF's fifth best cab service has surprisingly good security.
Good enough to keep you out? Please.
Ok, I'm in.
You said the pick up was at 4 am? I've got a pick up near the community center at 4:06.
Matches the license plate.
Is there a drop off location? Yep.
8341 market.
4:18 am.
We'll go check it out.
You're sure this is where she was dropped off? What do you mean? This doesn't make any sense.
Sasha Beals, international mercenary, sets up camp here? I don't know about that, but I found our research.
If Tan hired her to take this, wouldn't she have brought it straight to him? Checked everything twice.
Nothing's missing.
I recognize this.
Nicky? It's identical.
Nicky? Hey, mama, odd question, but you have a bracelet in your jewelry box.
I have several bracelets in my jewelry box.
Nicky, it's really, really busy in the kitchen right now.
The gold one.
There's an inscription.
It looks like you've had it for a while.
Oh, yeah, Po Po gave that to me a long time ago, told me to pass it on to my daughter.
I had two.
I guess I couldn't choose.
So I kept it for myself.
Why do you ask? The inscription.
It's custom made, right? One of a kind.
Well, not really.
It's part of a matching pair.
Po Po gave aunt Mei-xue the other one.
Ok, why do you ask? Never mind, mama.
Got to go.
So if this bracelet belonged to Mei-xue, you think Sasha stole it? No.
Henry, I think we've been looking at this wrong.
It didn't add up.
That hideout, all that stuff.
I think she's auntie Mei-xue's daughter.
The connections are all there, but nothing.
Sorry, no breakthroughs tonight.
It's ok.
See you at the office.
Hey, Nadia.
Thank you for doing this for me, for risking your job, coming all the way out here.
You know I'm not just doing this for you.
My parents, they grew up in San Francisco, Manila town.
Oh, I had no idea SF had a Manila town.
Most people don't.
Gentrification.
City officials looking the other way as men like Tan built over it.
That's why I'm doing this.
Nadia.
Nicky, are you sure? Pretty sure.
Mei-xue had a daughter? We have a cousin? When we fought, I felt a connection to her.
It makes sense now.
Are you gonna tell mama? No.
Not tonight.
Not new year's Eve.
We don't even know what we're dealing with.
Or what she wants.
You think she's the one who attacked you last night? What about Tan's mercenary? - Yeah, could she be the same person? - Could she be working with Tan? I don't know.
But we need to figure out what she's doing here.
I was hoping there'd be a clue in this stash.
All right, let's start digging.
Who are you? Funny.
That's what I was gonna ask you.
My name's Evan.
Yeah, Evan Hartley.
Born and raised in San Francisco.
Assistant D.
A.
Someone's done their research.
All this stuff.
I'm guessing there's a reason why you're keeping this hidden away from your office.
Nice government files.
Stolen? Who are you? That's kind of a deep question.
Don't be smart.
I know about you and your friends Nicky Shen and Henry Yan.
Why the hell are you after me? Anyone find anything? She left little notes everywhere.
Yeah, but no dates, no order to any of it.
I think she's young.
Something about all this just feels like she's a kid.
Would a kid have something like this? So the other two burner phones were dead, but I cracked the passcode on this one.
There's a call log.
And I recognize this area code.
It's Nash creek.
Turn around real slow.
Yeah, Duke here.
Duke? Why were you in Nash Creek? Sorry, but they're my friends.
Without knowing who you are, I can't trust you not to hurt them.
Thanks.
You, too.
What'd Duke say? Ok, so a young woman tracked him down a few months ago.
Wouldn't say who she was.
Duke didn't trust her, so he kept mum.
But apparently she was shaking people down at the bar.
One of the locals told her about 3 strangers who showed up in town and got in a bar fight.
That's how we got onto her radar.
So she tracked you from Nash Creek, first to our house, then the library.
Does 2pce499 mean anything to you? Evan.
She tracked him.
For what it's worth, I don't think you're a killer.
I think you're searching for answers.
And I think you're scared.
Liar.
How do you know this person? How do you know this person? I don't.
Evan? Stop, stop, stop.
Put it down, please.
Mei-xue, you're her daughter.
Who are you? I'm family.
Please just put the knife down, and I'll tell you everything.
You can trust us.
We want to help.
You ok? Yeah.
Sorry about your friend.
You got mixed up.
And I'm starting to understand why.
Your mom never told you she had a sister? She never talked about her family.
She raised me in that cabin.
Alone.
You had no contact with anyone? She said there was no reason for me to go in the world.
Said it was a dangerous place filled with people who want to hurt me.
She raised me, taught me how to defend myself in case anyone ever did come, but no one did.
When did you leave? I was 16.
I was tired of secrecy, being trapped in that cabin.
I just I just wanted to see the world.
So I ran away.
I made my way to New York.
Learned how to survive.
I scraped by.
It was hard, but I felt free.
I made some friends on the street, a group of kids.
They were squatting in an abandoned tenement.
What happened? They found me.
6 months ago.
This woman.
Leading a team of men.
They raided our squat in the middle of the night.
They shot my friends.
Killed them all.
I only survived because of what mama taught me.
I went home, but when I got there I found out about you and your friends in Nash Creek.
I asked around.
I knew about this cabin.
I just wanted answers.
I had to know who you were.
I'm Nicky.
Mia.
That woman's still out there.
Ok.
I'm not safe here.
I'm not safe anywhere.
We'll keep you safe.
I promise.
Nicky.
She's right.
Tan's mercenaries.
If what she just told us is true, Sasha came to San Francisco looking for her.
Well, she's safe here, right? Uh, for now.
Maybe.
We can figure this out.
We just need to regroup, strategize.
What was that? Evan? I don't know.
Move, now! Mia! Uhh! Hi, Mia.
Uhh.
Go! Mia! Mia! Uhh.
You're not going anywhere.
Drop it.
Drop what, the phone or the gun? Does he know you're here? Who's he? Your boss.
Russell Tan.
I know he's been tracking her.
Does he know where she is? No.
Nicky.
Evan, take this.
- The others? - Tied and bound in the cabin.
All set.
Dennis.
I can't believe we get you tonight.
Yeah, I'm on loan.
My parents have us booked for tomorrow night.
Besides, how could I turn down my first Shen family New Year's Eve? I'm really glad you're here.
Ryan.
What? He's buttering you up.
He knows, as newlyweds, we're on the hook for Hong bao for him and Nicky, and he's being extra nice.
So I'll give him a fatty stack.
- Mmm.
- Bro.
- You're not really gonna - No.
- Have you heard from Nicky? - No.
Not since she and Henry went to check on Evan.
I'll try her again.
Your whispers aren't as quiet as you think.
Yeah, we might be old, but we can hear.
- Hey.
- Nicky.
Who's your friend? There's a lot to explain, but, mama, everyone, this is Mia.
Auntie Mie-xue's daughter.
Hi.
I, um I Uh.
Hi.
Come, come.
Sit.
Heh.
Of course.
Please.
Please join us.
Let's eat.
Yes, please.
Let's eat.
Well, she seems to be enjoying mama's giao zi.
Probably been forever since she's had a warm meal.
She's been alone for years.
You know, no family to lean on, no one looking out for her.
That's awful.
She looks just like her.
Even her voice.
It's as if a part of Mei-xue has returned to us.
Mama.
She's in danger, isn't she? Yeah.
Whatever happens, she's family.
Our family.
And you promise me you will protect her, you will keep her safe.
I will.
Any word from Sasha? No, sir.
Not yet.
Kerwin, it's ok.
Aah! Where am I? You're alive, Kerwin.
And whether you like it or not, you're home.
Uhh! It is time, Zhilan.
No, no.
No.
No, no, no.
Yes, sister.
You have avoided me long enough.
You have nothing now.
You are ready to see me, to finally face everything you have done.
Greg, move your head.