Fight on a roller rink.
Last time on Echo, Maya
began her plan. She wants to disrupt and take over Fisk’s criminal empire now
that he’s supposedly dead. And to help her out she’s got Biscuits, her good
natured but bumbling cousin. She uses him to get materials and then they take
Chula’s truck to a bridge over train tracks. Maya leaps onto it and makes
Biscuits chase after her as her getaway driver. She gets into the train car she
wants, one owned by Fisk, and leaves something. As she tries to escape, her
prosthetic leg gets caught in the connector between train cars. It’s mangled
badly, but she’s able to tap into some kind of inner strength, shown by visions
of her ancestors, to free herself. She’s able to leap on to the Truck, but also
busts it up too. While she goes to Skully to get a new leg,
Ep 3: Tuklo
The episode begins with another
flashback to, assumedly, Maya’s ancestors. This being her 1800s era
Great-Grandma/Aunt Tuklo. Through little dialogue cards like in early films, we
learn that in that time the Native nations had a lot of criminals infesting
their lands and they decided to form their own policing force to capture them,
the Light Horsemen. We’re shown Tuklo practicing her marksmenship under her
Light Horseman father. She’s a great shot but when she says she wants to join
them, he tells her no girls allowed, as women are ‘life givers’ and men are
‘life takers.’ She rides off in frustration. She braids her hair like the
Choctaw warriors do and say that she’ll be a Light Horsemen regardless of what
others say. A group of Light Horsemen including her dad find a camp of
criminals and prepare to take them in. IT’s a trap, unfortunately, and a
shootout begins. Tuklo has a vision of Chafa in her cave in a swirling pattern
in the river and knows her father is in danger. She arrives just in time and
helps them take the criminals out.
In the present. Chula stopped by
Skully’s shop before hours. He buzzes her in and tries to flirt but she’s not
interested right now. When she says that she knows Maya is back he drops the
flirting and brings her back into his office. She shows him the bill that
Biscuits got to fix her truck, says that Maya has too much of her father in her
and as such has brought trouble to town. Skully tells her that she doesn’t know
that, that she barely knows Maya now. Chula says that he couldn’t know her much
better if he also hasn’t seen her in 20 years, and deduces that Maya has been
to see him from the guilty look. When asked, he says he can’t tell her about
Maya’s business. Skully points out that grandmother and granddaughter are
exactly alike, which is true, but Chula denies it and says she has nothing to
say to Maya. Skully says that maybe she shouldn’t talk and instead listen for
once, to which she storms off.
Meanwhile, Vickie is on the phone
with Zane, the foreman of Fisk’s armory that just barely avoided a fiery death
last episode. He’s going to Maya’s house to confirm she’s there in order to get
paid his bounty for the information. Zane tells him that they’re still a few
hours out and that he needs to have Maya ready when they arrive.
Maya, waking by the lake near her
house, has a vision of Chafa and Tuklo warning her about something just as two
goons jump her and knock her out with a chloroform rag. Kind of a crappy Spider
Sense she’s got there, if the vision distracts you from the danger. She wakes
up dangling over the skating floor of her uncle’s rink. She wriggles the foot
of her prosthetic free, the shift in weight being enough to make her drop.
Vickie and two of his associates argue over what to do, but we can’t understand
them right now as Maya is freaking out too much to read their lips, but Vickie
shouts something to get them to shut up and they grab her and handcuff her to a
workout bench in bac. We see that Henry has also been captured and tied up on
the floor. One of the goons is left to look after Maya as Vickie goes out front
to meet Zane.
Bonnie, clearly looking for more
people that might know where Maya is, stops by the rink. It’s locked, which
weirds her out and she goes around back to the rear entrance. That is unlocked,
though, so she can get in. Vickie lets Henry loose to try to get rid of her.
Henry gives her a bullshit story about being audited by the IRS and that he’s
swimming in paperwork so he can’t talk. With the hand he has out of sight of
Vickie he quickly signs and SOS to Bonnie. She leaves and Henry tries to
convince Vickie no one else is coming and that was an accident. Bonnie goes to
radio dispatch but is caught and brought into the weightroom with Maya. Quick,
Kahhori, use your superspeed to escape! Bonnie is clearly upset to see her.
Bonnie drags her detached prosthetic foot to herself and pulls out a hidden
blade. She cuts herself and then Bonnie free. Maya uses a mirror to confirm the
guards are distracted and tries to find a way out. Bonnie isn’t done talking
though and demands to know why Maya cut her off. Maya signs that they drifted
apart, but Bonnie isn’t accepting that. She says that she never got a text or
email back from Maya after William died and she’s beyond hurt Maya doesn’t seem
to care.
Outside, Henry tries to convince
Vickie to let him go. He says he’ll smooth things over with Maya and then
Vickie can have time to run away and not get hurt. Vickie isn’t concerned,
saying Maya brought it on herself, and reveals that he called ‘someone.’ He
says that Henry left the bounty up for grabs, so he’s grabbing it. His goons
calls Vickie and they got to check it out. Bonnie and Maya try to act like
they’re still caught, but Maya grabs Vickie’s phone when he drops it to try to
get info. There’s a scuffle, with Bonnie offering to ‘tell’ Maya what to do.
They quickly sign to each other, Maya saying she’s going to punch her. She does
and then starts kicking the other’s asses in the confusion. They grab bonnie
and fall back. Thank god they need her alive. Vickie gets the text that Zane
arrived. Vickie and one goon goi to meet him, dragging Bonnie along with them.
Maya grabs a few tools.
Vickie meet with Zane. Zane tells
him that his information better be good or he’s going to kill him. Vickie tries
to get the money but Zane isn’t letting him try to negotiate. They fan out to
look for her. Maya, meanwhile, builds something out of a skate and other parts.
She makes a sot of potato gun, but it fires bolts. She blows out the light and
draws the goon in. Maya shoots her with a few more bolts, knocking her out.
Zane finds Herny and asks how he got tied up in this. He asks where Maya is,
but Vickie says he won’t tell him until he gets the money. They get a text from
Maya that she took their friend out. The other goon goes to check on Maya.
Vickie demands he get his money, Zane, tired of this, kills him. The other goon
ran for the parking lot. Zane asks where Maya is, and then the lights go off
and Dragula by Rob Zombie starts playing. Maya is very theatrical. They try to
shut it down from the DJ station, it doesn’t work, so they go for the breaker.
Maya ambushes them and starts taking them out left and right. It’s brilliant of
her to use the loud music to hide her own movements from them. She slams a guy
through a wall and onto the skate floor. She starts shooting goons, using
skills that mirror Tuklo’s sharpshooting. They grab Henry to use as a human
shield but Maya doesn’t stop fighting. She drops the second to last goon but
then sees Zane holding Bonnie.
Maya and Henry are taken to the
middle of the skate floor. Zane is about to excute t hem but then gets a call. He’s
clearly told to back off, as he orders his men back. They leave the trio alone
and confused. Maya tries to get Bonnie to leave but she wants to wait for the
cops. Maya signs no cops and that she needs her to go. She promises that she’ll
handle this and when it’s done, she’ll get in touch. Bonnie gets in the truck
and drives off.
In Henry’s office, he asks what
happened. Henry is furious and asks if she meant being kidnapped by the guy who
cleans his skates or almost dying. Maya asks who could have called him off, and
Henry says there’s only one guy. Maya says she shot Kingpin in the face. Henry
says that if Maya’s offer still stands, he’s willing to help her in this.
Later, Maya is cleaning one of the
guns she stole from the goons when Skully stops by. He brings out her new part
for her prosthetic, a shin. She’s a little disappointed in the foot, as Skully
included some extra details like Choctaw designs. He says that she’s in New
York and represents their people. She puts on the new leg. Skully says that he
doesn’t butt into family stuff, especially since he and Chula broke up, but
asks why she hasn’t seen her. Maya says Chula doesn’t want to see her. Skully
says her heart broke when Maya left, and as proof points to the fact Chula left
the house like a museum. Maya still doesn’t think she’ll see her. Skully tells
her that he guesses everyone has things that they wish were different.
Maya gets on her motorcycle and
starts riding. We see Chula and Biscuits in a church as she does. The shots
imply that she’s leaving town, but we all know she’s going to Chula’s. She
stops outside the house and prepares to go inside, but when she turns around,
there’s Fisk, a patch over his eye. The credits roll. Damn.
This was a good fight heavy
episode. Doing it mostly in Henry’s roller rink was a good call to give Maya a
small area that she knew well enough to control. I wasn’t exactly shocked that
she had a knife hidden in her fake foot, but I did nod when she busted that
out. Maya is a practical woman, of course she’d store weapons in something
she’s forced to lug around. I liked that Bonnie insisted on talking with Maya
once they were free. The baggage between the two of them is obvious, as Bonnie
feels abandoned by her cousin and Maya is obviously trying to keep her at arm’s
length for her safety. It’s an old song and dance but it’s played well. I liked
how the members of Maya’s family use the niche skill of ASL to pass messages. Henry
using one handed signing to warn Bonnie, and Bonnie and Maya using it to throw
together a plan in a few seconds were great. It’s funny how laughably bad
Vickie’s plan was here. “I’m just going to pester some actual gangsters until
they give me my money.” Like, bro, at least take a picture of a captured Maya
so they knew you actually had her at some point. They might not have shot you
in the spin if you did. That fight scene was brutal. Like I said, using a very
loud, booming sound to disorientate the gang and to hide her own movements was
brilliant. One of those ‘turn a weakness into a strength’ moments, like
whenever Daredevil blows out lights to fight enemies in the dark. Another well
worn but executed well plot point, the ‘relative adamantly states they’re
nothing like a younger/older relation that is acting just like them.” Chula
can’t see it, but, yeah, Maya is her to a T. She’s just pushing the family away
to protect them instead of pulling them in close. With two episodes left, I do
hope they can communicate and get to a better place together. That’s all I have
to say about that. Good night everyone.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/99217509
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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