Quan’s Ultimatum
Episode 6 of Nowhere Man begins with Ah Quan haunted by his past, driving his car while a slick shot sees us fade back and forth between a hallucinatory view of a tunnel and his bloodied family members standing around him. All of this culminates in a hedonistic mirror shot of himself, before we snap back to reality. Driving purposefully on his bike, Ah Quan arrives infront of Bai Lin, where a whole army of triad members block his path to her. After a stand-off, Bai Lin walks away as Ah Quan fights off the various guards. It’s an exhausting fight too, and well choreographed, eventually leading a bloodied and bruised Ah Quan face to face with Boss Wan. Here, we find out he kidnapped Tian-You and midway through being antagonized, is suddenly shot through the leg by one of the thugs – the man actually responsible for snatching up his son. He happens to be the mistress’ bastard son and he tells us the sickening truth through his self-assured speech about why he did what he did.. All of this was set up to make Quan and the others take the fall, with Gui forced to play along too. Blackmailed into working with them to save Tian-You, Ah Quan reluctantly agrees to help kidnap Lin’s brother. In doing so, he’ll be allowed to see Tian-You and free from his nightmarish ordeal. Laughing incredulously, he collapses in a heap on the floor as we jump back to another alternate timeline. In this vision, Ah Quan is sitting with Jing-Fang watching a film in the cinema, back during her pregnancy, and he pledges his life to her. As things take a turn for the weird, Ah Qaun wakes up to find himself handcuffed to a bed. It turns out Jing-Fang is responsible for this and she stares at him menacingly as he shouts at her to let him go so he can get their son back. She remains silent though as the two stare each other down. Meanwhile Inspector Yang comes under fire for the way he’s handled the investigation so far, especially given the criminals have now escaped. While he and his boss come to a mutual agreement, Ah Quan heads straight for Gui after Jing-Fang releases him, and the two start fighting, with Xiao San caught in the middle as emotions flare up. Eventually things do calm down as we cut to the airport, Ah Quan and the others prepare for their kidnapping as Lin’s brother touches down. With a lot of action and some nice choreography throughout, Nowhere Man delivers its best episode so far. While some of the lingering shots continue to prevent the show from really embracing its tense and action-packed premise, there’s some nice, stylistic shots here nonetheless. As everything looks to be gearing up for a dramatic conclusion, how this one will end remains to be seen.
