Guidance

Season

1

Episode

7

Series

Kung Fu

Air date

May 26, 2021

Writer

Ryan Johnson & Peter Lalayanis

Director

Michael Goi

Episode guide
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Guidance is the seventh episode of The CW series Kung Fu. It premiered on May 26, 2021.

Synopsis[]

FLASHBACKS TO ZHILAN'S PAST - After learning some devastating news about Pei-Ling (Vanessa Kai), Nicky (Olivia Liang) attempts to keep herself distracted by offering to help a young woman in need. Elsewhere, Zhilan (guest star Yvonne Chapman) confronts her past, and Mei Li (Kheng Hua Tan) makes a startling confession. Tzi Ma, Shannon Dang, Jon Prasida, Eddie Liu and Gavin Stenhouse also star.^[1]

Plot[]

Shortly after her rematch with Zhilan, the woman that killed her mentor Pei-Ling, before stealing an ancient jade sword with mystical properties linked to seven other weapons. Nicky finds out something more shocking , that Pei-Ling had killed their father.

Sometime after the fight, Nicky is discovered by her ex-boyfriend Evan Hartley, who helps her and takes her away from the scene as Nicky contemplates the bombshell revelation from Zhilan. Meanwhile, Henry is forced to watch from the sidelines.

Evan and Nicky seek refuge at Evan's hideaway just outside San Francisco. As the former couple shares a tender moment, Evan decides he needs to check up on his girlfriend Sabine, leaving Nicky to angrily confront a vision of Pei-Ling and demand the truth.

Elsewhere, Zhilan begins to recall her own memories of Pei-Ling, in which it was quite obvious that their father clearly favored her over Pei-Ling as a child, which made her older sister visibly jealous as she cared for her. Zhilan further remembers that ancient text that her father was studying matched the text scarred into Nicky's hand from the mystical jade sword.

While Zhilan reconnects with her uncle, she remembers the childhood trauma that set her apart from her sister forever: When their father attempted to sell the jade sword - a weapon passed down through generations of the family for the women to safeguard - a scuffle between him and Pei-Ling lead to him accidentally being stabbed to death as Zhilan watched.

Blaming Pei-Ling for the death of her beloved father, Zhilan broke off her familial relationship with her as a heartbroken Pei-Ling took the sword and departs.

While Ryan advises Nicky to refrain from training and fighting to give her body a chance to heal - from injuries endured during the fight against Zhilan - Henry and Nicky are approached by a young man with concerns about his sister Phoebe's martial arts mentor Master Drake and his violent methodology. Investigating the matter for herself, Nicky is invited to participate in Drake's trials, which are a series of illegal fights that he quietly profits from. Althea hacks into a livestream of the fight to monitor the trials and expose this operation while Nicky learns she will be fighting Drake himself, who wants to publicly assert his authority over a bonafide Shaolin fighter. Though Nicky endures a nasty blow to her ribs, she rallies and humiliates Drake before his students as Evan and Althea work together to bust his operation.

After Zhilan recalls her last conversation with Pei-Ling, two years before their fatal showdown, she learns that her uncle was secretly receiving money from Pei-Ling to raise her all along. Feeling betrayed, Zhilan angrily confronts him while revealing she was the one that murdered Pei-Ling before forcing him to tell her where his research on the weapons is located. Her uncle ends up revealing that the ancient text her father studied had been sold to the powerful Tan family in Taipei. Zhilan intercepts Kerwin Tan, one of the family's affluent sons, with a proposed alliance which he readily agrees to take her up on.

In the aftermath, Henry admits he watched Nicky and Evan depart from the art gala without knowing where they went off to. Thus, until Nicky can resolve her lingering romantic feelings for Evan, he decides to pause any progression in their own romance. As Nicky returns home, she learns that her mother Mei-Li secretly watched her daughter battle Drake and saw firsthand that she has claimed her martial arts destiny, revealing that Nicky is fated to reclaim the Jade sword, as she is evidently linked to Pei-Ling and Zhilan as a long-lost family member, stemming all the way back to Liang Daiyu, which makes the inevitable rematch all the more personal.

Cast[]

Main[]

Olivia Liang as Nicky Shen^[2]
Kheng Hua Tan as Mei-Li Shen^[3]
Eddie Liu as Henry Yan^[4]
Shannon Dang as Althea Shen^[4]
Jon Prasida as Ryan Shen^[4]
Gavin Stenhouse as Evan Hartley^[5]
Vanessa Kai as Pei-Ling Zhang^[6]
Tony Chung as Dennis Soong^[7](Credit Only)
Tzi Ma as Jin Shen^[3]

Recurring[]

Yvonne Chapman as Zhilan^[8]
Ludi Lin as Kerwin Tan^[9]
Ron Yuan as Yibo
Gary Daniels as Master Drake
Ashley Nicole Roxburgh as Phoebe
Kelvin Han Yee as Uncle

Co-Starring[]

Anthony Ames as Eric
Sam Robert Muik as Kevin Vale
Claudia Kai as Teen Pei-Ling
Diana Tsoy as Young Zhilan

Trivia[]

Ahead of this episode's premiere, a promotional image for Ludi Lin in this episode was released along with some info about Kerwin Tan, the character he is set to portray.^[9]
- In the exclusive photo from the then upcoming seventh episode released on Wednesday, May 26, 2021, Kerwin enjoys a glass of liquor with Zhilan Zhang as they catch up.^[9]
It was revealed in this episode that Liang Daiyu is the ancestor of Nicky Shen.