Patience

Season

1

Episode

3

Series

Kung Fu

Air date

April 21, 2021

Writer

Richard Lowe

Director

Joe Menendez

Episode guide
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Silence	Hand

Silence is the third episode of The CW series Kung Fu. It premiered on April 21, 2021.

Synopsis[]

EARNING FORGIVENESS - Nicky (Olivia Liang) and Henry (Eddie Liu) follow a lead involving a professor who may be able to help in their search for Zhilan (guest star Yvonne Chapman). Meanwhile, as Althea's (Shannon Dang) past comes back to haunt her, a squabble between Jin (Tzi Ma) and Mei-Li (Kheng Hua Tan) points to bigger issues in their marriage. Elsewhere, Nicky steps in to help a young worker after learning of some suspicious activity happening at King Kwong's garment factory. Jon Prasida and Gavin Stenhouse also star.^[1]

Plot[]

Nicky is finally able to see what Henry is capable of as the two spar, but Henry observes that Nicky is visibly distracted by the news that Zhilan has resurfaced in Singapore and is likely linked to the disappearance of Professor Chau due to his expertise on the mythical eight weapons she is on the hunt for. The sparring match is then awkwardly interrupted by Nicky's ex-boyfriend Evan, who confirms Zhilan kidnapped Chau by sharing CCTV footage of her approaching him forcefully in a parking garage.

However, Zhilan is able to elude the authorities, interrogating Chau in a secret location to discover where the next mythical weapon is located.

Back at the Shen family restaurant, Nicky tries to help with the family business, volunteering to help at a special event involving one of Nicky's classmates, though her family is wary of her involvement. Finding her brother Ryan too busy at work to patch things up properly, Nicky instead befriends one of his patients named Faye, trying to form a union for protection from a manipulative local factory for the fashion designer King Kwong. After investigating Chau's office back at his normal San Francisco-based university, Nicky returns to the community center but is shocked to learn that Faye mysteriously collapsed at work. Determined to help, Nicky vows to take point on creating the union for the factory.

Accidentally barging into Ryan on a date, Nicky learns from Joe more about King Kwong and how he has been exploiting its workers for some time now. Althea takes Nicky into a fashion event thrown by designer Eddie Kwong and she informs him of her concerns over the treatment of the fashion line's factory workers.

While at the event, Ryan calls Nicky with his diagnosis of Faye, revealing the chemicals in Kwong's clothing production are harmful. As the two sisters leave the fashion event, Althea is approached by an investigative reporter pressing for an interview to divulge information about mistreatment from her former boss. An emotional Althea declines before departing after admitting she hasn't even told her family or her fiancé.

As Zhilan intensifies her torture and interrogation of Chau, he notices her medallion and deduces that she is Pei-Ling's sister and her father was murdered when she was young based on her family history. Normally unflappable, Zhilan is shaken at being called out and identified by Chau, stopping the torture and revealing to him the myths beyond the Eight Weapons are real in exchange for additional information. Satisfied with the information he gives, Zhilan fatally poisons him as she continues her hunt for the remaining weapons and recovers the next set after launching a daring heist in Dubai.

Confronting Kwong's right hand man, Brett, Nicky reveals she knows the chemicals that affected Faye aren't from the factory but from him deliberately poisoning her while he personally sabotaged her union efforts. Brett locks Nicky in a storage closet as he calls in a hitman to deal with her; recalling her training under Pei-Ling, Nicky breaks free and easily subdues the assassin. Using Kwong's hip, streaming tech, Nicky tricks Brett into confessing to his illegal activities, exposing him to the world and leading to his arrest. Shocked by what Brett did behind his back, Kwong helps Faye and gifts Nicky and Ryan with some free designer gear.

Nicky narrowly avoids an emotional argument between her parents but dutifully picks up a shift at the restaurant to let Ryan go on a new date.

Meanwhile, Evan launches a private investigation into Henry after learning he and Nicky broke into Chau's office, the two make a discovery of their own, finding an ancient key that may lead them to the next of the eight weapons and thus guaranteeing a showdown with Zhilan in the process.

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]
Bradley Gibson as Joe Harper^[9]
Curtis Lum as Eddie Kwong
David Lennon as Brett Slakter
Doralynn Mui as Faye Lai

Co-Starring[]

Raugi Yu as Professor Winston Chau
Patricia Pemberton as Bridget Ross
Demord Dann as EMT
Ryan Alexander McDonald as Repairman

Trivia[]

On April 28, 2021 Jon Prasida revealed in an Instagram post that he decided to customize some AF1s for the show an. He also thanked fellow co-stars Tony Chung for helping him translate the show's episode names onto the shoe as well as Gavin Stenhouse for some photo tips.^[10]
On April 29, 2021, Shannon Dang mentioned in an instagram post that the night before (April 28th), they wrapped Season 1 of Kung Fu. Dang went onto thank the crew and her fellow cast members while she recounted how in Feb. 2020, they got shut down due to COVID, reunited in September, and somehow through it all, managed to finish their 13th episode in April 2021.^[11]^[12]
- Also on this day, in an effort to support the AAPI community and take action against the rise in xenophobic crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, IGN is joined forces with Stop AAPI Hate to host a charity stream where they played Fall Guys to raise funds. Subsequently, it was announced that Olivia Liang would be one of the guests for this charity play stream.^[13]

Quotes[]

Professor: I've been watching you. You're necklace. The crane. The insignia of the Zhang family. One of the eight guardian families. You are Zhang Zhilan, you have a sister, Pei-Ling. Your father, I read somewhere that he was murdered. You must have been just a child.

Zhilan: You know nothing.

Professor: I have no reason to tell you where weapon the is, whether I speak or not, this ends one way. With me, dead. So, I would like that coffee -- please.

Henry: Right now we're training. You're distracted, rushing it.

Nicky: Well if you just learned that your Shifu her own sister, who's now probably kidnapped the one person who might know where the weapons are which means you may never find Zhilan? You'd be distracted, too.

Henry: Yeah, distracted maybe. Sloppy though?

Ryan: I talked to the hospital. They found something, PFCs in her blood, a man-made chemical used in the garment industry.

Nicky: So she wasn't just overworked. She was being exposed to chemicals at work?

Ryan: Looks that way. But the amount is off-the-charts high, like consistent with direct digestion. They're doing another test to confirm.

Nicky: That means King Kwang's exposing all it's workers.

Ryan: Could be.

Brett: What are you doing?

Nicky: You lied. You were sabotaging the union, pretending to be an ally of Fayes, intercepting her signatures, dumping her petition.

Brett: You're trespassing.

Nicky: Only Faye got sick. She wasn't getting sick from workplace chemicals. You were trying to get her out of the picture! Targeting her. Abnormally high levels consisting of direct ingestion. Were you poisoning her? What'd you do Brett? Slip it in her tea, just a little at a time?