Summary
The details of the plot become less important than ever in “From Mr. Chiang With Love”, as Miu begins to exist outside of the classic storytelling framework that Refn refuses to abide by.
This recap of the Nicolas Winding Refn Netflix series Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Episode 4, “From Mr. Chiang With Love”, contains spoilers.
What is Miu? And by that, I don’t mean is she an angel or an alien or anything like that. I mean what function does she fulfill in a narrative context? She’s the protagonist, I suppose, but only in the sense that we’ve spent the most time with her. Her backstory and intentions are as unclear as everyone else’s. But in this story she’s a symbol of something; of righteous anger, maybe, an avatar of the downtrodden rising up against their oppressors, or good versus evil. But what she is more than anything is an exposer. Everywhere she goes she either literally – as with Rosella or the Dragon Palace – or literally – as with seeing Cimona’s spirit in Nicklas’s house – exposes the darkness it’s hiding. In a constantly shifting, kaleidoscopic dreamscape, she is reality in its purest form.
Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Episode 4 Recap
This, I suppose, is why Miu so easily deals with Nicklas, who had been built up over the last three episodes as the series villain. She is above the basic logistical concerns of the narrative; she exists outside of the classic storytelling structure. She is an anomaly, an “other”, something otherworldly given human form. Many would see an antagonist being defeated so quickly and easily as a betrayal of basic narrative principles, and in most shows, it would be, but not, I think, in a show like this one.
I see Miu massaging Mr. Chiang’s temples and bargaining for Hulda’s daughter’s return, and I see Nicolas Winding Refn answering the question of what might happen if a character supersedes the story they exist inside of. In negotiating with someone like Chiang, a character like Miu wouldn’t have the power advantage. Here, she does. Even when she’s indebted to Chiang, does anyone feel she’s in any real peril?
Through Miroslav, a lawyer with a connection to Miu’s past and several of the dealings we’ve already witnessed, we get a more explicit narrative thread tying things together. But at this point, we scarcely need one. Miu is once more shifted to a new place, put amongst new people, and given a slightly new objective that’s related to the previous one. It’s another illegal gig that leads to more depth and weirdness, as everything in a Refn production always does. Increasingly, the details are less and less important.
Nicklas, defeated and mutilated, remains the closest analog for Miu, a kind of dark opposite, again somehow apart from the standard structure, again somehow possessed of a supernatural quality. While he remains just about alive in “From Mr. Chiang With Love”, his rebuilding is framed as a resurrection, a much more loaded and potent word, much more in-keeping with the idea of him as the darkness to Miu’s light.
You can stream Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Episode 4, “From Mr. Chiang With Love” exclusively on Netflix.
Additional reading:
- Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Episode 3 Recap
- Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Episode 5 Recap.
- Copenhagen Cowboy Season 1 Review.
- Will there be a Copenhagen Cowboy Season 2?
- 10 TV Shows like Copenhagen Cowboy
