Summary
While the episode mostly consists of exposition, there are a couple of exciting action sequences to keep things interesting.
The premiere of The Continental: From the World of John Wick introduces all the miniseries’s major players and sets the stakes for the rest of the season. While episode 1 mostly consists of exposition, a couple of exciting action sequences keep things interesting.
The series opens with a flashback to 1955 New York City, where police apprehended brothers Frankie and Winston and sat them in an interrogation room. Both terrified children were forced to work as errand boys for the mobster Cormac (Cormac) to repay their father’s debt.
Frankie tries keeping his brother quiet and promises to take the fall and keep little Winston out of prison.
Years later, Frankie is still working for Cormac, the manager at The Continental Hotel, the most luxurious accommodation for criminals in New York City.
What did Frankie steal from Cormac?
Frankie creatively uses a subway train to break open The Continental’s safe and steal the priceless antique coin press. Sadly, his partner betrays him, and the ensuing gunshots attract hotel security, but Frankie makes it out in time to be picked up by his wife and getaway driver, Yen. Not before killing as many guards as possible.
Winston’s Past
We first meet a young Winston in London, where he works with the wealthy Mr. Davenport’s wife to con the poor investor into handing over his hard-earned for a poorly thought-out business. Of course, Winston and Mrs. Davenport are cheating Mr. Davenport out of more than his money.
After his illicit lovemaking session, Winston is ambushed in his hotel room and kidnapped by three masked men. The thugs take Frankie to The Continental, where Cormac demands his help in locating Frankie.
This is when Winston first meets a young Charon, Cormac’s concierge. After Winston claims not to care about his brother, Cormac lets him walk out but has him followed.
KD
We then meet KD, the first female detective in her precinct, who is having an affair with her married superior, Mayhew. When she follows an arms dealer (who recently lost most of his fingers) to The Continental, Meyhew forcefully stops her from entering the criminally charged hotel. When KD does manage to sneak into The Continental, she’s shocked to see all staff members, including the receptionist, are armed. And the going currency is these mysterious gold coins.
We soon learn that she’s investigating and trying to catch Frankie, who’s been MIA since his tour in Vietnam. After leaving The Continental, Winston goes to visit his Uncle Charlie. While he is annoyed at Frankie for going back to working for Cormac, Winston decides to find his brother and try to protect him.
To help him on his quest, Charlie gives Winston a coat and the love of his life, aka. a slick Mustang.
The Continental: From the World of John Wick Episode 1 (Credit – Peacock)
Lou and Miles
The first place Winston searches is a Chinatown karate dojo run by siblings Lou and arms dealer Miles. As soon as Winston arrives and starts asking about Frankie, Lou tries to kick him out, but he pulls a gun on her.
Lou leads Winston to the basement, where he meets Miles and his associate, Lemmy. He tries talking them into not killing him and asks for their help in locating Frankie.
Miles explains that he served in Vietnam with Frankie, and the two became close. But as soon as they got back, Frankie ditched him to join The Continental crew. Miles gives Winston another lead on where he might find his brother and a cool gun before sending him on his merry way.
The Adjudicator
The show’s High Table representative, the 1930s-era Hungarian mask-wearing Adjudicator, is first introduced while having Frankie’s traitorous partner tortured. After giving him a speech about how important the coin presser truly is, she orders her right-hand man to kill the poor bastard.
When the two brothers finally reunite, Frankie and Yen are less than thrilled by Winston’s arrival. It doesn’t help that Yen didn’t even know her husband had a brother.
Why did Frankie steal the coin press?
Frankie explains that a mysterious group hired him to steal the ancient coin press and offered him enough money to start over far away from Cormac and his influence. But they left him high and dry, and he and Yen are now hiding inside the old theatre.
The brothers don’t get much time to catch up as Cormac’s men pull outside the hideout. And of course, they brought their bomb-throwers.
Luckily, the clever Winston tricked them into attacking the wrong building, so the three make it out unscathed and go back to Charlie’s.
Charlie is beyond pleased to see his love (the car) safe and sound. However, Yen doesn’t trust Winston, even if he’s their only hope of staying alive.
Hansel and Gretel
After hearing that his men failed at capturing Frankie and retrieving the coin thingy, Cormac asks a couple of hotel guests for help, the mute assassin pair of siblings, Hansel and Gretel.
While waiting for Charlie to get their ride ready, Winston and Frankie try hashing some things out. When they were kids, Frankie took the fall for something Winston had done and spent time in prison.
Why did Frankie abandon Winston as a child?
After the arrest, Frankie cut all contact with his younger brother. Winston harbors resentment over having been abandoned. But Frankie did what he thought was best to protect his brother from the underworld.
The two don’t get much time to reminisce as one of Charlie’s friends calls Cormac and offers up the two brother’s location. After a brief car chase that ends with the devastating loss of Charlie’s love, Winston, Frankie, and Yen take cover inside an apartment block.
While Frankie and Winston are standing there grown in the hallway, Yen fights and kills one of the attackers inside an apartment and keeps the resident’s baby safe while she’s at it.
Frankie’s Death
As the three are about to escape in the helicopter Charlie arranged, Hansel and Gretel start shooting at the aircraft and hit the pilot. In a brave show of loyalty, Frankie jumps out of the chopper with the coin press, sacrificing himself so his wife and brother may live.
What did Cormac find inside the box?
Back at the Continental, Cormac opens the recovered box. Instead of the coin press, he finds the box contains a cute golden monkey showing him the finger. At the dojo, Winston arrives carrying an injured Yen. He’s angry and ready for some John Wick-style vengeance.
What did you think of The Continental: From the World of John Wick Episode 1? Comment below.
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