Michelle Yeoh returns in the genre-blending action-comedy The Brothers Sun. The eight-episode series delivers some high-octane action while sprinkling in some well-timed laughs and family drama. For your convenience, we’ve provided a full, in-depth recap of The Brothers Sun Season 1, though as you will have guessed, it contains major spoilers for all eight episodes of the Netflix series, so read at your own risk.
Episode 1: “Pilot”
Big Sun arrives at his son’s house after a group of men tried to kill him. Quickly, we find out it was a setup as they were trying to tempt Big Sun out of hiding, and a sniper shoots him, leaving him in a coma. His final words were for his son Charles to go home and protect his mother and brother.
Shortly after arriving in Los Angeles, Charles discovers that his mother and father have kept the family secret from his brother, meaning he will have to do all the work until he gets up to speed.
On the hunt to find some bodyguards until he figures things out, Charles runs into his brother Bruce at a club trying to sell drugs. One thing leads to another, and Charles gets into a fight with the club’s goons until the place suddenly blows up. Bruce gets his brother out of Dodge, but when he gets home, he sees his mom cleaning up a dead body and freaks out.
Episode 2: “Favor for a Favor”
We pick up right where we left off, with Bruce trying to figure out why there is a dead body in their living room, and why his mother and brother are seemingly okay chopping it into pieces and stuffing them in a suitcase. While Charles wants Bruce to get more involved, Eileen says he must focus on school. Charles doesn’t listen to his mother and takes Bruce with him on a journey to identify the corpse they’re carrying around.
After the nightclub explosion, the Deputy DA recognizes Charles from the security footage. While at school taking his test, Bruce sees his brother face to face with the cops and causes a scene. Deputy DA Alexis shows up at the Sun house to talk to Charles about what has been happening. Of course, Charles plays it off as if nothing happened, but Alexis says she knows who his father is, and since his arrival, bodies have turned up dead and buildings have been blown up. She wants to work with him, but he refuses to work with cops.
Episode 3: “Whatever You Want”
After May dies in the explosion, her sister June arrives for revenge. So, she forces TK to tell her where Bruce is. June ties up TK and Bruce and begins torturing them to figure out where his brother is. Bruce gives June the wrong address and she threatens to tattoo a penis on him. When Charles arrives to save him, Bruce talks sense into June, saying that Charles wouldn’t kill her sister because he almost died in the bomb.
To bring Sleepy Chan to Los Angeles to meet with Charles, they must make a big bang in the town by killing someone. Eileen noticed that at the restaurant, there was a man who she believed was in charge of the local operations. Charles volunteered to kill him, but June stepped up, saying she would do it because they killed her sister. June not only killed the man but made a statement, chopping off his feet and hands.
Michelle Yeoh in The Brothers Sun | Image via Netflix
Episode 4: “Square”
Bruce finally gets his mother’s approval to continue pursuing his improv career as long as he keeps his grades up. The family brings in Xing and Blood Boots to help them battle Sleepy Chan. Blood Boots is also in charge of protecting Bruce while he is out at school. Blood Boots gives Bruce the courage to ask Grace, a girl smitten by him, to attend his improv show tonight, and she agrees to come.
Charles, Blood Boots, and Xing all come to his show and sit alongside Grace in the audience. At first, it looked as if Bruce was going to bomb, but he knocked it out of the park, so much so that he was asked to be a part of The Groundlings team permanently.
As Charles, Blood Boots, and Xing are set to meet with Sleepy Chan, Bruce arrives to stand next to his brother. However, as they walk into the room, someone kidnaps Bruce, and the rules are changed, with only Charles allowed to step into the meeting. They are using Bruce as the negotiator in the deal. Things become deadly as Sleepy Chan is murdered before Bruce, and Charles barely saves him from trouble. The episode ends with a massive explosion, leaving Charles struggling.
Episode 5: “The Rolodex”
Our recap of The Brothers Sun Season 1 continues into the back half of the season with Episode 5, “The Rolodex”. The aftermath of the bombing led to Charles going missing, and Eileen is freaking out. Bruce informs her that Charles didn’t kill Sleepy Chan and that these other guys attacked them all. Moments later, we see that Alexis saved Charles post-bombing. Bruce’s Mandarin isn’t good, and he hears the man say they wanted “LOL,” but Xing realizes they were trying to say they want “The Rolodex,” which is his mom’s nickname.
The men hunting down Eileen can easily get her after someone snitches on where she is. She attempts to make a deal with them, but they turn her down. They announced themselves to her as “The Boxers.” Since she didn’t give up the information, the men shoot and kill Blood Boots. Bruce saves the day by bringing Eileen’s entire Majong team to where his mom is being held.
Charles returns home after a fight with Alexis (who also revealed she is using him in a montage) to talk to everyone about what happened. Eileen sits down with Bruce and Charles and tells the story of “The Rolodex.” She explains that she must pass this information on to Bruce, and he must use it to spare his life from the man after him.
Episode 6: “Country Boy”
Charles takes Bruce to John Cho’s house to protect him while he memorizes “The Rolodex.” The FBI looks on as Charles, Bruce, June, and Grace party up in Cho’s house. From karaoke to playing arcade games and drinking it up, the crew has the time of their lives.
While the kids party, Eileen heads to Taiwan to visit her mother. The two share a few moments about what is happening. But her mother calls her out for wanting and missing the thrill of being mixed up in the crime family. She breaks the news to her daughter that her sister Vera has passed away due to cancer.
Bruce and Charles share their first real brotherly bonding time but get a phone call saying they have found TK. So Charles heads out, and we see that the two men watching the house have been killed. Grace talks Bruce into leaving the house, where she reels him into a trap of a group of people with red bracelets. She reveals herself as one of “The Boxers.” She attempts to make a deal with him not to kill his mother in exchange for the information he has but he refuses when she fails to agree to protect his brother.
Episode 7: “Gymkata”
Eileen was busy in Taiwan, having people murdered left and right. She has invited all the Ghosts to vote on a Dragon Head and wants them to vote for her to become the new leader. While planning their next move, Big Sun, Charles, and Bruce’s father arrive to order things. He revealed that he was perfectly fine the entire time and had Xing keeping tabs on everything.
Big Sun suggests that Charles be put in charge of the family. He said he has been prepared for this his whole life, and it is his turn to step up to the plate and be the leader. No matter what she does, Eileen realizes her husband is one step ahead of her.
Bruce makes a deal with Grace about all the ghosts being in town and how she can get her revenge. Bruce has second thoughts as the meeting is happening and calls June to help him save his brother. Big Sun makes his pitch to everyone, and Eileen arrives, stating that everyone should vote for her. She speaks her case when Bruce runs in to announce there is a bomb. The SWAT team arrives moments later, and we get a massive shootout. After it is all said and done, Big Sun tells Charles that he wants him to kill Bruce.
Episode 8: “Protect the Family”
Our recap of The Brothers Sun Season 1 concludes with the finale. Charles arrives to follow his father’s orders to kill Bruce, but he can’t go through with it. He heads back to the safe house to talk to his dad about being unable to do it, and Big Sun says he had Xing follow him because he knew he couldn’t get the job done. Charles snaps, shooting two of the bodyguards, but heads outside to chase down Xing, shooting out her windows and ending up getting arrested.
Alexis wants to make a deal with Charles saying if he gives up Big Sun’s location, she will give him his freedom, but he says no. Bruce arrives at the jail making a deal with Alexis to turn off the cameras. This allows him to talk to Charles one-on-one. Bruce asks Charles about their dad’s whereabouts, not for the cops, but because he is going to kill him.
Bruce arrives and tells Big Sun that Xing is dead and pulls a gun on him. Despite Big Sun offering Bruce Charles’s spot at the table, he still shoots his father in the stomach. He tells him he can either die or call an ambulance. It leads to his arrest and Charles being let go by the police. Eileen tells Bruce she plans to go home to run the business, and Charles informs him he is joining her to protect her because it will be dangerous.
That was our recap of The Brothers Sun Season 1. We want to know your thoughts on the series, so let us know in the comments!
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