Into the Badlands season 2 premiered on March 19, introducing Nick Frost’s Bajie as Sunny’s questionable ally.
Into the Badlands is a fairly serious show. The stakes are high for all of the characters; those who are in power are trying to keep it and those who are not are trying to take it. The price for losing your battles is usually your life, so there isn’t too much happiness in the Badlands.
This tone certainly extends from Sunny’s role on the show. He’s Quinn’s Regent, the head Clipper, tasked with killing anyone who threatens his Baron’s life. He’s taken down over 400 opponents so far, and there’s still a lot of fight left in him. But there is a complication in the form of Veil and their unborn child, and so the already serious Sunny has a lot more on the line than just his own life.
Hence the no smiling thing.
Enter Nick Frost as Bajie. We meet him in the season 2 premiere, when Sunny wakes up shackled to his rather large companion. They’ve both been taken prisoner to work in the mines. They get food and a place to sleep, but they’re slaves. Sunny has just arrived, full of anger and plans of escape, whereas Bajie has been around for a little while. He’s not exactly content with his situation, but he’s always looking to find a way to make it work in his favor.
That is Bajie’s number one trait: he’s always looking out for himself. Sunny doesn’t trust easily, but Bajie has his connections within the mine, and Sunny uses them to get what he needs in order to escape. But the second Bajie sees a new opportunity to turn the tides in his favor, he betrays Sunny.
Despite Bajie’s sharp mind, his tendency to find the path of least resistance (and greatest gain) lands him in trouble more times than not. Although Bajie was expecting to gain from turning Sunny over to those in charge of the mine, he’s punished and must fight the deadly Mouse right alongside his mate.
The interesting thing about Bajie is that nothing can seem to keep him down. Sunny is more than capable of taking care of himself, but he’s new to this part of the world. Frost’s character has all the information, and he knows when to share it and when to keep his mouth shut. When Sunny asks him why he shouldn’t kill him on the spot, Bajie easily replies, “Because it’s going to be a lot harder to win chained to a corpse.”
Even after they escape, Bajie knows he needs to stick by Sunny’s side. Although Bajie can clearly take care of himself, both thanks to his strength and his cunning, Sunny is an exceptional fighter. The smart thing to do would be make himself useful. When they come up against that wall on the edge of the Badlands, Sunny has no idea how to cross it — but Bajie does. And once again he finds a way to keep the odds in his favor.
All that aside, Nick Frost adds levity to a fairly dark show. He makes you laugh. Better yet, his jovial attitude makes you want to trust him, even though you know you shouldn’t. Pairing Bajie with Sunny was a stroke of genius on the part of the Into the Badlands writers. He’s basically Sunny’s complete opposite, and his constant stream-of-consciousness word vomit is as aggravating to our hero as it is entertaining to us.
I certainly can’t wait to see what the end up doing with his character this season.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.