'Warrior' Season 2 Episode 7: For Mai Ling choking is about control and BDSM but for Penny it’s violence
In one scene towards the end of 'Warrior' Season 2 Episode 7 titled, ‘If You Wait By The River Long Enough’ we see Mai Ling (Dianne Doan) make love with Li Yong (Joe Taslim) and this is after all the misunderstanding between the two and the distrust after Li Yong went behind Mai Ling's back to take Zing (Dustin Nguyen) out. So what she really hopes to gain at this moment is not love, or even intimacy, but control. She wants to see Li Yong give away the semblance of control that he has over himself and surrender to her completely. Mai Ling wants to see that there is someone who trusts in her enough to let her have the reins.
She tests Li Yong's loyalty and his trust in her by telling him to let go as she tries to choke him. It is a textbook BDSM move and despite a moment of hesitation, Li Yong gives in. By doing so, he has shown Mai Ling that he has complete trust in her. As he chokes, Mai Ling's visibly feeling a heightened sense of pleasure and we do not see if she lets Li Yong live and stop before choking him to death. Instead, we see this scene pan out to take us to Penny (Joanna Vanderham). She ends up witnessing Sophie (Céline Buckens) and Leary (Dean Jagger) kissing on the streets and it doesn't take too long for her to conclude that her sister must have betrayed her too.
She tells Sophie to leave and just as she is dealing with this, Samuel Blake (Christian McKay), the Mayor of San Francisco enters their home in a fit of rage. He is drunk and pissed that his wife would go behind his back to strike a deal with one of the businessmen to keep her business running as she continues to hire Chinese labor. All while he is lobbying for labor jobs to be specifically kept aside for Americans. From a business perspective, it is smarter to employ people who would cost less than to employ individuals who do the same work at a higher cost. However, from a political perspective, it is important to have the support of the locals because they are the ones who vote. Samuel is hence mad that his wife doesn't understand how she is undermining his position, his future, and the possibility of him getting elected for governor as well.
Penny is surprised that her husband even had this opportunity as she was never made aware of his political plans. So when she points that out a tiff becomes a full-blown fight as Samuel ends up slapping her. She doesn't take it standing out and instead punches Samuel and this angers the man. His ego is hurt and he ends up attacking her viciously. He also hurts Sophie who tries to intervene and stop him from hurting her sister and he ends up choking Penny, as a way of showing her who is in control of her and her life. As Penny struggles under his chokehold, we see the fight in her to get away from him and free herself disappear bit by bit until her manservant Jacob (Kenneth Fok) ends up striking Samuel in the head. As the episode closes, we are shown how two different relationships act and react to the same action, how gender and race play a role here.
'Warrior' Season 2 episodes will be aired on Cinemax every Friday at 10 pm ET.