After last week’s episode ramped up the stakes for our heroes, we headed into the first season finale with a lot of questions that needed answers. Who poisoned Jade? Will Quinn take advantage of M.K.’s gifts? Will Sunny turn on his young apprentice to secure passage on the River King’s ship? Did the Widow survive her duel with Sunny? Will Veil blame Sunny for the death of her parents? Will the show come back for a second season? And why are there only six episodes for the season?

Despite the high note that ended last week’s penultimate chapter, the pace of the finale slowed down a considerable bit, but not before Sunny shows up at the River King’s office with payment in hand. Instead of the head of M.K., though, Sunny offers the head of the Colt who M.K. dispatched in the dungeon, hoping that the King won’t notice that it looks completely different from the picture on the wanted poster.

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Still, the River King accepts and tells Sunny to be back at midnight or lose his chance to leave the Badlands. Once the clock starts ticking, Sunny has to inform Veil of the plan, but she ain’t having it. See, she’s got questions about her parents’ murder.

Last week, I was worried that the writers were going to make Veil naive and believe Quinn’s lie about Sunny’s involvement in their murder. Fortunately, they didn’t do her like that. Instead, Veil’s anger with Sunny revolved around his reluctance to stop the murder. Because Quinn was right about Sunny’s sword being the murder weapon. This rough patch in their relationship throws a wrench into Sunny’s plan for getting them out of the Badlands.

In another part of the Badlands, one of the acolytes of Ryder’s grandpa seeks a trio of mysteriously hooded figures and tells them about another “Dark One.” This interests the trio’s leader, who just happens to be MMA legend Cung Le!

Back at Quinn’s mansion, Jade is recovering from being poisoned last week. I might have neglected to mention it, but part of Jade’s Machiavellian move to become baroness was more than just getting Quinn to give her power, but to find a way to get Lydia out of the picture as well. Poisoning yourself and blaming Lydia was the best way to go about it, especially because everyone knows Lydia got rid of the previous other wife. Turnabout is fair play, I guess.

Quinn has more than dueling wives to worry about since he knows of a mole within his ranks. Since he doesn’t suspect his son Ryder, Quinn moves to have Sunny arrested and detained as the traitor. Sunny surrenders without a fight. Clippers are then sent for Veil, but she isn’t in her clinic because the Butterflies have kidnapped her first. Their plans for Veil are less sinister, though. She is taken to the Widow, not as a victim but as a caregiver. It seems that Widow’s battle with Sunny has left her in a tough spot.

Veil agrees to help the Widow but leaves three bottles behind — one with medicine, the others with poison — as insurance that she’ll be returned safely. Widow agrees, and again, I’m thinking how much of the show is really about Minerva and her quest, not for power, but for justice. Throughout this season, this has been her story, and I’m eager to see her become the lead hero alongside Sunny (or hell, even instead of Sunny at this point).

Since Quinn couldn’t get his hands on Veil, he turns to M.K. and offers Sunny freedom in exchange for his own Super Saiyan Clipper. M.K. agrees to be Quinn’s personal body guard as long as Sunny and Tilda’s safety are guaranteed. To celebrate his newest Clipper, Quinn takes M.K. to  a brothel to lose his virginity. Ryder, seeing his father leave with M.K. informs Jacobee’s regent and they set the trap.

Meanwhile, in the dungeons, Sunny is chained up and ineffectual. Really, there’s no way he’s getting out with out a Deus ex Stephen Lang. And wouldn’t you know it, Waldo shows up in the nick of time!

It seems Waldo was the traitor all along (well, Ryder too, but Waldo was the one letting Widow in all this time).

Now that Sunny is free,  he can either meet up with the River King and flee or head down to the brothel where the ambush is happening and take out Quinn himself. Guess which option Sunny chooses.

In front of the brothel, Quinn sees Jacobee and his people approach. After exchanging a few words, Quinn realizes his son has turned against him and knows he has nothing left. So he cuts M.K. and activates his powers. Jacobee’s men go flying like rag dolls and Quinn makes a run for it. Unfortunately, he runs right into the sharp end of Sunny’s sword.

And just like that, our big bad is gone. While I won’t exactly miss Quinn, seeing Sunny clip him wasn’t as satisfying as I anticipated. Maybe because Sunny’s loyalty never really wavered until Quinn chained him up. For most of the season, Sunny was just too cool with all the crap Quinn was doing that seeing the Baron get his comeuppance was anti-climatic to say the least.

Fortunately, we haven’t reached the climax yet because there’s one more amazing fight sequence left in the season, and it involves Cung Le and his Dark Trio.

The Dark monks show up to take M.K. — where, we’re not sure. Since Sunny doesn’t know who these people are, he charges them and then proceeds to get his ass kicked in the wuxia-iest sequence of the season.

After the monks dispose of Sunny, they take M.K. — stuffing him back in a box very reminiscent of the one he was trapped inside of in the pilot. We assume Sunny is left for dead, but somehow he wakes up on the River King’s boat, presumably on his way out of the Badlands. Also, the King is pretty pissed that Sunny lied about killing M.K. Looks like we have a new antagonist for season two (if there is a season two).