Sense8 Episode 3: Smart Money is on the Skinny Bitch

Last time on Sense8, Will encountered a man named Jonas Maliki, a fellow Sensate who knows what’s happening to Will and the others and wants to help Will save Nomi. However, since Will is a cop and Jonas is a wanted criminal, at least according what Will has heard, Will has no choice to try and apprehend him, leading to a high speed chase in which Will crashed his car. Meanwhile, Kala, despite having a great time at her rehearsal dinner, found herself unable to reconcile with reconcile the inevitability of her upcoming marriage and the fact that she does not love her groom-to-be. Lito was outed as a homosexual by his co-star, Daniela, who agreed not only to keep his secret, but also act as his official beard, whether he likes it or not. And finally, Nomi, after a motorcycle accident, found herself in the hospital at the mercy of her transphobic mother and a doctor who claims she has a rare brain disease for which the only treatment is lobotomy.

Speaking of lobotomy, the episode opens with will having a nightmare about a young girl being lobotomized, a nightmare which may actually be a memory from his past. Will wakes up in the hospital, and the nurse says that, thanks to him, the police were able to capture Jonas. Despite possibly having a concussion and some unusual brain activity, Will is fortunate enough not to hindered by the kind of security that Nomi is presently dealing with, and leaves right away.

Next we cut to Lito and Hernando, who are playfully flirting while watching a soap opera that Lito stars in. I’ve said it before, but it bares repeating, I absolutely love the chemistry between Lito and Hernando. They tease each other mercilessly, but there is definitely love behind it. They’re dialogue comes off as very believable, providing a great contrast to the more dramatic plots of Lito’s films. All in all, they’re a really cute couple, and apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks so as Daniela enters just as they’re about to make out. Upon Daniela’s entrance, the atmosphere of the scene takes a turn for the awkward as neither Lito, nor Hernando have any idea what to do about her.

In London, Riley is taking a walk and encounters a blind street performer playing the piano, triggering memories of when she was little and her father, a professional piano player, used to play for her. Seeing an opportunity to save her skin, she puts the dirty money into the blind man’s donation case and leaves.

We finally rejoin Capheus in Nairobi, where he’s having dinner with his friend and sharing a story about how as a child, he told his mother he wished to be a Zebra. It sounds silly at first, but young Capheus’ logic is interesting. As a Zebra, if he was hungry, he would just eat the grass, which, for a starving child, is a nice thought. Capheus’s mother assures him that as long as the two of them are together, good things will come their way, emphasizing the strong bond the two share. Capheus’s friend tells him that the only problem with being a Zebra is that sooner or later, you’re going to have to deal with lions. It’s a joke, but it provides a type of symbolic foreshadowing for the direction Capheus’s story will soon take.

Back in Mexico, Lito awkwardly tries, and fails, to convince Daniela that her services as a live-in beard are not necessary. Daniela turns the argument around on him, claiming that he was just fine using her back when she didn’t know his secret, but now that she knows, he just wants to dump her. Lito continues to state his point, but Daniela deflects his every attempt to convince her to leave. Daniela is so convincing that even Hernando is starting to like her. However, Lito’s honesty has finally prompted Daniela to reveal the whole truth about why she’s so eager to move in with Lito and Hernando. Apparently, Daniela is being stalked by her abusive ex and thinks that if he sees her with Lito, he’ll back off. Lito and Hernando agree to protect her, but are still not one hundred percent comfortable with the situation, especially after Daniela reveals that she also slept with her ex’s best friend.

Will returns to the police station wanting to talk to Jonas, but the FBI blocks his every attempt to get close to him.

In San Fransico, Nomi is refusing to take her medication, and she’s horrified to learn that the doctor’s have been instructed to use force if they have to.

At long last, we rejoin Sun in Korea, who pulls a red folder from her safe that contains evidence that her brother has been embezzling money from her father’s company. This prompts a flashback to when Sun was a little girl, promising her dying mother that she would always take care of her brother. At the same time, will is looking at a file of his own, one detailing Sarah Petrel, the case he mentioned to his father last time. Sun walks down the hall, demanding to speak with her father, but he’s unavailable, prompting a frustrated Sun to punch a hole through the secretary’s desk.

Back in Nairobi, Capheus learns that, even as hard as he’s trying, the medicine that his mother needs is simply more than he can afford, as evidenced by him speding the last of his money on medicine from a back alley drug store

Back in Mexico, Lito and Daniela’s set is visited by Daniela’s ex, Joaquin, who is very eager to meet Lito, and not just because he’s a fan. Joaquin is clearly a bit of a lunatic, as we can see when he describes some of the more violent and brutal scenes from Lito’s movies with the excitement of a comic book fan who just saw Avengers, and subsequently compares them to the sensation of actually killing a man with the nonchalant attitude of a man describing his day at work. The subject quickly changes to Daniela. He’s clearly jealous of the fact that Lito has gotten the girl, but upon hearing that she’s happy leaves in peace, but not before delivering some cryptic advice on how to make killing someone look more realistic to a now very nervous Lito.

Back with Riley, she goes to some friends for help and they agree to take her in. Finally catching a moment to relax, she remarks on how much she misses Iceland and especially her father. What’s significant here is the revelation that Riley once tried to commit suicide, but her reason isn’t yet revealed.

Back with Nomi, the doctors are preparing her for surgery, but they are forced to delay it when the fire alarm goes off. Nomi, remembering Amanita’s comment for last episode about how she would burn the building down before she let anyone touch her, smiles knowing that her girlfriend just saved her life.

In Nairobi, Capheus stops his Matutu in a bad part of town, noting that the money is worth the risk, but the bus is soon robbed by a street gang called The Superpower and everything is stolen, including the medicine for his mother. Robbed of his money, his dignity and his hope of saving his mother, Capheus takes his bus and drives after the Superpower gang alone, no doubt following the example of the films of his hero, Jean Claude Van Damme.

In Korea, we learn that in addition to her career as a businesswoman, we learn that she also moonlights as an underground kick boxer. As she enters the ring, her much larger male opponent thinks it’s a joke, but the ring announcer claims that he shouldn’t underestimate her because, as the episode’s *ahem* charming title tells us, the smart money’s on the skinny bitch. The bell rings, and we quickly see why as Sun proves to be a formidable fighter, even against a larger opponent. Sun’s fight is cut together with Capheus’s pursuit of the Superpower, who has finally caught up to them. Breifly channeling Will, Capheus is able to shoot out the tires of the Superpower’s car, but the violent thugs quickly disarm and overpower him, which causes Sun to see a bruised and beaten Capheus in the ring during her fight. At first, the distraction gives her opponent an opening to start wailing on her, but she gets her second wind and, in a amazingly filmed scene, overpowers both her opponent and the Superpower simultaneously. And so the episode ends with both Sun and Capheus standing tall, but confused as to what just happened.

Episode 3 finally gave us some much needed insight into Sun, who up until this point has been given the least screen time with only two scenes in episode one and a blink and you miss it cameo in episode two. As I’ve said before, this is to be expected in a show with eight lead characters, each with their own unique story to tell. Even if the length of your average episode of Sense8 is longer than most, there’s still only so much one can fit in a single episode and some stories must be favored over others for the sake of a flowing narrative. The most telling scene in her story is when her mother tells her to take care of her brother. Upon learning that her brother has been embezzling money from the company, she’s conflicted. She resents her brother, but she’s also promised to protect him, and that mentality will shape the decisions she makes later on. While I find it a bit stereotypical that the Asian character is the martial artist, it does tie into her character nicely. In the business world, Sun constantly has to remain stoic, despite her obvious frustrations. Her fighting gives her an outlet for her aggression and will later on prove invaluable to the other sensates. Upon a second viewing of the series, I’m finding Lito’s story a lot more engaging and the performances by all the actors involved much more entertaining. In many ways you could say that Lito is the comic relief of the series, and to a certain extent that’s true, but just because his plot appears to be a comedy plot, at least for the time being, it does not mean it can’t be interesting. It’s obvious that Lito likes Daniela, but as someone who’s built his career upon his ability to lie, is clearly uncomfortable allowing people to see the truth. You get the feeling that Lito wishes he could be more like the characters he’s known for playing, but struggles with it, especially when confronted with a real villain like Joaquin.

The last story worth commenting on this time around is Capheus’s. Much like how Lito tries to emulate his own characters in the public eye, Capheus tries to emulate characters played by Van Damme. This is not to say that Capheus is dillusional or thinks he’s invincible or anything. Rather, his love of action movies has inspired him to be brave in the face of danger, especially when it means helping the people he cares about. After he was robbed, most other people would have left, thankful to have escaped with their lives, and there would not have been any shame in that, but Capheus simply does not have it in him to give up the hope that his mother will one day be cured, and so, he goes after the Superpower gang, even when it’s almost a certainty that he will be killed. Fortunately, thanks to Sun, Capheus was able to be the hero, but much like how a Zebra will inevitably have to deal with lions, heroes will inevitably have to deal with villains, a lesson that Capheus will learn soon enough.