JENTRY CHAU VS. THE UNDERWORLD Recap: (S01E11) Good Intentions

Wow, any other show would take the hugely climactic battle that wrests an ancient fallen Daoist priest out of the literal jaws of a Mogui, costing the life of a lovelorn Painted Skin demon, and call it a day. But not Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld. Instead, the diminished Mogui offers her a chance to find her long-thought-dead mother, prolonging its shelf life and the plot’s tension. In Season 1 Episode 11, “Good Intentions,” Jentry (Ali Wong) and Ed (Bowen Yang) take their search to the Diyu underworld.

The Mogui‘s offer is too tempting for Jentry and she is about to shake on a deal when Horse Face (Stephen Fu) and Ox Head (Kaiji Tang) appear. They take the Mogui into custody for the damage to the boundaries between Diyu and the world of the living it caused.

Horse-Face and Ox-Head stand, backlit by an interdimensional portal, facing Jentry, seated on the ground with her back to the camera. Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld 111 — Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld, “Good Intentions”

ONE MONTH LATER: Jentry and Ed are researching Moonie Chau’s (Lucy Liu) whereabouts and coming up with nothing. They have the clippings and posters Gugu (Lori Tan Chinn) saved from when she looked for Moonie in 2009. Gugu’s trying to divine Moonie’s current location using oracle bones but the answers are ambiguous.

Jentry is fed up with research. She wants to break the Mogui out of the Diyu prison to find out where Moonie is right away. Jentry opens a portal to Gugu’s study and pulls out the linglong baota which could transport the Mogui. With that and a spool of red thread to keep them from getting lost, Jentry has a viable plan. Gugu warns her that she won’t be able to protect Jentry in the Diyu.

Remorseful for all the people she’s hurt, Gugu walks to where the twin girl house ghosts are caring for Iris (Crystal J. Huang). Gugu didn’t even know Iris had become a ghost until they found her in Bixi. Now, Iris is fading and Gugu is desperate to help her.

Pepping Up the School

At Riverfork High, Stella (Cristina Milizia) waits impatiently for Jentry with Michael (AJ Beckles) and other friends by Vice-Principal Wheeler’s (Sean Allan Krill) office. Jentry was supposed to return to school that day and bring the banner. Wheeler invites the students in. He has turned his office into a panic room.

Stella points out that everyone’s pretty shaken by the demon invasion at Homecoming so she proposes they throw a fundraiser-social combo to boost everyone’s spirits and raise money. They want to throw a lock-in. Wheeler initially says no but once Jentry arrives via magical portal he’s good with it as long as she’s the security for the event.

After the pitch meeting, Michael talks to Jentry in the hall about her plan to go to Diyu. He offers to come with her and Ed but she is adamant that he doesn’t, stating she can’t have him getting killed like Gugu and Kit (Woosung).

Roughing It In Diyu

At home, Ed comforts Jentry and says they don’t have to go right away. Jentry disagrees. While Gugu tries to reach Iris with familiar items, Jentry steals the linglong baota and thread. Iris notices Jentry, calling out to her by Moonie’s name. Gugu attempts to stop them but Jentry and Ed manage to travel to the Diyu before she can.

The palace entrance to Diyu. Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld 111 — Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Souls of the deceased flow into the Diyu palace where they are subjected to various trials. Ed and Jentry aren’t able to enter with the souls. Ed takes them in a different way.

Outside, Gugu opens a portal and follows the red thread but finds it splinters in several directions. Before she attracts unwanted attention, she goes around the side of the palace to look for Jentry and Ed.

Ed finds an elevator of sorts. It’s organic and comprised mostly of body parts. The toothy doors shut on the red thread, severing it. Jentry pushes the eyeball numbered eight in Chinese. It’s very squishy. The elevator begins descending quickly. On the way, they see many of the trials souls suffer in Diyu to earn reincarnation.

Seeing Things

Jentry catches a glimpse of her father, Peng Chau (Jimmy O. Yang) in the mists of Diyu‘s dungeons before he’s dragged into oblivion by a giant tiger’s paw. She tells Ed she saw her dad just before the elevator goes haywire and spits Jentry out on the fourth level. Ed’s disappeared.

The fourth level looks like a hall in Riverfork High. Jentry bumps into someone in the shadows and takes a defensive stance until she realizes it’s Michael. She tells him he needs to get out but he insists he can help. Their argument is interrupted when something starts thumping from inside a nearby locker. The door opens and Kit in a half-melted skin suit climbs out.

Kit accuses her of getting him killed. Backing away, Jentry says he can’t be real. Kit leaps at her and Michael pushes her out of the way to shield her. Kit lands on Michael and chomps down on him. They meld into each other and approach Jentry, speaking with one combined mouth, saying, “You let us die for you.”

Terrified, she manifests her powers and zaps them only to have her surroundings disappear. The Kit/Michael demon disappears as well leaving only Ed cowering on the ground.

Gugu’s Trial

Gugu follows a red thread to Peng, collapsed on the ground. He stands up. Behind Gugu, Iris appears. To her side, Moonie steps forward. Gugu’s words about the choices you make after death haunt her. Peng, Moonie, Iris, and Jentry surround her. Everyone but Jentry turns and walks away. Gugu begins to fade. Jentry walks away as Gugu feels herself disappear. She screams.

Suddenly, she’s a whole ghost again, facing a couple of demons huddled around a captive soul. She tells them she’s looking for a Mogui, possesses one of them, and proceeds to fight the other one. Jumping between the demons, she knocks one out, and then escapes.

Jentry and Ed find the Mogui being punished by Horse Face and Ox Head. As they sneak into the space, another demon guard comes in and calls Horse Face and Ox Head away to deal with a situation. Jentry quickly pulls the Mogui from the vat and demands to know where her mother is.

One Does Not Simply Walk Into the Diyu

Horse Face and Ox Head question the demon Gugu possessed. The demon reports the ghost that possessed it was asking about a Mogui. Horse Face and Ox Head order the other guard to get back up.

Gugu watches as the guard directs the backup forces through a portal to the lower levels to find the intruder. As the guard follows them through, Gugu slips through just before it shuts completely.

Jentry holds out the linglong baota and it draws the Mogui into it. Horse Face’s chain whip knocks the linglong baota out of Jentry’s hand and the Mogui out of the linglong baota. Jentry tries to open a portal to escape but she and Ed step out in the exact same spot. The guards warn her they are too deep for her magic to overrule the magic of Diyu. The Mogui gasps that it knows a way out. As the backup forces pour out of their portal, Jentry reaches down and allows the Mogui to latch onto her. Gugu arrives too late.

Jentry in her Mogui demon form stands in front of an open portal. She's plunged a hand into her chest. — Image Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

The Mogui melds with Jentry and she’s able to transform her left arm into weapons that overpower Horse Face and Ox Head. As she runs away with Gugu and Ed close behind, the Mogui points out they make a good team. Gugu warns Jentry that the longer the Mogui shares her body, the more of her qi it will consume.

Jentry lets the Mogui‘s powers envelop her in order to escape Diyu. He whispers promises to her the entire time, sowing seeds of doubt about Gugu. But once Gugu, Ed, and she are back in the study, she rips the Mogui out of her body and rejects his offers. She refuses to let him come between her and Gugu again. He thanks her for her qi and jumps back through the portal to Diyu. Jentry turns to Gugu and tells her she knows where Moonie is.

Pivot

In the Diyu, the Mogui approaches Ox Head who holds a badly injured Horse Face in his arms. The Mogui offers to team up with Ox Head. Ox Head rejects the offer but the Mogui leaps on him and possesses him. He kills Hose Face and then summons all the head demons of the Diyu. He accuses Jentry Chau of killing his brother and says the Diyu must take revenge. His first order of business is to find Peng Chau’s soul.

Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld is streaming now on Netflix.

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Diana Keng

Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.

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