JENTRY CHAU VS. THE UNDERWORLD Recap: Forget the Alamo

Everyone reacts differently to fear. In Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld Season 1 Episode 4, “Forget the Alamo,” we see how some will cower, some will lash out, and others will stand up and protect those around them. While weaving in a subtle dig at revisionist history, Jentry (Ali Wong) realizes the power of being truthful about herself. Meanwhile, Ed (Bowen Yang) learns to accept that he may never instill the fear he wishes to, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be famous.

We open with a flashback to 30 years earlier when a young boy visits the Alamo to commune with the spirits. His name is Billy (Matthew Lamb), and he really likes to talk about the Alamo and feels oppressed by those who tell him to stop. He pulls out an Ouija board, but nothing happens. As he walks away, the eyes of the Alamo statues glow, and his backpack suddenly flies into the air. He is briefly possessed by a spirit and writes “WE WILL TEACH THEM RESPECT” on a pad of paper.

Kit, Michael, and Stella huddle together, surrounded by ghosts. Jentry Chau vs. The Underworld 104 — Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld, “Forget the Alamo”

In the present day, Jentry FaceTimes Tokki (Michaela Dietz) in Korea to run some outfits by her before the school field trip to the Alamo. Michael (AJ Beckles) and Kit (Woosung) have been avoiding her since she burned Mimi’s. She tells Tokki that she felt normal when she was with Tokki, Min Jae and Rupert. Tokki reassures her that she’s way more than her powers and encourages her to find her people and forget Michael and Kit.

In the kitchen, Jentry discourages Gugu (Lori Tan Chinn) from packing a feast of food for the field trip. Ed tries to scare them, but no one blinks. He wants to make a scary viral video to become famous. A loud sound on the radio freaks Gugu out. Jentry shuts the radio off, and Gugu relaxes.

Jentry offers to stay home and help research ways to close the portal. Gugu insists she goes on her field trip. After Jentry leaves, Gugu looks at the shèn pearl she has in her hand.

Tough Times on the Bus

Jentry boards the school bus for the field trip, and everyone glares as she walks to a seat. She tries to say hi to Michael, but Stella’s (Cristina Milizia) angry that the smoke inhalation from the fire nearly ended his football career. Kit sits next to her because it’s the only seat left. He shows her the scar from where she burned him. She tries to offer some of Gugu’s homemade Chinese food but discovers she packed the durian instead. The whole bus smells it. Kit leaves to find another seat.

Ed appears and digs into the durian. He jokes that he came to learn from the kid everyone’s afraid of but softens it to saying he thought she’d need a buddy on the trip.

At the portal, Gugu throws the shèn in, and Mr. Cheng (Greg Chun) appears behind her, holding it, asking why she doesn’t want to keep it. She warns him that he cannot break Jentry’s faith in her. He attacks with a sword she brought from the study, but she turns it back on him. When he points out that she’s keeping the truth about her parents from Jentry, she retorts that keeping things from her doesn’t mean her trust is misplaced.

They battle a while longer, but neither can gain the upper hand. When the smoke clears, Mr. Cheng vows to let Jentry know the truth about her powers soon. He reminds Gugu what she’d choose given a choice between Jentry and her powers. He dissolves into smoke.

The Alamo

Billy Bowie (Matt Rogers), the grown-up boy from the flashback, greets the students as they arrive. He gets incensed when they don’t pay attention immediately. The students point out that the Americans who died at the Alamo had problematic reasons for fighting, but Billy doesn’t want to hear it. He accuses them of bullying him. He promises they’ll learn when they re-enact the battle.

Ed’s eager to start scaring people. Jentry tells him that she wants to make friends with the other students. When Mr. Wheeler (Sean Allan Krill) walks by, videoing her and making threatening gestures, she gives Ed permission to scare him. Ed cackles delightedly.

In the museum exhibits, Chet (Jonathan Melo) grabs a ring from one of the displays. When Kevin (Bowen Yang) tells him he can’t touch the stuff, he scoffs and walks away. Suddenly, he’s possessed by the spirit of William Barrett Travis (AJ Beckles). Other students become possessed as well. Kevin’s scared. Billy returns and explains the re-enactment has to be realistic.

On the bus, Wheeler sets up a live feed of him singing along to his ukelele about how the students don’t respect him. Ed tries to sneak up on him but trips and spills rice all over the floor. He begins counting it compulsively, and Wheeler thinks it’s so cute he records him to Ed’s ire.

Her Real Self

Outside the museum, Jentry texts Tokki that she’s about to take her advice and make new friends. Tokki’s encouraging. Jentry walks in to find her class possessed by Alamo spirits. Kit, Michael, and Stella are surrounded. Jentry pulls them away, but Stella gets caught and possessed.

The three run into the main fort, where they barricade the doors. Outside, Billy directs the possessed teens to besiege the three. Inside, Ed shows up and complains that Wheeler’s images of him have gone cute-viral, and he can’t scare anyone. Jentry explains they need to deal with that later because the other students are possessed.

Kit and Michael realize they have Jentry and try to convince her to use her powers to fight off the possessed students. She refuses, explaining she’s tired of being the freak. One of the possessed students cracks through the barricade. Ed pushes them back out and decides to distract them with fear. He shapeshifts into his scariest incarnation, but it doesn’t get their attention. Giving up on the scary thing, he shifts gears and starts rapping. It makes the teens laugh. Billy’s irate that things aren’t going to plan.

A Big Bang

Jentry sees a cannon outside the fort. Remembering Gugu’s reaction to the loud noise on the radio, she forms a plan. Michael gets a cannonball and loads the cannon. Jentry figures out the mechanics and tells Michael and Kit to keep the others away until she can fire the cannon. Michael does his best but gets possessed eventually.

Just as Jentry’s about to fire the cannon, Billy grabs a knife and holds it to Kit’s throat. Jentry tries to talk him down, pointing out that his obsession with the Alamo is creepy and his re-enactment isn’t very authentic. He insists that it’s accurate. She asks the ghosts if they remember what happened 200 years ago or if they’re just doing what Billy tells them to do. The ghosts admit their memories aren’t too clear on how they died. Billy says his script is a better story because it’s about how they win even though they’re weaker. Jentry tells him the truth is always the better story, even though she understands why he’d want to hide the bad stuff.

As he rambles on about how he’s always getting bullied, Kit makes eye contact with Jentry and breaks away from Billy. He holds the cannon up, and Jentry lights the fuse. The cannon’s blast knocks the ghosts out of the teens. Billy’s enraged. Just then, Wheeler bursts out of the bus, accusing Jentry of firing the cannonball that is now on top of the bus. The other students tell him it wasn’t Jentry. Exasperated, Wheeler tells them to get on the bus to go back to school.

Ghosts Begone!

Before Jentry can leave, Billy grabs her and tells her that she can’t stop him and his ghosts from possessing the next school tour that comes to the Alamo. Suddenly, Zhongkui (Sheng Wang), a Daoist deity known as a vanquisher of ghosts, rises out of the ground and informs him the ghosts have broken the rules. He reduces the ghosts into drops of dark liquid and opens a portal to leave, thanking Jentry for bringing this to his attention. Billy calls out to his ghost friends, who are now gone.

On the bus back to school, Jentry tries to console Ed about being seen as cute. He’s okay, though, because he’s picked up half a million followers on TikTok. Kit asks if he and Ed can swap seats. Kit thanks her for saving his life. He apologizes for avoiding her and gives her his phone number if she ever needs to talk.

At home, Gugu’s holding a photo of Jentry as a baby, surrounded by her parents and a much younger Gugu. She’s facing a floating mirror. She says, “It has to be perfect. Understand?” and feeds the photo into the mirror. Just before Jentry steps into the kitchen, Gugu hides the mirror in a cupboard.

As Gugu prepares to make dinner, Jentry texts Kit. In Kit’s bathroom, his phone buzzes. He’s in the shower, but his skin is hanging on the towel bar. He steps out, his form black and inhuman. Taking the skin, he puts it on and picks up his phone. Reading the text, he chuckles and responds.

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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