JENTRY CHAU VS. THE UNDERWORLD Episode 8 Recap

Oh, the hardest hits are the ones we don’t see coming. In Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld Season 1 Episode 8, “Fifteen Finger Discount,” Jentry (Ali Wong) must re-evaluate her entire life after learning that her beloved Gugu (Lori Tan Chinn) has been lying to her for her entire life about everything.

Still seeing the shèn pearl vision, Jentry watches her parents try to dissuade Gugu from leaving the Yellow Robes’ powers in baby Jentry. Gugu’s reasoning is that the contract with Cheng (Greg Chun) was for the robes. By removing the powers, they can still deliver the robes without giving Cheng such dangerous magical abilities.

Jentry stands in the background watching a vision of the past where a young Gugu holds her baby self. Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld 108 — Credit: Courtesy of Netflix

Jentry Chau vs. the Underworld, “Fifteen Finger Discount”

When Cheng meets them, he concedes that Gugu was correct that he would never kill a child in front of her parents, having known the pain of losing a daughter himself. Instead, he kills Peng (Jimmy O. Yang). Before he can kill Moonie (Lucy Liu), Gugu offers to help him bring his daughter back. She tells him she just needs time to find a way. As collateral, he takes Moonie’s memories for a string of shèn pearls.

Jentry finds watching this unbearable. Her powers activate, and she rises into the air. Furious that Gugu is the cause of all her pain and trauma, she centers all her anger on her. Ed (Bowen Yang), filming her still, checks in to see if she’s okay when she comes back down.

Jentry storms home and begins packing a bag. Ed advises they wait until Gugu returns. Jentry ignores him and leaves the house, checking for flights to Seoul on her phone. Outside the house, she literally runs into Michael (AJ Beckles). He sees that she’s upset and offers to talk. He tries to reassure her that her powers are a part of her, and he thinks she’s great. This triggers her, and she storms off.

Ed tells her she was harsh to Michael and she retorts that he has no way of understanding what it’s like being caught between Gugu and Cheng. Just then, Kit (Woosung) texts her. She changes direction, realizing that Kit might have an idea of what she’s going through.

Making Alliances

Inside his house, in his demon form, Kit designs a new skin suit. Jentry knocks, and he puts on his Kit skin suit to answer the door. He invites them in and begins apologizing. Jentry tells him she’s there to talk about something else. Leaving Ed downstairs, they go upstairs. Jentry asks Kit why he no longer works for Cheng. He reminds her of their conversation during the dissection lab and explains she made him believe he could choose who he wants to be.

Jentry tells him she wants to choose her life as well but that Gugu and Cheng won’t let either of them make a life for themselves as long as they can use them. She asks him to help her get rid of her powers. If the powers can be put back into the Yellow Emperor’s robes, Gugu and Cheng won’t need her for anything anymore. She has a plan but needs Kit to make her something to make it work. She hands him a measuring tape.

Using Jentry as a model, he creates a skin suit of her. While he works, he comments on how strange it is to do this with someone else. Jentry reiterates what she said in class. She believes he has a soul and that he’s more human than he knows.

Gugu’s Reckoning

At her house, Gugu asks the house ghosts if they’ve seen Jentry. Wallabee (Greg Chun) says she seemed ticked off when she left. Gugu looks around Jentry’s room and finds the empty ghost essence censor.

Outside, Jentry and Kit, wearing a Jentry skin suit, prepare to enter the house. Jentry gives him a charm so he’s able to pass the demon wards Gugu’s put on the house. Kit comes in and runs into Gugu. As Jentry, he asks Gugu to teach him how to make dumplings. After some initial suspicion, Gugu agrees. While she and Kit are in the kitchen, the real Jentry and Ed run upstairs to the study.

While they search for the robes upstairs, Gugu begins to question Kit-as-Jentry about returning to the Bixi in the kitchen. With Jentry listening in through the shared AirPods, Kit asks about Iris (Crystal J. Huang) and why she’s in ghost prison. Gugu doesn’t know.

There’s a knock at the door, and Kit-as-Jentry opens it to find Michael there, dressed in a tuxedo. He’s there to ask Jentry to the homecoming dance. Kit decides to turn him down on Jentry’s behalf.

The Moon Represents My Heart

Jentry’s outraged at Kit. Gugu’s not that impressed either. At that moment, Ed finds a musically locked armoire. Jentry realizes the key is to play Teresa Teng’s “The Moon Represents My Heart” on the guzheng. She tries, but every wrong note triggers a booby trap. Over the AirPods, she tells Kit to put the record on and turn up the volume. Once she plays it entirely, the armoire opens, revealing the robes and the glass transference cups.

Gugu notices the token Jentry gave Kit to get past the demon wards on the house. She attacks him until she realizes that Jentry’s transferring her powers back to the robes upstairs. Gugu rushes up and uses her telekinesis to take the cups away from Jentry before the powers can be transferred to the robes.

Jentry confronts her with the knowledge that she only has powers because of Gugu. She accuses Gugu of taking everything from her to protect the powers while it costs her nothing. Gugu tells her that when she first acquired the robes, she tried to wield the powers herself, and it killed Iris.

Consequences

Jentry gets the cups back and completes the transfer. After, she can no longer see Gugu. Knowing Gugu’s still there and can hear her, she tells her she’s glad she can’t see her anymore and hopes to never see her again. Jentry leaves the house. Gugu and Ed follow her out, leaving Kit-as-Jentry alone in the study with the newly-powered robes.

Gugu possesses people on the street in order to talk to Jentry. Jentry tells her to leave her alone and that she’s cruel, arrogant, and manipulative. In the body she’s possessing, Gugu slaps Jentry. She immediately apologizes, but Jentry runs away. Before she can follow, Gugu is ripped out of the body. Zhongkui (Sheng Wang) looks disappointedly at her and lists the many transgressions she’s committed. She begs to be given some time, but he tells her there are consequences for her actions, and they both step through the portal to the Zhong and disappear.

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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