Kung Fu: Eddie Liu on That Tragic Turn in “Alliance” and What’s Next

Each episode this season on Kung Fu has seen the stakes get a little higher, but this week’s episode, “Alliance”, may have had the highest stakes The CW series has seen yet with Russell Tan finally having all of the pieces he needed to put his devastating master plan in motion. For Nicky Shen (Olivia Liang) and her allies, that meant an all-hands-on deck situation and that lead to some surprising team ups — including for Henry. Now, Eddie Liu tells ComicBook.com about Henry’s effort to stop Russell Tan this week and warns that fans aren’t ready for what comes next.

Warning: spoilers for this week’s episode, “Alliance” below.

In “Alliance”, the whole group prepares for the worst and the possibility that Russell Tan will ring the bell and set off a devastating earthquake even as they scramble to stop him. For Henry’s part, he ends up teaming up with his father, who manages to get a device that can effectively dissipate the soundwaves of the bell and, thus, prevent it from working as Tan plans. The team up and the device both work, but unfortunately, Tan realizes what they’re doing and has his henchmen attack. Last we see of Henry and his father, the device is destroyed, and his father has been shot. It’s a traumatic turn.

“I think Henry has had this narrative in his head for so long that his dad is not somebody you can trust. Even before he thought his dad was an actual villain, I think he was never open to even talking to his dad, let alone working with him,” Liu said. “But. now, I think that having seen his father’s true colors, which is that he is an honorable man, and he is truly about serving the greater good, I think there’s a small part of Henry that is like, ‘I hope that we can do this. Let’s do this again sometime.’”

He continued, “I think that when Henry said goodbye to his dad at the end of episode seven, after he politely turns down his father’s invitation to join him Ireland, I think Henry’s even shocked at how much he felt like he needed to reconnect with his dad in that way. The fact that he reached out to his dad at this point of the mission, when the stakes are at the absolute highest they could be going into episode 12, I think there’s a small part of Henry that is onboard. Even though he’s so used to saying, ‘I don’t want to work with my dad, or I don’t want nothing to do with him.’ there’s a part of him that’s excited to do it.”

“Doesn’t go so well,” Liu added. “And it’s a traumatic turn to say the least.”

To be fair, the whole episode takes a “traumatic turn”. Tan’s real motivation is revealed — he needed one of his children to participate in his plan so that he could effectively steal their body using some ancient ritual and Mia’s blood and with Juliet dead, it was curtains for poor Kerwin, Mia isn’t in especially good shape after being drained of blood, and a newly youthful Tan successfully rings the bell, opening the door for him to become immortal. And according to Liu, viewers need to strap in and hold on because they’re not ready.

“Just accept that you’re not ready,” he said. “When you strap into the roller coaster, it’s going up the bend, and you just take a deep breath if you want or not. Either way, you’re going to feel your stomach go up a bit.”

“We weren’t really ready either,” Liu said, in terms of the cast. “There are some beautiful moments that, having read it, and even though we read it and worked on it, we’re there on set, and then, you see it on the screen, there’s some really great moments that we’re excited to share.”

Kung Fu airs Wednesdays at 9/8c on The CW.