The Continental: From the World of John Wick season 1 episode 1 recap & review: Brothers in Arms

Open Go TV / September 27, 2023 / Reviews

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In the first episode of The Continental: From the World of John Wick, Winston Scott gets involved in a deadly scheme when his brother steals a precious artifact from The Continental. The episode is now streaming on Prime Video and Peacock.

Recap

In New York, in 1955, two children, Frankie and Winston, are held by the police. Frankie is Winston’s older brother, and he assures him that he is going to take the blame for the crime that got them arrested.

Years later, Frankie works at a hotel called The Continental. He betrays his boss, Cormac, the hotel manager, and steals a valuable artifact from a vault. Cormac’s armed guards try to shoot him down, but Frankie manages to escape with the help of his wife, Yen.

On the other hand, Winston is a successful businessman in London. He uses artful trucks to get people to invest in his business. When Frankie steals the artifact, Cormac sends his men to kidnap Winston and bring him to New York.

Cormac is desperate to get the artifact back, as there are people who will hold him accountable, and Cormac is scared of them. The artifact that Frankie stole is an ancient coin press, and it is important to their organization.

Cormac asks Winston to find Frankie, but Winston tells him that he has not spoken to his brother in years. Winston does not know where his brother is, and he does not care to find him. Cormac lets Winston go but asks his men to follow him.

Meanwhile, Detective Di Silva, also known as KD, the first female detective in her precinct, develops an interest in The Continental. She tries going inside the hotel, but her superior stops her. Later, she goes back to the hotel anyway and realizes that it is a strange place, as every member of the staff is armed.

KD is sleeping with Mayhew, the superior who stopped her from going inside the hotel. Mayhew had not given her an explanation earlier, but later, he leaves Frankie’s file at her place with an apology note.

Winston goes to meet Charlie, the man who was supposed to look after him and his brother when they were children, and tells him about Frankie stealing the artifact. Frankie went to prison after he took the fall for Winston and then fought in the Vietnam War.

After returning home from the war, Frankie went to work for Cormac, the man who ruined his family’s lives. Winston and Frankie’s father was a businessman. He took a loan from Cormac and lost his home. Winston and Frankie then lost their parents as well. Soon after, Frankie went to prison and cut all contact with Winston.

After talking to Charlie, Winston decides to find Frankie before Cormac finds him because Frankie is the only family he has. Charlie tells Winston that he might find Frankie at a dojo called Burton Karate and lends him his car.

At Burton Karate, Winston meets Lou, Miles, and Lemmy. Lou and Miles are siblings, and their father, who is no more, owned the dojo. Miles also fought in Vietnam, and after the war ended, he started running guns, much to Lou’s disapproval.

Miles and Lemmy tell Winston that Frankie was involved in gun-running with Miles. One day, out of nowhere, he disappeared and did not pick up a shipment, which led to Lemmy getting shot and Miles incurring losses. They later found out that Frankie had started working for Cormac.

Winston’s next destination is going to be an abandoned theater that the brothers used to frequent when they were young, as Miles and Lemmy tell him that Frankie used to go to Alphabet City. Before leaving, Miles gives Winston a gun, just like Charlie had done.

A woman gets her crony to torture the man who stole the coin press with Frankie and then betrayed him. She reveals that the coin press can topple a powerful organization that predates the Roman Empire. She believes that losing the coin press might bring Cormac’s reign to an end.

Winston finds Frankie, who is hiding with Yen. They have made the theater their home, thinking that no one will find them there. Frankie tells Winston that Cormac is part of a criminal world that expands beyond the hotel and the city.

Frankie and Yen stole the coin press for a group called the Nile. The group promised them a way out. They were going to pay the couple enough to start their lives afresh. Cormac’s men, who have been following Winston, find Frankie and Yen, but they manage to escape with Winston, who promises to help them get to a safe place.

Cormac sends his strange guests Hansel and Gretel, who are twins, to capture Frankie. On the other hand, Winston takes Frankie and Yen to Charlie’s place, which bothers Yen because she does not trust Winston and thinks that they were safe before he arrived.

Frankie and Winston finally talk to each other like brothers after 20 years. It turns out that Frankie cut all ties with Winston after going to prison because he wanted his brother to live a better life and not get involved in his life of crime.

Just when the brothers and Yen are going to leave New York in a chopper with the help of Charlie and his friends, one of Charlie’s friends betrays them. He informs Cormac of their whereabouts, and the brothers are attacked.

Frankie, Winston, and Yen manage to kill the men who attacked them and make it to the chopper. However, Hansel and Gretel find them and shoot the piolet and Yen. The twins continue firing at them, and Frankie decides to sacrifice his life for Winston and Yen.

He jumps out of the chopper with the box that contains the coin press. Winston and Yen watch Frankie get killed as they leave. Winston then takes an injured Yen to Lou and Miles and asks them for guns. On the other hand, Cormac opens the box and finds out that Frankie fooled them because the coin press is not in it.

Review

The Continental delivers an action-packed first episode. The thrilling action sequences hold the audience’s attention to the very end.
The episode introduces the Scott siblings and reveals their past gradually. It sets the right pace, which prevents it from becoming too overwhelming or underwhelming.
Apart from the Scott siblings, there are characters, like Lou, Miles, Hansel, and Gretel, that are pretty interesting. It seems like they will make the plot engaging in future episodes.
The ending of this episode was quite unexpected. The whole episode hinted at the brothers working together, only to end with Frankie’s sacrifice.