Plot Synopsis

Based on the writings of martial arts legend Bruce Lee, WARRIOR is a one-hour drama series set during the brutal Tong Wars of San Francisco's Chinatown in the second half of the 19th century. The series follows Ah Sahm, a martial arts prodigy who emigrates from China to San Francisco under mysterious circumstances. After proving his worth as a fighter, Ah Sahm becomes a hatchet man for the Hope Wei, one of Chinatown's most powerful tongs (Chinese organized crime family). Befriended by Wang Chao, a fixer and profiteer in Chinatown, Ah Sahm is taken under the wing of Young Jun, the hard-partying son of the Hop Wei's leader, Father Jun, who is facing an imminent opium war with a rival tong. As he is indoctrinated in the rules of Chinatown gangs, Ah Sahm wins the confidence of a canny brothel madam, Ah Toy, revealing to her the true intentions of his journey to America. Over the course of the season, Ah Sahm crosses boundaries inside and outside Chinatown, bringing him into contact with tong rivals Mai Ling, a beautiful and ruthless Chinese woman who has achieved a position of power in one of the tongs, and Li Yong, a tong lieutenant and Gung Fu master. As violence erupts, Sergeant "Big Bill" O'Hara and Richard Henry Lee, a transplanted southerner and rookie cop, are tasked with forming a Chinatown squad. Meanwhile, working-class leader and tough Irishman Dylan Leary is fighting for all Irish laborers by trying to inflict as much damage as possible on the Chinese immigrants he says are stealing their jobs. Amidst the strife, power-hungry San Francisco Mayor Samuel Blake and Deputy Mayor Walter Buckley, who has his own political aspirations, engage in widespread corruption, while the mayor's young wife, Penny, finds herself trapped in a loveless marriage.

The story opens in 1878 in San Francisco, where Ah Sahm, a newly arrived Chinese immigrant with serious fighting skills, is introduced to Chinatown's most ruthless tong, the Hop Wei, by Chao, a fixer. After impressing Young Jun, son of tong leader Father Jun, Ah Sahm is branded and taken to a brothel, where he befriends Ah Toy, a courtesan with connections. Later, in search of a woman who left China two years earlier, Ah Sahm crosses paths with Mai Ling and Li Yong, followers of the rival tong leader Long Zii, who is trying to avoid an opium war with the Hop We - a war that Walter Buckley, deputy to San Francisco Mayor Samuel Blake, actively promotes. Meanwhile, after two Chinese laborers are killed by white thugs, police sergeant "Big Bill" O'Hara is tasked with creating a Chinatown squad. Enlisting southern-born cop Richard Henry Lee, Bill soon finds that the hostility between the Chinese and white dock workers, whose unofficial leader is Irish tough Dylan Leary, is unlikely to end anytime soon.

The 10-episode second season of WARRIOR premiered on Friday, October 2, 2020 at 10pm ET/PT on Cinemax. Season 2 hinatown tongs, the Hop Wei and the Long Zii, as they fight for dominance amidst the growing anti-Chinese racism that threatens to destroy them all. After barely surviving last season's disastrous showdown, Ah Sahm is back with the Hop Wei and determined to wreak vengeance on Long Zii's new leader, Mai Ling, who also happens to be his sister. Spending his nights honing his martial arts skills at a notorious Barbary Coast fight pit run by a savvy, opportunistic woman named Rosalita Vega, Ah Sahm harbors ambitions to topple Hop Wei head Father Jun. To accomplish this, he pushes tong heir Young Jun into a new opium deal and welcomes the arrival of an enthusiastic new recruit and fighter, Hong. As the two tongs fight for dominance over the course of the season, both face numerous outside threats, including from the brutal Fung Hai tong and its nihilistic leader Zing, the embittered Irish labor movement led by tough-as-nails bar owner Dylan Leary, and the hostile local government under the politically spineless Mayor Blake and his scheming deputy, Walter Buckley. With the stakes mounting and tensions with her brother growing, Mai Ling struggles to control her new-partner Zing, and lover and tong lieutenant, Li Yong. Meanwhile, brothel madame Ah Toy continues to pursue her secret and violent agenda and slowly becomes intrigued by Nellie Davenport, a wealthy widow using her fortune to rescue young Chinese sex workers. Struggling to get out from the Fung Hai's grip, debt-ridden police sergeant Bill O'Hara faces growing suspicion from his subordinate while fixer and profiteer Wang Chao continues to play both sides. Socialite-turned-businesswoman Penny Blake works to keep her father's factory open using Chinese labor and must adjust to the arrival of her young, rebellious sister Sophie who begins to cross family lines in favor of the Irish labor movement. Between the local political turmoil and the escalating gang violence, tensions in Chinatown threaten to boil over into a full-scale war that will raise the stakes and its survival of the fittest for those left standing.
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Moving to Max streaming service for its new season, Season 3 of WARRIOR debuted with three episodes on Thursday, June 29, 2023. In the wake of the race riots that upended Chinatown in Season 2, Mai Ling uses her government connections to consolidate power, while Ah Sahm and the Hop Wei must find new ways to survive.