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Deadly Deflections - Sleeping Dogs - Part 2 · Replay Reviews

• 0:00
  In this episode, we wonder if the Golden Koi could possibly pass a health inspection,
• 0:05
  and somebody steals Wei's flower pot?
• 0:09
  But I think he's got bigger things to worry about.
• 0:15
  Thank you for coming back from our replay reviews. My name is Leah.
• 0:18
  And my name is Cathy.
• 0:19
  We are two friends who are here to replay, review, and analyze your favorite video games.
• 0:24
  And since Cathy has never seen the games before, it helps me view them through her fresh eyes,
• 0:28
  almost like I'm discovering them again for the first time.
• 0:31
  We hope it'll be a similar experience for you.
• 0:39
  So it starts out kind of intense in this part, episode.
• 0:44
  Wei is called to the restaurant the Golden Koi, wherein interrogation is waiting for him.
• 0:50
  They suspect that he's a rat after Popstar was arrested.
• 0:53
  But Wei manages to pass the blame to this guy Ming, who is then murdered instead.
• 1:00
  On one hand, they're probably all criminals, so I don't feel bad.
• 1:04
  I mean, they got into this mess. They kind of knew that death was always on the line.
• 1:09
  But on the other hand, if I was that guy, I would be really mad because I'm thrown under the bus
• 1:14
  for something I didn't do. Like, if I were to die, it better be for a crime I actually did.
• 1:19
  But I'm also wondering how much is Wei going to feel bad once he's done with everything?
• 1:24
  And we'll get to see more about that.
• 1:28
  Yeah, this is like the first...
• 1:29
  Not guilt.
• 1:30
  He has to survive. Otherwise it's over.
• 1:34
  Survivor mode.
• 1:35
  Honestly, Conroy is pretty smart. He's the one that pieced this together.
• 1:39
  Like, oh, Wei shows up now Popstar is arrested. He's actually pretty smart.
• 1:44
  He's actually pretty smart. Unfortunately, Winston's hatred of dogeyes is just too intense,
• 1:50
  and Wei plays on that, which is ultimately what leads to Ming getting shot in the face.
• 1:56
  Also, in this scene when Wei is sort of pleading with them and deflecting it to Ming,
• 2:00
  I don't know if you picked up on the way they were all looking around at each other,
• 2:05
  and clearly not sure what to think, who to trust.
• 2:09
  That just really highlights the current dysfunction.
• 2:12
  I think the distrust runs a lot deeper than we initially suspected or realized.
• 2:19
  And a quick sneak preview is down the line. We'll understand that hierarchy is very important.
• 2:25
  Yet this situation right now, it's not very clear.
• 2:28
  Unlike Yakuza, where it's pretty clear by families, it's getting pretty messy at this level.
• 2:34
  Wei goes to sleep, I guess. And then the next morning, he wakes up at his apartment.
• 2:39
  I was gonna say, he wakes up to all the stress of what happened. It's like a flashback.
• 2:46
  And we also, is this the first time we get to see the picture at his nightstand,
• 2:51
  where it's just his mom and his sister with him?
• 2:55
  Maybe. But it definitely is highlighted.
• 2:57
  And what's missing is his dad. So I'm wondering what happened to his dad.
• 3:01
  Maybe his dad died because of the triads, and that's why he's willing to do this type of work,
• 3:08
  this undercover work.
• 3:10
  It's a good question, because last episode, we were wondering if what Raymond was referencing as
• 3:15
  the triads' history with his family, if that was just his sister, or if there's more to it.
• 3:21
  After waking up from this tortured sleep, he heads out to do another job for Tang.
• 3:26
  But as he leaves his apartment, there's two NPC ladies having a chat. And one of them says,
• 3:32
  Why would I steal a flower pot?
• 3:36
  And it took me until this rewatch to hear that.
• 3:40
  And I have so many questions. I feel like this needs to be a side, a sub story.
• 3:45
  Why would these ladies know? I can't imagine Wei talking to these people about,
• 3:50
  hey, did you see my flower pot? Or Wei even caring?
• 3:54
  It's such a detail. Like, talk about detail. What a detail to have in this game.
• 4:00
  Anyway, not really much else to summarize in this scene. Just Wei and Tang start putting a plan
• 4:06
  together to take down a murderous street racer. And that was pretty much all I had for scene one.
• 4:13
  Did you have anything else about that?
• 4:16
  No, but I just thought it was kind of comical. His super, super quick encounter with Tang was like,
• 4:22
  Yep, yep, okay, done. And that was it.
• 4:24
  Yeah, all business.
• 4:26
  And here, I thought there was going to be some kind of romantic plot that's going to go
• 4:30
  on with this game. And this is their type of encounter.
• 4:35
  So Raymond asks Wei to bug the golden koi. And after he picks up the bug gear, it gets swiped.
• 4:43
  And my first question is why and who? Who stole this? And is it anyone with any connection?
• 4:49
  Or is it just some random guy that waits for someone to walk out of the tech shop?
• 4:54
  It seems pointless.
• 4:55
  Maybe it's a filler kind of thing just to kind of get you used to some controls or the story.
• 5:01
  I don't know.
• 5:02
  Yeah, I question it. Although during the chase at eight minutes, 50 seconds, the guy just shoves
• 5:10
  this poor lady over the bridge. He had plenty of room to get by. But no, over she goes.
• 5:17
  After getting the bug back, Wei proceeds to place it at the golden koi. And as he's doing so,
• 5:23
  we hear Conroy and Winston talking. And it seems that Conroy still doesn't quite trust Wei,
• 5:29
  but Winston's not so worried.
• 5:32
  I feel like Winston's going to get himself killed at this point with how much trust he's putting in
• 5:37
  Wei. I'm also wondering what their history is. Like, how many times has he been right about this
• 5:44
  and how many times has Winston's going to be right about trusting versus not trusting certain people?
• 5:49
  Because we established it is pretty messy. And trust is a messy kind of relationship. So
• 5:55
  is that going to cause some kind of civil war?
• 5:58
  Yeah, I think the police just picked the perfect time to try to get back in.
• 6:02
  Because if Winston wasn't so preoccupied with dog eyes, I think he would maybe listen to Conroy
• 6:08
  a bit more. All right, moving right along to scene three. So Tiffany, the lady from the karaoke,
• 6:16
  calls Wei to ask for help and he arrives at the club where she tells him that one of dog eyes goons,
• 6:21
  Charlie Pang, pawned a gun off on her. So he takes it for her and Wei calls Raymond,
• 6:29
  who tells him to meet him at this location. But when he gets there, there's no Raymond,
• 6:34
  but there is Pendrew. And then Pendrew uses the gun to stage an existing crime scene,
• 6:39
  but like making it look better, I guess, so they can pin this all on Charlie Pang.
• 6:44
  I have a lot of questions. First of all, how did Pendrew knew to be there, but Raymond not
• 6:52
  being there? Is Raymond telling Pendrew? Is Pendrew eavesdropping on their conversation?
• 6:57
  How did you know how to meet him? But Raymond didn't show up. And what was that excuse? Or
• 7:02
  was Pendrew pretending to be Raymond and saying that, hey, let's meet up there. But it was Pendrew
• 7:06
  all along. The next question I have is, why is Pendrew having Wei so upset?
• 7:14
  Why did Wei stage all this? It's almost, well, I mean, yes, you're right that it already happened.
• 7:18
  So is he like tampering with evidence? And why is Wei just going along and not asking questions?
• 7:26
  You're just trying to protect and bring justice, yet you're pretty much framing someone else.
• 7:32
  And is that really justice? It's iffy going through your questions. My guess is,
• 7:38
  since Pendrew is Raymond's superior, Raymond told Pendrew what was happening. And Pendrew's like,
• 7:43
  you stay back. I'm going to meet him. Although Raymond knew the location. Now that I'm saying this.
• 7:51
  So maybe Pendrew was there at the same time as the call and was like, oh, tell him to go here.
• 7:56
  I don't know. It seems weird that Raymond knew this place, but then Pendrew shows up. So yeah,
• 8:01
  that is questionable. And then it seems like Pendrew is just cutting corners instead of actually
• 8:09
  doing his job. And maybe he's having Wei do it to sort of, number one, keep his own hands clean,
• 8:16
  but also maybe having some leverage over Wei if necessary at some point. But all in all,
• 8:23
  questionable. I hope he becomes suspicious because that's not right. And Wei should know
• 8:29
  better than to tamper with evidence. Back to helping Tang, Wei is tailing Hot Shot,
• 8:36
  the street racer and his friend Naz, who we saw at the intro of the game. At the very beginning,
• 8:41
  he was part of that drug deal that went down. And we soon find out that he's an informant.
• 8:48
  And then we also do hear that he's with the 18K, I think, which is the rival gang. And they're
• 8:55
  talking about killing Wei, I think. This is getting pretty dangerous for him. So in scene four,
• 9:02
  Dog Eyes has attacked Winston's mother's restaurant, the Golden Koi, and to retaliate,
• 9:09
  they hit Dog Eyes' sweatshop. Winston wants to kill the head of the operation, C.O.A., but Wei
• 9:15
  convinces him to take him alive to stay on the chairman's good side. It seems like Wei is still
• 9:21
  being tested and Connery wants him to kill somebody. And we kill plenty of people, so no problem there.
• 9:27
  Wei does capture C.O.A. who tells him that he gets paid by Dog Eyes, but the product goes to
• 9:33
  someone named Big Smile Lee. What kind of name is Big Smile Lee? I'm curious how when they're like,
• 9:41
  oh, we're short again, you got to find your own gun. If that using other people's weapons is going
• 9:46
  to backfire or help him in the future when he might be framed for something like the police,
• 9:51
  when Pendrew turns on him, there's going to be some kind of tie back between the evidence he's
• 9:57
  using that's part of the criminal and himself or making sure that he stays in the clear that he's
• 10:02
  not committing murder. I don't know, just something about that made me feel weird.
• 10:07
  Ruthie Well, and it's funny that they don't give him a gun, but they want him to kill somebody
• 10:12
  as a proof of loyalty, but they're making it hard for him by not giving him a gun. So I feel like
• 10:18
  that's sort of Conroy trying to put Wei in a corner a little bit. So after getting C.O.A. to the
• 10:25
  garage, Conroy says that he was wrong about Wei. And it seems like he's passed off Conroy's test
• 10:31
  now and no one suspects him anymore. But I love how at the end of the scene, Conroy says,
• 10:37
  you showed your true colors, but then it shows the cop car right behind Wei.
• 10:43
  Ruthie Oh, I didn't catch that.
• 10:45
  Conroy Mm hmm.
• 10:46
  Ruthie Oh, that's well done. Well done on them.
• 10:50
  Conroy Right.
• 10:51
  Ruthie Towards the end of that scene, we also see him having another nightmare again. And it's
• 10:59
  talking about just everything that happens and it's really a good indicator that he's starting to
• 11:05
  get PTSD. I don't know if he's always had it or if it's because of this operation. But if he doesn't
• 11:10
  have a coping mechanism, he might accidentally let something slip with the Triad or the other
• 11:18
  way around with the police officer that maybe he did something he shouldn't have let them know.
• 11:22
  And he accidentally tells Pendrew or Raymond and it's going to get him in trouble. So I predict
• 11:28
  that Tang or Raymond is going to help him cope or when something bad happens that they're going
• 11:35
  to be there to have us back. It's definitely a very high stress situation for him. And he can't
• 11:41
  really say anything to anyone or else he risks outing himself and he's already had his life
• 11:48
  threatened at least three times. So yeah, you can understand why he maybe doesn't sleep so well.
• 11:56
  Okay, so back to Winston. He's on the phone with the chairman Uncle Poe. And it sounds like he
• 12:02
  wants to meet Wei. So he and Winston head out. On their way out, Conroy says something to Winston.
• 12:08
  And it seems obvious Winston is even more on edge than normal because he totally bites
• 12:12
  Conroy's head off. I think he knows he probably screwed up somewhere along the line. But he really
• 12:19
  trusts Wei. And it's just before after his speech with Wei that they're talking about their true
• 12:25
  blood. It just foreshadows that at some point Wei is going to betray Winston. It's inevitable
• 12:33
  because one's a police officer, one's a criminal. But it also might trigger Wei feeling guilty that
• 12:42
  you have this guy who is willing to bat for you and you're trying to protect his family if he dies.
• 12:47
  That's what he's asking him. And it's going to haunt Wei. He's going to get way more nightmares
• 12:53
  at the spring. This conversation that they have in the car answers a big question for me because
• 12:59
  I'm always wondering, why does he not listen to Conroy? Why does he take to Wei so much?
• 13:06
  But he basically says that no one else in the gang is really fit to lead. They're more just
• 13:11
  muscle but Wei's got more of the know how. And Winston seems like he's really counting on Wei
• 13:17
  to sort of take over. So I think that answers the question of why he's not really listening to
• 13:24
  Conroy, even though he should be. In this conversation, we also learn that Big Smiley,
• 13:30
  the one that's backing Dog Eyes, he has a lot of power. He deals drugs, prostitution, porn. He even
• 13:37
  sells women across the border. So extensive resume he's got here probably brings a lot of money
• 13:43
  into the gang. But once we get to Uncle Poe, he clearly takes an interest in Wei and gives him
• 13:50
  what he says is a lucrative assignment, helping some guy named Roland Ho collect debts.
• 13:57
  Well, Uncle Poe definitely knows more than whatever he's leading on. One way is like trying to give
• 14:02
  the credit back to Winston just to protect him. There's no way Uncle Poe believes Wei. He's just
• 14:08
  going to let it slide. So I feel like the chairman at some point is going to pick Wei over Winston
• 14:13
  and therefore cause that rift in their brotherhood. Or the chairman is just going to kill off Winston
• 14:21
  and then give Wei his place. You can definitely tell he's smart. And he knows what's going on.
• 14:28
  It seems like thankfully, Winston only really got a slap on the wrist. But it sounds like he had more
• 14:35
  things assigned to him to keep him busy. So because of all these new assignments, Winston
• 14:42
  is too busy to do his wedding stuff and asks Wei to help out with that. Before we get there though,
• 14:49
  Wei helps Roland. And this is when Roland says, the quote that you mentioned earlier,
• 14:56
  hierarchy is the only thing anyone cares about.
• 14:58
  Nicole The hierarchy right now is probably Uncle Poe is high up there. How is Uncle Poe getting all
• 15:05
  this information? Like how does that all flow upwards? And are people always hungry to step
• 15:11
  in? Is it that Winston has his position at a very shaky situation and Wei could easily either replace
• 15:19
  or take his place and then cause some more civil war? It's just the information, the way it flows up.
• 15:26
  Nicole I feel like Wei's gonna somehow jump high up.
• 15:31
  Nicole Yeah, keeping Siwa alive. I think Uncle Poe for sure, like you hinted, knows that was Wei's
• 15:37
  idea. Which if they hadn't, I think there would have been issues. So I think Uncle Poe has reason
• 15:45
  to sort of skip over Winston. So helping Roland, we're trying to collect a debt from this woman
• 15:52
  and we hijack her car with her in it. She yells, I'm sorry and jumps out of the car.
• 16:01
  There's no way she's okay.
• 16:03
  Siwa We have to clarify how we get to this woman is that I had a replay because I thought you got
• 16:09
  into a car accident and you just flew out of the car and somehow you clung onto the yellow car.
• 16:14
  But no, it's pretty intentional. But still, it's like, my goodness, you could just like pull and
• 16:20
  stop and say you fly out of the car and you dangle off the top of the car. I would be freaked out if
• 16:26
  I was her. Nicole But I love that Wei says, I wasn't gonna do anything that bad after she jumps out of
• 16:32
  the car. Like, I don't know if she survived that, to be honest. I was not going slow.
• 16:40
  Raymond asks Wei to meet him and he's pissed about the massacre and says that Wei should have turned
• 16:46
  Siwa over to them, at least. Wei's quote in response is that would have put the entire operation
• 16:52
  at risk. The headbutting has gotten to a new level in this meeting.
• 16:57
  Nicole It seems that Raymond's focusing his energy on the wrong spot. Raymond should be
• 17:01
  questioning why Wei did all of Pendrew's dirty work. And instead, he's not talking about that.
• 17:07
  He's talking about other things. And I can't tell if Raymond's just trying to protect Wei or if
• 17:11
  he's trying to continue to take credit. Nicole Yeah, Wei's quote is like, we're supposed to
• 17:16
  be doing whatever it takes. But then Raymond says you crossed the line. So I think maybe that's the
• 17:22
  balance that Raymond is trying to keep is how do you weigh doing whatever it takes versus crossing
• 17:28
  the line. And I think that's where the two of them are really butting heads and not understanding
• 17:33
  each other. And then we have Pendrew in the background pulling strings and not helping the
• 17:39
  situation at all. Nicole I want to know Raymond's backstory. I'm wondering if he was in the same
• 17:45
  position where he was an undercover cop. And that's what happened to him is that he did whatever it
• 17:51
  took. And it probably came at the price of his loved one or something like that. And that's why
• 17:57
  he's not willing to have Wei follow his footsteps where he crosses the line just to think that is
• 18:04
  for the greater good when it's not. There are case files that we can read. I don't know if there's
• 18:09
  any about Raymond, but I'll look maybe that's something that we can look at in the summary
• 18:14
  episode. But I agree, I want to know more about Raymond. And speaking of Raymond, he threatens
• 18:20
  to shut down the whole undercover operation and says you are dangerous. Do you think he's right?
• 18:27
  Nicole I think so. I don't know. I feel like any person in his position would do the same thing so
• 18:36
  they would all be dangerous. So it's not really about Wei at this point. I feel like it's about
• 18:42
  his position of being an undercover cop. Nicole Well, and I don't understand why he's mad at
• 18:48
  Wei about the massacre because Dog Eyes attacked first, and then Winston retaliated. And what was
• 18:55
  Wei supposed to do? He managed to keep someone alive. He's not gonna be able to stop Winston
• 19:01
  from attacking them altogether. So what was he supposed to do? Call in the cops? Well, that's
• 19:06
  suspicious. So I guess I don't really understand why Waymond is so upset. But I do think that
• 19:16
  Wei certainly has the potential to be dangerous. Wei did get to meet the chairman. It gives the
• 19:23
  cops a leg up. So maybe Raymond will lighten up a little bit. Nicole I feel like the ending of that
• 19:31
  push and pull where they're constantly using Wei to do things as a weapon, yet they don't want him
• 19:37
  to do. It's that like, I want you to do whatever it takes, but not like that. I want you to do it
• 19:41
  this way. But obviously, our way hasn't worked. Otherwise, we would have had all these people
• 19:45
  arrested. So I feel like Wei is just going to be constantly getting whiplash between directions
• 19:50
  between Pendrew, Tang, Raymond, and whatever, Uncle Po, and Winston. That's just going to be
• 19:59
  an overall theme that he's constantly being told to do this and do that. And they're conflicting
• 20:04
  priorities. We have the triad showing trust in Wei, whereas Raymond isn't. So how is that
• 20:12
  going to help Raymond? It's already getting messy. It's only part two. Your driving has
• 20:18
  gotten a lot better since part one. It depends on the car. And I will say the racing, I feel like
• 20:24
  the controls are somehow better. I really can't figure out the driving controls in this game.
• 20:31
  They don't make sense. I will die on that hill. Let's do Audacity on one, three, two, one.
• 20:40
  Thank you for listening. And don't forget to send in any questions, comments, or game suggestions.
• 20:44
  You can find all our contact info on our website, replayreviewspod.com, or contact us directly
• 20:49
  through our site. Do we completely miss something? Are we way off the mark? Or you just want us to
• 20:54
  take a deeper look at anything from the game? We'll tackle any topics you all want to hear in our
• 20:58
  season wrap up episode. We also have a Reddit where we discuss anything we're curious about.
• 21:03
  Go take a look and let us know what you're thinking. Our theme music is Condemned by
• 21:07
  Eggy Toast. They'll play you out and we'll be back next week.