The Continental: From the World of John Wick is an American crime-action drama miniseries that serves as a spin-off and prequel in the John Wick franchise. It delves into the background story of Winston Scott, who started as a homeless kid and eventually became the manager of the infamous Continental hotel. The miniseries consists of three episodes. Here's a recap of episode 1:
Spoiler Alert!
The Continental series from the world of John Wick begins with a scene from 1955, where two kids, Winston Scott and his elder brother Frankie Scott, are running from the police after Winston commits a crime. Frankie takes the blame so that Winston can leave the swamp and begin a new life.
In the next scene, the story fast-forwards two decades, where Frankie is now a grown man and has joined Cormac, the manager who runs the Continental. Cormac believes Frankie is loyal to him, but in reality, Frankie is trying to escape Cormac's grip. Before leaving, he wants to hurt Cormac by stealing an artifact given to Cormac by the High Table for safekeeping. Frankie breaks into Cormac's Vault, steals the artifact, and escapes with the help of his lady friend. In this sequence, we witness a John Wick-like persona in Frankie because he shares the same hairstyle, wears a similar suit, and possesses similar gun-fighting skills.
In the following scene, we see that Winston has established his empire in London and understands the sacrifices he had to make in the past to get there. Apart from his brother Frankie, he has nobody left. However, he has moved beyond the past dramas of his life and has made something out of the opportunities he has been given. In this scene, Winston proposes his business idea of investing in the parking lots that his company is constructing to an investor named Mr. Davenport. However, the proposition fails to impress Mr. and Mrs. Davenport. Mrs. Davenport is especially against it, and as Mr. Davenport wants to irritate his wife, he decides to invest in Winston's business.
Later, we learn that Mrs. Davenport is having an affair with Winston, and it becomes clear that it was a well-thought-out strategy for Mrs. Davenport to argue against the project to get Mr. Davenport to agree to it. While Winston is speaking with Mrs. Davenport, a group of men suddenly bursts into his flat and abducts him.
In the subsequent scene, Winston is taken to the notorious Continental Hotel, where he witnesses a man jumping from the balcony of the same hotel due to Cormac's threat to his family. This indicates how brutal Cormac is. Meanwhile, we also learn that Cormac is behind all the problems that Winston and his family have faced since his childhood. We are also introduced to the young Charon, who is very loyal to Cormac. In this scene, Cormac tells Winston that his long-lost brother Frankie has stolen a rare object from the Continental Security Vault and wants Winston to reveal Frankie's whereabouts. Winston tells them that he doesn't know where his brother is and has no clue what he has been up to. Cormac lets Winston go but instructs his men to follow him so they can find Frankie through him.
Elsewhere in New York, a lady detective named KD is having an affair with her senior, Detective Mayhew. She seems determined and fearless, with her own agenda.
In the following scene, we are introduced to three arms dealers, Miles, Lou, and Lemmy, who are taken hostage by some thugs. However, they do not take the thugs seriously. The thug becomes frustrated by Lou's remarks and attempts to shoot her but loses his fingers because the ammo is spiked. After that, the trio kills the remaining thugs and warns the leader who lost his fingers not to get in their way. When the thug leaves, he is followed by the lady detective, KD. The thug stops at the Continental. The lady detective tries to follow him, but her senior, Detective Mayhew, stops her and advises her not to interfere in the Continental Hotel's affairs. She claims she is tracking Frankie, the arms dealer, but it appears she has a personal agenda.
We are also introduced to the Adjudicator, whose ruthless mercenary interrogates one of Frankie's partners to learn about the artifact stolen by him. Here, we learn that the stolen artifact is actually the ancient coin press used to produce the coins used in the Continental.
Winston goes to Charlie, the man under whose care his parents left him and Frankie when they were kids, as he doesn't know anybody else in New York whom he can trust. Charlie gives Winston a car and an address where he can find his brother and advises him to be cautious, as people like Cormac are bad news and won't leave him unless they get what they want. Winston goes to that address, which happens to be a dojo where he meets Miles and Lou, friends of Frankie who served with him in the Vietnam War. Here, Winston learns that after returning from Vietnam, these three were involved in gun smuggling, but Frankie had betrayed them and gone his separate way. Then they tell Winston to go to Alphabet City, as they believe he might be hiding there.
Winston reaches Alphabet City and as soon as he enters an empty theater there, a woman approaches him. Before he can respond or react in any way, he is hanging from the ceiling with a noose around his neck. But before Winston suffocates, Frankie appears and cuts the rope. The woman is Yen, Frankie's wife, and she does not have the slightest faith in Winston, so she believes he should be killed. However, Frankie knows his brother and could never hurt him, no matter how much he hates him being there. Frankie explains why Cormac's men are after him and knows they must escape from that place, as he is aware of Cormac's abilities and knows what he is capable of. At the same time, Cormac's men believe they have tracked Winston. However, Winston, Frankie, and Yen manage to outsmart Cormac's men and escape with the box that contains the coin press. When Cormac hears this news, he decides to outsource mercenaries for the job and calls in the lethal twins, Hansel and Gritchel, to recover the coin press.
In the next scene, Winston returns to Charlie's den to organize their escape. Charlie has a chopper waiting for them, but a member of Charlie's gang alerts Cormac to their location. They try to escape and engage in a gun battle while fleeing, but their car crashes. So they enter a nearby building, followed by the mercenaries. Here, we witness intense gunfights and hand-to-hand battles. We also see Yen's expertise in hand-to-hand combat. Finally, they manage to get rid of the mercenaries and reach the helicopter, but Yen is hit by a bullet from the Twins while trying to enter the helicopter. Then the Twins start targeting the helicopter. Frankie realizes they won't be able to escape, so he once again decides to sacrifice himself. He jumps from the helicopter with the box as soon as it takes off to save his brother and Yen. This gives the Twins a clear shot at him, and Frankie is instantly killed by Hansel's bullet. Winston and Yen watch this helplessly as the helicopter takes them to safety.
At the end of episode 1, Cormac believes he has recovered the coin press, but he has been deceived by Frankie. Frankie had likely speculated on how things would pan out for them, so he had hidden the ancient coin press somewhere, and he was just carrying the empty box with him.
In the last scene, we see that Winston brings the injured Yen to Lou and Miles' Dojo, and we hear John Wick's iconic line, "I need guns, lots of guns."
The first episode concludes with this scene. Cormac's position as the manager of the Continental is now in jeopardy. On one hand, he doesn't know what to tell his bosses, as he doesn't possess the ancient coin press, and on the other hand, there is a vengeful brother and a wife who will stop at nothing until they exact their revenge. To read the recap of episode 2 of the Continental series, click here.
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