The Widow
is a character whose debut on the show was preceded by talk of her, enough to
know that she’s not to be trifled with, and from her first moment onscreen, she
brings it – hardcore. A great, kickass
character who messes with the established order of things and shakes up the
barons’ world (Widow-related spoilers.)
From the
start, the Widow is the pot-stirrer, the game-changer, the revolutionary. She’s one of the seven barons, in control of
the Badlands’ oil fields, but while her power is at first at least warily
tolerated by the other barons, it’s clear that she’s not fully considered “one
of them.” The why is a little nebulous
here. At first, I just figured the
Badlands were mad patriarchal, but this season, we meet Baron Chau, another
female baron, and she doesn’t appear to have any problem getting respect. There’s also the fact that the Widow achieved
her status by killing the former baron, her husband. That doesn’t quite hold water, either, since
the time-honored way of becoming a baron is to kill the current one. And it’s not just that it was her husband she killed, because family is
fair game; we all know Quinn has had his fair share of daydreams about his son
seizing power by running him through with a sword. The Widow is also a former cog, but despite
the Badlands’ fastidious caste system, they have no problem with people rising
through the ranks. Plenty of people in
the Badlands used to be something else, and no one seems to look down on them
for it – Quinn used to be a clipper, and he got engaged to one of his cogs.
So what’s
the issue with the Widow? Even if her
claim to power is legitimate and she acquired it in the usual way, she’s not
looked on as such because the other barons don’t like what she represents. It’s not her gender, her actions, or her past
branding – it’s her ideals. The Widow
envisions a revolution rooted in both abolition and female empowerment. After her marriage to her late husband, a
cruel man who liked to abuse both her and their cogs, she’s vowed to never be
under someone else’s power again, and her experiences have helped her frame
dangerous power as a particularly male trait.
Her butterflies – an all-female clipper force – are well-trained and
ruthlessly efficient, and they fight for her in anticipation of a world where
no man will think he can take what he wants from them. But if the Widow’s “the future is female”
aspirations are troubling to some of the barons, her stance on cogs has them
all worried. The Badlands runs on slave
labor, and the Widow isn’t content merely to have left her own life as a cog
behind her. She wants the entire system
to change, and she challenges other barons by hitting them where it hurts,
liberating their cogs to endanger their livelihoods. That’s her real threat to them, and it’s why
they don’t view her as a “true” baron in the way that they are.
But the
Widow is ready for whatever they can throw at her. Like most people on this show, she’s a crazy
good fighter who’s poured endless hours into training herself and her
butterflies. She strides into any
conflict with self-assured gusto, not shying away from the places where she
knows her enemies will be because she’s confident that she can hold her
own. Her fists, her blades, and even her
high-heeled shoes are deadly weapons for her to wield – she’s waging a war
against a way of life, and she doesn’t plan to rest until she sees the change
she wants come to fruition. The only
question is whether her soul will survive the crusade. The Badlands is a murky place by nature, and
to achieve her goals, the Widow has been entertaining deals she may not
ultimately be able to live with.
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