On Into the Badlands, Sunny and Veil’s
relationship is somehow central and
understated at the same time – a better, safer life for him and Veil is the
goal that drives much of Sunny’s actions, and because of his clipper status,
the very fact that they have a relationship puts them both in danger, and yet
there isn’t a huge amount of drama mined from them as a couple. It’s like they have the plot relevance of a
main-character romance as well as the more low-key portrayal of a
supporting-character romance, both of which are good things in my book (a few
spoilers.)
One of
the first things the show does right with Sunny/Veil is having them already in
an established relationship when the show starts. “Celebrated clipper with 404 kill tattoos”
and “gentle doctor who helps even her enemies” is quite the opposites-attract
pairing, which gives it dramatic potential, but it’s also the sort of dynamic
that could tip very easily into “‘bad boy’ (ugh) redeemed by the love of a good
woman (ugh!)” territory. If we’d opened on a will-they-won’t-they
instead of an established couple, showing their polar-opposite approaches to
life and death while their physical chemistry inevitably brings them closer and
closer together, I feel like that dynamic might have been hard to avoid.
As it is,
though, we don’t see Veil trying to understand how “she could ever be attracted
to a man like Sunny” or Sunny wrestling to bite back his feelings because “deep
down, he knows he doesn’t deserve her.”
There’s no, “What are we doing?”, “This could never work,” “A person
like you,” and so on and so forth.
Whatever brought them together – we don’t know the details, but since
Veil is a doctor and Sunny is in a wildly dangerous line of work, I bet some
level of patching-up was involved at some point – by the time we meet them,
Veil and Sunny are already comfortably, beautifully together.
I love
the softness of their first scene in bed:
the soulful companionship, the easy sensuality, the clear sense of deep
trust between them. Lounging in bed
together in comfortable states of undress, Sunny works at his literacy (Veil
has been teaching him to read,) and they both smile as he tosses the book aside
and declares that The Cat in the Hat
was better. It’s not that they’re
rock-solid, because genuine, substantial conflicts arise between them at
different points, rising organically from the different ways they respond to
the often-perilous trials of living in the Badlands. But even when they fight, they talk to each other and the mutual
respect comes through. They feel like a
real couple that just happens to be in an impossible situation in a
post-apocalyptic world rather than a “TV couple,” and I like that.
They
balance each other out quite nicely.
Sunny can protect them with his sword and glorious fighting skills if
necessary, but Veil can remind him that that’s not always the optimal method of
problem-solving. Veil’s tendency toward
hope can counteract Sunny’s toward pessimism, helping spur him to think of
ideas rather than accept that nothing can be changed for the better. Sunnny’s eye for strategy recognizes the
smart plays, and Veil’s knowledge can help put them into action. And Veil’s quiet diplomacy can open many
doors, while Sunny’s guarded nature keeps her vigilant as well. Just a great pairing all around – this season
has had them apart from one another, and although it’s interesting to see how
each reacts to challenges when they’re so far from the other, I can’t help but
hope it doesn’t take too long to bring them back to each other.
