WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Kung Fu Season 1, Episode 1, "Pilot," which aired Wednesday on The CW.
The CW's hard-hitting reboot of Kung Fu has finally premiered, updating the martial arts epic to a modern setting as young fighter Nicky Shen returns to her hometown in San Francisco's Chinatown. As Nicky reconciles with her family, she defends her home from both the Triad and a vengeful killer armed with a mythical weapon bringing the fantasy threat close to home.
Nicky Shen is revealed to be a Harvard University student that went on an arranged trip to China, only to discover it was her mother's attempt to set her up with a Chinese husband. Disgusted, Nicky is taken in by the kindly Shifu Pei-Ling to train in martial arts at a remote Shaolin monastery in China's Yunnan Province for three years. But on one fateful night, the monastery falls under attack from mysterious assailants, setting the idyllic martial arts school ablaze. Nicky arrives too late to help Pei-Ling from being stabbed by the lethal warrior Zhilan with a mythical sword that burns Nicky when she attempts to claim it herself. In a cliffside skirmish, Nicky is bested by Zhilan and nearly knocked to her doom, clinging to the cliff wall while Zhilan departs with the sword.
After searching for Zhilan in vain, Nicky returns to her home and estranged family at San Francisco Chinatown where her father Jin welcomes her with open arms. As Nicky observes Jin is sporting a black eye, she is shocked to discover her older sister Althea is preparing to marry an old high school classmate named Dennis Soong. Nicky's brother Ryan and mother Mei-Li are both less than thrilled to see her back home, with Mei-Ling especially resentful that Nicky had run away rather than express her reservations about being set up for an arranged marriage. While Nicky storms out, Jin convinces his daughter not to run away to parts unknown again.
Nicky reconnects with her ex-boyfriend Evan Hartley, whom she broke up with because feeling lost and pressured under her mother's expectations. Nicky reveals that she is investigating a new Triad gang extending their operations into Chinatown, hoping Evan's connections as the city's Assistant District Attorney can help. But this reunion is interrupted by Ryan's new girlfriend Sabine, a revelation Nicky takes poorly as she confides in a vision of Pei-Ling who appears to console her and encourage her to reconcile with her family. However, Nicky's soul-searching comes to an abrupt end when she discovers Jin roughed up by a local mobster in a shakedown at his family restaurant.
After taking Jin to the hospital to recover, Nicky approaches Ryan at his clinic and reconciles with him over a game of ping-pong, but not before meeting a handsome grad student named Henry. Henry reveals the ancient history of the sword to Nicky and continues his research based on the burn scars on Nicky's hand from wielding it. As Nicky and her siblings begin asking local businesses for more information about their father's attackers, they are accosted by armed goons who are easily dispatched by Nicky. In the aftermath, Nicky and Mei-Li finally have it out, with Nicky revealing that it was Mei-Li that pressured her to break up with Evan and micro-managed her life until she traveled to China.
Frustrated by the authorities inability to act, Ryan goes out on his own to take incriminating photos of the Triads at the docks, with Nicky rushing after him to save him. Nicky wows Ryan with her martial arts skills, dispatching the mobsters as the police arrive. With the mob now off their back, the Shens happily celebrate Althea's marriage and Nicky and Mei-Li formally reconcile. And as Henry reveals to Nicky the fabled magical potential of the weapons, with Nicky realizing she must defend her hometown from Zhilan as the villain seeks to unlock the mythical weaponry's powers, an inevitable rematch has been set up just as the series begins.
Executive produced by Christina M. Kim, Martin Gero, Greg Berlanti, Sarah Schechter and Warner Bros. TV, Kung Fu stars Olivia Liang, Tzi Ma, Kheng Hua Tan, Tony Chung, Jon Prasida, Shannon Dang, Eddie Liu and Vanessa Kai. The new episodes air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.