Marton Csokas played Baron Quinn on Into the Badlands, who was easily one of the show’s most compelling characters, so it was surprising when the series killed him off in the season 2 finale. Quinn was the main villain of the AMC series for two seasons, a role that eventually went to Pilgrim (Babou Ceesay) in season 3.
Quinn was introduced in the Into the Badlands pilot episode as one the most powerful Barons in the Badlands and the master of Sunny (Daniel Wu). Quinn was depicted as a wise leader who valued strength, courage, ambition, and loyalty. At the beginning of Into the Badlands, he had a bond with Sunny, who he viewed as his most trustworthy and reliable Clipper. Sunny faithfully followed Quinn’s orders until the Baron’s true nature surfaced. When Sunny could no longer work for Quinn, their bond broke and Quinn emerged as the main villain of the season. At the end of season 1, Quinn was thought to be killed by Sunny. However, this was far from the end for Quinn.
Quinn returned as the main villain in Into the Badlands season 2, but with a very different story. Quinn tried to integrate himself into Sunny’s family while Sunny was away. Quinn ended up forming an attachment to Sunny’s newborn son, Henry. At the same time, Quinn was embroiled in a conflict with Ryder (Oliver Stark), Jade (Sarah Bolger), and the Widow (Emily Beecham) as he fought to take back his land and control the Badlands. At the end of the season, Quinn and Sunny finally got a rematch, but things took a disastrous turn when he grabbed Veil (Madeleine Mantock) and demanded that Henry be given to him. To save her son, Veil stabbed both herself and Quinn, killing both of them. By killing off Quinn, Into the Badlands was able to move past the original story and expand the world of the Badlands before concluding the series for good.
This is the second time where it looked like Into the Badlands had killed off Quinn in the season 2 finale, except this time Quinn really does die for good. Quinn was a well-developed, multifaceted villain who was responsible for some of the best interactions on the show. His relationships with Sunny, Ryder, Veil, Lydia (Orla Brady), and the Widow were all important to the show, but each of them had run its course, especially since not all of these characters survived season 2.
In season 3, Into the Badlands left Quinn and almost his whole family behind as it brought in a handful of new heroes and new villains which helped the show shift its focus to the Gift and the search for Azra. Pilgrim became the show’s next biggest threat, a character who shared Quinn’s ambition and skill in battle but was different in almost every other way. With Pilgrim, Into the Badlands delivered a villain who believed himself to be the savior that the Badlands, whereas Quinn was a character who had no grand illusions about who he was or what he wanted. So while the season 2 finale cost Into the Badlands one of its best characters, his death was necessary for the show to move on.
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