I won’t deny that I was a bit let down by The Old Guard Part 2. I felt after watching the first part that the premise had a lot of potential, but convenient plot twists and lack of character depth in part 2 just diluted the impact that I expected it to have. That said, part 2 had some amazingly choreographed action sequences that made me feel like watching the film on the big screen. So let’s find out what happened in the film and if Andy was able to surmount all the hurdles that came her way.
Spoiler Alert
What did Andy get to know from Tuah?
It had been six months since Andy, Copley, Nicky, Joe, and Nile started doing missions together and making sure that they kept the crime rate as low as possible. During one such mission, they broke into the house of an arms dealer, only to realize that there was somebody else at the helm of affairs, an unknown entity, a ghost whose intentions were unknown at that point in time. Nile told her teammates about the dream she often had, which at times made her really worried. She saw this woman, who entered a huge library and apparently hurt the librarian. The librarian, a young man, desperately tried to stop her, but the woman was probably too strong for him. She stole some books from the library, and the vengeful look in her eyes made it clear that she was up to something. Andy had no clue who this woman was, but she knew the librarian, a close friend of hers who had been on this earth for more than 2000 years. Andy and Copley went to Seoul, South Korea, to meet an immortal named Tuah. Nobody, not even Andy’s teammates, knew about his existence because he had told Andy to keep it a secret. Tuah kept records of every event that touched the life of an immortal. Additionally, he kept a tab on their powers and was researching their biology. He was quite impressed with what Copley had been able to find in his research work. In The Old Guard Part 1, Copley had told the immortals how Andy was responsible for making this world a better place and how she didn’t know what she had been able to achieve. He talked about how every life Andy saved created a ripple effect that eventually had a much larger impact. Tuah told Andy that there was an immortal who had broken into his library and stolen certain books. He told Andy she went by the name of Discord and that she was the first of the immortals, and also that she knew everything about Andy and her team. Copley couldn’t believe that, as according to the information he had gathered, Andy was the first immortal, but apparently he was wrong. So Discord had something against Andy, and she was also present at the time Quynh and Andy had been captured in England during the witch trials. Tuah had met her back then, but after that, he’d lost track of her and didn’t know where she had gone after swearing revenge for the atrocities committed against her own kind by the humans. Andy asked Tuah to come with her and join her team, as she knew that she would need all the help she could get in the near future.
Why Did Quynh Join Discord’s Team?
As we had witnessed in the mid-credit scene of The Old Guard Part 1, Quynh paid a surprise visit to Booker when she couldn’t find Andy. She asked Booker to communicate her message to Andy and tell her to meet her. In part 2, we got to know that Joe kept meeting Booker even after it was decided that the latter would be exiled for 100 years. Joe felt sympathetic towards the man, and Nicky caught him in the act when he was on his way to Booker’s house. Though Nicky was extremely unhappy with Joe, as he had lied to everybody, fortunately, because of Joe’s intervention, they found out that Booker had been kidnapped by Quynh. Booker was eventually released, as Quynh didn’t have anything against him, and she just wanted to locate Andy. Andy didn’t know how to react when she got to know that Quynh had been found and rescued by none other than Discord. But she also felt guilty because she had stopped looking for her, leaving Quynh underwater for the last 500 years, facing unimaginable torture for every second of her life. Quynh felt betrayed, and she didn’t hold herself back when she met Andy for the first time. Both the women engaged in a fist fight, which ended with Quynh making it very clear that she was going to help Discord in whatever she wanted. Quynh had every reason to feel that way, and Andy knew that. Andy had stopped looking for her, even when she knew that she couldn’t die and every muscle of her body would be in agonizing pain. At that point in time, Andy felt that Discord was after her because she didn’t want her to interfere in the affairs of the mortals. But that was not the reason why Discord wanted to eliminate Andy and her team members; the reality was much more devastating than that.
Did Andy Become Immortal Again?
There were a couple of things that Tuah found out through his research. He didn’t know if it was a myth or the truth, but he had read somewhere that if the last immortal to be born on earth stabbed anybody of their own clan, then that person would lose their powers. Discord had told Nile that she was the last immortal, which was why she was connected to her, i.e., the first immortal.
In part 1, Nile had stabbed Andy, and Tuah felt that that was the reason why Andy had become a mortal. There was another legend that said that an immortal wounded by the last of their kind could transfer their immortality to another person. What this meant was that if Nile wounded any one of them, then they could give their powers to Andy. That’s when Booker decided to test out the theory and find out if it was true or not. We had seen in The Old Guard Part 1 how Booker wanted to meet his fateful end. He felt lonely; he didn’t have anything to look forward to. The death of his family had made him hollow from within, especially his son’s death, and more than anything, he was just tired and wanted to lay in peace. Booker desperately wanted an expiry date, as he felt that it would make his stay on earth much better. Booker saw that even Tuah was trying to do something similar, but the former made sure that it was he who transferred his powers to Andy. Booker engaged in a friendly sword match with Nile, where the latter cut his hand. He then immediately went to Andy’s room and voluntarily gave up his powers and made her immortal again. Andy didn’t find out about it until later, as Booker didn’t want to tell her, given he knew that she wouldn’t be happy about it.
I won’t deny that this entire sequence seemed very superficial to me. When Andy got to know that she had lost her powers in part 1, it seemed like a huge event, and I felt that it wouldn’t be so easy for her to get back her powers. But the convenience with which she became immortal again made the entire affair look very frivolous.
What Did Discord Want From Andy And Her Team?
Copley got information that Discord and her people had taken over a nuclear facility in Serpong, Indonesia, and that they were planning to blow up the entire city. Copley got to know that approximately 10 million people could lose their lives if she was able to blow up the nuclear facility. Deep down, Andy knew that it was all a sham to hide Discord’s real intentions, but still, she decided to go there and save the people. At the end of The Old Guard Part 2, Andy got to know that she was right in speculating that Discord had a hidden agenda. Firstly, while fighting the enemy, Andy realized that Booker had transferred his powers to him. Before she could process that information and fight with Booker as to why he had done that, the latter got killed by Discord’s men. Seeing one of her own die in front of her own eyes made Andy unleash her fury. Andy killed each and every one who came her way, and in the end, she came face-to-face with her enemies. It was then she realized what Discord actually wanted to achieve. Discord, just like Andy, had become a mortal, and she knew that only Nile could help her cause and get her powers back. She had made a plan to capture them, make Nile stab each one of them, and then torture them to a level that they would end up willfully giving up their powers to her.
At the end of the film, Discord was able to overpower Andy, capture the rest of her team, and take all of them with her. Andy and Quynh were the only ones left behind, and I believe that it would be up to them to find their team members and not let Discord become immortal again. But it wouldn’t be an easy task, because Quynh had lost her immortality after being stabbed by Nile. So it meant that Andy would have to make sure that she was covering Quynh and make sure that she didn’t get gravely wounded. Also, Discord had shown the kind of skills she had. Andy didn’t lose to anybody in a fight before because she was such a great warrior, but in the face of Discord, she really struggled and seemed helpless. There will definitely be a part 3 of The Old Guard (though there hasn’t been any official announcement), and according to the ending of the film, we will see Quynh and Andy going all guns blazing against their arch-nemesis and making her pay for her actions.
