‘New Gold Mountain’ Recap: ‘Shame’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Caution: This article contains spoilers for Episode Three of ‘New Gold Mountain’. To revisit the previous episode, click here.
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We are taught from an extremely early age that going after the truth is a noble quest of sorts. One that keeps our moral core centered and reminds us to always take the high road and well, when we embark upon our first search for knowledge, we are treated to a rude awakening. In that, this quest isn't always as noble as we were led to believe. Because in reality, the search for truth is messy and painful and it will often than not, break our hearts and sometimes… it will go nowhere. But we go after it regardless because we need to know, and it just so happens that the ugliness of the quest was on full display in the next episode of New Gold Mountain on Sundance Now.

For when we catch up with Leung Wei Shing in ‘Shame’, he’s going all out to uncover the truth about who killed Annie, to the point where he puts the pressure on his little brother hard, and rightfully so. Because if by chance Sun was the one responsible for this, it falls to Shing to handle such matters and he would much rather come to know that his baby brother wasn’t involved in harming another human being, so he can deal with this matter differently and thankfully… he finally gets a confession out of Sun that reveals… he’s innocent. Sure, he and Annie were in love and planning to run away together, but in no way did Sun ever feel a need to harm her. A truth that allowed for Shing to finally focus his attention on who the real killer might be and shockingly, he had a little help with that.

Because Ms. Roberts was also eager to make a splash with her new paper by revealing the truth and well, when clues revealed that a man from Shing’s camp might have been involved in the murder, he was quick to team up with her to sadly get… no answers, and well, this roadblock hammered home the theme of this tale, to a tee. Because this was an ugly and unnerving quest for the truth, one that motivated Shing to search hard and look at unpleasant realities, in order to lift the dark cloud hanging over his camp and its future, and it was also a quest that honestly… went nowhere in the end. Leaving all of us to wonder exactly who decided to harm Annie and it would seem that secret is going to be revealed in the series finale, along with the fate Leung Wei Shing. 

For while he was searching for a killer to clear his family name and save the camp from strife, Li was on a quest of her own. One that would finally reveal to her exactly what was going on in this mining operation and what happened to her surveyor and well, she got answers… and that brought about a different kind of exploration regarding the ugly the truth can reveal. Because when someone is looking to use facts against us and finds the ones they want, because we hid them from the party in question… no good can come out of it. And because she found her surveyor, after a push against the right party, and uncovered the truth about the secondary mine, Leung Wei Shing is in a heap of dangerous trouble.

But while we wait to see how he handles having his lies thrown in face and what will become of Li since she’s disobeying orders from her father, we can revel in the wonder of one engaging and realistic tale. Because the frustration of the search of truth was put on full display here in a supremely relatable fashion since we’ve all dealt with roadblocks and blowback in our quests for it. Plus, it once again put some of the parallels of racism on display through moments that felt eerily and painfully familiar, and now that this uncomfortable leg of the journey has come to a close, the time has come to zero in on the end of this story. And it will be quite interesting to see how this fascinating series is going to end and what ugly truths it is going to reveal in the process of wrapping up this fascinating journey into the past. Until next time.

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