"Kung Fu": TV Series with David Carradine, The Tide

#7 (Prod #166147) "The Tide"
Teleplay By:: A. Martin Zweiback (also #13, 15 & 26)
Directed By:: Walter Doniger (also #20 & 26)
First Broadcast: ABC, February 1, 1973 (Aired out of sequence)
Guest Stars: Andrew Duggan, Robert Donner, Mako (also in "Kung Fu: The Movie," a 1986 sequel)
Special Guest Star: Tina Chen
Regular Cast: David Carradine, Philip Ahn, Keye Luke, Radames Pera

Caine, recognized from his poster, is handcuffed and shot by the sheriff of a coastal town. After he escapes, wounded and still handcuffed, he is then rescued and cared for by Su Yen who thinks she can trade Caine for her father, a poet who has been imprisoned by the Emperor^*1* back in China.

Pilot & First Season
Available on DVD

"If a man dwells on the past then he robs the present. But if a man ignores the past, he may rob the future. The seeds of our destiny are nurtured by the roots of our past." - Master Po (this flashback scene is repeated in "Blood of the Dragon")

"'You don't look like his brother.'
'We are half brothers.'" - Caine, asking about Danny

"I walk." - Caine, when asked how he gets around without a horse

"The Emperor^*1* "values my life that he may take pleasure in my death." - Caine

"I would not take pleasure in the death of any man." - Caine

"We do not punish for trust." - Master Kan

"If while building a house, a carpenter strikes a nail and it proves faulty by bending, does the carpenter lose faith in all nails and stop building his house?" - Master Kan

"'. . . we are required to trust even if we are often reminded of the existence of evil.' - Young Caine
'Deal with evil through strength - but affirm the good in man through trust. In this way we are prepared for evil, but we encourage good." - Master Kan

"'What is greater than good.' - Young Caine
'Love.'" - Master Kan

"Forgive me." - Caine

"'Those who value freedom most must sometimes choose to lose it.'" - Caine quoting a (surely fictional?) Chinese poet

"I am honored to be in the presence of the daughter of so great a man." - Caine

"Can a woman be happy alone?" - Caine (though he chooses, and has been taught to choose, to be alone)

"Your father is a very wise man. I have not always understood his words." - Caine

"'The mind, the body and the spirit are one. When the body expresses the desires of the mind and spirit then the body is in tune with nature, the act is pure and there is no shame.' - Master Kan
'And what is love?' - Young Caine
'Love is harmony, even in discord.'" - Master Kan

"Your face is more beautiful than the sky." - Caine to Su Yen

"Do you wish me to go?" - Caine

"Your father is worthy of better men than I; and you are worthy of better deeds than betrayal." - Caine

"I have given my word, but I will not be bound." - Caine

"He has given his word. . . Even to a woman who betrayed him, it is still his word." - Su Yen (knowing that Caine would keep his word no matter what)

"Come with me and you will not lose me." - Caine, inviting Su Yen to share his journey

When the young Caine and another student are robbed, the other student learns not to trust strangers and is dismissed from the temple. Shaolin are required to trust: the TAO TE CHING [F] says in both chapters #17 and #23, "He who does not trust enough, will not be trusted."

Though the adult Caine never tells a direct lie, the young Caine does tell one to Master Kan in this episode when Kan asks the boy what he is feeling as they watch a young woman dance. The Young Caine says, "Nothing," but Kan does not believe him. (The dancer, according to Anderson's KF Book^*2*, is Rosalind Chao, who plays Keiko on "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Deep Space Nine.") [The young Caine tells another lie in #47 "The Demon God" in order to save his life and an adult Shaolin lies when Master Po tells young Caine that a pool is filled with acid in #12 "Superstition."]

Anderson's book^*2* calls Su Yen a "Chinese coolie" as if that inappropriate term for unskilled oriental labor would apply to anyone, well enough the educated daughter of a famous poet. (Both Anderson's and Pilato's books^*2* claim Su Yen kills the sheriff with an ax so that must have been changed after the script was finished.)

"Distrust is the shield of the weak. It affirms the evil in man by denying the opportunity of good." - Master Kan^*2*p35