'Interior Chinatown' Hulu Recap (Episodes 1-10): What Is "Black And White?"

Interior Chinatown may occasionally seem like an unhinged meta-show that’s rather hard to understand, but in reality, it’s a very simple concept. It’s about how Willis goes from his assigned side character to being the main character of his own story, i.e., how he goes from being invisible to being the center of attention. In Interior Chinatown, Willis is a waiter at Golden Palace, a Chinese restaurant at the heart of Chinatown. He’s tired of his life, and he wishes he could be as cool as his missing older brother, who was a kung fu expert. Willis practices kung-fu himself, but he’s of course not the golden boy of his family; he’s just an invisible “generic Chinese guy.” Willis has always wanted to be a detective; he wants to solve mysteries. So, one day, when a woman gets kidnapped at the back of the restaurant, Willis becomes somewhat determined to help solve the case. What this leads to is the unlocking of many doors he had no idea about. So let’s dive into everything that goes down in Interior Chinatown.

Spoiler Alert

How Does Willis Become Part Of The Case?

Each episode of Interior Chinatown is titled after generic characters that Asian Americans have to play in Hollywood. Willis’ story begins with him being invisible to everybody. When Detective Lana shows up at the Golden Palace, he seizes the day and decides to rewrite his role himself. When he starts helping Lana, he has to figure out how to get inside the precinct, and to do this, he goes from being a waiter to a delivery guy. At the same time, a series of incidents occur in Chinatown, including more murders. As a delivery guy, Willis befriends some of the “invisible” guys at the precinct to get the inside scoop. Willis wants to get his hands on his brother’s old files, but the precinct is currently getting rid of cold cases. Willis does everything in his power to try and get to them before they’re gone, but it’s too late. However, he learns that they’ve been digitized and he can still find them through “Tech Guy.” Now, the only way Willis can access the computer is by becoming “Tech Guy,” so he gets rid of the original one and replaces him. When he puts on the guy’s glasses, he’s able to do the tasks of the tech guy. Yet another Asian stereotype. 

What Does Willis Learn About His Brother? 

At this time, Lana and Willis have been working together for a bit. He also tells her he saw the Chinese woman from the first murder case alive, but she shows him her file and tells him she’s definitely dead. Together they go through loads of files on the computer of Willis’ brother, Jonny Wu, who, for many episodes of the show, we only know as “Kung Fu Guy.” Jonny used to work with two former detectives, McDonough and Carrey. Now at first, these two were happy to have Kung Fu Guy on their team, but soon Carrey became suspicious of Jonny. They were investigating a group called the Painted Faces at the time, but soon Wilis notices that the videos go from making Jonny look like the hero to the leader of the Painted Faces. In the meantime, he also finds a tape with a recording from Jonny in which he’s asking for help because he feels like he’s being watched. Jonny had realized he wasn’t writing his own story and chose to escape. By the end of the videos, Willis learns that Jonny killed McDonough before running away for good. It’s been 12 years since that day. 

Who is Lana Lee? 

Since the case is set in “Chinatown,” lead detectives Miles Turner and Sarah Green invite Lana Lee, a “Chinatown expert,” to help solve the case. Immediately Lana’s considered an outsider, and Sarah doesn’t trust her. This is because she’s been trying to join the team for over 9 months. Lana has an agenda, but we find out about it much later in the show. It seems Lana knew Willis’ brother before he went missing, and 9 months earlier, when she got his missing persons report, she realized she was being sent a message, so she would do everything in her power to solve the case. Lana used to be Jonny’s girlfriend, and they used to have a fantasy plan of leaving the city on a boat that belonged to a bar owner they knew. Lana never tells Willis who she really is, and when he finds out, it leaves him devastated. 

At this time, Willis goes from being a tech guy to a detective. This is after he pretends to be a translator for Uncle. On the other hand, Green and Turner seem to be losing their touch, and Turner specifically starts to feel like nothing is real. He’s right, but he’ll find out much later. Uncle got arrested because Willis and Lana suspect he had something to do with Jonny’s disappearance, but he’s only helping people hide in the “containers” and providing them with food and whatever else they might need. Suddenly all eyes are on him because he knows the insides of Chinatown and he’s able to give everybody answers. Before Willis and Lana fall out, they find out that Jonny tried to escape on the boat but couldn’t make it far because of the rough waters. They find the debris of the boat, learning that Jonny’s long gone. 

Willis becomes a completely changed person at this time. He’s now a rich detective doing brand endorsements, while his mom and dad still live in the shady old apartment in Chinatown. His mom’s now a real estate agent who is thriving in the business, making his dad lonely. Willis has completely cut off communication with his parents because he’s sad about Jonny and can’t face the truth, and immersing himself in work is the only thing he can do. He even meets his ex-best friend Fatty, who now hates him because he feels betrayed by Willis. But eventually, Willis comes back home, realizing he misses his mom and he’s just a sad younger brother. 

What Is “Black And White?”

Willis realizes he’s being set up, just like his brother. On the other hand, Lana tries to find out what’s going on and learns about the corporation called HBWC. Willis ends up meeting the Painted Faces and learns that they’re all actually in a TV show, and this will be the series finale where Willis will end up the big villain. “Black and White” is the name of the TV show, and Willis was meant to be a side character while Turner and Green lead the detective procedural. Jonny had realized the truth too, and that’s why he’d decided to escape. 

Does Willis Rewrite His Ending? 

The final episode is called “Willis. Willis Wu.” Of course, apart from being a James Bond reference, this is also the only episode with a name as the title. This is because it’s the episode in which Willis tells his story. Willis teams up with all of the people he hurt and manages to escape the cops. Even Green and Turner help him out, because they’ve also realized there’s something seriously off. Lana, on the other hand, tells Willis that she thinks Jonny’s alive because he’s been sending messages through the video game in the Golden Palace. See, everything in this city is owned by HBWC, the video game included. 

At the end of season 1, Willis shows up at the Golden Palace, where his mom’s meant to be receiving an award for the work she’s done in Chinatown. But she doesn’t accept it because she realizes she made a mistake in trying to change the place she came from. Just like Willis, she too forgot for a second who she really was, selling herself to the corporation (i.e., Hollywood). Willis nearly gives them the ending they expect, but at the last moment, Lana tells him it’s time to tell his story. 

In the Interior Chinatown ending, Willis finally tells his own story, but he also tells the stories of his parents, the true heroes, who lost their son to a system that was never meant for them. Lana then tells Willis that the message his brother gave was for them to die, and jumps off the roof with Willis. The next thing we know, Willis is in a box of colorful lights, perhaps the moment on TV when we get colored bars because of faulty wires, where he meets his brother. They hug it out, and Willis has finally escaped. In the next scene, he’s in front of a screen finishing his screenplay when a woman tells him to meet the new person at work. This happens to be Lana, and as they look at each other with knowing eyes, the camera zooms out, and yet again Willis is within a screen. So while Willis escaped the first box, we can call it the procedural box, he’s still stuck in another. A reminder of the layers of systematic racism that Asian Americans have to live through in Hollywood. 

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