Warning: This article contains SPOILERS for Into the Badlands episode "Requiem for the Fallen".
The death of Magnus (Francis Magee) in the penultimate episode of Into the Badlands' final season will have major ramifications for the last battle with Pilgrim (Babou Cessay) in the series finale. Magnus' death finally provides Sunny (Daniel Wu) and his allies with the means to defeat Pilgrim and Cressida (Lorraine Toussaint).
Shortly after Into the Badlands returned for the second half of season 3, fans were introduced to Magnus, the leader of the secret brotherhood known as the Black Lotus. When civilization fell as a result of the Gift, the Black Lotus rose up and dedicated themselves to killing all Dark Ones. The Black Lotus have been working to purge the world of the Gift for the last five hundred years. Decades ago, the Black Lotus, with the help of Magnus, burned the city of Azra to the ground.
Monday's episode of Into the Badlands, "Requiem for the Fallen", saw the main characters reeling from the death of Lydia and Pilgrim's devastating attack on the Widow and her people. Even the Widow doubts they'll be able to keep up the fight. Bajie (Nick Frost) comes up with a plan to recruit the Black Lotus, particularly since the Black Lotus consists of assassins trained specifically for fighting Dark Ones. Sunny, Bajie, and Gaius (Lewis Tan) arrange a meeting with Magnus, which predictably ends in bloodshed. Despite having a shared interest in defeating Pilgrim, Magnus refuses to make an alliance with them. Sunny's sister, Kannin (Eugenia Yuan), arrives and manages to kill Magnus.
Earlier in the episode, Kannin had a violent encounter with Pilgrim, which ended with him stealing her Gift. The loss of the Gift is what allows Kannin to convince the Black Lotus to accept her as their leader, since they never would have taken orders from a Dark One.
Magnus' death makes Bajie's plan a bigger success than any of them could have anticipated. Not only do they have someone they can trust now leading the Black Lotus, they also have gained a powerful and competent ally who can help them stop Pilgrim. As Bajie has pointed out, no one is better suited for dealing with Pilgrim's army of Dark Ones than the Black Lotus themselves.
Recruiting the Black Lotus is a move Pilgrim hasn't predicted. Pilgrim has grown so confident in his own abilities that he no longer thinks he can be stopped. While Pilgrim's forces grow stronger every time he creates new Dark Ones, Sunny's alliance with the Black Lotus may have just made an impossible situation a lot less hopeless.