Iron Fist, Season 1, Episode 4: Eight Diagram Dragon Palm
Ah, we get a kung fu scene featuring Danny Rand actually doing something actually kung fu-y. The battle in the first episode was nothing but a huge disappointment, and while Colleen Wing did deliver last episode with some cage deathmatch fighting, this episode finally starts to pick up on both the plot and on the action. Yes, the Iron Fist battle with the hatchet triad grunts in the corridor leading into the elevator didn't quite stand up against Daredevil's signature corridor scene, but it's still a pretty fun fisticuff beatdown. It's the first time that Danny Rand legitimately feels like a martial artist instead of 'dude with glowing fist of power'.
Where to start? Colleen's story is still more or less divorced from the rest of the Rand/Meachum/Hand storyline, other than briefly allowing Joy to shack up there while Danny goes to confront some Triad gangsters. She recognizes herself a hypocrite for fighting to get money, but her students love her for it. She continues fighting under the name of "Daughter of the Dragon", going into a pretty fun and brutal cage match in this episode... but refuses money from Danny for some reason? It's a bit odd, surely accepting money from a friend -- that's indebted to her, no less -- would be far more preferable than to bending her Bushido code, but perhaps she really, really likes fighting? The cage fight is a lot less impactful since it really feels like a retread of last episode.
We peel back a bit more of Danny's past, and him telling Joy hauntingly about the abusive training he received in K'un Lun with the screams of a young Danny in the background being far, far more powerful than any flashback that actually shows us what happened. Thanks to some internal talk between Harold and Ward, the Meachums decide to restore Danny's identity -- though with Jeri Hogarth breathing down the Rand corporation and Joy being Danny's mysterious ally that gave Jeri the cup, it's a matter of time. Danny finds himself the lofty holder of 51% of Rand Industries' money, but at the same time it is kind of a stupid idea for the company to just, well, put him there. For fuck's sake, the dude was in the mountains dealing with jars and gathering chi for a decade and a half.
As Danny mentions himself, it reminds him of his time in K'un Lun where he climbs up to a particularly powerful and important job (the Iron Fist title, I suppose) that everyone laughed at him because a Xiao Gui Lao like him can't ever do it... but once he reached said high title, he had no idea what he wants to really do with it. And as Jeri leaves him behind to his newly reclaimed office, Danny really looks like he feels the same thing about regaining power over Rand Enterprises. He's far more interested in stickers under daddy's desk than actually having a concrete goal as to what to do when he's the boss.
And I'm equal parts fine with this development, and equal parts just shaking my head at the rather ham-fisted way that they portrayed Danny's return into the company. He literally just waltzes into a meeting, and in the words of Joy Meachum, "swings around his 51% shareholder dick" and basically shuts down the meeting, forcing the company to sell the leishmaniasis medication at cost. Because he's a kid mentally, you see. Yes, a tenfold price in increase is cartoonishly evil, but Danny's insistence that they sell the drugs at cost is very noble and all, but as the other board members note, all Danny's going to accomplish is going to slow down the actual research cost for future medicine and possibly even run out Rand employees out of a job.
It's not a show about how to run a company, though, and that scene shows Danny's childlike innocence pretty well without making him look absolutely stupid (like the first two episodes), and his later encounter with the Triads that attacked Joy shows the warrior side of him. The Yang Triad wants the pier back, but backs the fuck away when Danny tells them that Rand Enterprises is forced to purchase the pier by the Hand.
Speaking of the Hand, Danny has no fucking idea -- or at least claims not to have any -- when Harold questions him about it. It's more of a myth, a boogeyman, in K'un Lun. Very curious.
The Meachums, meanwhile, continue to be interesting. Joy's confused about everything, knowing that something's up with Ward, and something's up with Danny, but the shock of being attacked by triads kind of freaked her out a little. It's revealed that she's not entirely evil -- when the lines are drawn she did stand next to Ward last episode, but at the same time she's the one responsible for giving Jeri the evidence she needs to help Danny reclaim his name. It's Harold and Ward that are the most interesting right now, with Harold's passive-aggressive abusive daddy role being gloriously shown to us. Harold recruits Danny into the small group of himself, Ward and Kyle as the only few people who knows that he's alive.
The fact that Harold didn't fake his own death, and actually died and was revived, is a very interesting and comic book-y plot revelation. Danny notes how Harold didn't seem to age, and him sleeping in that weird sci-fi glass pod is apparently out of necessity instead of eccentricity. Harold meets the Hand -- or, well, Madame Gao, who's shrouded but her voice is very evident -- who rewards him by allowing him to see his daughter. (The Hand apparently assumes that Danny's just Joy's bodyguard) And Harold dresses up as a Hand goon, confronts Triad boss Yang and kills the thug that slapped Joy, unknowingly setting off a bit of an 'enemy mine' relationship between Yang and Danny as Yang leaves Danny a cryptic note at the end of the episode about what he wants to know.
Meanwhile, Ward's caught in a rock and hard place. Danny's too nice of a dude, talking about how nice Ward and Joy are -- even including the psychiatric hospital -- during the press conference, and generally being out of the loop. Here's Danny, who his father just likes all out of nowhere. Harold wants Ward to drop all charges, reinstate Danny as the 51%-shareholder of the company, and is definitely very nice to Danny because he's the Immortal Iron Fist, destroyer of the Hand. Ward doesn't care, though. All he sees is this twat that got his father's love and adoration, something that he never seems to be able to get no matter how hard he tries to follow daddy's rule to the letter.
And oh, how he tries. Danny fucks up the drug business? Nope, it's Ward's fault for not being able to control Danny. Ward himself isn't the most competent person, of course, and his handling of Danny is suboptimal. He basically shrugs and bows down to the whims of Danny during the meeting, intent on driving a wedge between Danny and the other heads of Rand Enterprises. He tries to set up an interview, talking about what a jackass Danny is for wanting to sell at cost... but, of course, the reporter runs the story about what a heroic 'for the people' businessman Danny Rand is. Poor dude's so ineffective at being evil you can't help but pity him.
Again, I'm still very unsure about Danny Rand himself as a character. There's a fair amount of great work done here, and the fact that he's not dressed like a hobo hippie anymore and having him actually do stuff helps a lot in making him have a fair bit more gravitas, but at the same time we're four hours in and we've only gotten scant hints and clues about Danny's time in K'un Lun and his responsibilities regarding the Hand. It's definitely slow burn. The scene with Danny, Harold and Ward is definitely the most interesting, with all three characters drawing their own lines and allegiances with the Hand.
This episode's miles and miles better than Iron Fist's first two missteps, but there are still things that really felt off and repetitive, like Colleen's second cage match, or Ward being jealous with Danny. Still, we finally get to see the Hand figure out in all this, we get some development (and hopefully closure of a huge chunk of) the "regain my identity and my position in the company" subplot.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- When describing Danny scaling the walls of the Rand Enterprises building, Ward name-drops Daredevil as a comparison to him.
- The reporter apparently works for the New York Bulletin, as Daredevil's friend Karen, working for the same newspaper at the end of Daredevil's second season, is briefly mentioned by her.
- Colleen's white hoodie during the cage fight is a reference to her white jumpsuit costume she has in the comics.
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