Iron Fist S02E09 Review: Fisting Addiction

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 9: War Without End

Hoo, we're in the final stretch now! And this is an... interesting episode for sure. The episode starts off with probably the best use of cold open in this entire series. We get a brief, quiet follow up to the Danny/Colleen argument from the previous episode, where Danny confesses to Colleen that, like an addict, sometimes during his 'patrols' he'll just go into a secluded place just so that he can use the Iron Fist, and that he finally admits that he doesn't do this whole vigilante thing for himself, or for Davos, or for K'un-Lun, or for Matt Murdock, or even for Colleen. It's just so that he can feel good about himself. It's a very, very interesting take on the character, and one that while probably isn't the most accurate for an adaptation of the character from the comics, is certainly consistent with what we've been shown in this live-action series. Colleen, for her part, initially refuses to take the Fist into herself, refusing to be a weapon.

Also, on the other side of the city, we get a fatal argument between Joy and Davos, the latter finally finding out that the plot device bowl (which doesn't have a name) has been stolen by BB, and Joy is the only person with the knowledge of the bowl and the opportunity to free BB. Not buying into any of Joy's bullshit excuses (although, to be fair, Joy is doing a shit job at denying her culpability and falls into monologuing), Davos punches Joy so hard she flies off the railing of the warehouse.

Smash cut to the opening.

Of course, Joy isn't actually dead, which sort of ruins that badass last stand. We get a brief acknowledgement that Joy is alive, and apparently despite his lines last episode, Chen the one-eyed man is... now 100% subservient to Davos's philosophy? Buh-wha?

We basically have a bit of a recap of things that happen off-screen, with Misty showing up with Frank Choi and reminding the audience about the Colleen Wing magic box subplot... which is honestly another thing that feels far more like a distraction they could've handled better. It does end up name-dropping this whole fairy tale about some princess queen and whatever, but, rather understandably, Colleen decides to brush this all aside because they have a maniac to catch. Misty, for her part, promises police backup, having gone over everyone's head offscreen, in order to help apprehend Davos. It's kind of a silly tell-don't-show bit, I admit. Although Misty at least gets to give Colleen a neat little pep talk, telling Colleen the same thing she told Danny last episode -- that she needs to take responsibility and she can't have things both ways. Great power, great responsibility, and all that. Or in this case, the person with the greatest sense of responsibility should be the one to get the great power? Eh.

Meanwhile, Walker and Ward show up to get guns from TURK BARRETT, everyone's favourite recurring character in these Netflix shows. It's honestly a bit of a low-key bit that I honestly think went on for a bit too long, but I do enjoy Turk, so I don't mind. They appear for one of the last scene in this episode, where Ward shows up and shoots Chen in the face, rescuing Joy.

The rest of the episode is just action, taking place in the community center where Sherry Yang and the rest of the nondescript triad leaders are meeting. We get Danny giving a generic speech of cooperation to the two gangs, but it's soon a matter of protecting everyone present and stopping Davos from murdering everyone. Oh, and BB is coincidentally there to give Colleen and Danny the plot device bowl... right before he goes out and gets killed by Crank.

This leads to the two major action sequences that take place simultaneously. After Davos kills Sherry Yang's bodyguard (Liu, apparently, who is now reduced to a blood splatter), Danny and Davos confront each other. Davos is basically off his rocker, wanting to kill everyone in the shelter by guilt of association, while Danny delivers a pretty awesome speech -- maybe Danny is unworthy of the fist. Maybe. But Davos certainly is unworthy, what with the whole stealing it and using it to murder everyone. The actual fight is pretty well done, even if it is pretty short and hinges on Danny using some appropriated and handy tranquilizers to stab Davos in the neck and knock him out.

Meanwhile, Colleen ends up in a far more impressive martial arts fight against a bunch of people at once, a one-woman avenger angry for what they did to her buddy BB. This fight ends when Misty Knight and her police backup arrives with guns and arrests everyone present, but ends up causing Colleen to basically accept that she has to step up. After spending the entire season telling Danny, BB and Sherry Yang to step up, Colleen decides to finally do as she tells everyone else and step up.

Which leads to the ceremony with the now-allied crane sisters as they do the ritual to transfer the fist from Davos to Colleen... and while Davos wakes up halfway through the ritual, Colleen manages to light up her fist into a white version of the Iron Fist, which is pretty awesome. Not sure if this will stick (since we still have one episode left), or if this is comic-accurate, but hey, I certainly like it! Seems like we're going to have a final confrontation with Davos, though.

Overall, it's certainly kind of a messy season, despite being certainly improved from season one (anything'd be an improvement over Iron Fist season one) but it's at this point that I take a look back and realize just how much better this season could be. It definitely has a story, or a set of stories, it wants to tell, and the actors are clearly competent... but at the same time, the sheer mess of the pacing and rather disastrous screentime distribution really ends up making it no real surprise that Iron Fist would get cancelled. Still, at  least the character developments in this episode and the previous one felt pretty genuine.