Iron Fist, Season 1, Episode 12: Bar the Big Boss
A lot better than the previous episode, mostly because it had a general plot that made sense. Again, though, I really felt that between Gao having a great buildup but not a great climax, and Bakuto being... serviceable and marginally only more interesting than Nobu, the Hand hasn't really been all it's cranked up to be, has it?
In any case, at least, the episode has the huge climactic battle between Danny Rand and Davos, which we could've seen a mile away the moment the conflict was introduced. The episode tried its best to portray the conflict as well as it could, with Davos's single-minded hatred towards the Hand (and therefore Colleen) being well-done. He sees her as the serpent that twisted Danny's worldview, and takes the betrayal a lot more personally. There's definitely some breakup vibes between Danny and Davos's fight.
Mind you, though, the conflict between Danny-Colleen and Danny-Davos played out more like schoolchildren (something I've been saying a lot in this series) so it didn't quite have the oomph or dramatic punch it needed. Also, I'm totally rooting for Davos whenever the argument about Danny abandoning K'un Lun gets brought up. If Davos wasn't such a tit in talking down about the real world, he would've been a lot more reasonable than Danny is.
In any case, everything falls down this episode. Ward and Bakuto storm Harold and Joy's secret penthouse. Not entirely certain why Bakuto needed Ward for that, because he never had any trouble popping up in Harold's place either. Joy got shot and hospitalized, Harold plants even more brother-sister doubts between them, but apparently he respects Ward, somehow, for having the balls to stand up to him?
There were some cool fights, like the huge hallway brawl between the three heroes and Bakuto's forces, with Davos being awesomely brutal and some nice dance-like moves between Danny and Bakuto. Colleen's swordfight with Bakuto was likewise kind of awesome, and if Danny fighting against Davos really shows why Danny's chosen for the Iron Fist. Also loved Davos just stabbing the dying Bakuto in the chest, and honestly none of Danny's arguments about imprisoning the dude really stand.
Though honestly, the Iron Fist itself only lights up for Danny to break out of the handcuffs, and for him to threaten to punch Davos in the face. Davos returns back to K'un Lun to guard the mountain pass alone, because someone has to do the job, and Danny is an irresponsible shit.
Though honestly, just handing the power of the Iron Fist to someone who can reject K'un Lun and abandon it seems mighty stupid of Shao Lao the Undying Dragon, so to be fair, between being horrible judges of character and being abusive to children, this whole Iron Fist deal wasn't really thought out that well.
Bakuto's body disappears, so he's been ninja'd off to be turned into a Frankenstein's monster like Harold and Elektra (and maybe Gao), I guess. Good! He falls short of being a good villain simply because he didn't have the screen time he deserves.
Once Bakuto's death reaches the Meachums, Harold sends off an army of military people to attack Danny and Colleen. Really thought that long 'yay happy ending smiles' bit was a bit too much because I know there's an episode left. Ward's nice enough to warn Danny about the incoming attack, though, so good for him.
Overall, we've got the Hand and Davos both dealt with, so there's only Harold Meachum left. It's a pretty decent climax, for sure, if still having pacing and scripting problems.
No comments:
Post a Comment