The Defenders, Season 1, Episode 2: Mean Right Hook
Episode two of the Defenders is a bit better. It's still a bad standalone episode, arguably, but as part of a whole, as part of an eight-hour-movie, it's a decent enough watch. The fact that the episode still tries its best to give each character equal amounts of screentime in each episode is a bit to its detriment, though, because some characters -- particularly Daredevil in this episode -- don't actually get to do much. In a standard 13-episode Netflix season, it wouldn't matter that much that we're still taking things easy in the second hour, but Defenders only has eight episodes to tell its story, and that means we're already one-fourth through the series, and the titular Defenders have already just began meeting each other at the end of this one. Now I'm all for meetings that make sense, that is paced well and not rushed, but this felt a bit... oddly-paced. I'll refrain from criticizing this pacing too much until I have finished the entire season (oh, Netflix and its bizarre binge-watching seasons) but it does seem abysmally slow, even disregrading the format that "episode 2" and "episode 1" are meant to be merely an opening act and not proper whole episodes in their own right.
And this episode is... more of the same. Our characters finally start to move around the board, but the only ones that seem to really do anything related to the plot are Jessica Jones and Iron Fist, who are investigating the various strange phenomenons in the city. Luke Cage gets dragged into Iron Fist's side of the story when tracking the mysterious 'White Hat' lands him smack dab in some Hand stuff, but for the most part Matt is so removed from everything going on... and honestly, even though things actually happen and there are action scenes in this episode, the mystery is frustratingly oblique and only the relatively strong performances from the actors really keeps me invested.
So, to recap what's going on -- the kids of Harlem, including Cole, who Luke has taken a shine to finding out the mysterious shady stuff he's up to, is apparently part of the Hand's cleanup crew, which is why Luke follows Cole straight into a massacre site where Cole is immediately interrogated by Iron Fist, who is investigating said site. And, honestly, you can't really blame Iron Fist for antagonizing Cole -- he is affiliated with the Hand as far as Danny is concerned, sad backstory or not. It does put Iron Fist and Luke Cage in a fight, and, hoo boy, what an amazing fight scene that was. Iron Fist apparently took actual kung fu lessons because his martial arts skills looks so much more fluid than the lackluster ones we had in his original show, and it is equally hilarious to see all of Iron Fist's kung fu moves fall short at even budging the mighty, indestructible Luke Cage. Luke just tosses Iron Fist around, whose punches barely even rattle the giant, until he goes full Iron Fist, charges up his chi, and whacks Luke Cage in the jaw and sends him flying across the room. It's glorious, and right there I've got my money's worth for the price of admission, bad pacing or not. It's a bit shallow, perhaps, for me to just brush of a good chunk of the series' problems becuase "shit, awesome action scene!" but seeing Power Man and Iron Fist fight each other is what I watch this series for. I just wish there were more of this and less floundering around.
Luke and Danny's storylines are... watchable, but none that are too interesting. Luke taking interest in the well-being of Harlem youths are neat, but it's nothing we haven't seen the character do in his home series. Likewise, Iron Fist and Colleen Wing hunting the Hand members are also kind of neat, and at least they're moving the plot forwards, but do we really need scenes of Danny laying on his back listening to his iPod feeling sorry for himself and having to be jolted awake to the idea that, huh, there might be other people fighting the Hand?
Jessica, meanwhile, is still going on a one-woman warpath as she tries her devil-may-care, call-everyone-dipshit rampage throughout New York City as she reports in the huge pile of explosives to the NYPD. This brings her into the orbit of Misty Knight and the glorious return of Jeri Hogarth, who all tell her to stay away from the mess. Her sister-BFF Trish Walker also gets shut down in her radio show when she discusses too much about the earthquake, and added to everyhting that the other Defenders are investigating, it definitely implies something far bigger... and still very oblique. Jessica's storyline provides the other big climax of the episode that plays alongside Iron Fist and Luke Cage's brawl, which is her finding that the enigmatic John Raymond, the man with explosives wanted for terrorism, is in her office with a gun to Malcolm's head pleading innocence... and then promptly gets killed by Zombie Elektra. Zombie Elektra and Jessica Jones fight for a bit -- not quite as long as I really wanted the fight to be -- but Elektra makes her escape while Misty Knight ends up apprehending Jessica. Poor Jessica, she can't catch a break, can she?
It's neat, I guess, because Jessica has no idea who Elektra or Misty Knight are, and both Misty and Jessica acted relativvely reasonably considering their situation, just like Luke and Danny were. And I also loved that side-characters like Hogarth, Foggy, Misty and Trish are given relatively more screentime as opposed to the previous episode, where it's just a wild jump from one side-character to the next with only Claire and Misty really getting adequate screentime.
Meanwhile, this also puts Jessica Jones in Matt Murdock's orbit, as he shows up to represent Jessica Jones as her attorney, which is a cool moment at the end of the episode. Presumably, this is thanks to Foggy's personal story throughout the episode, where Hogarth tasks him with keeping an eye on Jessica Jones but keeping it divorced from the company, Foggy also giving Matt a crapton of cases to keep him distracted from being Daredevil again, and Matt showing up as an independent lawyer to bail out Jessica.
Matt's storyline is perhaps one of the more frustrating of the four, with the simple caveat that he is trying to deny his Daredevil alter-ego, something that, while making perfect sense considering what the character has been through, is also not ideal in a show whose big point is to have the characters team up as superheroes. The presentation that Matt sees himself as not just hanging on the cowl and horns to please Foggy and Karen, but actually thinking of himself as an addict, is actually relatively well-done for the limited screentime that we get. Matt does help beat up a bunch of people in the episode's cold open during the chaos incited by the earthquake, and I did love how Foggy, despite playing the relatively unlikable role of being the one that keeps telling Matt not to be a hero, also acknowledges that it's very likely that Matt 'relapses' anyway, but at least they tried their best.
Oh, and we also get the absolutely hilarious return of the long-suffering butt monkey, Turk Barrett, who finds himself interrogated by Luke. Turk direccts Luke Cage after "White Hat", who we see scant little off because of all the, y'know, Luke-Cage-vs-Iron-Fist stuff.
But, as I say, the Hand's big plan in all this remain frustratingly vague -- too vague, perhaps. Alexandra does hint at some form of immortality when she talks about the insights she has on Brahms and Mozart's feelings while composing music, and we get some discussion between Alexandra and Gao about a 'wall' with K'un Lun markings (is it the location that Danny and Luke fought in?) which Alexandra insists is a door instead... and while all this is cool and good, it's still slow buildup and I'm still puzzled how the bombs, the earthquake, Zombie Elektra, shell companies, the Harlem youth and cryptic K'un Lun wall-doors all play together. She does have Stick held hostage and is apparently winning the Chaste/Hand war, though, so there's that.
Overall, though, it's a solid, if flawed, episode, and I enjoyed watching it at least. Hopefully the next episode proves my relative pessimism wrong and the rest of the season will be super-duper amazing. Hopefully.
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