Ironheart, Season 1, Episode 6: The Past is the Past
And so, the show hits its climax. And... admittedly, with me having some spoilers about who shows up at the end of this episode, that bit wasn't the biggest 'damn that's cool' moment for me. But it's definitely an interesting ending for sure.
The episode starts off with us actually playing the flashback we have of Parker's origin story in full, which we've seen snippets of in the past. A pre-Hood Parker and John tries to rob the mansion, and Parker gets cornered by guards. A strange hooded man appears, and magically manifests a doorway to a pizzeria. This strange man talks about potential and does the devil thing of "what is it do you really desire"... and then demonstrates his power by freezing everyone around him in time. The strange man plays up Parker's potential, then does the gaslighting thing by suddenly being in a rush to leave. Parker accepts the deal, shaking the figure's hand and gives up something he 'wouldn't miss', and his strange sponsor gives him his hood, which is the tools for Parker to get whatever he desires -- to be filthy rich.
We flash back to the present day, where Parker is sitting in front of a lavish meal... but the only person there with him is a mind-controlled and not exactly happy Zeke Stane, who isn't appreciative of being essentially used as a puppet, and uses the first chance he could to try and stab Parker with a fork. Again, at this point Parker is still under the impression that Riri is dead.
Riri, meanwhile, tries to duplicate the accident that created AI Natalie, but it's impossible. Driven partially by a desire to bring back the Hood and analyze it, Ironheart flies to Parker's base, and is confronted by the first of the boss gauntlet -- Ezekiel. The two have a nice little fight, and after figuring out that Zeke is not entirely herself, goes through a whole routine where she tries to explain to Zeke that she needs to kick him in the balls. Because that's the only way to hard-reset him. Which... honestly, is a bit eye-rolly and feels juvenile for the tone of the rest of this show.
Riri manages to accomplish that after a bit of a struggle, and leaves Zeke behind while his systems reboot. As Zeke notes, though, his life is destroyed and while he's presumably grateful for this rescue, the two of them have unfinished business.
While Riri was fighting Zeke, Parker is yelling in the chamber where he puts the Hood, and summons the strange demon-man, who manifests and 'breaks character' a bit, speaking with a different accent and eventually a deep, dark, demonic one. The demon-man tells Parker that he kept to the letter of the deal, and tells Parker what a disappointment he's been... but promises that he might give him more power if he could hold on to the Hood and make something out of it.
And so, Ironheart and the Hood confront each other. Ironheart shows off some new tricks that her magicked-out armour has, which includes a quite cool giant magical rune explosion that eliminates the Hood's invisibility. The Hood launches his magical bullets, but eventually goes absolutely batshit-feral, being almost demonic himself as he starts tearing into the Ironheart armour. In a bit of desperation, Riri seemingly detonates the brand-new armour in a self-destruct sequence... but somehow survives unharmed.
This is all a bit of a clever thing from the showmakers, though as the unarmoured Riri lies sobbing and Parker walks up. After a bit of a verbal exchange, Parker shoots 'Riri'... only for it to be a really realistic hologram. The real Ironheart suit is still intact, and bursts out of the smoke and rips the Hood off of Parker, and leaves him mewling and crying on the ground, ranting about how much it hurts without the Hood.
Riri leaves him behind... and as she walks down the stairs, she ends up meeting the strange man in the pizzeria from earlier in the episode, something that Riri has absolutely no context for. The strange man pulls Riri out of her suit and essentially forces her to talk to him... and Riri initially assumes this demon man to be Dormammu. After a giant laugh at Dormammu's expense, the man reveals himself to be... Mephisto. The episode goes on for a bit, but essentially Mephisto gives Riri what she wants as the episode flip-flops between the moment of this deal and the past scenes and the future... and it's revealed that Mephisto did get a deal from someone he finds interesting... and Riri has asked Mephisto to bring Natalie to life. The episode closes at the same demonic scars appearing on Riri's arm as we fade to black.
There's a post-credits scene of Parker, hoodless, looking for some magic and arriving in Zelma's store.
Now, how do I feel about this episode? It's another show that is meant to leave on a cliffhanger and build up something with a brand-new villain. These sorts of cliffhangers are a bit played out at this point, though this one was... okay. The episode and the show really does rush through a lot of its beats, waving away its entire supporting cast in the opening scene to give us the flashbacks that give us Hood's backstory and Mephisto's context, and then the showdowns that Riri has with the three antagonists.
And the thing is... the showdowns themselves were really neat. Action-wise, it's a nice showcase of utilizing magic, and probably one of the few times that we are shown, rather than told, Riri outsmarting someone with those holograms. The show, in my opinion, also does a great job at somewhat sticking the landing with the Hood, giving us a semblance of someone who bit off a bit more than he could chew after the previous episode and this one. And, of course, Sasha Baron Cohen of Borat fame plays an absolutely perfect Mephisto, alternating between disarming to a greasy scammy salesman to a terrifying demon when the script demands him to be.
But the episode's dialogue itself really lampshades a lot of the problems I have with the show. Riri herself has no fucking idea who Mephisto is, or that there even was a 'Mephisto', or a man-behind-the-man behind Parker. Sure, there was the handwaved explanation of Dormammu, but even as a red herring, the idea of Dormammu was barely in the show other than some scribbly drawings in episode 5. Zeke himself lampshades that he and Riri 'ain't done', which is how I feel about Riri's conclusion with both of her antagonists -- neither of them have a satisfying conclusion thematically against Riri, with a handwave before Riri heads off to do something else.
And Riri herself? This is a really strange direction to take the character. The comics version of Ironheart has nothing to do with magic, or making deals with devils (or a devil analogue), or even being part of a criminal gang. If you're going to change something drastic about the main character you are adapting from the source material, you better do it right. And I don't think the show makes a particularly good case as to why Ironheart needs to be a magic hero.
The show goes in a strange, wild direction but never really delivers on giving us any real thematic growth between Parker and Riri, and I guess what we're supposed to take away is that despite the previous episode promising some maturity (?) on Riri's part, when given another easy way out -- like stealing the Ironheart suit from MIT, or joining a gang, or making a deal with a literal devil -- Riri will take it. It's a bold way to end the season, of course, but one that leaves me feeling like I watched the first draft of a show instead of a fully-realized one.
It is a bit of a shame, really, since there were definitely some really good talent attached to this TV show. I have described the various Ironheart episodes as the creators managing to film a lot of great setpieces and thought up of a lot of parallels between Riri and her two antagonists, some interesting morality questions in regards to AI, wishes, fight-or-flight and a bunch of thematic stuff... but simply wasn't able to string it together properly. This show is nowhere as bad as some of Disney+/Marvel's worst hits like Echo, She-Hulk or Secret Invasion, but it's definitely on the weaker side of things.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Mephisto is the Marvel comics' equivalent of the devil, being named after a real-life mythological demon. Mephisto debuted as an adversary of the Silver Surfer, and later on is extremely associated with the stories of Ghost Rider and Spider-Man, being particularly infamous for the 'One More Day' storyline.
- We don't see it clearly, but we do get a glimpse of Mephisto's true form -- a red-skinned, clean-shaven man with glowing eyes -- reflected in the spoon that he uses to stir his coffee.
- Dormammu is mentioned once more, and Mephisto mocks the ruler of the Dark Dimension. In the comics, the two don't really have much of a relationship as far as I can gather.
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