Iron Fist S02E10 Review: Iron Bullet

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 10: A Duel of Iron

I forgot to upload this final episode of Iron Fist and went straight to Daredevil's third season. Whoops!

So you apparently can't stop the ceremony halfway through, and the entire final episode ends up being kind of this cat-and-mouse game as Danny and Colleen chase down Davos since they need him to fully transfer the fist to Colleen, otherwise they'll both die from the side-effects of the vaguely-defined dragon magic. Okay, then.

Ward and Joy, meanwhile, quickly make up and make peace as they go away via ambulance. I really, really wished that they had done the Ward/Joy storyline a lot better with more focus and less meandering and flip-flopping all over the place. Done competently, they could've reached the same conclusion with far less scenes that deliver more impact. As it is, I really do think that the Ward/Joy stuff really ended up taking way, way too much screentime.

The final fight takes place in the warehouse, where the dilemma is quickly shown -- they're trapped in a three-way fight. Danny and Colleen need Davos alive for the transfer ceremony. Mary Walker just wants to put a bullet in Davos's head. Davos, meanwhile, just wants to fist everyone, and we do get some of the most badass usages of the Iron Fist with Davos launching bricks and shattering a wall to dust. The four-way battle is pretty neat, too. I'd argue that Mary Walker's presence in this season feels a bit rushed and kind of unnecessary, but hey, at least she gets to participate in the climax.

Misty Knight shows up, fights Walker alongside Danny (robot arm versus machete FTW!) until Danny gets the bright idea of using the whole flowing water/strobe light trigger to turn Walker back to harmless old Mary.

We did get a huge Danny-vs-Davos brother-vs-brother fight last episode, so I think it's actually appropriate that this time around, it's Colleen that gets to fight Davos. Davos's whole problem with Danny in the first season is that he fraternizes with the Hand-aligned Colleen, and that bubbles back to the surface as he rants about his birthright and all that shit... and Colleen basically tells him to shut the fuck up. The white-fist-against-red-fist bit is pretty cool, and the arrival of Danny manages to lock Davos down long enough for Colleen to finally obtain the full power of the Iron Fist.

In a neat showcase of restraint and just how different Colleen is from Davos, Colleen refuses to "END ITTTT" and merely knocks Davos out instead of killing him. Davos ends up being arrested by Misty and the police, although we at least do get a final conversation between Davos and Danny. Danny notes how it had taken so long for Danny himself to own up to his mistakes, and he is willing to give Davos a second chance... while Davos, of course, is in full villain mode,  swearing vengeance and all that.

The rest of the episode is just kind of an epilogue. Misty and Colleen hang around,  making jokes about their shared names, noting that they could hang out as a team called "Knight Wing". Which, while admittedly a whole lot less racist and far more catchy than "Daughters of the Dragon", is taken by DC. Misty also drops hints of how a more level-headed person like Colleen is going to be needed should Luke really go off the edge as the new mafia boss or whatever of Harlem.

(Not that we're likely to see a Colleen Wing vs Luke Cage fight, mind you, what with both shows being cancelled, but still)

Colleen also gets to talk to Sherry Yang, basicalyl telling the triads to go to legitimate business. A bit of a lazy shortcut, honestly, but at the same time, I can't say I really am invested all that much in the hatchet/triad gang war.

Ward ends up going to the addicts-anonymous deal, sharing about how he's lived his life in relation to others without any self-worth... but still kind of gets denied the chance of being a dad to his son by Bethany because, shit, we've seen Ward -- he relapses basically every other episode. He has some character growth, though,  which is neat. Meanwhile, Mary Walker is clearly being set up as the villain of the third season, confronting Joy and basically telling her that she's going to rely on a very reluctant Joy until she figures out this whole third-personality thing.

Oh, speaking of sub-plots, apparently Colleen never looked at the back side of her family sigil, and that's kind of like the most low-key and weak revelation ever as Danny leaves a letter, telling Colleen that based on the emblem and the childhood story, she is apparently the descendant of Wu Ao-Shi, the Pirate Queen of Pinghai Bay and a denizen of K'un Lun (also, a previous Iron Fist,  it seems), which means that apparently destiny found her, and that the Iron Fist was always destined to go to her?

Danny's giving some really mixed signals, though, as he ends up going on a walkabout to discover himself, roping Ward (who also needs self-discovery) into the plane. It's... it's a bit of a weird decision because while I do agree that Ward and Danny's relationship have certainly been repaired in this season, I don't see him as someone who'll go on walkabout for vaguely-defined zen reasons.

The show then skips ahead a couple of months, showing Colleen Wing as New York's new Iron Fist, lighting up her katana into a glowing white magical sword by channeling the Iron Fist's power through it. Badass, right? Well, it seems that Danny Rand is willing to upstage Colleen, as he and Ward goes off in search of some dude called Orson Randall (another Iron Fist from the comics), and that Danny... somehow has two glowing iron fists? And he can channel those fists into guns and bullets?

Wait, what?

As badass as that scene is, I have a lot of questions about just how Danny manages to regain his Iron Fist powers (or is it just generic chi manipulation? I can never tell, due to the show's minimal showcase of K'un Lun).

Overall, though this final episode, while doing pretty well with dealing with Davos, ends up biting off more than it could chew with how intent it is in seeding the plotlines for the now-nonexistent third season with the Iron-Bullet gun-fu Danny Rand, or the new Iron Katana Colleen, or building up Mary Walker. Honestly, while the second season of Iron Fist certainly have improved a whole lot compared to the first season, it's still a problematic one. A lack of balance between which subplots are important and which is not, and a still-confusing mythology really ends up making this a pretty weak season overall. It at least manages to end on a pretty positive note, though, with Danny recognizing his errors and going around on a journey to truly be worthy of the Fist. Overall, there is marked  improvement...  but then again, I'm not surprised that this series ended up being cancelled, even without all the legal problems that probably happened in the background.

Anyway, I surprisingly enjoyed myself through these ten episodes. We'll be back soon with the third season of Daredevil soon. 

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.

Iron Fist S02E08 Review: Danny Can Think

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 8: Citadel on the Edge of Vengeance

We're in the home stretch now, and it's basically at this point that the show decides to turn Davos from a slightly-more-unhinged version of the Punisher into just a crazy extremist that needs to be put down. We get to see Davos, his new one-eyed buddy Chen Wu and the misunderstood street-rat students go around the city. Joy's whole speech about the whole "you need to brand yourself" in order to not be seen as a random murderer causes Davos to experiment a bit, but after an argument with Henry Yip the random store-owner, Davos ends up killing the dude because of his... inaction? Or something? To be fair, Davos did try to tell the man that all he asks in return is for them to be good people, but he goes too quickly from well-meaning-tyrant to, well, your average garden psychopath. It's a bit of a shame because a superior show would've taken its time to dissect Davos and see just how his world-view might have merit and/or have flaws, but nah. He's just a mad dog that needs to be put down now.

Oh, and in case you have any doubts about Davos's sanity, we get scenes of BB being thrown into a dark cell for daring to argue against Davos's teachings -- causing Joy to recruit BB to steal the bowl that she infiltrated Davos's operation to obtain (oh, right, that). Meanwhile, Rhino, the leader of the gang, tries to question Davos, only to get murdered by Crank. I... I genuinely don't care about any of these characters, I'm sorry. Other than token-good-teammate BB, they're so flat and so interchangeable, that I had to genuinely google their names.

Davos then returns to Joy, and basically argues with him a bit for attempting to compromise with half-truths and half-lies and all that stuff (Joy's just buying time for BB to escape), and we get a brief bit of conversation between Joy and Chen, with the latter claiming to be a survivor who will survive the madness that is Davos. Okay, then.

The main storyline for the good guys is... it's basically the best I've ever seen Danny Rand in an unironic way. Colleen and Danny fight each other in the empty cage match from the first season, and the lesson of the episode is a combination of getting Danny to think before he act,  to have restraint... and, best of all, this causes him to ponder the nature of his bond with the Iron Fist.

I do love just how much Colleen criticizes Danny's usage of the fist, using it in an emotional instead of a cerebral fashion, causing lots of chaos and breaking parleys, and without the excuse of "I need to destroy the Hand", the lack of direction and purpose of Danny (and the show as a whole, I'd argue) ends up being something that Danny really, really needs to take a hard and long look at.

Eventually, this episode has Danny realize that he's became addicted to the power of the Fist, and it has consumed him, driving him on and on with a new 'mission', the same sort of zeal that is consuming Davos, and Danny decides that someone with more restraint should wield the fist... and that person is Colleen Wing. And... and you know what? I actually agree with Danny. And that's not because I really, really enjoy the live-action version of Colleen here, but it's because the show has actually actively displayed the sheer amount of restraint Colleen Wing displays, being far more mature and far more uncompromising with her ideals, while at the same time having a good heart. I'm unsure if the studio will ever let anyone but Danny Rand be the Iron Fist (for the same problem that they didn't cast an Asian man in the MCU version in the first place, or the constant "I'll hang my hood, but not really" main character switcheroos in other superhero shows like Arrow or Flash), but honestly, this is a genuinely sensible character growth for both Danny and Colleen.

What else went on? To fill the episode's martial arts quota, we get a surprisingly good fighting scene between Chen Wu and Colleen early in the episode, which is honestly pretty interesting! There's the subplot about the hatchets and the tigers banding together, but I am honestly just done with this vaguely-developed world-building, and it's honestly pretty ambiguous just how huge their operations are and how much Davos has fucked them up. Every time we see them it seems to just be Sherry Yang and like, a half-dozen other people.

There's also the Mary Walker subplot, with Walker watching a video from Mary, and we get a flashback to the rescue in Sokovia. Interestingly, after an encounter with the therapist, Walker realizes that there's a third alter -- both Mary and Walker had assumed that the other was the one responsible for their escape from the Sokovian prison, but apparently there's a third, far more brutal alter-ego buried deep  within her. As much as I enjoyed Alice Eve's performance, though, I really kind of wished that this season had kept its focus on developing its actual main villain -- or maybe drop Joy and Ward's whole plotline (their little scene in this episode is short, at least), and have the dual villains of Davos and Mary get more screentime. I dunno. At least Ward and Walker are now buddies, sharing the same goal to kill Davos and free Joy.

Overall, though, the Danny/Colleen stuff is pretty well-done and pretty powerful, a huge analysis of a flawed character from an in-universe perspective and sort of an acknowledgement by the writers of the cock-up they did with their handling of Danny Rand. It's a shame that with the cancellation of a potential third season, this would probably end up going nowhere. 

Iron Fist S02E07 Review: This City Has Failed You

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 7: Morning of the Mindstorm

Another honestly slow episode of Iron Fist, although one with far, far more development and character moments than the previous, clunky one. We start off with a scene of Danny in a hospital with a leg brace attached -- I do like the show simultaneously acknowledging that we live in the same universe that Misty Knight can just get a robotic arm, but at the same time still acknowledge that Danny isn't going to do any fancy martial arts moves especially with the dual blow of losing his mystical Iron Fist powers and the mobility of one of his legs.

But then the episode cuts away to Davos, and finally shows him doing something beyond just fisting gangsters in the chest. After a fun, unexpected showcase of martial arts from Davos's new buddy Chen, Davos essentially recruits Rhyno's gang -- the random bunch of stray youths that Colleen interacted with several times earlier this season -- and wants to turn them into what's basically his personal army. We get to see a bit of Davos's training and ethos later on, telling them that "the city has failed you" and that he's going to help them become strong to fight the "putrefaction" of the city. Oh, and the inevitable "break" that even Chen finds is going too far comes with Davos killing a bunch of carjackers unaffiliated with the triads. That's... that's not as brutal as I thought it was going to be, but okay. Sure.

Also, a little bit of a revelation that I didn't think I noticed was the fact that Davos was specifically noted to be able to light up both his fists, whereas Danny only used one. I definitely remembered Davos using both his fists in episode 6, but I genuinely never realized (or forgot) that Danny was only able to use only a single fist. Proof that Davos is legitimately more worthy than Danny? We'll see.

Meanwhile, we get some neat little check-ins with the rest of the cast. Misty Knight is unable to secure any help from captain Pike, the local police chief,  who's actually just waiting for Davos to wipe out all the triads regardless of the bodies that pile up. Misty also ends up going on an unnecessarily long side-quest to investigate the bowl used in the ritual, talk to Joy, then to Mika Prada, all to get printouts of the ancient ritual scroll. That felt like a huge time-waster, if I'm being frank. Likewise, the Ward storyline -- as entertaining as Tom Pelphrey is -- feels largely redundant and a huge, unnecessary distraction. It's not even interesting, because Ward getting drunk in a bar isn't super interesting, and the revelation that he got his sponsor pregnant is more of a "did we really need this?" moment than a huge revelation. Joy... Joy continues to doubt and wonder where her real loyalties lie, and after a talk with Mary, goes off to basically try and sabotage Davos in her own way, while pretending to be his ally? Eh.

Danny, meanwhile, gets into a brief, well-done conversation with Colleen comparing Bakuto and Davos, with Danny noting that he still wants to redeem Davos, as fucked-up as that sounds, whereas Colleen notes that despite everything Bakuto has done to her, she still finds it in her heart to care for him. It's a thin line to walk, whether we should cut off all toxic people from our life, or if we should not stop having hope, but this interesting train of thought goes nowhere as, bizarrely, the Danny/Colleen dynamic is shaken up by... Danny insisting that Colleen train him in martial arts from the ground up, and Colleen somehow going straight into the extreme of "if I become your shifu, I cannot feel emotions for you"? That genuinely feels forced, although it's definitely an... interesting change in dynamics. Both characters could certainly afford to be less dicks about it, but eh.

The other big storyline going is Mary, who... who's interesting, but at the same time feels underdeveloped. Joy, desperate to get Walker back out, decides to... back off, but also tells Mary to "be well" and remember how Walker protected her? And then we get brief, vague flashbacks to how the Mary and Walker personas were apparently born in a horrible prison, and now Mary decides to record a message to Walker and transform back into her other identity? It's all so rushed, and I genuinely don't buy that a single conversation from Joy is able to suddenly touch on so many points on Mary especially considering how little we've seen of Mary.

Overall, a more interesting but still very clunky episode.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Mary Walker apparently hails from (or at least was imprisoned in) Sokovia, the fictional nation that was the setting of Avengers: Age of Ultron, a rare bit of continuity nod to the live-action movies. 

Iron Fist S02E06 Review: Sibling Arguments

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 6: The Dragon Dies At Dawn

Oh man, I tried watching this episode a couple of times but kept stopping short of sitting through it in a single sitting. I'm genuinely not sure why -- the episode isn't that horrible, honestly. (And I've watched season one, I know what horrible looks like) but it's just so... formulaic? Boring? Procedural? I don't think I particularly hate anything about this episode specifically, but I found it kind of hard to get through with this episode. Honestly, the only real thing I took out of this episode is that I really, really do want to see a proper Daughters of the Dragon series, since Colleen and Misty's little detective run throughout the city is so, so much more fun than practically anything going on in this episode.

Colleen and Misty's fight against the Crane sisters, who are... tattoo artists that are able to do the ritual that Davos needs to transfer the Iron Fist. I'm not quite sure what to make out of them, to be honest -- they present themselves as these tattoo artists who are in something that's way too big for them to understand, but at the same time, they knew enough kung-fu to give Colleen pause. It's weird.

The actual Misty/Colleen conversation is at least well-done, for what little we have of the two of them that doesn't involve exposition. "What are you going to do with your life" is a neat topic to explore, and Misty asks some hard-hitting questions about Colleen's wishy-washy stance on pacifism, while Colleen asks Misty what she's going to do with that police captain offer.

Meanwhile, after a brief bit of interrogation on Misty's part, and the Colleen/Misty duo going off to hunt down the Crane Sisters, their solution to Walker and Joy is to... leave them tied up in a room? Not even with Danny or Ward watching them? Of course Walker escapes in the very first scene she is able to do so, Joy decides to cooperate with Walker's idea to permanently remove Davos... and then Danny, the ever-gullible dupe, immediately goes with Walker's plan because she's so trustworthy. It's honestly getting a bit silly at this point, although at least Danny sounds more desperate this time around as opposed to trying to throw his "I'm always right" weight around.

We get a Joy/Ward conversation which is... which is definitely overdue, and the two actors are clearly competent. I can't help but feel that it's definitely too little too late, though, and while Ward has consistently been self-absorbed, self-loathing and destructive, Joy's character was all over the place within this season-and-a-half that I can't understand her motivations all that well. Kudos for both actors for truly selling the scene of two supremely fucked-up siblings who are self-absorbed in their own way, and care for the other in their own way. Do like Joy's clarification that she needed someone to lash out against, and she picked Danny over Ward.

Meanwhile, Davos and his new eyepatched buddy Chen has been going around, killing everyone in a mixture of Punisher and Arrow, using extreme prejudice while striking names off of a list. It's brutal, and definitely immoral... but honestly, I definitely can appreciate just why Davos is feeling like he's doing some real good (murderous, bloody good) with the Iron Fist powers. Especially commpared to how the show has been handling characters like the Punisher or Luke Cage, and I'm genuinely not sure if Davos's slightly-more-brutal takedowns of drug dealers and triad goons is any worse than "good" vigilantes.

Danny and Walker go off to take Davos down, with Danny... reverting back to form and insisting that Walker not kill Davos and merely take him down. Walker also shares her "triggers" that cause her to revert back and forth from Mary to Walker, and it's... it's weird? Even if Danny notes (a rare clever moment from Danny!) that sharing her backstory is a tactic to make Danny let his guard down, it's also kind of weirdly shoehorned in.

As much as I have a problem with Danny, that scene between Danny and Davos is actually well-done, far better than the awkward-sibling bit of Joy and Ward earlier in the episode. Danny genuinely feels horrified that Davos is perverting the power of the Iron Fist, and that as much as Davos felt wronged by Danny getting the Fist, stealing the damn thing isn't any more honourable than Danny abandoning his post in K'un-Lun. Davos's grievances are all too familiar with us as well. I do like that there wasn't a point in their conversation that Davos was going to back off (unless Danny actually does want to become Davos's student, something I don't see happening either), and Walker jumping in and stabbing Davos with the tranquilizer cocktail isn't just needless prolonging of a conflict. Davos, even drugged, manages to break Danny's leg and knock Walker out, before presumably escaping? That's a neat action scene.

And to throw in another wrench in the plans, the incoming ambulance sirens turn Walker back into Mary... who is just confused about everything that's going on, but when Danny tells Mary to turn back into Walker (with typical Danny Rand tact) Mary just runs away because she doesn't want Walker to "hide out" in the woods and run away.

Overall, though, it's... it's an okay episode? We've got a deeper focus on our characters and that focus is definitely interesting enough, but the actual things that happen in this show is just kind of haphazard and only barely being kept afloat by the supreme performances by the actors. Alice Eve, Sasha Dhawan, Finn Jones, Jessica Henwick, Tom Pelphrey and Simone Missick are all amazingly entertaining and deliver their (less-than-stellar) scenes and lines very well. And kudos where kudos are due, the martial art scenes are definitely well-done. It's just that, well, from a pacing and storytelling standpoint, the show's honestly a bit of a mess. 

Iron Fist S02E05 Review: Steel Serpent

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 5: Heart of the Dragon

Again, part of what made this episode so much more interesting is how much more interesting Danny is when he's not moping about how he can't solve everything with his glowing fist. The scene where Davos has the silliest Iron Fist mask ever and punches a random wall is corny as hell, but there's definitely a lot of fun in seeing Davos just wander around as the new, Immortal Iron Fist, punching people and doing his own take on what a protector of peace should be -- the Punisher, basically, without any of Frank Castle's morals. He punches the leader of one of the triad gangs to death, and basically sets up for a mass massacre of all the other triad leaders.

Meanwhile, the flashbacks in this episode really sell just how fucked-up Davos's upbringing is, with his mother being one of the elders of K'un Lun and being a pretty horrible person who basically grooms Davos to be nothing but the successor of the Iron Fist, putting him down even more after Danny won the fight and goes off to face off against Shou-Lao the offscreen dragon. And with a father that is clearly more interested in the outsider who stole his glory, and a mother who doesn't care to show any of her love towards Davos and unleashes nothing but verbal abuse... and seeing the utter tomfoolery Danny Rand did when he abandoned his post prior to the first season... is it any wonder that Davos was so desperate to regain the Iron Fist? 

Again, Davos's story is pretty damn compelling, and I can honestly say that he's easily the most compelling villain in all of Netflix's work, backstory and motivation wise. Well, maybe except for Kingpin and pre-hero Punisher. But still, that's actually some unironic praise towards Davos. Whether you view him as a villain with a good backstory or an anti-villain or straight-up an anti-hero, he's a damn good character.

Danny himself is also in a very interesting spot, placed in a very vulnerable position. He does spend half the episode at the tender mercies of the gang that Colleen befriended a couple of episodes back and it's a bit of an obvious writing decision to have the one gang member call Colleen so she can come and help Danny get back up, but Danny does get a couple of great scenes bonding with Ward about how utterly powerless they are once power was taken from them. It's not the best writing ever and I really thought it was jumpy, but the emotion was certainly there. I guess Danny's dependance on the Iron Fist and his often refusal to listen to anyone that he's not sleeping with are both qualities he can share with Ward? 

Less well-done, however, is the writing around Joy. Jessica Stroup is a very competent actor, but the script really flip-flops on just how evil Joy is. The first half of the season really tried to sell just how vengeance-obsessed Joy is, but in this episode she acts like she's not been planning for Danny's destruction from day one, and I genuinely don't get just why she got cold feet. After all, what the fuck did she think Davos was going to do when he got the Iron Fist? It's genuinely puzzling, and I'm genuinely not sure just why she flipped back into "oh god I made a huge mistake". She does get a couple of good scenes with Mary Walker,  up until Misty and Colleen show up and arrest them both.

Ultimately, though, it's still a surprisingly strong episode. It might just be because I'm a pretty huge fan of Davos and the Daughters of the Dragon, and they get significant spotlight here. 

Iron Fist S02E04 Review: Better Protagonists

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 4: Target: Iron Fist

Unlike most of my reviews on this blog, I actually write Iron Fist reviews as I watch them, becuase of my pretty open disdain with the series. Admittedly season two has been a bit of an improvement, but it's not quite super-good yet. The plotline is at least being moved along at a decent pace, even if that in medias res bit in this episode was wholly unnecessary and more jarring than anything. This is a goddamn binge-watch Netflix series! You don't need this, which leads more to the mindset of "fuck, did I misclick and skip an episode" rather than the sense of tension they're going for.

Anyway, in this episode, we get the confirmation that the long-running plan with Davos and the weird magic bowl he stole with uncomfortable sex and partnered up with Joy for is... is to steal the Iron Fist from Danny Rand. Something that I kinda-sorta can relate to, considering Davos's backstory. It's just that... it's completely confusing just why Davos really even needed Joy. Was it just to get that magic bowl? It is kind of refreshing after three episodes of genuinely just dicking around and not doing anything, Davos just strolls up to the docks, and kills everyone to get the previous-Iron-Fist-mummy for whatever vaguely-defined ritual they are doing here.

Oh, and Danny and Colleen try to have a sit-down with Sherry Yang, and Danny discovers both Hai-Qin Yang's condition, the magic stroke pressure point strike and gets a lead. For all his talk about wanting to get the triads to make peace, after leading the two to the docks,  the whole triad subplot just gets dropped. 

We get the grand return of Misty Knight in this episode, showing up to tell Danny and Colleen how much they fucked up, because the people that showed up at the triad sitdown were policemen, and they botched up a sting operation and put Misty's buddy in the hospital. Dammit, Danny! To be fair, Misty is more than understanding, but when she offers to work together and to let the NYPD handle everything, Danny just... buggers off to do vigilantism on his own. I can't blame the writers -- abandoning any sort of duty for his own ego and self-importance is one of Danny Rand's many, many flaws, so it's definitely in character, and, thank god for it, the dude gets punished for it. Is it a sign in why the show fails because I genuinely root for everyone else other than Danny, despite Danny being the protagonist? There's certainly a lot of likable characters in this show -- Davos, Colleen and Misty being the highlights, and even Ward. Sometimes. Maybe. Ward and Joy's scene in this episode got a resounding m'eh from me, just a rehash of what they did previously.

Joy gets to do some interesting things, I suppose, talking with Mary and basically enforcing the dissociative-identity-disorder thing, and ends up siccing Mary Walker on Danny.  And Danny's unwillingness to fight Mary ends up with him drugged, beaten half-to-death and then strung up before Davos while the power of the Iron Fist is transferred to Davos. Or, well, that's what it looks like, anyway.

Ultimately, Danny's relatively small role in this episode -- other than basically pouting, delivering exposition and getting into an action scene -- honestly allowed for far more interesting plot points to shine. Always a great choice to bring Misty and Colleen together. The episode certainly has interesting things going on, but with us nearly at the halfway point of the season and the plans of the villains seem unnecessarily complicated for what could've been done in a much simpler way, while the heroes just flounder around ineffectively. Perhaps it's just as well that Danny loses the fist, and that the series doesn't get a third season -- Danny Rand is a character that works best in small doses and action scenes, not as the headliner of his own show.

Iron Fist S02E03 Review: Talk It Out

Marvel's Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 3: This Deadly Secret

Yeah, still kind of a rocky episode,  but one that's fundamentally not bad. The writing is certainly far, far better than the first season (again, I stress, not a particularly high hurdle to clear), and thank god for Colleen Wing basically telling "fuck all of this subterfuge" at that dinner table. This entire episode could've been so dull and drab if it was just the godawful dinner party where Danny tries to pretend that nothing's wrong and that they can talk it out like a family. But in my firm belief that Colleen Wing really should've been the protagonist of this show in the first place, she quickly shut it all down, managing to dodge half a season's worth of bullshit dodging around the bullet as Davos and Joy basically tell Danny what they think of him -- which is basically that he's a self-absorbed little shit. Yes, their motivations are definitely warped -- Joy in particular -- but I don't think you can say that it came out of nowhere. There are also a lot of acknowledgements of Danny's own flaws as a character, with Colleen pointing out how he's compensating a lot for trying to be the defender of the city like the late Matt Murdock told him to, as well as searching for a purpose when the Iron Fist doesn't have a secret ninja organization to beat up. 

And that interaction ended up leading to a whole lot of outpouring from Danny, Joy and Davos that ended up turning a scene that I was rolling my eyes throughout into easily one of the stronger moments in this series -- again, not a particularly high bar to clear. 

The other major plotline running through this episode is the revelation that the whole split-personality thing going on with Danny's new friend Mary seems to be of a Jekyll-and-Hyde mentality going on, with the scared artist Mary being the good personality, whereas "Walker" is a private investigator working for Davos and Joy. That's a genuinely clever way to drop that revelation, by the way -- and one that this particular episode doesn't make 100% clear, so for all  I know she may just be a set of twins or some shit, I dunno. Davos looking at the weird photographs and just being suspicious ending to him getting a bit of a freak-out is great, and it really helps me alleviate one of my biggest worries about Mary -- that she's going to be a bit of a plot tumour to established storylines. Seeing that she has been in league with Joy and Davos from the beginning is definitely great. The split persona isn't the most original supervillain concept out there, but it's certainly one that could be great if executed properly. Also, apparently Walker/Mary is able to play around with machetes to really scare the shit out of Davos, which is neat. 

The side-plots are... serviceable, I guess. Ward probably got the biggest screentime out of the subplots,  basically in this whole well of self-loathing and paranoia and general unsuccessful in showing empathy, and it's... it's an interesting direction to take his character in, is all I can say. Colleen continues to search for clues about her family or whatever, which is interesting only so far as the fact that I do like Colleen. Joy continues to look for deals or whatever the fuck she's doing, and the final scene shows the actual triad parley go down, something which, of course, ends up going all straight to hell as apparently the police arrive or something? At least we get a great fighting scene this time around. Even old lady Sherry Yang got to stab some fool in the eye!

Yeah, not much for me to talk about, and the first half  of the episode is still kinda boring, but it did manage to land with some of my favourite scenes in the show so far.

Iron Fist S02E02 Review: Gang Wars

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 2: This City's Not For Burning

A bit of a slower episode that I don't really have a lot to talk about. Again, it's still a huge, huge improvement over Iron Fist's first season in that it's not utter dog turd, but it's still not quite as engaging as most of Marvel/Netflix's output.

If nothing else, at least this episode manages to deliver what the entirety of the first season couldn't have, and that's some actual martial arts fighting with the flashback to the actual battle of the right to inherit the Iron Fist between Danny and Davos in the past. Sure, the white-and-yellow comic book homage costume looks hilariously low budget, but I do like how the scene is shot to be deliberately ambiguous if Danny won straight and fair (he did play possum for a bit, and the Thunderer definitely stopped the fight before the yield-or-death conditions) or if Davos was being petty and salty over not being chosen (it's clear that from Davos' point of view the fight's not over). Plus, whether Danny's tricks of playing possum or blinding Davos with sunlight are dishonourable methods or pragmatic ones that a sufficiently experienced warrior would've been able to guard against is genuinely a gray area on whether Danny truly earned the Fist. Honestly, with the lack of goodwill I have towards Danny and the lack of outright malice I have towards Davos, the flashback certainly ends up causing Davos to feel a lot more sympathetic.

The rest of the present day storyline is kind of just moving along at a slower pace that all the Netflix shows have in their earlier episodes. We've got obligatory scenes of Ward Meachum trying to make sense of his lief and his brief attempt to reconcile with Joy. We've got scenes building up and highlighting this Mary fellow that seems to have fallen for Danny, and I think her gimmick is that she's got multiple personalities or something? She's definitely creepy, and Alice Eve manages to steal scenes in her brief bits. Colleen Wing does that whole nice friendly neighbourhood peacemaker thing in offering help for the bunch of random thugs that attacked the restaurant in the previous episode.

Also, see how much nicer and mystical K'un Lun ends up being when it's not just a blurry old man in a vaguely-maybe-Chinese stage? We get an actual proper fighting hall and while it's not as impressive as it should be, it's at least not just a blurry, badly-rendered dojo.

The two big storylines in this episode are definitely Danny and Colleen going to try to investigate and prevent the Hatchets/Tigers gang war from spinning out of control, with Danny talking unsuccessfully to recurring character Hai-Qing Yang, and Colleen managing to get through via Yang's wife, who coincidentally is a major player in Colleen's community shelter. And tragically, just as Yang was about to have a proper sit down for the sake of peace, the fact that he reneges on the deal with Davos causes him to get eliminated by the Steel Serpent.

Joy and Davos, meanwhile, go off to an auction for antiquities in order to obtain some presumably magical bowl, and Joy stops Davos from stabbing the auctioneer in the neck and instead manages to convince Davos to... seduce the lady? By just glowering and letting the lady strip him? Okay, yeah. I'm genuinely not sure what the fuck that was all about. I'm also not quite sure just why Davos is going on with all this. S'weird, especially since the final scene of the episode shows that he has some magic kung fu pressure point near-instant death finger poke skill that he used to kill Yang.

Overall, though, it's got a lot of weaker moments and some obviously filler moments, but it doesn't want to make me whack my face against my desk the way the first season does.

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• The bowl that Joy and Davos are attempting to acquire is noted to come from the Erskine collection, presumably a reference to... dr. Abraham Erskine from Captain America: The First Avenger? I'm not familiar with the comic-book version of the character, but I genuinely find it rather surprising that this WWII-era scientist apparently collected presumably K'un-Lun flavoured artifacts.
• The getup worn by Danny and Davos (yellow mask, white clothes) resembles Iron Fist's white costume from the comics.
• Hai-Qing Yang's brief alliance with Danny against the Hand in Iron Fist's first season is brought up. Yang and his Hatchets gang have shown up in both Iron Fist's first season and Luke Cage's second season. 

Iron Fist S02E01 Review: Danny Bland

Iron Fist, Season 2, Episode 1: The Fury of Iron Fist

Mmm, I was initially unsure if I was going to do just a single review for the entirety of Iron Fist season two, or if I would do it per episode... and then I watched the first episode and realized that there was no way I was going to watch it all in a single sitting (or several sittings, anyway). The thing is that without other characters to play off of, the character of Iron Fist as he is in Marvel's Netflix series is pretty shit. Finn Jones is an amazingly charismatic actor and probably the only reason why the character feels like a bumbling idiot with a huge inflated sense of ego, but ultimately with a good heart instead of a pompous jerkwad. I could be here all day shit-talking Iron Fist's first season and how badly it's stacked up -- if I ever bother to revisit the first season of Iron Fist I would have a lot more vitriol and a lot stronger language to throw in this show's way. 

And honestly, as someone who was outright offended by the sheer lack of cultural insensitivity that Iron Fist's first season has, the news about a change in direction and Finn Jones' performance in both Defenders and Luke Cage has caused me to give this show a second chance...

And... and it's still pretty fucking bland. No, it's nowhere as mind-bogglingly banal as the first season, thank god, but it's honestly nothing particularly new. The fact that we're actually going back to Danny's utterly insipid self-indulgent attempts to balance "something that matter" and working as a high-ranking member of Rand Industries that doesn't want or care to learn about the responsibilities that it entails and just brainlessly throw in the towel with any decision that 'feels' good honestly isn't something that is a charming trait at all. No wonder poor Ward Meachum has to go to therapy! (The Meachums are also a lot less bizarre than their first season counterparts, definitely a plus)

At least this time around, the show seems to want to challenge that aspect of Danny Rand, accepting huge responsibilities like being the main shareholder of Rand Industries or the bearer of the Iron Fist without actually doing anything meaningful about it and kind of running around being naive. So kudos for that. And seeing Danny actually struggle to maintain the idealistic lifestyle is a lot far easier to root for than the moron we've seen in season one that throws tantrums whenever everything totally doesn't go the way he wants to. 

The show quickly establishes that the power vacuum left by the hand has caused the gangs and triads to get more brutal in enforcing protection money, with the return of recurring minor villains the Hatchet gang. We also get a subplot starring Colleen Wing discovering a mysterious box with her family sigil on it, and her search for answers ended up throwing her and Danny smack dab in the middle of the triad war. 

The other plotline is the vague thing that Davos and Joy Meachum are cooking up. Joy buys out of Rand Industries, with the ever-gullible Danny falling for it (and presumably going to be punished for it, yay!) while Davos is going around beating up Hatchet goons and shit-talking the air of corruption in New York City. Davos ends up meeting up Danny at the end of the episode, getting a conversation about Danny, again, abandoning his post and leading to K'un Lun to be destroyed. Thank god the writers actually allowed Davos to actually sound reasonable instead of just twisting the not-Danny side to just being "but you kill people, so you are evil FULL STOP". 

Oh, and there's this one photographer lady that kind of gets a scene with Danny, and then gets another scene where she goes insane. Totally going to be important in some way. 

There's definitely improvements in a lot of things -- we're thrown straight into the story instead of spending an episode in an asylum for no goddamn reason at all. The action scenes look a lot better from the brief kung fu bit we have between Davos and Danny, and the bit with Danny punching a truck at the beginning of the episode is definitely welcome after the first season of Iron Fist went for an utter tragedy of the "less is more" approach. Both Colleen and Davos are definitely a lot more intriguing than Danny, though, and I still feel that's easily the weakest part of the show. Still, it has a wee bit more potential than I would've given it credit for... but it's still the first episode. So. 

The Defenders S01E08 Review: To Defend

The Defenders, Season 1, Episode 8: The Defenders

So, the Defenders finally come to a close, and I must say... it's uneven as all hell. It's nowhere as great as the best Netflix Marvel shows -- Daredevil's first season and Jessica Jones, and nowhere as the solid-if-not-novel Luke Cage. It's certainly better than the flop that was Iron Fist (and even made Danny Rand into a likable character while still keeping true to what his show established of him) so that puts it around the quality of Daredevil's second season. Uneven, has a lot of plot twists done for plot twist's sake, but there are so much great action scenes being thrown around, so much great moments and acting that you forgive the weaker parts of the show.

The actual episode mostly runs on action scenes in this final episode after a brief mission statement where Luke makes note that they will not kill unless necessary, and only bad guys at that. Matt does a mushy bit of "I'm glad I met all of you" which earns a gigantic eye-roll from Jessica... and the rest of the episode is just beat-em-up. There's honestly not much to say about it without breaking down every single fight scene, other than I find it pretty damn badass. There's just so many times you can do the whole "huge pan-around montage of all the Defenders fighting mooks", although Gao, Murakami and Elektra being thrown into the mix gives us a fair amount of sweet 'elites' for our heroes to toss around. I did find the sequence that starts without any actual background ambience and just hip hop in the background to be a bit jarring -- like, I know it's something associated with Luke Cage, but still.

The huge emotional components of the finale are the battle between Daredevil and Elektra, as Matt tries his hardest to get Elektra back into the light -- and it becomes increasingly clear that the new Elektra is revelling in being a villain. Meanwhile, on top, Colleen has to face her demons by distracting Bakuto and giving Claire time to arm the bomb, leading to a definitive and climactic battle between student and master. Misty shows up to save Colleen at one point, and gets her hand sliced off -- but Colleen beheads Bakuto, putting down the third and final member of the Five Fingers that are definitely killed. Colleen's character arc that ran across the Defenders has been a side-plot that I didn't quite realize I enjoyed very much, and she's basically taken up Stick's place as the unofficial fifth Defender, just one that fights in a different location than the other four. Now she just needs a cool codename.

Of course, during the course of the battle, during the absolutely tense elevator sequence, Danny and Luke manage to toss Murakami down the deep hole while Jessica holds up the lift with nothing but sheer strength (Bad. Ass.). We see Murakami impaled on a pile of metal, bleeding, as Madame Gao approaches and tells him that they've lost and this is the end... yet we never see Gao and Murakami actually die, and they are in a cave with the dragon bones that are apparently the source of the mysterious death-defying "substance", so it's honestly more surprising if Gao and Murakami were actually killed off. They did have to escape a building being dropped on them, but this is Marvel comics. Characters have survived more insane deaths. (Besides, Madame Gao walked off a point-blank iron fist punch after a brief moment of laying on the groud)

Daredevil, whispers to Iron Fist to "protect my city" as he stays behind to slow down Elektra, and finally embrace death together. Elektra's writing is a little too messy for my liking, with her apparently doing all this just so that she could either cheat death, or to die together with the man she loves. It's messy, but at least messy is a wod you could use to describe what Elektra's feeling at this point, and the final shot they share as they get ready for death in each other's arms is a neat conclusion to this chapter of their story. 

And while I never bought that they would kill off Daredevil, it was a pretty neat eulogy and closure to the Defenders. We see Matt, wounded, being nursed to health by some mysterious people at the end of the episode, whereas the final 15 minutes prior to it is a neat way of closing up outstanding plot points. Foggy is in severe mourning (his voice breaking as Luke asks him how he's dealing with Matt's death is amazingly acted) and not inconsiderable guilt considering he gave Matt the suit in the precinct, but he and Hogarth managed to pull some strings to make sure that all the police nonsense ends up being handwaved aside. We get Danny in a modernized version of his classic Iron Fist costume looming over New York City, embracing his new role as the replacement to Daredevil now that his fight against the Hand is done, Misty is recovering from losing an arm (no small part thanks to Danny owning the best hospital in New York), we get Luke and Jessica sharing a drink and noting that they really should take care of each other (even if Luke isn't willing to move forward considering he's still with Claire) before they end up like Matt, we get Luke and Claire settling in, we get Jessica and Malcolm finally re-opening Alias Investigations. It does get somewhat negated by the fact that Matt's actually still alive, but it does portray the gigantic loss that the Marvel universe is feeling now that Daredevil's thought to be dead. 

Speaking of dead, let's talk about Iron Fist a bit, a character who I've always felt to be problematic. It's never been actor Finn Jones's fault in my opinion, but the general writing in Iron Fist overall and the insistence on portraying Danny as naive, a bit of an asshole and consistently whining and moping. Here, Iron Fist drops off the latter two qualities after the first few episodes. He's still naive, still a bit of dumb brick despite his noble intentions, but he doesn't mope and whine as much as before, and certainly doesn't do any of that entitled bullshit. Luke got through to him after all, and while Danny is still my least favourite Defender, he's certainly been vastly improved from "character I wished never get another episode" to "least favourite Defender". Which is neat. 

It's a well-done conclusion, and while Defenders has been a very uneven ride, it's still very much entertaining and I walked out of it smiling at all the fun superheroism and snarkiness thrown around here and there. 

The Defenders S01E07 Review: Five Fingers

The Defenders, Season 1, Episode 7: Fish in the Jailhouse

So last episode set up the climax pretty neatly. Elektra killed Stick and apparently is taking over the hand by killing Alexandra, she has also kidnapped the Iron Fist and the Defenders are back on the backfoot. And as of the end of the episode, the immortal Iron Fist, in the words of Stick a couple of episodes ago, is still a "thundering dumbass", who, when shown the gigantic door that can only be opened with the Iron Fist.... proceeds to immediately fight Elektra with the Iron Fist active. And, naturally opens the door. Oh Danny, you gigantic moron. It's always fun to see someone show Danny up, though I'm slightly perplexed that Elektra was able to absolutely own Iron Fist like that. I guess mastering the fist isn't the only thing Danny didn't quite master, and his own kung fu skills are lacking? I dunno. We get to see what appears to be... well, I'm not sure what it is. Dragon bones are strewn all around the gigantic chamber at the bottom of the Midland building's hole, though, so maybe it's a portal to K'un Lun? It's exciting to see that the whole series has been building up to a final showdown in this building. 

Of course, the episode spends half of its runtime with our heroes arrested by the police. Which... which I felt took way longer than it should. I get why they did that, of course. The sense of dread as they're on a race against the clock to rescue Danny and defeat the Hand, but are powerless as the seconds tick by, are well-portrayed. But I honestly find it a little hard to believe that Luke and Jessica doesn't just tell the police that, shit, metahumans are involved, y'all, back off and let the indestructible people do the work. Especially considering that Misty Knight knows the amount of danger that the likes of Luke get up to, even if her superior (who I don't think we've ever seen before this show?) is being obstructive I felt that the NYPD's involvement wasn't necessary. It's acted well enough, but I felt like it's too obvious a momentum killer between two large action scenes. 

Of course, they decide to break out instead (miraculously no one put together that Matt Murdock is Daredevil, but I suppose when you're blind no one will consider that he's actually a chain-club-slinging ninja) but at least the transition is well done. Jessica and Luke are the easiest -- Jessica doesn't really give a shit about the police in the first place, Luke keeps telling Claire and Misty that he's going to do the right thing, even if it means withholding information from the police force who are ill-equipped to fight a ninja army, at the cost of being potentially thrown in jail again... but Matt? Foggy and Karen, the two people in his life who are adamantly against him putting on the horns are in the station itself and we get to see an unexpectedly tender moment between Matt and his two best friends, a moment that I didn't think I would see in the parts of the show leading up to the finale. Capitalizing on the various Matt/Foggy and Matt/Karen conversations we have had throughout the season, we get to see the different ways that Karen and Foggy tries to get Matt to not go all Daredevil and risk his life. Karen, being a bit newer to the whole thing (plus the unspoken implication that she's still working through some of the emotional baggage after failing to get Punisher to stand down) gives Matt what amounts to an ultimatum: don't go, or don't go. She sees being locked up as a good thing, and yes, it's short-sighted and selfish, but again, it's not like she doesn't have a point. Let the police, or failing that, the other two super-powered Defenders take the job. Matt can stay and not die.

Foggy, on the other hand, goes through a bit of a speech about how Daredevil's vigilantism is bad for Matt... but then shows Matt that he brings the Daredevil suit. He trusts Matt to make his own decisions, and he's going to help Matt either way. And while Foggy knows that he prefers Matt Murdock to just be Matt the lawyer and not Daredevil the vigilante, he also understands that being Daredevil is as much part of Matt's life as the Matt Murdock portion, and it would kill his friend if he were trapped, unable to help. Somehow still keeping his secret identity secret, the three Defenders break out of the police precinct. 

...and Jessica gives a most bored "there it is again" in response to Matt's costume.

...and Jessica steals a hobo's beer and downs it to one of the most hilarious double-take from Luke and Matt.

...and later as they discuss transportation, Jessica goes 'umm' and pulls out her subway card, cutting to the three Defenders sitting in the subway.

God, these episodes really kind of emphasize that I cannot wait for season two of Jessica Jones, more than anything else. 

Oh, and much appreciated is the fact that it's not just the three Defenders themselves getting pep talks either. Colleen and Claire spent a couple of conversations in the previous episode talking about Colleen's role as, if note an outright Defender, then a very vital supporting character. This episode the roles are reversed, as Colleen notes that, shit, Claire is the foundation, the one who brought the four together. Claire also helps Misty remember Luke's extremely strong moral compass, something that showcases Misty's role as a more independent police officer who, like Luke, cares more for saving people than bookkeeping. To this end, Colleen Wing decides that unlike literally every single other supporting character trapped in the precinct, she's someone who can make a difference, stealing her sword and the several pounds of C4 that Jessica's late client, Raymond, was stockpiling in that apartment. Colleen and Claire show up in the Midland building to help up, acting as a strike team while Daredevil, Luke and Jessica do all the heavy fighting, and Misty, despite all the legal stuff, decides to trust Claire and Luke and is prepared to at least delay the other NYPD dudes. 

Meanwhile, it is a bit hard to swallow that the remainin three Fingers of the Hand would kowtow so quickly to Elektra's coup, but Bakuto has always been more oberver than active participant, Gao has always been established as a character that capitalizes on situations, and it's clear that they see Elekra not as a replacement for Alexandra, but a means to an end -- cnosidering she did what Alexandra or the other never managed to do. Captue Iron Fist. Certainly would've preferred the whole Alexandra/Elektra thing to have more buildup than what we got, but it was... perfunctory, if not satisfactory. Besides, Elektra makes her intentions clear -- she wants to never, ever return to the cold embrace of death, something that Gao and the others can certainly relate with... at least until Elektra can actually open the door. I did like how Elektra, Gao, Bakuto and Murakami moved around the room as they calmly negotiate the terms of their... 'partnership', for lack of a better term, clearly the three trying to get the drop on Elektra, but a combination of fear over Alexandra and Sowande's recent deaths and Black Sky being a pretty terrifying warrior (if we can get an explanation to why Elektra is the Black Sky and why the Black Sky is so special, the season would be amazing) means that the three Fingers are cowed. 

And, of course, the gigantic climactic battle at  the end of the episode. We have another big round of battles in the eighth, final episode, but honestly, while not bad, I didn't feel that it was as awesome as this one. Our three heroes come to charge the Midland building, but find their way blocked by three people. Not just any three, either, but Gao, Bakuto and Murakami. 

The fight between the Defenders and the Fingers of the Hand might be a little choppy at times (probably necessary to cut away from scenes of the elderly Wai Ching Ho -- or her stunt double -- clattering to the ground too brutally). The fight scene is certainly set up well, with the telekinetic Force-pushing Madame gao proving to be as badass as I hoped she'll be, Force-Pushing cars to knock around Jessica and Luke, and quite spectacularly, I did love the direction of not making this three one-on-one fights and instead have Jessica and Luke gang up on Madame Gao, while Daredevil takes on both Bakuto and Murakami, and the fight partners swapping around a cuople of times during the battle. Considering a lot of them have been built up to be badass fighters, but only Bakuto among them have arguably been effective against a Defender, it is very refreshing to see the villains kick as much ass as the good guys. It's suitably epic, and whil I wish the batte was a bit more clear at times, it's definitely ewll-done enough that by the time the Fingers decide to beat a hasty retreat with an explosion of fire, while they lost you don't really get the imperssion that they're chumps. 

Also, while perhaps unintentional, it does make Iron Fist really look bad, yeah? He is trained in kung fu in addition to having a punch that can unleash shockwaves and destroy metal, yet he gets tossed around by Elektra. Whereas Bakuto, who gave Danny the fight of his life, can be held off by Daredevil who's fighting Murakami at the same time. Elektra fighting Danny isn't as exciting as the big three-way fight, but still relatively well done. It does make Danny really look like a gigantic idiot when he starts doing the one thing everyone tells him not to do, though Danny being an idiot is already something I know. So. 

The Defenders S01E06 Review: Divided

The Defenders, Season 1, Episode 6: Ashes, Ashes

This episode is another "things happen" episode. and, boy, while I think I still like the previous episode a lot better, so many things happened in this episode, huh? Whereas the last two episodes are the big mid-movie action scene, if we're taking the entire Netflix season as an equivalent to a movie (and you should, in some ways), this would be the part of the movie that raises the stakes as we're sent rocketing towards the grand finale. We've got the tensions built up in the previous episode boil over as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen does battle against the Immortal Iron Fist (I may have enjoyed the scenes of Daredevil whupping Iron Fist's ass a lot more than I should), as Daredevil and Jessica Jones investigate what the architect was working on, as Luke, Danny and Stick have a conversation, as Alexandra tries her best to keep her house in order, and as Elektra stabs Alexandra in the gut in the finale... not because she turned good, as everyone expected, but because she wants to take over. It all sounds great on paper, and while it's certainly enjoyable, there are some pacing issues that I wished was ironed out a little before

So let's try to dissect the various events that happened in this episode, where I think that the episode peaked in its beginning and end, but didn't have a strong enough middle section to really hold it. The final, oh, ten to fifteen minutes are just an insane whirlwind, with Elektra showing up at the warehouse that Luke Cage and Stick were holding Danny Rand hostage (long story, but suffice to say that it's for Danny's own good). Stick and Luke, who are fighting over whether Stick should kill Danny right now to deny him to the Hand, are caught unawares as Elektra shows up, knocks out Luke Cage, with Iron Fist being powerless, and murders Stick, earning our first named casualty in the series. And then Elektra manages to knock out both Daredevil and Jessica when they show up. And then, after Alexandra manages to quell rebellion from the other fingers... Elektra abruptly stabs Alexandra and declares her intention to take over. It's a twist, but one that I'm not sure the show neeeds. Let's talk about the elephant in the room, then...

Becuase, as much as I didn't expect the twist, it doesn't really mean that I consider it a particularly good twist insomuch that I feel like Alexandra's story isn't fully told yet. Sure, we know a fair bit about Alexandra's motivations and goals. She's an immortal woman who's dying, and has chosen to put all her fates in the Black Sky regardless of what her compatriots think. There is some mother-daughter thing going on. But all of that ends up still feeling like we're missing a link here and there that explains Alexandra's blind devotion to the Black Sky, or why the other Fingers fear Alexandra so much to only take a stand now. It feels like we're starting to really develop Alexandra beyond a (figurative) mustache-twirling villain, and then she gets killed off very quickly. I dunno. Maybe I expected more because she's played by Sigourney Weaver, but I feel like this ends up being a slight disservice for the character, because for all the hype she has as the person that unites the Five Fingers and brought back the Black Sky and everything... she doesn't actually do anything but sit and terrify people.

In this episode alone, her conversation with Madame Gao, where Gao plays the diplomat (RE: past treachery, Gao's nonchalant, cheeky "the past is the past." is perfect) and tries to get Alexandra to see reason (and, failing that, she's going to back the winning horse) is absolutely fantastic, as is the completely calm conversation she has with Murakami, who flat-out says (in equal calmness) that he's going to murder her and take over. Yet any potential Hand Civil War gets interrupted by Elektra capturing Iron Fist... and her subsequent murder of Alexandra. Which... really, is a bit of a sore point. It's not that I hate Elektra as a character, but it's just that she's spent nearly the entirety of Defenders as a mute brainwashed zombie, who's remembering fragments of her old life... and I feel that despite her sleeping in Matt's bed and stealing a bible verse or whatever, she doesn't do enough to really justify her sudden change of heart into being a full-on villain.

That said, though, there are some quality acting from Sigourney Weaver and Wai Ching Ho, the particular being absolutely fantastic playing the kind granny next to Alexandra in her room, transitioning quickly to manipulator when she passes Bakuto and Murakami, and that gasp of shocked grief and vulnerability when Elektra decapitates Alexanddra. The bond between Gao and Alexandra has always been well-established in the show, even if Gao condones Murakami's murder attempt that also takes place, having Alexandra be so brutally murdered as opposed to being killed by 'one of their own' horrifies Gao and this wordless scene speaks a fair bit despite my general disdain with the Alexandra/Elektra stuff.  Also really liked the expressions on Gao, Bakuto and Murakami's faces when Sowande's head was sent to them, showing that they truly are mortal now.

Which, by the way, is their main goal, as exposition tells us this episode. The 'substance' used to resurrect Elektra is the same substance that the Five Fingers (also Nobu) used to return from the dead, and the resources Alexandra committed to raising Elektra, at the cost of all their mortalities, is the immortality-granting substance itself. And apparently the Iron Fist can open a gateway to... K'un Lun (wasn't it razed to the ground?) or somewhere related to K'un Lun that would give them more of the substance.

Of course, the Hand isn't the only team having problems, because the Defenders are collapsing themselves. When the Defenders realize that the Hand wants the Iron Fist, the best plan is, of course, to keep the Iron Fist as far away from the Hand as possible -- something that the hot-headed, naive Danny obviously balks at. Yes, it's so easy to dismiss Danny as being an irresponsible twat once again (and he is!) but at least this time around he genuinely has a point -- he is the most powerful member in their group offensively, he is a mighty warrior,  and he would be a great asset against the Hand. There are many ways in which, and I cannot believe I'm saying this, that I agree with Danny Rand's argument. Of course, like any pampered bully, when others refuse to play ball, Danny jumps from "guys, come on, you need me on the front lines" to "I will BEAT YOU ALL UP if you don't let me fight with you!" and, yes, it's out of his own misguided intentions that this is all part of the Hand's mind-games and shit, but come on, man.

Of course, with his own investment in Elektra, and second-guessing Stick, Daredevil isn't the most objective person around. Add Jessica (naturally) pouring kerosene into the fire by egging the conflict and pointing out that Daredevil has been keeping secrets -- not just about Elektra, but also, as we find out this episode, about the hole underneath the Midland building from the second season of Daredevil. Of course, it turns out that when Iron Fist wants to fight, he fights. And god damn the martial arts battle between Iron Fist and Daredevil is gorgeous. It might just be my favourite fight in the entire show, without hyperbole. The fight is great, and as Jessica tries to stop Daredevil from beating up Danny, Danny reflexively pushes Jessica aside... causing her to retaliate... causing Luke to try and stop Danny... causing Danny to unleash the Iron Fist to lay waste to the entire base.

The rest of the episode, sadly, is a bit clunkier. The constant scene-changing from the pairs of Luke/Danny, Matt/Jessica and the goings-on in the Hand side of things... sprinkle copious amounts of Elektra ruminating the world, and the episode has one of the more uneven pacings I've seen. It's not bad, it just feels a wee bit too choppy.

Thankfully the actosr play off each other very well. Danny and Luke's chemistry are well done even if Danny's tied up and hostile, with Danny being earnest but so socially awkward, whereas Luke just exudes this aura of confidence. I did like how Luke starts to soften once he realizes even more that Danny isn't a horrible person, he's a nice dude that says horrible things because he truly is that naive. Everyone and their mother knows a Luke/Danny team-up in the future is all but certain, and this episode certainly sells me on that. By the time the bigger conflict looms, Luke was ready to divulge personal information about his and Jessica's past relationship, even if he doesn't quite buy the whole punched-a-dragon thing. Of course, and then Stick tries to get a third option and snuff out the Iron Fist before Elektra shows up, so there's that.

Stick's pretty cool, too, having a brief moment of tenderness against Elektra before expiring, while still being an extremist for the greater good, ready to snuff Danny Rand out of existence to deny the Hand the Iron Fist, which clearly is crossing the line compared to decapitating Sowande or training child soldiers. Stick does get some neat bits of manipulation with Luke and Danny, getting the two of them to lower their guard by talking about how he was adopted from hell by the Chaste, and as he's about to kill Danny, he notes how survivors make it up as they go along and apologizes for how necessary this is. Stick's role as a mentor, and a morally-ambiguous one at that, has always made him prime candidate for being killed off in a higher-stakes season, and this certainly counts. Stick's death is going to be missed, because I for one truly enjoyed Stick's jackass one-liners.

Jessica Jones and Daredevil, clearly, win the "most fun duo" award. Jessica's one of the angrier members of the group when she realizes Matt's deception last episode (and this one, too)  but the two's chemistry is absolutely excellent, with Matt's no-nonsense attitude and Jessica's fuck-the-world attitude playing off each other pretty well. It's a pretty great moment as Jessica tries to recount the story of Matt's father in front of that little girl, showing once more that, yes, despite her brusque exterior, Jessica Jones is a hero and a loyal friend.. The two discovering the blueprints in the piano is slightly convoluted how they jump from inspiring speech to "I believe the architect hid something behind the piano", but I'll buy it, simply because Matt acting extra-blind to reach the piano is hilarious (Jessica evidently thinks so too).

Also, they just have so much great dialogue. Matt: "You sure [this is the house]?" Jessica: "99 percent. -pause- 92 percent. But that's still a lot." or this: Jessica: "My past is none of your goddamn business. And it's not actively trying to kill us." or that hilarious eyeroll Jessica has when Matt tells her it's not a tunnel, it's a hole? The two's mutual respect, and Jessica's agreement to trust each other, is definitely well done.

And then there's Elektra. She has... dreams as she sleeps in Matt's apartment, and she is this weird mix of both the Black Sky and the old Elektra, and takes in everything Alexandra says or does... and decides to just, eh, stab Alexandra and take over. She remembers everything, it seems, because he calls Matthew by name, but she's unaffected by her parents in either life, stabbing Stick and later stabbing Alexandra. I'm not really sure I buy any of this, though, because moreso than the backstory Sowande exposits before his death, Alexandra has been built up for far longer, over the course of nearly the entire episode, but was never really allowed to act on that beyond the Black Sky stuff. And while there is never a scene where Alexandra was flat-out bad, I think the show could've done a lot better. I dunno. Maybe I just wanted to see Sigourney Weaver do a lot more? I feel like she's wasted as the villain that ended up as a mere stepping stone for Elektra. I dunno. I still feel a bit ambivalent about it. 

The Defenders S01E05 Review: United

The Defenders, Season 1, Episode 5: Take Shelter

Sorry about the brief delays, but reviews of the second half of Defenders should be finished this week. But here, we start the episode off with a pretty awesome montage of the four fingers of the Hand gathering and marshalling their forces as they prepare to assault the Royal Dragon and murder the Defenders, with Madame Gao, Sowande and Murakami all converging at where Alexandra and Elektra are at, set to the orchestral music associated with Alexandra. This episode follows the streak that the previous two episodes did by having exciting things actually happen, and it's a blast to watch. There are some weaker moments which I'll cover at the end, but by and by I'm pretty satisfied with this episode. 

The action prologue might not be as smooth as the hallway battle from episode 3, thanks to some odd jerking about of the camera that cuts to one action scene to the next in abrupt ways, but it does show some pretty cool moves as Daredevil, Jessica, Luke, Iron Fist and Stick all unleash their differing fighting styles against the goons of the Hand. In this beginning battle, while every hero gets their due, special kudos go to Daredevil and Luke, both of whom face off against Elektra and Sowande respectively. Sowande's martial arts unleash enough force to knock the unbreakable man backwards, matching Luke blow for blow, showing that the leaders of the Hand aren't just pushover businessmen like Alexandra (who disappears during the battle) are. Sadly, the Sowande/Luke fight gets interrupted when Luke gets hit by a truck, and next thing we know, Luke returns having cuffed and apprehended Sowande. That felt jarring.

Murakami and Elektra act as the head-honcho ninjas, with Murakami, after the buildup he gets last epnisode as being the only other 'finger' of the Hand that isn't subservient to Alexandra, to kick all kinds of ass. But as Murakami arrives to see Daredevil (who breaks ranks to try and get Elektra to 'wake up') and Elektra not... killing each other, Elektra ends up going berserk and turning on Murakami briefly. It's a sign that Elektra's going to be trapped in some crisis of conscience thing, and that Daredevil's attempts to redeem Elektra is going to be trouble for the group -- which aren't the best parts of the episode, but are done well enough to not bother me that much.

Also, Jessica whacks Madame Gao. Of course it's her that hits an old, unassuming lady. Gao's just awesome in the prologue, yeah? Coldly shooting one of her minions in the head because they need the Iron Fist alive, and then calmly using her hand to Force Push the gigantic dumpster thing that Jessica uses to block the exit out of the Royal Dragon. Madame Gao's implied superpowers (or K'un Lun chi kung-fu) have been on the backburner in Daredevil's second season and Iron Fist, but it's nice to remind us that while the Defenders are powerful, so are the Five Fingers of the Hand.

And, yes, Five Fingers, because Bakuto, main villain in Iron Fist, presumed dead because his dead body disappears after the battle, reappears in this episode, having been revived. And Bakuto's appearance is certainly welcome. Not just because Ramon Rodriguez gives pretty stellar performance here, but because it also gives Colleen Wing something to do beyond insisting that she and Danny started the fight against the Hand while being kept in the sidelines. Also, Claire's deadpan “That dude was for sure dead last time we saw him, right? Okay, just checking.” when she sees Bakuto, and Danny's equally-deadpan nod, are also bloody hilarious.

Bakuto and Colleen get some scenes in this episode as Bakuto confronts her ex-student and ex-lover, and the episode focuses quite a bit on Colleen Wing, and, indeed, the entire supporting cast of the four Defenders' individual series. Colleen gets a relatively large amount of screentime in this episode, interacting not only with Bakuto, who tries to shake her entire worldview -- and as someone who has spent her entire life believing that the Hand (or, well, Bakuto's faction of the Hand) is the one true way to live, and she has had her entire life ripped away from her. Colleen has since latched on completely to being Danny's sidekick in their tag team to fight the Hand, but Bakuto's return shakes all of that. Colleen is clearly not taking any more of Bakuto's shit and goes sword-first against her former master, but both actors portray their roles amazingly well, with Bakuto's confidence of someone who has his hooks in Colleen's psyche and Colleen's determination is tinged with confusion and doubt. The encounter sadly ends with the rather comical 'turn away for one second, and he's gone!' bit, but Colleen's gut-stab takes her out of the fight.

Less elegant, mind you, is the earlier speech where Colleen rants to Danny that she doesn't like Danny allying with the Defenders since it's "their" fight, even though Colleen is the one who suggested Danny find allies in the first place. That bit didn't feel like it needed to happen.

Her honest speech to Claire, asking if she's just useless and pointless, is also amazingly acted by both actors, with Claire assuring Colleen that she is "the foundation" of the Defenders. Which seems rather strange, considering that if there is anyone who could be called the foundation of the team it'd be Claire herself, who's the only common friend between all four Defenders, but perhaps the term could be applied in a more general sense to every single supporting character that, well, quite literally supports the Defenders mentally and emotionally. Foggy and Karen. Trish and Malcolm. Misty and Claire. Colleen. These people, while the obvious weakness of the Defenders (the Hand goes after two of these characters in this episode), is also their strength. Someone like Jessica or Luke doesn't really buy into the whole eternal ninja clan full of resurrected overlords, but they do know that they need to keep their loved ones safe, and that's enough for them. And this is where the supporting characters come in, as we spend time with them and remind both our heroes and us, the audience, just who our characters are fighting for. 

And none feel this weight more than Matt's supporting cast. They decide to gather their loved ones at the precinct under the watchful eye of an increasingly exasperated Misty Knight (fill her up on the Hand already, Luke!) but whereas Colleen's interactions with Bakuto and later Claire get more spotlight, and Trish later ends up being the crux to a Jessica/Daredevil/Murkami fight, Matt's conversation with Foggy and Karen are so much more well done. It's so easy to generalize Foggy and especially Karen as selfish, stop-superheroing characters, but at the same time, is it really that hard to blame them to want to keep their friend Matt from, well, dying in the gutter fighting something he's over his head about? Yet the same fate that befell Elektra (and other characters who died in the other heroes' respective journeys) is exactly why Matt -- nay, Daredevil -- is fighting so hard. He wants to prevent the same thing from happening to Foggy and Karen and his newfound friends, as well as to redeem Elektra herself. Karen's resigned sigh as she realizes that, yeah, she just have to trust Matt is well-done. And I also did like the members of the different supporting cast having their own scenes and lives. Trish isn't just lounging randomly when Jessica finds her, she's trying to get to the bottom of why the earthquake was covered up in her radio show by her superiors. Foggy and Karen share a reunion. Claire and Colleen have a conversation about Colleen's self-esteem, and Misty introduces herself to Colleen, recognizing that her sword skills probably means that she can (and probably will) need to help defend the precinct if shit goes down.

And, yes, Jessica's fight against Murakami when she tries to get Trish to safety is amazingly done, showing how skilled these Five Fingers are. Jessica is undoubtedly stronger, but Murakami's agility and ability to parry strikes means that despite her strength, Jessica can't damage Murakami if her punches can't land. This leads to the dramatic entry as Daredevil, finally in his full costume again, shows up and lobs his throwing sticks at Murakami. The three-way battle between the in-costume Daredevil (who finally got over the struggling-between-two-lives thing now that the threat is real), Jessica Jones and Murakami is amazingly done, and a neat showcase of their powers as Daredevil and Murakami engaged in a series of awesome martial arts exchange, before Jessica gets a shot to let loose with a gigantic metahuman punch that sends Murakami flying. 

And, of course, since Jessica Jones is the most amazing snarker in the entirety of the Marvel Cinematic Universe... her (apparently ad-libbed by both actors) nonplussed "nice ears." at Daredevil's costume, and Daredevil's irritated and pouty "they're horns." is absolutely perfect.

Of course, all the character interactions are pretty great, and we get Sowande giving this long, impressive backstory about how he once caused a gigantic temple of the Chaste to be basically broken by siege tactics, causing them to kill each other as they give Sowande up to his own people to end the siege. Matt's return to the full Daredevil costume, a decision that was honestly well-paced over five episodes despite its slow burn, starts with him kicking ass with Jessica, and later using his brand-new chain-stick things to choke Sowande from halfway across the room, earning another gem: Danny goes "THAT'S SO COOL!" excitedly like a little kid (I agree with Danny), and Luke tries to play it cool and goes "eeeh it's kinda cool."

Of course, Sowande gets into Matt's head, knowing all about Elektra and the Black Sky, causing Matt to lose his temper and almost kill Sowande. ("Unfortunately", in Stick's words) Again, always refreshing to see storylines where it's not afraid to be dark, but still have the heroes not kill unless absolutely necessary. The revelation about Matt and Stick knowing about Elektra's identity all along causes a pretty big blow-up as Jessica, Luke and Danny kind of demands why Matt is hiding this from them, and what else are they hiding, but they aren't at blows with each other (yet). It's a trick that's as old as superhero team-up comics in general, but one that was done.... well, reasonably well if not particularly super-exciting. While the Defenders are squabbling, Sowande attempts to escape and capture the Iron Fist, and Stick just slices off Sowande's head. "Cut off one finger, the hand can still move" indeed, but Stick just doesn't give a shit. It's a bit of an abrupt end, but the moment of doubt on the other three Defenders as they realize that Stick isn't quite a wise mentor like Obi-Wan Kenobi sinks in. Killing Sowande isn't the worst thing Stick could do, of course, and while extreme isn't unjustified, but it's a pretty neat shocking twist

Less done well, perhaps, are the Five Fingers of the Hand themselves. They lick their wounds a lot in this episode -- four of the five didn't manage to get any of the Defenders at the beginning of the episode. Bakuto fails to turn Colleen against the Defenders, Sowande gets murdered and Murakami gets his ass beaten by Jessica and Daredevil. We get the handwave that despite them being shown as being on a civil war during Iron Fist, apparently Bakuto and Gao just brush off their older conflict as "well, we're still technically allies with each other." I wish we spent more time on Bakuto and Gao's conflict, but then that would eat up even more time. I certainly didn't expect Bakuto, Gao and Murakami to turn against Alexandra, but honestly that's a very, very well-done scene.

See, we're still not super-clear just what makes Elektra so special, what makes the 'Black Sky' so special that Alexandra apparently uses all their resources to bring her to life. Murakami has already been opposed to Alexandra's methods and treats this as a partnership instead of serving under her, Bakuto didn't even join up until this episode and has a history of fighting against other Hand leaders, and Gao, while subservient, also shows up later to remind Alexandra that her putting all her eggs in one basket with nothing to show for it is.... well, one of the five dead. The death of a fellow immortal shakes the three of them to the core, and none of the three have enough faith to follow Alexandra blindly, certainly not when she seems to be failing so much. I just wish we get to learn more about Alexandra's motivations and her faith in the Black Sky beyond, well, general mommy issues. And that's where I think the writing behind Alexandra feels lacking, as it doesn't quite get any better for the rest of the series. Sigourney Weaver is a fantastic actress, but I honestly feel that her role as Alexandra, while amazingly portrayed... doesn't quite carry a full story. 

And Black Sky/Elektra herself is a bit weird, too. She's clearly confused and trying to find out why she instinctively protected Daredevil from being killed, and she just tries to find out where she came from, finally ending in Matt's old apartment. It's... it's okay, I guess, but I just kind of don't find a lot of the Elektra stuff super-interesting. It's not the fault of the actress or the writers, who did their best to pace a resurrected character coming to terms with conflicting memories and all that jazz, it's perhaps just that this particular subplot feels rather detached and doesn't quite have the necessary buildup that I, as the audience, end up asking the same questions that Madame Gao and the others are asking: why bring Elektra back at all?

Still, a pretty solid episode regardless of the long-term missteps. The plot is heading headlong to a big clash between the Defenders, who drew first blood, against the Hand, and it's pretty exciting.

As a little parting note, can I just say how utterly awesome Stick is with one liners this episode? From his reaction to Sowande's near-death choking and Danny asking if he's dead: "Eh, unfortunately, no." Or his comeback to Sowande's "I was wondering when I would see you again.", which is him going "Me too. -waves hand in front of eyes- Huh. Guess that won't be today." Or his response to Sowande's long scary speech about how he mind-gamed an entire castle to give up: "If I kneel before you right now, shithead, will you shut up?"