Viewer Log: Iron Fist ep 3

So… Danny hasn’t had a super great time since getting back to New York. He’s beset by lies, anger, and more lies. Things don’t really get much better since he escaped the mental hospital that Ward and Joy Meachum sent him to. He was able to convince Colleen to let him hide out at her dojo for the night, they have one close call when some of Ward’s goons came looking for him, but they were scared off by Colleen’s wooden sword. She tells him to hightail it out of the Dojo by morning.

Anyone else getting an "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" vibe?

Ward does the usual runaround to get into his Dad’s secret sanctum. There’s a pretty serious ‘what the heck?’ moment when he finds Harold Meachum sleeping in some sort of stasis pod. Nothing creepy about that. After popping out of the pod, father and son chat. Harold is insisted that a business deal involving an old pier go through, despite Ward’s skepticism. They’re offering thousands more then the initial asking, but Harold is insistent they keep throwing money at the project until it goes through. Harold knows that Ward tried to have Danny killed. Not surprising, giving how wired that place was. He beats his son for disobeying his orders, and demands that he keep Danny safe if the young Rand reappears.

Colleen and Danny have conflicting meditation techniques. Colleen is a little more classical meditation, where Danny needs some rap to focus. They have a quick martial arts match while flirting, flirt fighting, before trying to kick Danny out of the dojo, again. He placates her by promising to pay her bills for the next year if she lets him stay the week. The promise of money, and good looks, can get you a lot in life.

The next day, Ward and Joy butt heads over how to handle the Danny situation. Joy wants to just talk to him, where Ward thinks that’ll just complicate things further. He also gives Joy the assignment to get the pier, as per their father’s instructions. After that, Joy finds Danny waiting on her porch. She tries to be kind and invites him in. They chat about dreams involving her Dad, she remembers a dream about a touching reunion (remember, she thinks he’s dead) and Danny tells her about the “dream” in the Hospital. She seems more than a little shaken by this, but presses on. She, believing Danny is who he says, offers to buy him out of his Rand Enterprises shares. Forty million dollars, so long as he also changes his name. Danny is very upset by these stipulations, and storms off.

Did he really expect brass knuckles to trounce a glowing hand?

Danny visits his family’s memorial. After chatting with a groundskeeper, he looks into whomever has been maintaining the site. And it’s… son of a biscuit, Jeri Hogarth. I am so sick this woman. She pulls her mace on Danny when he gets close, I guess someone appraised her of the situation. They have a rapid-fire q and a, partially to confirm Danny’s id, and partially to info dump Jeri’s connection to Rand. It was the first firm she worked for. They have a chat about options. Jeri informs Danny that turning down the millions was a good idea, since, if they can prove he’s Danny Rand then he’s actually worth Billions. She agrees to help, pro bono, on the condition that if they win, then Jeri’s firm is put on permanent retainer with Rand Enterprises.

We get a few quick bits with the Meachums. Harold does some physical training, but is interrupted by a visit by the Hand. Remember the old gal from season one of Daredevil? She’s back. She demands to know where Harold went. He explains, but she’s not satisfied, he makes him kneel in broken glass to show loyalty. Ward and Joy take their client out, they grease his palm and get the pier, in exchange for a super illegal black market organ exchange. Messed up.

Danny meets up with Jeri again. She’s less than happy with her search results. Most of the important Danny Rand info seems to have mysteriously vanished. She wants him to find something that could prove his identity that he might have forgotten. He goes to an old hospital. Apparently, he’d broken his arm years ago, and was brought to the hospital. He nearly gets his butt kicked by Ward’s hired gun, but taps into his chi and fights back. The guy pulls out like three or four weapons that aren’t guns, stupid, but finally lets the files on fire. Danny could have probably saved his file, but chooses to save the unconscious file-worker from dying a fiery death. Good guy, Danny.

Afterwards, Danny interrupts the Wards meal. He’s pretty furious at all the attempts at hiding who he is. Joy kind of pulls a 180 on her opinion and tells Danny to take the deal and/or piss off. Danny swears that this isn’t over.

Oh great, Jeri's back. I can barely contain my excitement.
If you haven't read my Jessica Jones reviews, I'm being
Super Sarcastic.

Colleen, strapped for cash and getting the idea from one of her students, goes to participate in a cage match. The ‘Daughter of the Dragon’ goes up against Rusty. The massive man is tough, but Colleen takes him down and wins a nice stack of cash.

We then enter the case of Meachum and Rand Enterprises vs. Jeri Hogarth and Daniel Rand. The Meachums, in a very condescending and jerky manner, let Danny know that their reducing their offer and adding a restraining order. Jeri counters with a bowl. Said bowl, was made by Danny years-ago and given to Joy as a gift. Ward is unimpressed, until Jeri points out that the clay has a fingerprint of Danny’s on the underside. Ward is rather furious at potentially losing, promises that he’ll draw this lawsuit out for as long as he can, promising that Danny won’t see his inheritance for at least another ten years. The US legal system is pretty screwy that way.

After the meeting, Danny sees Ward sneak off and make a call. Danny catches the tail end of Ward’s side of the conversation. He follows Ward to Harold’s secret lair. He’s blocked by the handprint scanner, and tries to scale the building. He makes it to the top, but is then shoved off the building when he tries to get into a window. Not a great end to a stressful week.

I know what their trying to do here. Every time Joy offers Danny compensation, he gets furious when she suggests that he also has to change his name. To Danny, the name of Rand is significantly more important than billions of dollars at stake. But, if that is the case, driving the price up when he gets an ace is pretty awful. Just saying. We did get to see some snippets of his training at K’un-Lun via flashback. It was intense training, involving beating a child with bamboo poles. So, for me, it’s not that surprising to see how serious he takes martial arts, and how he has little patience for those who take it lightly. He takes a snide student down by the ankles when said student mouths off one too many times.  Seeing that Harold is in pretty deep with the Hand is interesting. He’s legitimately scared of the group, doing their bidding nearly without question, and even kneeling in broken glass to reaffirm his loyalty. You don’t do that if for someone that unless they completely terrify you. This episode didn’t wow me, but it did intrigue me. I’m hoping to see more of the Iron Fist mythos, and a little more of the Hand next time.