Viewer Log: Iron Fist ep 10

So, last time Danny used his enhanced Chi to cleanse a deadly poison from Colleen’s body. The ordeal completely drained him of his strength, causing him to pass out. Colleen’s master, Bakudo, took Danny, Colleen, and a bound Madam Gao with them to parts unknown. This time, we open to him peacefully waking up with Colleen, and her telling him to just relax, as they’re home. Nothing sinister about that.

To his credit, I did find myself wondering how much of his
Speech was real, and how much was BS.

We quickly cut back to Joy and Harold’s reunion. She’s, understandably, freaking out a little bit about how her dad’s not dead. He does it best to play it off, playing on her emotions with a few old sob stories about what it was like dying and coming back, that sort of thing. He makes it clear that he wants to be part of her life again and to get the entire Meachum clan back into Rand Enterprises. There’s also a rather creepy shot of Harold looking at the rotting corpse of his assistant. He’s hiding it in one of his terrariums. Super creepy.

Colleen shows him around the compound that they’re in. She mentions that this is where she trained after returning to the US from her grandfather’s place in Japan. It’s a place where disenfranchised youth can go, where they can be safe, where they belong. Yeah if you’re not seeing the big neon sign that reads CULT, you’re far too naïve. Danny doesn’t jump to conclusions though, and does get a lesson from Bakudo about a kata that can help him to recharge his chi. So, there’s that. After that, Bakudo ushers Danny away to discuss something in private. He leads Danny to his office and shows him an old video from the 40s. It was a recording of Chinese soldiers traveling through a pass, and then being assaulted by an Iron Fist. Said Fist beats the crap out of them. Bakudo, using his suspiciously accumulated knowledge, offers to show Danny all he needs to know to be a true Iron Fist.

A few minutes later, Joy is able to call Danny and lets him know about all the stuff that’s been happening since he’s been away. Howard takes over and Danny informs him about how they’d captured Gao. Howard is overjoyed about this, and pulls out his good liquor to celebrate. Joy refuses to take some, as it’s like nine am, which pisses Howard off and he smashes the glass. Joy, get out, NOW! A few minutes after that, Bakudo is informed of Danny’s call. Including who he spoke with and where they are. Nothing sinister about that.

Fun fact, while Danny is at the compound, there's always one
person in Red milling around. Care to guess what the Hands
favored color is?

After exploring a bit, and getting even more of a cult vibe from some of Colleen’s former students, he breaks into the one of the out of bounds buildings. Inside, they’re holding several people, including Madam Gao. Danny and her chat via a video feed, where she’s cryptic and creepy. She’s none too subtle about the fact that this place is affiliated with the Hand. Bakudo arrives, claims that she’s being cryptic and trying to sow disunity with Danny. Nothing. Sinister. About. That.

Danny meets up with Colleen, and once he gets them back to their room, starts grilling her about what’s going on. She finally cracks and admits that, yes, she and Bakudo are the Hand. But they’re not the Bad Hand. No, that’s Gao. Bakudo represents a ‘good’ Hand. Danny calls BS, but Colleen tries to defend the group, claiming that Danny’s training in K’un-Lun has brainwashed him. Danny doesn’t believe her thought.

In the night, Bakudo visits Harold Meachum. He claims that, since he captured Gao, all that was hers is now Bakudo’s. But, unlike Gao, he prefers to work with mutually beneficial partnerships whenever possible. He’ll be willing to work towards Harold rejoining society, provided that he supports Bakudo’s chapter of the Hand.

In the night, Danny breaks into another secret room in one of their off limits buildings. He discovers that Bakudo has been spying on him everywhere he went. Danny, obviously, flipped out and smashing up the place. Bakudo arrives and tries to make nice, but Danny beats him and makes a run for it. He’s cornered by several goons, who are then prompty knocked out from behind by… the crazed hobo!?!?! Yeah, it turns out that he’s Danny’s friend from K’un-Lun, Davos. He’d come to bring Danny back to protect their monastery.

At Rand, Harold and a Hand goon break into the office of Lawrence Wilkins, the guy that forced out the Meachums and Danny. He gives the other man an ultimatum, kill himself and Harold will bury the blackmail info that Joy dug up. He of course doesn’t agree, so Harold pulls a gun and blows his brains out. Messed up.

She's locked in a highly secure cell, and yet, if you asked me
who was in control of the situation, I'd still say Madam Gao.

Danny and Davos make it outside, despite a number of Hand blocking their way. They make it to the final gate where they’re stopped by Colleen’s students. Danny is distracted long enough for Bakudo to get in close and stab Danny with something. It’s then revealed that Danny’s lack of focus has caused him to lose his powers. Danny can’t summon the Iron Fist, and they’re looking pretty hosed. Colleen, though, who’d had a change of heart I guess, opens the gate and lets them out.

Back with the non-incarcerated Meachums, Joy asserts control over the Rand board, and then she and dad celebrate their victory. Harold lies about killing Wilkins, and makes it clear that they will have to get rid of Bakudo. In the street somewhere, Danny and Davos argue about what to do next. Davos wants to take Danny back to K’un-Lun so he can do his job. Danny refuses to leave New York. And the discussion when Danny passes out. So yeah, not great week for Danny.

One of the issues of Iron Fist, for me, is the lack of a central villain. The position of antagonist is split unevenly between Harold Meachum, Madam Gao, and now Bakudo. Madam Gao is the only straightforward antagonist, being clearly evil from the get go. Both Bakudo and Harold have to do the whole, two-faced bad guy deal. That eats up a lot of screen time, which slows the plot and makes it harder to get invested in things. For me, at least. That being said, Bakudo is a pretty awesome baddy. He's charismatic, and knowledgeable. And there’s a fierceness to him, like Willem Dafoe in Spider-Man. Or Willem Dafoe in most things. And I like Davos’s entrance, smacking around a few folks before flatly telling Danny that “You’re the worst Iron Fist in History.” Can’t beat an entrance like that. Danny apparently losing his powers is… interesting. Probably would have been more so if he hadn’t lost them at the beginning of the season. Just saying. Still, better then… well, Iron Fist episodes 2-6. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: Iron Fist ep 9

Back to Iron Fist. Yes, I’m finishing this before I go onto The Defenders. We open to a phoenix rising from the ashes. No, wait, no, a business man rising from the swamp. Harold Meachum, whom had been patricided by Ward two episodes ago, has apparently pulled a Lazarus and come back to life. The dagger Ward used on him is still in his gut, but he’s more annoyed than anything else. He pulls it out and start wandering back home.

Meanwhile, Danny and his allies were able to get Madam Gao back to New York, and into Colleen’s dojo. Not really sure how they possibly could have pulled that off, but let’s just keep moving. Danny tries to get the old woman to talk, but, honestly, I don’t have the words to describe how little she seems to care about being held hostage. The team convenes off to one side and try to brainstorm ideas. Claire suggests that Danny goes to Rand’s laboratory and get her some sodium pentothal. It’s the ‘truth serum’ that you see in most flics.

Harold at the moment is wandering around New York. He has a weird conversation with a housewife and her child. His brain is clearly not firing on all cylinders, if you catch my drift. He wonders off again, clearly out of it.

Seriously, I should not be this intimidated by a little old Asian lady,
Who is also tied to a chair!

Joy is kind of freaking out again. Apparently between episodes, Joy looked up the history of the building that Ward showed her. She’d found out that dear ol’ dad had bought the building shortly before his death. Ward is remaining silent, and seems to have vanished from the map. That’s not good. She runs into Danny, (she’d been looking for him by Colleen’s dojo) and lets him know about recent events. Specifically losing their positions at Rand and that her brother has vanished. She wants his help, but Danny is kind of in a hurry and blows her off. He makes it to Rand, sneaks in again, and breaks into the lab to get the drugs.

Meanwhile, Gao is playing mind games with Claire and Colleen. Namely threatening loved ones and implying a possible connection to Colleen’s grandfather. Not good. And, unfortunately, Colleen seems to be suffering from some kind of illness.

Back at Rand, Harold arrives at the building and starts getting back some more of his mind. He bumps into a scary looking hobo, and then breaks in. He gets to the offices, and finds out that Ward and Joy have lost their jobs. Not good. He finally gets enough of his mind back to call his assistant to pick him up. On the drive back, he fills Harold in on all that had happened over the last few days. He is concerned but not overly. He’s more interested about his marvelous resurrection.

The hobo from earlier, silently, knocks out a food truck driver and ties him up. He start watching Rand, menacingly. He entertains himself by making origami throwing starts and hocking them at his captive. Creepy.

Ward visits his father apartment again… for some reason. And imagine his shock when he sees his father standing there. Crap. Rather than being mad, Harold asks for his forgiveness and hugs his son. Not the reaction I’d expect after stabbing a loved one. Ward eventually tells his father that he wants out, of Rand and of his father’s life. Harold is hesitant, but says he’ll allow Ward to go. But, he’ll have to bring Joy inn on things. Not good. Ward still walks off though, the jerk.

So did the Iron Fist become the... Steel Palm?

Danny and co inject Gao with the truth serum. She starts talking gibberish, but the group is distracted when Colleen drops to the floor. Apparently, being stabbed by the weapon back in China had a delayed effect on her. Somehow. Gao then reveals that she's perfectly in control of her mental facalties, and claim that torture won't work on her. Why? Because she spent most of the 17th century getting tortured. Hm... the plot thickens. Maybe. The group is then attacked by a group of mercs working for Gao. They’re able to disable them and hog tie the intruders.

Meanwhile, Ward goes to the Ax Gang. He’d heard from Danny that they had had some information about the Hand. He hopes that they had a means of killing Harold for real. The clan leader shakes his head, but imparts on Ward a story he’d heard back in China. His village had a legend about a shepherd that was given the power to resurrect by the Hand. He fell many times in battle, but continued to rise up. The problem was, that each time the shepherd died and came back, he came back a little worse. The story goes that one day the shepherd, who was incredibly far gone by this point, killed his oldest two children by roasting them alive. The clan leader advises that Ward runs, as the resurrected target their loved ones first. Not good. Once he leaves them, Ward takes a hit of Iron Serpent Heroin and goes for his car. Unfortunately, a pair of cops were searching his car, as there was heroin left of the seat.

As if to illustrate the crazy point, Harold brutally murders his assistant. Why? Harold had made him a nice breakfast of ice cream, as the assistant had said that’s what he’d do if he found himself to be immortal. The assistant, though, commented that he wasn’t a fan of the flavored ice cream that Harold had spread out, but thanked him all the same. This caused Harold to snap and murder him. Oh that’s not good at all.

Ward gets taken to the psyche ward, the same one that Danny spent some time in, with the very same doctor. How crazy? Ward wants out, but the doctor isn’t letting that happen. He diagnosed Ward as having psychological disorders coupled with a drug addiction, so he’s not going anywhere for a while. Meanwhile, Harold lures Joy to his secret apartment and the two have a shocking reunion. Crap, that’s definitely not good.

Woman with daddy issues reconnects with her manipulative,
abusive, and unstable father... This would be bad even if
evil Ninja weren't involved.

Colleen’s sensei, Bakudo arrives at the dojo. He tells Danny to heal Colleen. When it’s clear that Danny has no idea what he means, Bakudo explains. Basically, Danny has to focus his chi to his hand, unclench his fist, place his chi infused hand to the wound, and burn out the poison. He does this, but the experience leaves him drained. Bakudo summons his minions, and they pretty much kidnap Danny and Gao, with Colleen going along willingly. Oh, and the crazy hobo is still following them. Nothing sinister about that.

Once again, we seem to be on an upward swing from the first half of the season. Honestly, if they’d squeeze the first six episodes into three and gave greater focus to things like Danny’s difficulty finding a good work/Iron Fist balance, and/or Ward’s drug problems and extreme stress and this probably wouldn’t be such a bad season overall. Madam Gao is once again one of the best things of this episode. Seriously, I shouldn’t be so unsettled by a tiny Asian woman that is ALSO bound to a chair. Hearing implications like that she might actually be centuries old was interesting. It’s the Marvel universe, and she’s one of the higher ups of an evil Ninja cult that can give people resurrection powers, so it’s entirely possible. On that note, the resurrection of Harold Meachum is creepy and well done. It was just unsettling to see him… reorient himself. It’s kind of understandable, he did go several days without getting oxygen to it. Since this resurrection seems to take time to regenerate various parts, obviously it would take some extra time to fix the brain damage. The Ax gang’s story was also a nice touch. They included a few side notes about how overjoyed the shepherd’s wife and family were when he returned, which was a nice juxtaposition to the moment when he lost that last bit of sanity and murdered his children. It helps to highlight that whatever the Hand does to give this power, it’s unnatural, a perversion of natural laws, and as such chips away at the person they bring back bit by bit. I’m not trusting Bakudo, or what his group represents. Call me crazy, but I really don’t trust someone that can casually take out a bunch of trained mercs and has a small squad of minions at his beck and call. So yeah, another decent episode for a show with such a lackluster start.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

So You Want To Start Reading Marvel Comics?

Hey ya’ll, how’s it going? If you’re just joining us, and haven’t read either the comments on my Scorpion villain profile or the seventh viewer log of the Iron Fist Netflix series, here’s a quick summary of why I’m doing this. An anonymous reader let me know that they were interested in getting into Marvel Comics, and were wondering where was the best place to start. A how to guide for newbies, as they put it. While I’m happy to dispense my knowledge and experience on the subject, the question is both simpler and yet more difficult than one might expect. Why? Because comics have been around a LONG time, and the stories continue to march on. That’s a LOT of content to sift through, and honestly I can’t suggest you start from the very beginning. Let’s get to it, shall we?

A slight misnomer, but an excellent start for anyone.

We’ll begin with the most basic place to start. In both the comment and the opening paragraph of Iron Fist ep 7, I suggested that anyone interested in Marvel comics really should check out Marvel.com. This is for two reasons. One, Marvel offers a service called Marvel Unlimited. For a monthly fee of $9.99, you can get access to a major archive of Marvel comics. You can read any of the titles marked as Marvel Unlimited (which is most of them) on any device. And, in the case of phone or tablet, you can use their app to download up to ten comics onto your device and read them offline, so you can spare your data.  As nice as all of that is, there are a few… drawbacks. For starters, with the basic Marvel Unlimited account there is a sixth month delay on titles. So, you can’t read their newest issues, obviously. And, if you were interested in a more obscure character, their archive is patchy. For example, last time I checked they were missing a few hundred issues of Daredevil’s early years. Can’t necessarily blame them---Matt Murdock has only really become a household name in the last few years, so it’s reasonable that they don’t have all of his issues. And, the modern Devil of Hell’s Kitchen bares only a passing resemblance to his original self. I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s get back on track. The second reason is that, even if one doesn’t have a Marvel Unlimited account, you do have access to the basic features of the site. You can look up different comic series, characters, and even look things up based on comic wide events. Like the Infinity Wars, the Superhero Civil War, the Secret Wars, or, Avengers vs. X-Men. By clicking on the series or character, the site gives you both the core issues of their series, as well as any and all tie-ins to said series in order. So if, for example, you wanted to read up on the Infinity War in preparation for Avengers 3 and 4, you can see both the main story and any and all side stories. In this way you can get the full scope of what the event means. I suggest this approach, whether you want to read the comics online or if you want to get something physical to hold.

Okay, you may be saying, I know where to start looking for the comics, Michael, but where should I start READING the comics? That’s a bit trickier.

Now, if you’re planning to read a series that began being published in the last decade or two, you can start from the beginning no problem. Comics that fall under this category include, but are not limited to, The Runaways, Miss Marvel (Kamala Khan version), Toxin, or anything that falls under the Ultimate series. For the first three I mentioned, and others like them, you can start their stories from the beginning with little to no knowledge of the Marvel Universe at large. Since they’re the literal start for these characters, they let you take baby steps towards the main Marvel universe at large. All you really need to know going in is that this is the Marvel Universe, and regardless of how mundane the opening situation is, a gathering of wealthy elites and their children, a teenage rager of a party, or checking out a minor noise complaint, things are about to get SUPER weird. Like pacts with demons, terrigan mist bombs, or being bonded to a chaotic neutral alien monster kind of weird. You’ll get to know the characters that are key to the story, how they fit into or don’t fit into the usual world they live in, what they think of current in-universe events, and so on. And, when they introduce a more established character, they do give you the general idea of who they are and why they may matter to what is currently going on. For example, at one point the new Miss Marvel, Kamala Khan, meets Wolverine for the first time. She explains who he is, that he’s one of her all-time favorite X-Men, and that she’s holding back a “squee.” She’s a dork after my own heart. As their sewer adventure continues, Wolverine himself explains some of the things going on with him, most specifically that at the time he had lost his healing powers. He doesn’t go into all the details, mind you, but it is a nice reminder that Kamala is just a small part of the much grander web we’re dealing with here.

Alternately, you can start any comic that falls under ‘Ultimate Marvel’ title for an entirely different reason: It is its own universe. Let me explain. Back in the late 90s and early 2000s the comic book industry had hit a major downturn. A lawyer who worked for Marvel comics, Bill Jemas, suggest that the massive 60+ year continuity was what scared off a lot of new readers, and caused longtime fans to eventually burn out from. His suggestion was a big fat reset, start a new line of comics that could both update the characters in a more modern setting, and allow for an entirely new continuity of stories to exist. So Marvel took this idea and ran with it, creating the Ultimate Universe. They kept the original universe going, to please long time fans, FYI. Ultimate Marvel took existing heroes (Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America, the X-Men and so on) and reimagined them as being products of the new millennium. Well, everyone except Cap, obviously---they just defrosted him several years later than before.  This allowed the characters to reach out to a new generation, and also create a more… cohesive story right from the start. 

Not a terrible costume, but still not very good.
Kind of glad we're kind of forgetting about this.

What do I mean? Well, unlike Stan Lee and his compatriots from back in the day, the writers for Ultimate Marvel DID have forty to sixty years of source material to draw upon. Where, for example, back in 1963 Stan Lee and artist Steve Ditko had to think up new characters, conflicts and stories on a weekly basis, the newer writer Brian Bendist had all of the Spider-Man characters and stories to pick and choose from. So, while certain things like Peter Parker’s home life, his uncle Ben and Aunt May, and his…we’ll call it a… falling out with the Osborn Family were more or less set in stone, they could play around with a lot of other things. Rather than have Peter and all of his enemies randomly gaining their powers through multiple lab accidents and experiments, Bendist tied a lot of it back to Norman Osborn and his company Oscorp, which is something Lee and Ditko couldn’t do since Norman and Harry Osborn, and the family company of Oscorp weren’t introduced until a year or more into publication. In the original story, Peter was bitten by a radioactive spider that gave him powers and he later battled many costumed villains who gained their powers through several other random accidents. In the Ultimate storyline, Peter is bitten by a genetically enhanced spider that had been treated to a performance enhancing Oscorp drug called OZ. Norman’s obsession with recreating the effects of said bite, he had illegal surveillance of Peter’s enhanced abilities, is what eventually lead him to accidentally turning himself into “The Goblin,” as well as turning chief Oscorp Scientist Otto Octavius into Doc Oct, and lead to the creation of several other villains that later beset Peter. A much more focused story, wouldn’t you say?

Granted, the Ultimate series isn’t perfect. Captain America is much more intolerant and a tad xenophobic at times from my taste. A man who recently time hopped from WWII would NEVER belittle the French people by calling them cowards, is all I’m saying. And certain characters are taken down… disturbing routes. I haven’t read the Ultimate X-Men myself, but have it on good authority that the characters of Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch have a very twisted relationship in this iteration. Think of the kind that fellow twins Cersei and Jamie Lannister have in Game of Thrones. Gross. So again, not perfect, but you can start from the beginning with no trouble. Granted, the entire Ultimate Marvel Universe was effectively erased in an event not too long ago, but several characters and stories have been brought over to the main Marvel Universe, the best example being Ultimate Spider-Man’s successor, Miles Morales. So there is still merit in reading them.

Okay, Michael, I hear some of you saying, but I want to read stories about Iron Man, Spider-Man, Captain America, and/or Wolverine. From the main series, the stuff that they focus on for the movies and stuff. Where do I start with that? And in all honesty, I can say start from wherever. Keep in mind, comic books were designed to try and get someone hooked in regardless of when they started the story, be it issue 1 or 101. Granted, if you start in the middle of a longer running story arc it’s a little bit harder, but by in large, you can start at any time and get the gist of what’s going on. Any longer running characters that may pop up are usually reintroduced in a quick blurb or two when they appear, (example, “Hey look, it’s my good buddy Deadpool, I haven’t seen you since we saved the world together two months ago”). There’s also typically an asterisk and a margin note letting you know what issue off what comic to look up to see this previous adventure.  

Does it seem like I, Michael T. Johnson, the soul content creator of Basics of Superheroes, self-proclaimed super-geek and geek for super people, am trying to stop you from reading the comics straight through from the very beginning? Do I have something against the early comics? The answer is no… but yes. Kind of. Sort of. Maybe. Stan Lee’s stuff hasn’t aged well! There I said it. Stan, if somehow, some way you are reading this, I’m sorry. I love you man, and greatly appreciate all you’ve done for comic books and the super hero genre. But, your early issues have some of the Dumbest Plots I’ve ever seen. I mean, seriously? Spider-Man runs into the Sandman after their first encounter because the big dumb collection of silicon wants to steal a diploma from Peter Parker’s school? Honestly? And don’t get me started on the fact that the early women of Marvel were pretty much all the same person with slightly different hairdos. All secretly (but not really secretly) fawning over the hero. So silly. Maybe I just don’t appreciate these stories like someone from back in the day might. I am a 26-year-old ‘90s kid’ after all. Sixty years really can change the public’s ability to appreciate a work. Just saying.

One of these things is not like the others.
One of these things is lame.

Also, keep in mind that the Marvel comics have been going on for decades. And in that time, characters are written in, written out, have their back stories rearranged, switch from good to bad to good again, gain powers, lose powers, gain status, lose status, change careers, die and get brought back to life again. It’s a… complicated web of events, to say the least. The best example I can think of for this fluctuating and changing is with Daredevil. If you don’t recognize the name, he’s widely considered to be Marvel’s counter to Batman. He’s a highly skilled ninja who battles all sorts of dark and twisted foes, who often finds himself in the morally gray area that his fellow heroes avoid. He’s also legally blind, but has enhanced sense to make up for it. This is not at all how he started out. Other than the blindness, obviously. In the beginning, he was much more akin to fellow Marvel character, Spider-Man. Yeah, when he started out he was more of a wise cracking super-person, that dressed in bright brown and yellow, beating up bad guys, not with his iconic batons, but with a cane. Like an old person, Shepherd’s hook style, cane. And there was an entire subplot about Daredevil considering including a cap with his costume to hide his regular gear when acting as Daredevil. And who, in his first encounter with the villainous mind controlling Purple Man had to mentally debate if it was illegal to ‘ask someone to break the law.’ He also used to battle a portly crime boss called the Owl who could glide for some reason. Not really the stuff of a ninja warrior, now is it? He got the change around in the late 1970s, when author Roger McKenzie took over and made the story significantly darker and rewrote much of the character’s background. This was over 150 issues in, over 15 years in. That’s a LOT of stuff to just kind of write out.

That’s a lot of stuff to digest… hm… ah, here’s a better way to put it. Most people these days seem to treat Marvel comics like a book. They think that there is a definitive beginning, a perfect place to start. And, largely, that is untrue. They’ve spend decades designing the stories, and the way they are told, so that one could literally pick up any issue and hopefully get sucked in. The nature of this structure has its pros and cons, but that’s a topic for another time. In the end, all you really need to do is pick a medium to view it, pick a character or particular event you want to read, and just start. And that’s all there really is to say about that. I hope this has been instructive. If anyone has any further questions, or would like to hear what I think are some of the better comics to start with, feel free to ask in the comments below. Have a good night.

Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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Viewer Log: Iron Fist ep 8

Before we get started to today, I have one question. Do you like Sci fi? If you read my stuff, that’s probably a very strong possibility. If so, and you like listening to stuff, I suggest checking out Redshift. Redshift is an internet podcast version of the old school radio dramas. They just had their third season finale, and said story, Once a Greech by Evelyn E. Smith, (http://www.fancypantsgangsters.com/shows/season-3-episode-6-once-a-greech-by-evelyn-e-smith/) features me! That’s right, I’m a voice actor. Well, semi-amateur voice actor. Kind of like how I’m a semi-amateur blogger. Give it a look, I know you’ll enjoy it. Enough promoting my hobby, on to… well, my other hobby.

Okay, so when we last Danny and co he had found out that the villainous Madam Gao was on her way to a Rand owned facility in China. Said facility, in Anzhou, was where Danny and his family had been heading when their plane went down. And, in a fit of intense rage, Ward repeatedly stabbed his father in the stomach, killing Harold. Not a great day for everyone involved, not going to lie.

The makeup on this guys is really good. At least, God I hope
it's make up.

We open to Claire reading a letter, presumably from Luke Cage. I mean, I can’t remember if she was in contact with anyone else that is currently incarcerated. As she starts going about her evening routine, we see a sinister shadow moving around the room. Ominous. Danny, meanwhile tries to warn Claire about what might be coming for her as he heads up to Harold’s penthouse. Once inside, he finds Harold missing, and a rather sizable puddle of blood. He attacks a guy sneaking up behind him, only to discover his would be attacker was none other than Ward. Ward, who’d come to clean up the mess, feints ignorance as to his father’s whereabouts. Danny walks off, Ward shouts insults at him about how this is all his fault, and then gets to work cleaning up the mess.

With Claire and Colleen, Danny starts formulating a plan. Hm… that’s not quite right. Danny is going to China, and he’s going to figure out the details on the long plane ride over. That is a terrible thing to do, Danny, you’re no Tony Stark. Danny wants to go alone, but Claire and Colleen refuse to be left behind. Danny protests, but then relents.

Meanwhile, Joy and Ward meet with Lawrence Wilkins, the new head of Rand. He is offering them a very generous severance package, a hundred million dollars. Ward wants to take it, but Joy does not. They have a bit of an argument over what action to take. The deal only goes through if they both sign, you see. As the negotiation goes on, Ward starts hallucinating seeing blood. The nonexistent stains on his shirt keep him from hearing all of the details. Ward, after snapping out of his funk, goes to Wilkins a short time later and tries to barter a separate deal for himself, but Joy had already rejected the original deal, so he has nothing to negotiate with.

Danny and co, after surviving a bit of rough turbulence, land in China and start staking out the factory in question. They wait around for several hours, until Colleen gets the idea to pay a homeless guy for information. Don’t know what’s more unlikely, that the Japanese American woman also speaks Mandarin Chinese, or that the Chinese homeless man speaks fluid English. Nuts. They learn that the workers at the facility are slaves, being forced to make the Hand’s Iron Serpent, as it’s called, Heroin. Danny decides that they’re going to burn the facility to the ground, once the slaves are taken away for their evening meal. Why the slaves are allowed to leave for that, I’ll never know.

Back in the states, Ward confronts his sister about refusing the offer without consulting him. She reveals that she has another strategy. Ward assumes that she wants to use Danny’s 51% voting share to get their jobs back, but she has an even shadier strategy. A couple months back, she’d hired a PI to follow the Rand Board Members around, taking pictures of them doing sleazy or unethical behavior. Said PI, whom Joy mentions is an alcoholic woman, was clearly a reference to Jessica Jones. Joy tries to get her brother to open up to her, but he refuses. Until she admits that she looks up to him. He resolves to tell her everything, starting with their Dad and his penthouse. Oh dear.

Could this guy make it any clearer that he's a drunken fist
master? 

Danny and Colleen invade the facility and start setting it up to burn. They’re interrupted by Madam Gao’s sudden arrival. Danny and Colleen split up, Colleen to meet up with Claire, and Danny to catch Gao. He’s stopped after Gao enters a separate building. Said building is guarded by a man with a giant scar across his face. He fakes being drunk, but looks to be a master of drunken boxing. Danny and Scarface throw down, with Danny slamming him through a wall when Scarface claims Danny lost his honor. Meanwhile, Colleen has a swordfight with a woman guard. This is why, even when you’re an evil Ninja cult, you outfit your guards with GUNS. She gets a slash across her arm, defeats her opponent and links up with Claire. They meet up with Danny, just before being confronted by Gao.

Ward takes Joy all the way up to Harold’s penthouse before stopping. When at the final security door, he starts hallucinating more blood. He obviously freaks out and tries to flee. He tries to lie to Joy about what he was going to show her and then storms off in a huff.

This is why even evil ninja cults need to give
their guards GUNS!

Danny and co are forced to confront Gao’s guards. They kill the two guards, and learn that Gao’s guards use weapons with poisoned blades. The effects of said poison are identical to what Danny saw happen to his family’s pilots’ years ago. He, in a fury, summons his Iron Fist and swings at Gao. He intentionally misses, shattering the wall behind her. He decides to take Gao back with them to the US. Oh joy.

Again, this is a significantly better episode to what we’ve been treated to thus far. It’s kind of funny, that Luke Cage started off really strong but started to fizzle out towards the end, while Iron Fist started off weak but seems to be building to a decent ending. It’s funny because Luke and Danny are best friends, for those who don’t know. The fight that Danny had with Scarface is significantly better than the darkly lit fights we’ve been shown before. Seeing Danny shaken up, both early on with the bout of rough turbulence and later when Danny started pounding Scarface’s face in, are much better character moments, too. Madam Gao continues to be one the best element of this show, as she’s still intensely creepy and unshakable. I’ve never been more terrified of a little old Asian woman then I have been with Madam Gao. So creepy. Hopefully things will continue on this upward swing.

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