Viewer Log: Iron Fist ep 13

Okay, so we’ve hit the season finale. How does it open? To Harold Meachum getting dressed and heading to the office, all with a smug grin on his face on forcing Danny to go on the run. He arrives just as Ward is having a meeting with Jeri Hogarth. Ward is letting the #$%^#y attorney know that he’s certain that Danny’s been set up. Jeri doesn’t see much hope, though, as Danny kind of assaulted federal officers. They’re interrupted by Harold’s arrival. Jeri is obviously freaked out to see Harold, whom was her boss back when she was a Rand Enterprises intern, and mentions that faking his death will mean a massive fine when reported. Once Jeri leaves, Ward lets his father know what a terrible idea that him coming back from the dead will be. Harold brushes it off, claiming that they’ll just spin some bs about Rand Enterprises used gene therapy and cryotherapy to keep him alive and fix him up. Harold is already plotting about how they’ll proceed with Rand now that the Hand is out of the picture, and Danny is a fugitive. He plots to both sell the Iron Serpent Heroin, and the cure that Bakudo gave Ward to make huge bucks. Ward shakes his head and points out that Harold must have been manipulating Danny from the moment he came back. To which Harold laughs, and claims he’d been manipulating Danny for much longer than that.

So which one is Coulson, and which one is Fury?

Danny and Colleen, meanwhile are on the run. They have I guess spent the last few days separate, but met up in Central Park for supplies and exchanging info. Apparently, Danny is so naïve that he can’t seem to process why the man that has shown to be a lying, manipulative, violent sociopath would stab him in the back like this. “But he didn’t see all the stuff we saw, Michael” I hear someone saying. Shut up, I can be mad about Danny being stupid. After some debating, they use Claire to get Jeri Hogarth’s attention and the four have a legal meeting. In a back alley. Jeri let’s Danny know that, legally speaking, he was hosed the moment he smacked around those DEA officers. She gives him the evidence that the DEA gave her, since she’s Danny’s legal counsel. He confirms the info is largely real, but all the names had been edited to read Daniel Rand. So, he would have a legal leg to stand on, if all of the originals weren’t on a tablet. That Harold has. Shoot. According to Hogarth, Danny has three options. 1. Go back to K’un-Lun and live out his days doing whatever monks do. 2. Turn himself in and spend an indefinite time in prison as the case goes through the legal system, or 3. Prove his innocents. Being Danny Rand, he chooses option 3. And as much as it pains him, he has to go to the one person less trustworthy then Harold Meachum.

Danny and Colleen break into the Hand compound. The place is completely deserted, looking like the evil Ninja Cult has moved its future operatives to a less conspicuous location. But, there is still one person left, locked in her sell. Yeah, not shocked no one wanted to get Gao out of her cell. Old woman is just so off putting. Though… technically, with Bakudo either dead or indisposed, doesn’t that make her the ranking Hand? Whatever, Danny and Gao have a nice little chat. She points out how stupid he is, and then gives him the bit of info that I think he should have been able to puzzle out by now. That, the Hand didn’t have a huge amount to gain by killing the Rand’s, as they were already a tumor in the companies belly by that point. Harold Meachum on the other hand, had quite a lot to gain from Wendel Rand crashing in the mountains.

Danny, Colleen, and Claire reconvene. Danny is still, somehow, having trouble believing that the guy that has been acting like a supervillain is actually a supervillain. Geeze, Luke Cage had an easier time accepting that his former best friend Diamondback was his half-brother and evil. Claire tries to convince Danny that killing Harold won’t help, but she kind of gets outvoted by Danny and Colleen, who are both for killing Harold.

Ward visits Joy in the hospital, and tries to convince her that their father is a murderous psychopathic kind-of-zombie. Which she refuses to believe. Can’t say I blame her, as Harold has largely been in control around her, and Ward has most certainly not been. Afterward, he and Danny meet up and exchange info. Danny tells Ward that Harold killed his parents, and Ward tells Danny that the tablet is locked in a hidden safe at Rand. Joy, meanwhile, visits her father and finally gets some suspicions that Harold at least lied about Danny’s involvement with Gao’s heroin.

I never completely got this effect. Is this signaling Danny's
Chi is out of balance? Or that something dangerous is coming?

Off camera, it seems, Danny and co formulated a plan to get the tablet. The plan was to have Ward sneak in and check the situation. If clear, Claire would cause a distraction outside, and then Danny and Colleen would break in and steal the tablet. This plan fails miserably as Harold and a bunch of goons are inside, and Harold knocks out Ward with a golf club when Ward tries to report in. Danny, despite several rational objections, runs in. Claire is able to distract the guards using a burning peanut stand, and Danny takes care of the remaining guards using his martial arts.

Colleen and Danny make it to the top floor. The former using the stairs, and the later Tarzan swinging in from the roof. A huge brawl takes place, which is only stopped when Danny Iron Fist punches the ground to stop Harold from shooting Colleen. Ward gets the tablet, and Danny chases Harold onto the roof for the final showdown.

Spoilers incoming. Also, got to talk about spoilers in the synopsis, so if you want to experience it before reading my summary and thoughts, stop here.

Danny is kept on the defensive because Harold… has… a handgun. Sigh, I’ll get to that in a minute. They have a few minor scuffles, with Danny getting in close for a few quick strikes but falling back before Harold can shoot. Danny eventually gets the drop on him, literally, and impales Harold on some doohickey. Danny has kind of a weird flashback to fighting Shao-Lao, realizes his Chi is flowing correctly and decides he won’t kill Harold. Harold pulls himself off the thing and tries to attack Danny, but is shot and killed by Ward, whom had arrived with Colleen a moment before.

How is it that Madam Gao can lose so consistently, but
still get such major victories?

In the aftermath, Danny and Ward see Harold’s body laid to rest. They’re cremating him to ensure he doesn’t resurrect again. Jeri arrives as well, to let Danny know that the charges have been dropped in light of his evidence, and a sizable donation to the DEA’s widows and orphans fund. Danny leaves control of Rand’s day to day in Ward’s hands, and get’s Colleen to agree to visit K’un-Lun with him. He realized leaving like he did was wrong and wants to make amends with the monks.

Davos and Joy meet up, and the two agree that their respective lives were pretty royally screwed but by Danny. The two feel he’s dangerous, and actually agree that they should put him down. Madam Gao smiles evilly from a few feet away. Something wicked this way comes.

In the Himalayas, Danny and Colleen reach the gate to K’un-Lun. There’s blood everywhere, and to Danny’s shock, the entire city is gone. Oh that can’t possibly be good.

I have mixed feelings about this ending. The good things first. The reveal that Davos and Joy will be gunning for Danny if/when Iron Fist gets a season 2 was very interesting. It fits with their characters, as both rather selfishly feel that Danny’s involvement in their lives only brought on negative things. Davos feeling that Danny stole his destiny as the Iron Fist, and Joy believing Danny brought about the end of her family. Again, gross oversimplifications and selfish reasons, but understandable. The reveal that K’un-Lun is either destroyed or the pathway has been damaged is very ominous and a good set up for either Iron Fist season 2 and/or the Defenders.

How do you lose an entire magical monastery?
Oh right, it's magical guardian and his immediate #2 left
their posts. Yeah, this is all on you, Danny.

The bad is the final fight as a whole. It has the same problem as Jessica Jones, where the hero and villain don’t match up at all. Like the Purple Man, Harold has no combat orientated powers, and thus a lot of tension is lost once Danny is able to get in close. Sure, he’s substantially weakened by his Iron Fist not working reliably, but 15 years of Kung Fu training trumps whatever the heck Harold’s been doing to stay fit. And hamstringing Danny by giving Harold a gun is just a mood killer. There’s a reason why, when a hero and villain throw down, guns are rarely involved. Because we’d much rather see two people with comparable strength, speed, and agility throwing down then see one guy chasing another with a pistol drawn. Also, I have no idea what the dealio is with Danny flashing back to Shao-Lao in the end. Was there no Dragon, and he was somehow given a vision of what his ‘turning point’ was before magic gave him the Iron Fist brand? Did the flashing lights just remind him of the aftermath of his fight with Shao-Lao? I get the sense that they didn’t think this one completely through.

Overall, this is probably the weakest of the Marvel Netflix family of shows. It’s about a 60/40 split on the ratio of good to bad episodes, with the finale being mediocre at best. The plot was a little jumbled in the middle, the multiple villains just added more problems than they solved, the martial arts was largely a footnote instead of a highlight, and Danny made me want to smack my head in frustration on a number of occasions. Is it an awful show, no, I get the sense that there was a fair amount of talent both in front of and behind the camera. It is, however, sloppy. I hope that Danny as a character improves in The Defenders, and that if he gets a second season, that a little more care is put into it. Have a good night everybody.

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Viewer Log: Iron Fist ep 12

We open to a guy strapped to a gurney. And for once, it isn’t Danny. Yeah, so Ward has spent the last few episodes in a psych ward, detoxing from the various chemicals that he’s pumped into his body. Because his father is a bastard. That might be a little harsh, but then again, no, no it really isn’t. He’s having some pretty intense visions about his father coming to kill him, but they’re just that, hallucinations. He’s finally broken out of his insane delirium by Bakudo. The Hand Leader has coming to Ward to offer him a deal. He promises to free Ward from the ward, get him back in control of Rand, and kill Harold, for reals. In exchange, he just wants Ward’s help capturing Danny. He also throws in a special serum that completely purges the Iron Serpent Heroin from his system, for free.

Back with Danny, he does his best to figure out what had happened with Colleen, as well as keep her and Davos from murdering each other. Can’t say I’m surprised, Davos was a devout follower of K’un-Lun’s teachings, and K’un-Lun’s monk preach that the only good Hand is a dead Hand. Danny’s able to cool both their tempers, for the time being, and they back off to prep for what to do next.

Is there any weapon more epic then a Katana?

At Harold’s apartment, Harold and Joy continue to watch over the fund transfers from Hand accounts to Harold’s. How has Joy not gotten that her father is evil yet? Whatever, Ward arrives a moment later. Things are obviously tense as Ward tries to convince his sister to leave with him, but she refuses because… daddy issues. Not wanting to leave his sister in the hands of a mad zombie, Ward pulls a gun and demands that Joy come with him. They back towards the elevator, but are cut off by the arrival of Bakudo and his goons. Tired of waiting, Bakudo has his goons mow down Harold’s and holds the family hostage. He demands that Ward stop the fund transfer, which he does. He then reveals how to kill Harold permanently, by decapitation. Dark. He then demands Ward’s phone before he does anything else.

Danny, meanwhile, is patching up Colleen and trying to patch things up with her as best he can. The moment is ruined, though, by Davos coming in and saying mean things, and then by a phone call. Bakudo is very tired of waiting. He pulls a gun and shoots Joy through her stomach. He estimates that she has 30 minutes before the trauma and blood loss kills her. Danny has that long to get there, if he wants Joy to get medical attention. Davos tries to talk Danny down, but he’s not listening. He storms off.

If I remember that episode of Mythbuster's correctly, this
is impossible. But it's still pretty awesome.

Twenty nine minutes later, Bakudo prepares to decapitate Harold. He gives Harold the chance to say his last words, which can be summed up as “Screw you Ward. Joy, you were always my favorite.” But Danny rushes in at the last moment. He turns himself over, Bakudo has his hands shackled and they take him down. While in the elevator, Bakudo hints at the Hands’ plans for Danny. Something about turning the Iron Fist into Bakudo’s personal boogey man, and that a certain Hand operative is interested in working with him. In the lobby, Danny is able to focus his chi just long enough to shatter his bonds, but not enough to wreck Bakudo’s face. Colleen and Davos slip in as well, and handle the goons while Danny fights Bakudo. The goons are finished off, and Bakudo makes a run for it.

The three heroes chase Bakudo down. Colleen demands that she be the one to fight him, and the men acquiesce. Colleen and Bakudo have a pretty intense and surprisingly even sword fight. For a few minutes, anyway. Bakudo snaps Colleen’s katana in half, but she’s able to somehow kick the end of her blade into Bakudo’s leg. After that, she stabs him in the gut, knocking him down. She refuses to out and out kill him, so Davos does it.

Davos and Danny argue over tactics, and get into a fist fight. They’re surprisingly even in the fight, but Danny’s able to focus his chi long enough to use the Iron Fist to stop him. Danny apologizes, not for leaving but for the way he left. Davos marches off in a huff. Danny and Colleen turn back to Bakudo’s body, finding it gone. Most likely stolen by Hand Ninja while they were distracted.

I really can't think of a more epic final fight scene then
a sword fight in the rain.

Ward and Harold get Joy to a hospital to look over her GSW. While Ward fills out the paperwork, Harold actually compliments his son for trying to kill him again. Harold admits that he plans to put them, the Meachums, at the head of Rand. He gets a call from Danny, and smiles evilly when he hears of Bakudo’s defeat.

Danny and Colleen ‘reconcile,’ and the next day they perform a kata together. Is this a martial artist style of flirting? Their moment is ruined, though, by a text from Ward. Why is he texting? To warn Danny that Harold set him up and someone’s on their way to get them. Shoot. A bunch of goons in black break in and tell them to get on the ground. Danny and Colleen smack them around, only to find out they aren’t Hand, they’re DEA agents. Double shoot. They make a run for it.

I’m a little disappointed at the end of Bakudo. He was probably the best wholly original character of this series, and he’s beaten in the penultimate episode, and by someone other than the protagonist. I get the symbolism of it, Colleen the pure student defeating Bakudo, her corrupt master, but still, it feels cheap. But, on the other hand, this ending does mean he COULD return. We don’t know how the Hand’s resurrection technique works or if Bakudo has gone through it. If he has, he’ll resurrect, and if he hasn’t, they might be able to perform it on him posthumously. Could be interesting. Hm… Since Bakudo is gone, and Gao is imprisoned, then that just leaves Harold to serve as the final boss. Not sure how I feel about that. That being said, this was still a decent episode. Tension was high, as were the stakes, and seeing Danny and co beating down Hand is always satisfying. Next time, it all comes to an end.

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Viewer Log: Iron Fist ep 11

So… Danny has found out that one of the people that he trusts implicitly, Colleen Wing, is in fact a member of the Hand evil Ninja cult. Considering the fact that Danny already has some major trust issues, and for the last fifteen years he’d been trained to DESTROY the Hand, you can understand him freaking out. And if that wasn’t enough, the wound on Danny’s side that Bakudo gave him isn’t getting any better.

Fighting a dragon feels like a ton of work to get a tattoo,
a glowing hand, and eternal guard duty.

This time, we open to a flashback. In said flashback, Davos comes across Danny just after facing off against Shao-Lao. Shao-Lao, for those just joining us, is an ancient Dragon, whom a warrior must defeat to claim the title of Iron First. And, no, we’ve yet to see the dragon. Danny had defeated the magic dragon, and claimed the Iron Fist. I wonder if anyone let him know that he’d get Shao-Lao’s mark burned into his chest. Davos helps him to his feet, claims that he’ll be Danny’s second, and the two prep to perform their duties. Which, personally, makes me wonder why Davos just gets to do that. The lead Guardian has to fight a dragon, but his immediate #2 just… get’s to be it? Don’t get me wrong, Davos is one of K’un-Lun’s best, I just find it odd he doesn’t have to perform a test of his own. Weird.

In the present, Danny is still reeling from Colleen’s apparent betrayal and being stabbed by Bakudo, another leader of the Hand. Danny tries to access his powers, but unfortunately his chi is still out of balance after everything that’d happened. Davos wants to return to K’un-Lun, partially to force Danny to do his flipping job, and partially to get the elders to use their powers to realign Danny’s chi. Danny refuses to leave, though, because his desire to destroy the Hand is rapidly growing out of control. Davos is willing to help, on the condition that the moment things are handled, they’ll return to K’un-Lun. Their first objective, though, is to patch up the giant gaping wound in his side from Bakudo’s dagger.

Meanwhile, Colleen returns to her dojo. It’s still pretty messed up from when the various Hand factions broke in and kind of kidnapped them. She’s snuck up upon by Bakudo, who wants to know why she ran off the previous night. Bakudo has decided that Danny’s a lost cause, but Colleen still… hmmm if I’m feeling nice I’d call it naïve, but if I’m being serious I’d call her stupid, so… Colleen is still naïve enough to believe that she can sway Danny into believing that their Hand isn’t evil. Bakudo demands that she drop it, and get back to finding Danny. Did anyone else get a serious 90s TMNT Shredder vibe from Bakudo? Just me?

Danny and Davos arrive at Claire’s apartment and convince her to patch up Danny’s wound. She’d going to start having to charge Danny, Luke and Matt for medical expenses. After getting Davos to leave them alone for a bit, Danny explains that Colleen is part of the Hand and what had happened since he’d been taken. She finishes the patch job, and gives Danny a shirt to replace the bloodied one he’d had. It was one of the bullet hole riddled shirts that Luke Cage left behind.

The more I see these two together, the more I worry that
Things will NOT end well.

With the Meachum’s, Harold seems to be slowly losing control of himself. He punches a punching-bag until his hands start bleeding and the bag itself tears. He then goes to check on Joy. While he’d been training, she’d been hacking the tablet that Danny had stolen from Madam Gao’s assistant a couple episodes back. She’d discovered that there are a number of Hand accounts in the Rand corporate machine, and while they’d been designed to syphon money, they’d recently been redirected to transfer the funds to a single account. They assume it’s Bakudo’s, which puts a smile on Harold’s face. They’ve got some ammo.

While Danny is out trying to refocus his chi, Claire and Davos chat. It’s clear that the foreign martial artist is uncomfortable with the outside world, what sort of sane person insults Pizza, and is eager to get back home. Claire gets a little more Iron Fist background, namely the whole having to fight Shao-Lao thing, and that while Davos clearly wanted the responsibility of being an Iron Fist, it’s a once in a generation sort of thing. There can be no other Iron Fist until Danny dies. Their discussion is interrupted when the Pizza arrives.

Outside, rather than finding the delivery guy, she finds Colleen with said pizza. Colleen wants to talk, but Claire is obviously more than a little hesitant to trust her right now. Two seasons of Daredevil and most of Iron Fist have taught her that the Hand very rarely play fair or nice. Colleen keeps trying to swing the bs that ‘That’s the other Hand, my Hand is the good hand’ but Claire isn’t buying it. But she also realizes that Danny’s hurting and needs to talk to her.

On top of a roof, Danny is performing his meditative kata. Unfortunately, his various angry and bitter emotions are keeping him from recharging his powers. He has a quick flashback to when he and Davos were guarding the pass to K’un-Lun. While Davos is 100% into the job, Danny is clearly not completely set on the idea of spending the rest of his days guarding a mountain pass. He’s drawn from his reflections when Colleen arrives. She begs him to listen, but Danny refuses. He’s seen enough of the Hand to know that the group is bad news. Colleen leaves, but not before apologizing for hurting him.

In Claire’s place, it becomes clear that Davos has taken one too many blows to the head. He eats pizza for the firsts time and only says its ‘not terrible.’ Head trauma is the only way I can explain such insanity. Danny comes in and tells the two that he’s going to bring the tablet he stole back to Harold for him to search through. Clarification, Danny has the physical tablet, while Harold had downloaded all of the files to peruse at his leisure. While Claire doesn’t’ try to stop them, she makes it clear that she’s not 100% okay with Danny’s fixation on finishing off the Hand.

Colleen, across town, tries to make amends with Danny. She’d been told that Claire was running out of antibiotics, so goes to a former student that’s working at a hospital. She tries to get some antibiotics, but, in the end is captured by the Hand. The student ratted her out.

Danny, along with Harold, Joy, and Davos, meet and work out a strategy. It’s a pretty simple one, Joy will shut down all of the accounts feeding into Bakudo’s. When he comes to Harold, seeking vengeance, Danny and Davos will jump him and end this. Not the most intricate plan, but hey, it could work.

At the Hand Compound, Colleen is brought before Bakudo. He’s upset that she didn’t report back Danny’s location and about the obvious insubordination. He’s done with the nice guy act, too, as it’s clear that Colleen isn’t going to buy the kind Sensei act anymore. He has her taken to a small lab, with the veiled remark that she’ll still contribute to the Hand. Not sure if they’re going to just drain her of blood, or perhaps turn her into one of the Hand’s zombie Ninja, but Colleen’s not having it. She is able to smack around a few former students, escape her bonds and make a run for it.

Davos, you're watching you buddy reconcile with his gf
that works for evil Ninja. That's several types of creepy.

Outside, Danny and Davos stake out the place. While they wait, Danny explains why he decided to leave K’un-Lun. Namely, he was wondering if it was right to just guard the pass for his entire life, and when he asked for a sign, he saw a bird fly through the mountains. This being a subtle sign that the passage between K’un-Lun and normal space had been opened. He set off that day. Davos also reveals that he’d been harboring a lot of anger against Danny of late, for taking Davos’ supposed birthright as the Iron Fist, and then abandoning them with it. Can’t say I blame him. They’re interrupted by seeing Colleen flee. Danny catches up to her and the two seem to reconcile slightly as rain falls around them.

This series should have started in K’un-Lun. Heck, it should have started right where this episode did, with Danny getting the mark of Shao-Lao emblazoned upon his chest. The first four episodes could have been him learning about the duties of the Iron Fist in the city, episode five could have been him coming to America, six reclaiming Rand, and then the remainder of the series fighting the Hand in New York. Is that timeline perfect, no, but it’s a better use of time then the episodes we got. Davos is a much more interesting character then most of the folks Danny has dealt with. He’s a legacy warrior, from a line of warriors, that missed out on the greatest honor his people can bestow, to his best friend, for unknown reasons. Seeing that alone could have made up an entire season, with Davos doing his best to support his friend and also see the ill will he feels slowly build up over time. Just saying. Colleen is a little insufferable of late. I can understand why she’s loyal to the Hand, it’s a group she’s been a part of for years, and she’d mostly only seen the ‘good will’ that Bakudo performed. But, seriously, I can only take so much BS about ‘yeah we’re the Hand but not THAT Hand.” Claire gets it right on the head when she points out that, if they were all that different from Madam Gao’s version of the Hand, why not change the name? Keeping it implies that while methodology is different, their goals are obviously the same. Colleen, you’re smart enough to see that, aren’t you? Danny’s inner turmoil is good too. It feels a lot like what he dealt with in the early episodes, when he was drugged out of his mind and unable to call upon his powers, but done slightly better. It’s one thing to lost your abilities because of drugs, it’s something else entirely when it looks like you’ve straight up lost your powers. Where was this stuff six episodes ago? Well, that’s eleven down, two to go. Have a good night everybody.

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