Viewer Log: The Defenders ep 6

Happy Halloween!

I feel like there might be some symbolism to this opening scene. Alexandra listens to an old orchestra record. She’s absorbed in the music, but is drawn out of her thoughts when the record starts skipping. She takes it off and looks it over, it’s warped. All the information, the beauty is still held in the record, but it no longer does what it’s supposed to. Kind of like Alexandra’s fading body. Symbolism!

The Defenders are kind of freaking out over the now headless corpse of Swande. Matt tries to blame Stick for his actions, that killing Swande could have been avoided. Stick, as per usual, gives zero $%#@s about his actions. He focuses on the important point, that the Hand is specifically targeting Danny, who is integral to their plans. Matt and the others realize that the best, possibly only, option is to keep Danny away from the Hand. Danny, however, doesn’t want to be taken out of the fight. A brawl breaks out, mostly Danny v. Matt, but the others give Matt some back up. Danny resorts to using the Iron Fist, and when he hits Luke a massive shockwave is released. Everyone is knocked on their butt, Jessica is the first to recover and knocks Danny out with a blow to the face. They move Danny to a more secure location in the abandoned building they’re squatting in. While transporting him, Jessica and Luke both confirm that they’re both terrible at keeping in touch. Way to keep the romance alive, you two.

Wonder if all the bromance ten feet away affects
Stick's meditation?

Danny is tied up, and the group talks about what they know. Matt finally mentions that he’d been to Midland Circle, back when the building was under construction. Back in season 2 of Daredevil, with Elektra. There was this massive hole, back then, but while he kept an eye…er ear on Midland for a while, he didn’t notice anything of note. After Jessica let’s Matt know that any other lapses of information won’t be tolerated, the group splits up. On Jessica’s suggestion, she and Matt are going to John Raymond’s house to see if they can find any more info on the Midland Circle building itself. Luke and Stick are staying to keep an eye on the unconscious Danny.

Elektra has a very nice dream about waking up at Matt’s place with him. Her waking world isn’t as nice, sadly. She notices his gear trunk, and sees some of Matt’s swag. Namely, his gen 1 costume, and his braille bible. She takes the bookmark inside, which has his church’s info on it.

Meanwhile, the Stick gets an old box and seems to be prepping to dispose of Swande’s body. He’s interrupted by Luke coming in for a progress report. Interestingly, Stick starts quizzing Luke about what he knew of Swande. How Luke knew about him, and where Swande was operating from. How odd.

Jessica and Matt stop by his place, so he can get… presentable. Yeah, I could see where his Daredevil gear might be a little too conspicuous. Jessica asks the million-dollar question, how Matt can afford his apartment when he’s a pro bono lawyer. He mentions that the neon sign that lights up at night ensures that his rent is more manageable then it rightly should be. Matt stows his gear, but does notice that his bible has been moved and his bookmark is missing, but he fails to mention this to Jessica. All I can say is, Matt, you’re a braver man then I. They make their way over to the Raymond house, and meet with John Raymond’s daughter, Lexi. They convince the teen to let them in and get some info on her dad.

Back with the villains, we learn why Stick wanted to learn what Luke knew about Swande. Why? So he could drop off Swande’s head off for the Hand to find. Stick goes for the jugular. The baddies are all freaking out about losing one of their core members, with zero chance of him coming back. Alexandra does her best to keep order, but the group is clearly on edge. Murakami still has a stick in his craw about the Black Sky. Apparently, Elektra’s… independent streak is really freaking him out. Afterwards, Alexandra retires to her chambers, and pops some pills. She’s interrupted by Madam Gao, who has come to deal. She’s willing to back Alexandra, and keep the other two surviving Fingers in line. In exchange for her loyalty, Gao wants the Black Sky kept out of their plans to capture Danny Rand. She reveals that the Black Sky had always been Alexandra’s personal obsession, and that the other four Fingers never much believed in it. Alexandra tells her to get out.

Danny wakes up, and discovers that he’s bound to a chair. Luke is just calmly reading a paper beside Danny, while the Stick meditates. Luke walks over and lets Danny know about what’s happened since he’d been… forcibly retired. Namely about the giant hole in Midland Circle’s basement. Danny, while intrigued, tries to convince Luke to let him go. He tries to play to Luke’s personal sense of morality and justice to get the big man to release him, but Luke isn’t moved. They argue some more, but neither changes their mind. This does lead to the two men bonding a little more, via their shared bruises. Luke’s impressed by the story of Danny plunging his hand into the burning heart of the dragon Shao-Lao. While Danny thinks it was kind of cool that Luke survived a shotgun blast to the face. I smell a bromance. A little later on, the Stick wanders over and gives Danny some advice as to how to get the chi flowing right. In with the good air, out with the bad air, that sort of thing. Danny whines some more about being taken out of the fight, but Stick’s not freeing him. He accuses Stick of just making things up as he went along. To which Stick just laugh and says that’s what survivors do.

I bet Danny is getting sick of waking up strapped to things.

Back with Matt and Jessica, they start interviewing Lexi. She’s initially hostile, but Jessica moves her with a story about a friend of hers. She gives Lexi the abridged version of Matthew Murdock backstory. It moves Lexi enough to talk to them. She describes her Dad as that guy who is so nice that he was boring. It wasn’t bad, he was just ordinary. But, a couple of weeks prior he started become withdrawn and moody. He stopped sleeping, stopped eating, and just was in general freaking out. She had no idea why. Matt suddenly asks about her family’s piano, and asks to play it. It’s weird, but he plays a few notes, only to discover a few keys are way off. Jessica opens the top open and they find the plans for Midland Circle inside. Jessica describes it to Matt, the hole in Midland is deep and it goes nearly to the bedrock. They quickly leave the Raymond Household. On the walk back, they discuss the plan. They want to either bury or collapse the tunnel. Matt asks about how Jessica knew his origin story, to which she just says she looked into him after he tried to take her case earlier.

The Stick and Luke chat. Stick observes that Luke could be a better fighter, if was less concerned about avoiding hurting people. Luke isn’t super comfortable with fighting more effectively. Stick talks a little about his past. He’d been a soldier most of his life, even before hooking up with the Chaste. His only family had been them, and later Matt and Elektra. While they chat, Danny tries to charge up his Chi. Luke starts getting woozy, and Stick reveals his incense is disorientating him. Luke doubles over, disabled. Stick reveals that he’s going with another option to make sure the Hand don’t get the Iron Fist. He runs at Danny, katana drawn. Across the street, Matt hears Luke hit the ground and he and Jessica rush the building. Before Stick can attack Danny, Elektra attacks Stick. The two fight, and while Stick is no slouch, Elektra is stronger and faster. She knocks him to the ground, and holds her blade to him as Matt breaks in. He tries to talk her down, but she executes Stick. Matt, Jessica, and a slightly recovered Luke all try their hands, but get rocked instead. She grabs Danny while they’re down, and bids a hasty retreat.

Elektra has a believable enough crazy face without the blood.

Murakami makes goes to kill Alexandra, like he explains to her face that that is what is what he’s going to do, but they’re interrupted by Elektra’s arrival. The Fingers of the Hand gather, and Elektra lingers on the sais again. They lock Danny in place, and Alexandra starts gloating. She mentions that the Hand want’s back into K’un-Lun and that Danny is the key back. She also starts berating the others, claiming supreme victory and all that, right up to when Elektra stabs her through the heart with the sais. She announces that she is Elektra Natchios, and she’s taking over. Oh, that’s so not good.

Well, I’m sure we all saw that coming, but that was sudden. I mean, it was a perfect place for the betrayal to go down, right when Alexandra is gloating about how this victory is all hers and all that jazz, but it still feels off. I would have thought Elektra would have killed Murakami first, since that guy’s been the most openly hostile. Then again, toppling the Queen and taking her place is the more strategically sound move. Which feels odd considering Elektra should be suffering from whatever mental instability the resurrection process causes. I’m going around in circles, the betrayal is both unsurprising and yet kind of surprising. Other good bits were things like more Danny and Luke bonding. I could actually see these guys becoming besties by the time this is all done. And the Stick’s little blurb about his past was interesting. I wonder just how long he was a fighter, and if it was his first military allegiance that cost him his sight, or his time with the Chaste. I do hope that in the next episode they don’t get too hammy about Stick and his level of importance. Don’t get me wrong, he was Matt’s mentor and a guide to these guys over the last few days, so he should be mourned. I just want them going overboard about how important, selfless and all that junk Stick was. He had some good qualities, and some bad, but he was a total @##hole through and through. I’m very curious to see what the Hand plan to use Danny for, it should be enlightening. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: The Defenders ep 5

This time we open to a lot of stuff happening at once. Goons attacking the restaurant, breaking things, and getting themselves broken in turn. Things only stop for a moment when Madam Gao arrives and blows a trigger-happy goon’s brains out. The Hand wants Danny’s Iron Fist, and he needs to be alive to get the chi flowing in the right direction. The group gets herded together in a circular formation, and the Stick orders that the group stay together. Matt, always the difficult one, instead tackles Elektra and separates from the others. Hell once again breaks lose. Danny, Stick, and Jessica end up fighting the goons, Matt brings Elektra outside and tries his best to get through to her, and Luke ends up battling White Hat, aka Swande one if the Fingers of the Hand.

Despite Matt’s best efforts at diplomacy, Elektra just keeps hitting him. That is until he drops her name, which, as it tends to happen in lost memory stories, causes her to freeze up. He tries to talk her down, but is interrupted when Murakami, another Finger, arrives. Elektra smashes Murakami to one side and the fighting continues. Meanwhile, Luke’s fight with Swande goes well, as most fist fights go for Luke, until the Hand cheats and hits him with a car. Dick. Danny gets separated from the others, and looks like he might get overwhelmed, but Jessica smacks a few more Hand goons to get him out of hot water. Danny, Jessica and Matt meet up outside, Jessica shoves a dumpster in the way of the door, and they escape via the sewers. Gross, but effective.

Matt and Stick yelling in the dark.

Madam Gao shows off why she’s terrifying, and is able to shove the dumpster and door out of the way with a chi infused punch. Thankfully, the Hand is too slow to find the good guys. Murakami gets up from where he was smashed, pulling a Wolverine and recovering from at least two dozen broken bones. The two Hand Fingers exchange notes, and wonder what the heck happened with their Black Sky.

The group make it to Colleen’s dojo. There’s a lot of arguing, info exchanging, and more arguing. I’m beginning to sense a pattern with this group. Thankfully, Luke shows up and calms things down. And he brought a gift, Swande tied up in the back of the van he stole. He stole it from Swande, so it’s okay. So now they have a potential source of information.

With the bad guys, Elektra is taking the time to clean her wakizashi. Weapon maintenance is important. Alexandra comes back in and does her best to reassert control over her minion. She talks about her old life, before the Fingers became semi-immortal. She had a daughter, once, who died hundreds of years ago. I’d say that perhaps Alexandra is projecting some of her feelings for her deceased daughter onto Elektra, if she hadn’t stripped the young woman of her memories and turned her into a super zombie, just saying. Oh, and the fact that she tells Elektra, essentially, “Get useful or get dead.” Murakami storms in, and informs his fearless leader about Swande’s capture. Alexandra isn’t all that concerned, though. Especially since their South American division is on their way. Oh, no.

The Defenders start trying to interrogate Swande, but the villain formally known as White Hat is as tight lipped as his counterpart Madam Gao. He tells them, in no uncertain terms, to screw off. Oh, and that the Hand is going to go after everyone that they love. Not good. The interrogation ends as it began, with Jessica punching Swande in the face. Got to love Jessica’s violent streak.

Do you think anyone reported seeing a woman atop a building
with a wakizashi?

Luke goes to Claire’s place, to pick her up and get a change of clothes. He tries to pull the “no time to explain’ line, but Claire is able to sum up the situation in like three sentences. Essentially, they fought the Hand, pissed them off, and now the evil Ninja are going to attack their loved ones. It’s like Luke forgot that Claire has been doing this about as long as Matt Murdock.

Outside, Colleen wonders aloud if that it was a good idea to bring in Matt and the others into their fight against the Hand. She seems to think having a walking freight train, a PI with that hits like a SUV, and a super Ninja lawyer on staff is a bad idea. Come Colleen, use your noggin. Danny’s on my side, FYI, but their pulled out of their conversation by the arrival of several unmarked vans. They pile out, split up and go to take down some Hand. Danny runs into a few goons and beats the snot out of them. Colleen, unfortunately, meets up with her old Sensei, Bakudo. The resurrected Ninja actually tries to re-recruit Colleen into the Hand, but she’s not interested. Good on you Colleen. The two have another sword fight, but ends with Bakudo slicing Colleen’s stomach. Luke and Danny arrive, though and are able to save her before she gets executed. Bakudo mocks the group, before running.

Matt goes to visit Karen. She’s a little less happy that Matt is going back to being Daredevil. After some complaining from Karen about how she doesn’t approve of Matt using his skills to help people, Matt convinces her to follow him, for her safety. At the same time, Luke goes to Misty Knight to let the cops know about the situation. Mostly, the Hand is going to be screwing things up, and the Defenders need a place to bring their friends and loved ones.

Back with the Stick, he tries to interrogate Swande personally. Unfortunately, the old Ninja can’t get any more out of the ancient Ninja. He mentions the fact that the last time he was imprisoned, he had an army of Hand Ninja arrive, and they pretty much starved Swande’s captors. Matt arrives, and Stick decides to try having another talk with his former student. He believes that Matt is the best choice for leading the Defenders, but Matt is against any sort of leadership position.

Matt, there are better ways to get your ex's memories back
then breaking her arm.

Jessica, meanwhile, interrupts a business meeting her adoptive sister, Trish Walker, is having. Unfortunately, she only arrives about fifteen seconds before Hand goons. Regular grunts wouldn’t be that much of an issue, but Murakami came with. Obviously, Murakami has no chance of matching Jessica’s superhuman strength, but an ancient Ninja kind of trumps everything. Jessica might have been captured, if Matt hadn’t stepped in. He stopped at his apartment and grabbed his Daredevil gear beforehand, so the fight is pretty much his from the get go. Murakami escapes rather than fight two superhumans.

 We get to see a little of the side characters. Claire patches up Colleen’s stomach, Trish chats with Jessica’s assistant Malcom, and Karen and Foggy reconnect. Misty comes in a minute later and pretty much lets them know they need to sit tight at the station until things blow over.

The bad guys have a meeting. Bakudo and Gao arrive first and discuss the situation. She pretty much scolds the other Hand for being obsessed with regaining or killing Colleen. She also reiterates that Danny is 100% necessary for their evil plan. The others arrive. Murakami lets the other’s know Daredevil is involved. The baddies are concerned by this, the Black Sky’s volatile nature, and their loss of their immortality potion. Alexandra, when the others mention potentially mutinying, pretty much tells them to sit down, shup up and do as they are told.

The Defenders try to interrogate Swande again, but this time leave it Matt and his Daredevil batons. He tries chocking out the baddie, but Swande still holds firm. Matt breaks, letting him drop to the floor, and The Stick advises Matt to tell the others what he knows about Elektra. Matt finally agrees, and gives them the Cliff Notes about his and Elektra’s past. Arguing ensues, again, and Swande uses the opportunity to escape. He slices himself free with a shard of glass, and grabs Danny. He tries to escape, but Stick draws his attention for a moment and slices his head clean off. Well, that’s one finger down, four to go.

Alexandra goes to speak with her Black Sky, but she’s gone. Elektra had vacated the premises. She’d actually gone to Matt’s apartment. The episode ends as she curls up on Matt’s bed and goes to sleep.

Oy, this group and the arguing. I really just want the Stick or someone to smack someone and tell them to follow his lead. Again, I understand WHY they’re arguing, severely different personalities, skills, and values, but it can get rather grating. I was so happy to see Matt back in his Daredevil gear, it was like he was naked this whole time. Seeing him use his multi-tool baton to smack around Murakami and later Swande was pretty darn awesome. I can see the logic in getting all the potential hostages together and protected in the police department, but, have to point out that that means they’re all in one place. Which makes them really easy to kidnap. Just saying. I was rather annoyed with Karen, and to a lesser extent Foggy, with them being mad at Matt and his superheroing. It’s like they don’t get that without Matt being Daredevil, an evil Ninja cult would’ve taken over New York by now. Use your brains, guys. Another good episode.

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: The Defenders ep 4

Before we get started today, it’s time for another round of self-promotion. Hm… is it self-promotion if it happens on the site that I run? A thought for another day. Anyway, I took part in a writing contest presented by the good people at Sec Semper Serpent publishing. Said contested, entitled Spontaneous Combustion, had local authors write up a short story in only 24 hours. In addition, we had to use three prompts. 1. That at some point a balloon sword would be used instead of a real sword. 2. Sage wisdom delivered by a non-human entity. And 3. The phrase “Uff Da, this lutefisk is limp.” 100% honest, number 3 was the hard one. Well, I was able to do it, and my story “Bizarrely Typical,” was chosen as one of the fifteen finalists. If you’d be so kind as to click the link: https://www.sicsemperserpent.com/spoco2stories, read my work, and then vote for me, that’d be greatly appreciated. Voting runs until Tuesday 10/31/17. Enough of that, on with the show.

We pick up a couple of minutes after the last episode ended. The fledging Defenders escape their pursuers, and end up setting up shop in a Chinese restaurant. Danny gets them pretty much free reign of the place by offering to play the rent on the place for the next six months. Danny’s finally tapping into his real superpower, a ridiculous bank account balance. The next few minutes are filled with of the characters that know each other, Luke and Jessica, touching base, the group arguing, sharing information on the situation, and more arguing. But they do get to start enjoying some fine cuisine part way through. There’s some tension involving Matt and his initial hesitance to take off Jessica’s scarf and show his face, but he does ultimately opt to reveal his identity to the crowd. Kind of funny that, technically, in this group of superheroes, Matt really is the only one that has a secret identity.

It's a good group.

Back at the Hand’s base, Midland Financial, Electra is examining a few old scars. Apparently, while the Hand’s resurrection techniques can raise the dead, cure illness, and even remove cancer, scars are still permanent. Alexandra comes in and seems to try very hard to convince Electra that she isn’t the same person as she used to be. She is the Black Sky, Electra was the name she held before her rebirth, that kind of BS. Electra goes along with it, but you’d have to be an idiot to think she bought it completely. Apparently, most of the Hand’s plans ride on Electra’s effectiveness in battle, and her having any sort of past would negatively affect that effectiveness.

The Defenders kind of explain their backgrounds to each other, specifically their previous dealings with the Hand. There’s still more arguing, as we’re dealing with four very different personalities, but that’s all put to a stop by the arrival of a now one-handed Ninja master, the Stick. He reveals he’d tracked them using Danny’s cell, and pretty much lets the group know that there is a good chance that they’re all hosed. Thanks Stick, real encouraging.

We then jump over to a pretty creepy scene of a man gutting a bear. This is another Hand leader, a fellow named Murakami. Alexandra arrives and ends up asking for his help in whatever she’s planning. Whatever Alexandra is planning, she needs all five members of the Hand’s leaders. Murakami is pretty disinterested, due in part to the fact that the Hand is officially out of whatever supplies it needs to resurrect its members. Also, him disemboweling the bear is pretty messed up. But, with only a little prodding from Alexandra, he seems willing to throw his hat in with hers. Whatever is going to happen, it looks like it’s something big enough to interest even a potentially immortal man.

Meanwhile, Electra examines some of the weapons in the Hand’s armory. She seems drawing in particular to the sais. For those who don’t know, sais were Electra’s weapon of choice… during her first life, anyway. And for those who don’t know what a sai is, it’s that big fork looking weapon that Raphael from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles favor. My understanding is that they were a weapon designed to catch and even potentially break a katana between its progs. Making Electra’s current choice of weapon somewhat Ironic. I think. White Hat walks in a moment later flanked by some goons. He reprimands Electra for not killing the four intruders, and openly wonders if it was the right call to use the last of their materials to bring her back. She easily kills his two goons, tells him to keep watching and see if he’s right, and marches off.

At the restaurant, The Stick explains that the Chaste were a private ninja army that followed the teachings of K’un-Lun and that they serve the Iron Fist. Too bad the group’s membership has officially dropped to one, The Stick. He claims that the Hand is planning something big, on par with what happened at Pompeii, and Chernobyl in terms of destruction. Apparently both places and disasters were tests for the main even, whatever it is. It’s at this point that Jessica claims she’s done and storms off. Luke tries to dissuade her from leaving, but she’s not having any of it. There’s clearly a certain level of awkwardness between the two of them, which given their past isn’t too surprising. Is there a good way to be friends with someone you used to <cough> “date” casually and kind of ended when you attacked her in a mind controlled state and she shot you in the face? Yeah, I didn’t think so. He doesn’t try too hard to stop her, though, and they both admit it was nice seeing the other.

Back inside the restaurant, The Stick mocks Matt for choosing to be a superhero instead of a ninja warrior, and then mocks him again for giving up on doing the vigilante justice thing. To borrow a line from Team Four Star’s excellent Dragonball Z Abridged, The Stick feels that Matt is “The Grand Central Station of disappointment.” Once Luke rejoins the others, it’s clear that he and Danny want to hear the Stick out. Matt is much much more skeptical of his former mentor’s motives, but is at least willing to listen.

He was a Blind Ninja Master before it was cool.
Who am I kidding? That was always cool.

Across town with the baddies, Alexandra is prepping for a night out. Every night can’t just be filled with evil plans and plots for world domination, you’d burn yourself out. She gets all dressed up, but suddenly start getting some sort of painful sensation in her stomach area. Shot in the dark, but it seems that whatever is killing her is getting progressively worse. She pops a couple pills before canceling her plans.

Jessica, meanwhile, heads home, takes a few swigs of whiskey, and boots up her computer. She started looking through the files she’d taken photos of from the library/archive, while chugging a little more booze. To her shock, she’d noticed that the signature on all of the documents, which were signed across hundreds of years and under different names, all have the exact same handwriting. Further confirmation that Alexandra has been at this for a very, very long time.

Back with the other Defenders, The Stick tells them the story of The Hand. He makes it clear that when it happened was unclear, could be 500 years, could be 2,000. What they do know, is that some time ago, the elders of K’un-Lun began learning to control their chi to help heal themselves and the world. Like in most groups, there were a few that saw such techniques and thought they could be used for personal gain. They tried to use their chi control and other techniques as a means of gaining power and immortality. These five heretics, as The Stick referred to them, were cast out of K’un-Lun. They became the leaders, or Five Fingers, of the Hand. While loosely untied under that banner, they spent most of the following ages in their respective countries, forming bastions of power. The woman now going by Alexandra took Europe and was the de facto leader of the group as a whole, Madam Gao ruled China’s underbelly, a fellow named Swande (who I believe they said is also White Hat but not 100% on that at the time of writing) was a major war lord in Africa, Bakudo was in charge of an undisclosed location, and Murakami was in charge of Japan. I assume they all took an interest in and watched over things in the US of A. Stick also mentions that Murakami was the superior of Nobu, the Hand assassin that was the kind of last minute villain of Daredevil’s second season. Matt is obviously troubled by all this, but is pretty adamant that they all stay out of the Stick’s machinations. The previous betrayals that his old master had put upon him have obviously left a bad taste in his mouth.

Jessica checks in on Mrs. Raymond again. At like 2 in the morning. And Jessica is pretty close to being smashed. Jessica might possibly, definitely have a serious drinking problem. Mrs. Raymond is surprisingly cool with it, though, especially when Jessica mentions that she was just checking in on them. Mrs. Raymond mentions a ‘cop’ that’d been staking them out, and is legit concerned when she learned Jessica hadn’t set up the observation. Not good. Jessica has her return inside like nothings up, and goes about prepping to kick some ass. A short time later, she circles back and beats the guy within an inch of his life. She warns him to back off, but he doesn’t seem to get that right away, so she hurts him more.

So could we actually make Sigorney Weaver immortal?
Is that an option?

Back with the guys, Luke and Danny do a little more bonding. The two seem to get along great, and, while Luke is pretty certain that their cooperation ends when the Hand is dealt with, it’s clear Danny doesn’t completely believe it. And Stick and Matt have a secret conversation. The two point-out how both of them failed to mention that they knew the mysterious woman that attacked them. Can’t see how that could backfire later. Matt is hopeful that some part of his former lover is still insider her, as she hesitated when they’d fought, but the Stick crushes that hope hard. He’s well versed in the resurrection ritual, as well as the Hand’s other techniques, and knows the Ninja purged any memories of her past life during her rebirth. Matt did note that she didn’t have a heartbeat, a previously established sign of undead Ninja warriors, but still doesn’t seem that convinced.

Matt and the Stick notice that they’re being watched outside. They gather the others and start prepping the restaurant for an attack. To their surprise, Alexandra slipped in when they weren’t looking. How do you sneak up on two blind Ninja with hyper sensitive hearing? No answer is given. She wants to ‘talk this out.’ Basically, she wants Danny to come with her to fulfill her plans. She’s even willing to let New York survive and his friends as well. When the group collectively tells her to screw off, she calls in Electra to mess them up. Electra vs. the Defenders, Round One. It ends right away when Jessica shoves a truck through the front of the restaurant, knocking her on her ass. Jessica joins the rest of her squad. So now, Electra vs. the Defenders, Round Two can begin. Next time!

This is largely an expositional episode. Not much action, lots of talking. The History of the Hand was rather interesting. I liked how the Stick points out that he isn’t really sure of many of the details, like when exactly that it happened. It sounds a lot like the basic plot of Paradise Lost, i.e. things used to be good, some selfish people decide that they know better, and then get banished and screw with regular people. I’m hoping that they go into some of the basics of how the five original members of the Hand gained their resurrection technique. Just like maybe mentioning one or two rare ingredients of their resurrection cocktail, or how they first developed it. They keep mentioning how they’re ‘out of resources’ to do it anymore, and I hope that doesn’t just turn out to be a lazy bit of plot convenience. And I would like to know why Alexandra seems to be dying now, despite having gone through the procedure/ritual. Does it only slow the aging process, as well as give them the power to come back to life, or was she dying before the ritual and needed to be constantly rejuvenated because of it. So not having the resources to do it any more is what’s killing her. Questions atop questions, for over analyzing nerds like me. Electra’s ‘I forgot who I was but remembering pieces’ story is pretty basic, but they do get points for subtlety. Things like hesitating for just a moment when fighting Matt and gravitating to her previous favored weapon are good little things to suggest her having some memory without going full on ‘disjointed flashbacks’ to describe her remembering things. So in summation, good episode. Ready for more. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero

Viewer Log: The Defenders ep 3

Okay, so today we open with a brief history of Electra. Well, the revived Electra. Apparently, several months ago, White Hat approached Alexandra and let his boss know that they’d recovered the Black Sky. For those of you who might be, somehow, just reading my stuff and not watching along, the Black Sky is a special person that the Hand have been tracking since the first season of Daredevil. They’ve been pretty vague as to what the Black Sky does, just that the Hand having one is incredibly bad. Alexandra is excited by the prospect and orders to see her. A short time later, they prep Electra for the resurrection ritual. White Hat implies that the Hand are running low on whatever resources that they need to perform their ritual, and wonders if bringing Electra back is necessary. FYI, while extremely rare, Electra isn’t the only Black Sky in the world, so I could see why White Hat would be cautious to use up the last of their resources if waiting for another was an option. Alexandra assures him that she is, they perform the ritual, and Electra is ‘reborn’ sometime later. After her revival, we learn that the Hand have somehow purged Electra’s memories from her (the personal ones, she knows how to speak, fight and so on, just not any oof the details of her life) making her the perfect weapon. After some brief training, she’s at the skill level where she can take down multiple opponents at once. She’s pretty terrifying.

I sense the beginning of a toxic relationship.

In the present, Alexandra has Matt Murdock’s mentor, the Stick, handcuffed to a pole and thoroughly beaten. He’s been ‘interrogated’ several times, as the Hand want to know what he knows about the Iron Fist. The Stick isn’t interested in chatting. Alexandra calls in Electra, and the two try to use even more extreme measures to try and get the info from him. The Stick, being a bad ass, nabs a katana and actually holds some of the off while still being handcuffed to the pole. He opts to slice off his right hand, to escape the handcuffs, and makes a break for it.

Back in the interrogation room of the local PD, Matt Murdock and Jessica Jones are going over her legal options. Which are, actually, many as the NYPD isn’t actually charging her with anything at the moment. Matt tries to get info from her about the… unusual things happening in New York right now, but she shuts him down, as she likes to do. She storms off, but Matt decides to follow her, using his super-hearing to keep track of her.

At Claire’s place, Luke ices his face after taking that hit from Danny. He fills Claire in on what he’d found, namely that a shady group is paying off young men to do cleanup for them. Not janitorial clean up, by the way, but disposing of bodies. He mentions taking a hit from a dude with a powerful glowing fist, one might say it was made of Iron, that rattled his teeth. Claire, realizing just who he’s talking about, calls up Danny and insists that the two men meet in person. How could this go wrong? Oh, right, the two are openly hostile to each other. Both men seem uncomfortable with the other superhuman, but the women in their lives insist that they talk it out and try to work together. Nothing like a kick in your pants from your girlfriend to make a fella want to play nice, am I right?

I'm sensing some hostility between these two...

Meanwhile, Jessica does a follow up interview with John Raymond’s widow. Mrs. Raymond is clearly not holding up well following her husband’s death, but insists that he wasn’t into anything shady or evil. Jessica leaves after getting all the info she can. On the Street, she notices a certain blind lawyer following her, doubles back, and tries to follow him. Matt, realizing the tables have turned, drops the ‘I’m a run of the mill blind man’ act, and uses his ninja moves to escape her. Unfortunately for him, she takes several photos of him scaling walls. She then gets a call about an appointment.

Back with Luke and Danny, the two men seem to have felt each other out and are bonding slightly thanks to their shared struggles. But, unfortunately, things fall apart again when they switch focus onto what they are fighting for. Danny is hell bent on defeating the Hand, and not too interested in the ripple effects that might occur because of his personal war. Luke, on the other hand, is more focused on the young men and women that are getting swept up and hurt by the actions of the Hand and its minions. Both want the Hand gone, but neither particularly cares of the other’s tactics. Luke leaves in a huff.

Luke goes to visit the kid, Cole, in prison. He tries his damnedest to help, but Cole seems pretty resigned to his fate. He’s terrified, but doesn’t want to talk. Fears that things will get worse for him. When Luke name drops White Hat’s name, Cole freaks out and gets worse when Luke name drops the Hand. He clams up completely, except to tell Luke to buy Cole’s mother lottery tickets and tell her that he’s sorry.

Danny and Colleen discuss tactics. Danny is unsure if he’s been approaching the Hand on the right front. He’s been hitting them hard and repeatedly, but nothing seems to change. He decides to use his real superpower, money, to try and figure out the Hand. It’s just crazy enough to work! Danny and Colleen visit Rand Enterprises, and asks one of the staff to look into the shell companies that the Hand had tied to Rand. The employee is clearly nervous when the Hand is brought up, but searches anyway. She uncovers that all of the Hand’s shell companies closed their accounts on the same day and funneled all the money into a single account. You think an evil Ninja cult would be subtler then that… The account in question belonged to a group called Midland Circle Financial.

Sigourney Weaver and her army of Ninja businessmen.

Jessica’s appointment was with Duncan Dotter architect firm, that’s the company that John Raymond worked for. She’s pretending to be a vapid startup company employee looking for a new building for her firm. Jessica seems to love going to that vapid well when she’s going undercover, doesn’t she? After a little schmoozing, she learns that the last building Raymond worked on was for a brand-new company last year, Midland Circle Financial.

Luke visits Cole’s mother. She’s a lovely woman, and is doing her best to keep together, despite the fact her last living child is currently incarcerated. Luke gets her the scratch off lotto tickets that Cole told him to grab. She reminisces about the good old days, when her little boy would by her scratch offs with his milk money for her. What store was stealing lottery tickets to a kid? I happen to know that the cops are SUPER against that. Just saying. Luke learns that Cole’s mom kept all her old lotto tickets, and kept them on a box on a high shelf. She can’t reach it herself, Cole took it upon himself to get it down for her. Luke opens the old lottery box, and finds a STACK of bills inside, and a security pass for Midland Circle Financial. Cole’s mother gets a call from lockup. Her son had been murdered in his cell. She breaks down in Luke’s arms upon learning her youngest, her still living child, was dead.

Colleen was taking a bit of a break from butt kicking and doing some meditation at her dojo. Said meditative calm is shattered with the arrival of the Stick. The blind old ninja is bleeding badly and demanding to see the Fist.

Danny enters Midland Financial, and demands to see the board of directors. He’s taken right away, obviously, as the CEO of Rand Enterprises just gets to go places. He confronts the group, telling them that he’s going to expose their dirty deals and destroy the Hand. Alexandra walks in, and starts condescending down to Danny. More of that “We’re the future” bull.

Jessica walks into Midland Financial, with Matt Murdock in toe. Our favorite blind lawyer tells Jessica to get out of here, as things are about to hit the fan. Jessica obvious tells him to blow off, but he’s not backing down this time.

Did anyone ever expect the unstoppable force to team up
with the immovable object?

Alexandra mocks Danny, his failures and the destruction of K’un-Lun. An assistant pulls a gun on Danny, and all hell breaks loose. Turns out, the entire board of directors were Hand Ninja, and they rush Danny in mass. He fights back, but it’s simply a matter of numbers. Two dozen ninja can simply overwhelm one Iron Fist. Matt hears a gun shot and an alarm blaring. He steals Jessica’s scarf, pulls it over the top his head like a mask and rushes to the upper floors. Jessica follows, but uses the elevator. Danny starts getting overwhelmed, but then Luke busts in, literally. The two superhumans start pushing the Ninja back. Matt and Jessica then join in, and then they start forcing the Hand back. Alexandra gets desperate enough to release her Black Sky.

Matt takes on Electra while the other’s handle the rest of the goons. He holds his own against her, until he realizes who she really is. He hesitates, and Electra tries to run him through with her wakizashi. Danny jumps in, and uses the Iron Fist to shatter the short sword’s blade. He grabs Matt, and the group beats a hasty strategic withdrawal.

Yeah, they're pretty much the raggiest of the ragtag groups
out there.

This was a really good episode. It was really nice to see the different members of the group interacting with each other. Matt and Jessica were a bit of fun, as both seem to try to ferret out what is up with the other. Think a mild game of cat and mouse between two cats… or two mice. Danny and Luke were interesting. To those who don’t know their characters too well, these guys are actually best friends in… well, everything that focuses on them. Heck, I believe Danny is godfather to Luke and Jessica’s son in the comics. And we see shades of that kind of friendship between these two as they get to know each other. Sure, they buttheads pretty quickly, but the best of friends often does that. That last fight scene was amazing, using each of the character’s themes as they join the brawl. My only complaint was that it was rather short. But, hey, we have another five episodes to go, so there’s plenty of time for more brawling. 

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Viewer Log: The Defenders ep 2

Last time, our four heroes (and their entourages) gathered in New York. Each one was slowly being drawn into whatever the Hand is plotting. The most crucial point ends up being Jessica Jones discovering CRATES of C4, and then a massive ‘quake’ hits New York, centering on Hell’s Kitchen. We pick up right where we left off, with Matt Murdock reeling slightly from the chaos and noise. He goes up to his roof, and is clearly unsure of what to do, but decides to act when he starts hearing gun fire. Apparently, some kids were robbing a store, who’s owner decided to deter them with his shotgun. Matt drops in, slowing down the fleeing criminals, and stopping the store owner from canvasing the back alley with blood. I thought it was particularly funny when Matt disarmed a guy with a flipping kick, and then the dude kept trying to fight. If a man can leap into the air, kick something out of your hand, land, and get back into a fighting pose, just give up.

The next morning, Trish Walker tries to get in contact with the MIA Jessica, and starts covering the quake during her talk radio show. What’s interesting is that a caller claims that this was no earthquake, and said caller isn’t conspiracy nutter. Actually, she’s a geologist and points out that the epicenter of the quake was too high even from the smallest of quakes, but gets cut off before she can divulge more details. Trish’s bosses seem to want her to drop the story, how odd.

Meanwhile, Misty Knight gets called in to investigate the apartment Jessica found. Shockingly <sarcasm overload> Jessica is obstinate, and combative towards the cops and FBI agents that interview her. She brushes past Misty as she leaves. Detective Knight, being very sharp, notices that a piece of C4 is missing, and deduces who must have taken it. Unfortunately, Jessica is quick and out of sight before Misty can stop her.

Considering the last couple guy's she's dated,
think Claire has forgotten what a typical date is like?

Colleen and Danny check out her dojo. It’s no worse for wear. Danny is somewhat obsessed with finding and defeating the ‘mysterious’ woman that killed their lead. Said woman is the resurrected Electra, but Danny doesn’t know that. Colleen is more interested in what their dead informant might represent. He was someone, other than Danny, fighting the Hand. Meaning that there could be more people wanting to do said fighting. Danny is skeptical, but Colleen remains firm that she believes they might have help. In the meantime, they’ll look into their last lead. The guy in the sewer had a very specific style of katana, and the maker of said blade is in New York. How convenient.

Matt returns home after a long night of being awesome. He washes off the blood from his hands, and tries to bandage them, but has a bit of a freak out and smacks his first aid kit around. He goes into his closet, digs out his trunk and pops it open to look at his Daredevil gear. He clearly wants to suit up, but is pulled away by a call from Foggy.

Luke, meanwhile, is clearing out rubble in Harlem, while Claire looks over some of the folks that got smacked around by the quake. Luke, despite Claire’s warnings, wants to look into what’s going on with the kids of Harlem. Claire lets him know the scum of Harlem have emigrated from their old spots to a rat hole bar called the “Trouble in a Pair of Dice.” How can that bar be seedy? That’s such a clever pun.

Our villain, Alexandra, meanwhile is enjoying a string quartet play some Bach. She has a chat with the director of the orchestra, and makes a few comments about ol’ Johann and Ludwig that it almost sounds like she knew them personally. But that’s be crazy, right? She’s interrupted by Madam Gao. There’s been a complication. Apparently, the quake wasn’t their end game, and whatever that is was stopped by some sort of ward. Said ward has K’un-Lun dialect on it. Alexandra hypothesis it’s a door, and that the old monks of K’un-Lun would have only used one key. Bad news for Danny, me thinks.

Of all the things in this shop, the corpses strike me as
far more interesting then the K'un-Lun tapestry.

Jessica is in an old library archive, trying to track down a lead on the company that hired John Raymond. The frustrating thing is that she can’t find what they DO. All the info she can track down is that they’re constantly being bought out and change the name. Constantly. Like every ten to twenty years. Weird. She’s stopped from investigating by Jeri Hogarth. Jeri is quite insistent that Jessica back off and just drown her sorrow in booze, as per usual. How is it that Hogarth doesn’t understand how Jessica operates?

Matt and Foggy meet up for a drink. It’s been a while since the two ‘broke up’ and they’re both happy the other is doing well. Foggy notices Matt’s skinned knuckles and rather judgmentally comments on Matt’s choice in evening activities. Or at least that’s how it sounds. He keeps Matt from storming off and offers him a bunch of cases that his firm doesn’t have time or resources for. I guess his plan is to keep Matt so busy that he can’t even think about getting on his red duds.

Luke checks out “Trouble” and actually runs across someone he knows. Turk, the sleazy criminal from Luke Cage. He ‘interviews’ Turk about what he knows about the kids of Harlem and the mysterious Job some young men are being given. Turk initially plays dumb, but opens up when Luke reminds him why Pop’s occasionally called Luke “Power Man.” He doesn’t know much, just that a black man that dresses completely in white is the guy hiring them. Doesn’t know his real name, but the man’s alias is White Hat. And he gives Luke the address of the building White Hat uses.

Colleen and Danny meanwhile check out the swordsmith that Colleen believes made mystery good ninja’s sword. They find some fine-looking katana, and some not so fine-looking corpses. Lots of dead bodies, some in Hand uniforms, and some dressed in a uniform neither recognize. What’s more interesting is that the back room also has a K’un-Lun mural. How interesting.

 Blood on her face, dead guy in her apartment, authority
figure pointing a gun at her, yeah, sounds like a typical
Jessica Jones Thursday.

Luke tracks down White Hat and his operation. He even gets Misty on the phone and plans to bring her in, but then he sees the kid Cole getting in the driver’s seat. Deciding to not get the cops involved just yet, he chases after the van.

Jeri, probably in an attempt to protect her firm from some kind of backlash, gets Foggy to do an off the books job. She wants him to shadow Jessica, and when she gets into trouble, to do everything in his power to distance their firm from Jessica. She mentions that it’s really only a matter of time before Jessica does something stupid.

Jessica heads back to her home office, and notices the door is ajar. She goes in and sees Malcom, and is part way through lecturing him when John Raymond comes into the light with a pistol trained on Malcom’s head. Jessica and Malcom try to talk him down, but John isn’t listening. He keeps muttering about being a good person, trying to stop ‘them’ and how they’re all screwed. Case in point, Jessica’s door gets slashed open, and Electra storms in. The powerful assassin grabs John, but he blows his brains out rather than be captured. Jessica chases after Electra, but loses her at the street. Unfortunately, she finds Misty, who immediately arrests her.

If fiction has taught me anything, it's that the best friend you can
have is the guy that you had a fist fight with when you first met.

Back with Danny and Colleen, a group of goons in hazmat suits show up. The two hide and watch. The Hazmat team sprays the corpses down with some chemicals. Whatever it is, the stuff is highly corrosive as the bodies start breaking down in seconds. After watching for a few minutes, the two jump the goons, and start beating them up. Danny chases one outside, only to be interrupted by Luke Cage. Turns out the goon Danny was chasing was Cole. The two mighty heroes get into a fist fight. It goes about as well as you’d expect. Luke’s strength and unbreakable skin keep Danny on the ropes, until he summons the Iron Fist and smacks Luke into a wall. Their fight is stopped by the cops, who arrest Cole while Luke, and Colleen and Danny go their separate ways.

Alexandra, most likely in an attempt to learn about the K’un-Lun ward, goes to interrogate a prisoner. Said prisoner is none other than the Stick, leader of the Chaste Ninja, and Matt Murdock’s former sensei. This can’t possibly be good.

It's about time one of someone called Matt Murdock
for legal help. 

Meanwhile, Jessica is brought into lock up. Misty does a pretty good sight gag of dropping the files on the three people she’s talking to Jessica about. John Raymond and Malcom’s files are decently sized, but Jessica, on the other hand, has two files and they’re stuffed to capacity. Misty starts demanding to know what was going on, why Jessica stole the C4, and why John Raymond was at her place. She’s stopped before telling her story, as her attorney arrives. Not Jeri Hogarth, but Matthew Murdock.

 Again, a solid episode. Once more, trying to cover five separate but interconnected plots do leave things feeling a little thin, but it’s less so then the first episode. Danny seeking out the Hand, Jessica investigating a missing person and apparent bombing, Luke trying to help the young people of Harlem, and Matt’s indecision on whether or not to hang up his horns are enough massive plot points to dedicate an entire episode to. Heck, even a season. Thankfully, it looks like the paths are starting to cross, what with Danny and Luke’s fight, and Matt coming to the legal aid of Jessica. The more that these characters interact and start working together, the more I think that spreading thin sense will fade. Funny how I’ve made a joke about getting Matt’s legal counsel across all four shows, and they’re only now doing that. The fight between Danny and Luke is really well done. Not sure what it is about Luke’s actor, Michael Coulter, but I can really believe that this man is nigh invincible. Finn Jones’ kung fu skills look much better by this point, so his frustration at not being able to move Luke until he uses the Iron Fist is rather believable. I have to say, I am very interested in seeing what the Hand master plan is. Something that involves potentially destroying an entire city, that may require the use of the Iron Fist, and definitely requires information from the Stick? Color me intrigued. I hope to see more of the team working together next time, since, if they don’t that’ll mean a third of the Defenders episodes won’t feature the Defenders together. It’d be Fan-4-stic all over again. Heaven forbid.

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Viewer Log: The Defenders ep 1

You know, I think there might be something wrong with me of late. I’ve looked over my posts and it seems that over the last few months, I’ve somehow grown content with just four or so posts a month. I don’t want to call myself lazy, it’s just that it seems with my full-time job, other commitments, and now being 100% in charge of feeding myself (I’ve just recently moved out of my parents’ house), I’ve somehow lost it. I’ve lost my drive, that inner desire to regal you, my viewer, with as much of this superhero stuff that I love, in the hopes it gets you interested in a character, movie or show that I really enjoy. And I’m not okay with that. This is the thing I love, I should be striving to give you more content, not less. In the spirit of that idea, let’s see if we can reignite that passion. How? Well, I’m going to try to pump out Viewer Logs for all eight episodes of the Defenders by the end of October. Not an outlandish feat, I’ve done it before, but since I have to assume my skill in rapid production has atrophied slightly, better to start with a manageable goal. Is that enough build up? Good, let’s move onto the Defenders.

Let's get started, shall we?

I’ll start this one by pointing out the little factoid that not one of the four principle cast members of the series were part of the Defenders original line up. Actually, as far as my research has turned up, none were ever members of the group until August of 2017 in the comics. The original team consisted of the Incredible Hulk, Doctor Strange, The Silver Surfer, and Namor the Sub-Mariner. So yeah, it kind of seems that they just took an existing team name, and some characters the movies weren’t using, and slapped them together, doesn’t it? The result? Well, that’s what we’re here to find out. Final note, if you’ve been avoiding this show because you haven’t watched all four tie-in shows, stop. You don’t have to be completely up to date with them to enjoy it. If you couldn’t get through Jessica Jones, Luke Cage,  or Iron Fist, they give you the general idea of who these people are and what they’ve been doing right from the start. Yes, I left Matt Murdock off the list because, come on, he’s the Iron Man of the group. If you’ve seen only one of the four shows, Daredevil was it. Enough preamble… or would it be post-preamble? Sorry, grammar humor. Enough stalling, onto The Defenders.

We open to Cambodia. Beneath the streets of one of its cities, a fight is taking place between a darkly clad man, and a darkly clad woman. The two duke it out in an intense battle, just as the Iron Fist, Danny Rand, arrives. He tries to help, but the man ends up being stabbed through the chest. Danny races after the woman, while Colleen arrives and takes care of the wounded man. Despite Danny’s best efforts in tracking and fighting, the woman ends up escaping. When he speaks with the dying man, the mystery fighter tells Danny to head back to New York, as that’s where the war will rage.

Matt Murdock: Lawyer, Superhero, Ninja, Mentor.
I would like to be just one of those.

Back in New York, Jessica Jones is apparently on the tail end of a hate spiral. She leaves a bar after drowning her sorrows all night (and most of the morning), and liberates her adoptive sister’s, Trish Walker’s, car from a tow truck. Trish has been trying to once again get Jessica to embrace the hero thing, but Jessica still isn’t interested. The woman could really use a therapist, all I’m saying.

In Georgia’s Seagate prison, Luke Cage is being released for finishing out his sentence. He’s jeered as he’s walked out, which he takes in stride, but when an Officer fumbles the keys to his cuffs, Luke snaps the chain, and crumples up the cuffs, freeing himself rather than wait. While leaving he runs into Franklin “Foggy” Nelson. Apparently Matt Murdock’s former partner attorney did most of the leg work on Luke’s case. He gives Luke his card and implies that he might have work for the man with unbreakable skin, but Luke brushes him off.

Matt Murdock, meanwhile, is preparing for a case. He’s reciting some of his cross examination when he’s momentarily distracted by a violent sounding argument form outside.  But, rather than getting involved, he lets the NYPD handle it. We then jump right to his current legal battle, representing a young man who’d somehow been crippled from the waist down due to some company’s choice in materials. After an impassioned speech, Matt ends up winning the case. Afterwards, he gives his client, a young man in his teens, some advice on how to live with a disability. Basically, it’s not going to be easy, but moving forward is all he can really do. He’s then approached by his secretary turned reported Karen Page, who wants to have dinner with him.

Jumping back to Danny, our young billionaire is flying back to New York aboard his jet. While cleaning up, he has a hallucination/nightmare of seeing the Monks and citizens of K’un-Lun slaughtered, and a version of himself berating him for the deaths. And, considering his entire job was to prevent said slaughter, can’t say I 100% disagree with the other Danny. He’s awoken by Colleen. The two discuss their recent activities, how they’d spent months tracking the Hand, but came up empty. They’re both obviously a little depressed by it, but don’t really have any ready means of changing that.

We then settle our focus on a new character, a mysterious woman. They don’t say her name in this one, but it’s Alexandra. Revealing it now so I don’t have to keep referring to Sigourney Weaver by titles and pseudonyms until they reveal the name. Alexandra is in for some kind of medical testing. Her doctor reveals that she’s dying, rapidly. Alexandra asks for options, but at this point, her doctor is pretty much telling her she needs to prep for the inevitable. They do take her to get an MRI, but I think that’s mostly for Alexandra’s piece of mind. Just saying.

Jessica arrives at her apartment/office. A woman and her daughter are there to try to hire Jessica. The woman’s husband, John Raymond, had disappeared a week ago and she’s worried sick. Jessica isn’t too interested, telling Mrs. Raymond that Hubby was probably cheating, and that she should call a divorce lawyer. Inside her apartment, which looks as exactly destroyed as it had after she, Trish and Trish’s former lover Will Simpson had trashed the place in a fight at the end of her last season, she gets a call telling her to stay away from the case. You know how to get Jessica Jones involved in a case? You guessed it, telling her to back off.

Can you imagine the priest's reaction to Matt's first
vigilante confessional?

Luke arrives back in Harlem, and meets Claire Temple the moment he steps off the bus. They ‘get coffee’ wink wink, nudge nudge, and enjoy each other’s company for a bit before being interrupted. By who? Misty Knight. Misty wants to show Luke something, promising to bring him back soon.

 Matt and Karen get a quick bite at a diner. We learn that, after telling Karen at the end of DD’s last season, Matt has actually hung up his horns. Yep, Matt Murdock pulled a Batman on us. He claims that he’s enjoyed just being a lawyer again, but it doesn’t sound too convincing.

Jessica, meanwhile, has dived head first into the case. Her neighbor, and living embodiment of her conscience, Malcom stops in. Despite Jessica’s protests, he’s super excited to see her working on a case again and keeps trying to encourage her to move forward. He gives her the idea to trace the call, as while phone calls can be rerouted all over, the guy might be an amateur and not know that how that works. They strike gold and get an address. It was to a payphone near an apartment that Malcom assures us has shady stuff going down inside. As a former heroin addict, I think we can take his word on that.

Misty takes Luke down the street. She mentions that while Mariah and Shades, Luke two outstanding enemies from his own series run, are still operating but from the sound of things are currently biding their time. Luke isn’t thrilled about that, but is distracted when Misty shows him a crispy-looking car. She mentions this is one of seven similar cases that have been popping up, and that the going theory is that Harlem kids are getting wrapped up as curriers for some nasty people and getting killed in the process. The final kick in the head for Luke was that the most recent victim was named Shawn, who’s sister, Candace, had been killed during Luke’s last stay in Harlem. Misty asks Luke to put street justice on hold and try to console the last surviving sibling, Cole, like Luke’s former mentor Pops would have.

In his local church, Matt goes to confessional. He confesses to his priest, who knows all about Matt’s ‘other’ job, that he lied to Karen about being okay with not being Daredevil anymore. His priest advises him that it might not be the red suit and horns he misses, and instead it’s his former lover Elektra that he’s still mourning. That’s probably not too far from the mark, just saying.

Seven or so crates of high grade explosives? Yeah,
that's a Holy $%*@ moment.

Meanwhile, Alexandra and Madam Gao meet in the Central Park. After a little idle chitchat, we learn that these ladies of the Hand have a master plan in the works. Said plan is scheduled to begin in about three months, but Alexandra orders the time table be moved up. Apparently, the tests had confirmed that she simply doesn’t have that kind of time. Gao tries to dissuade her, but Alexandra isn’t interesting. Got to say, weird to see Gao taking orders.

Luke tracks down Cole, and gives the young man his condolences, for the recent loss of his brother, and the not so recent loss of his sister. He also tries to warn Cole off of following his brother down whatever path lead to his death, but the young man isn’t interested in hearing Luke’s warning.

Jessica, meanwhile, made it to the apartment complex she thought her caller had been living in, and pounded on the door. She breaks the lock and slips in when no one answers. Inside, instead of Mr. Raymond, she finds crates of high grade explosives. Oh, that can’t possibly be good.

I wonder how many cities she's seen burn?
Game over man, Game over!
Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

Gao visits Alexandra, tells her that everything is ready, but warns Alexandra that it’s not too late to simply wait. Alexandra isn’t listening, and orders things to begin. Something massive shakes New York, all of our heroes feel it. From Matt in his apartment, to Danny and Colleen atop of Rand Enterprises HQ, to Jessica in the slummy apartment, to Luke on the city streets. Alexandra advices the woman in black from the episode’s start, revealed to be the resurrected Elektra, that she’ll get used to seeing cities fall. We end on Matt at home, being overwhelmed by the chaos his ears pick up.

This is a decent but slightly muddled start to this mini-series. Do in part to the fact we have four major cast members, all of whom need to be invested and forced together does kind of mean we don’t get a lot of screen time with any of them in this first episode. Keep in mind, it’s been months to even a year or two since we’ve seen some of these guys, so it’s kind of important to learn what they’ve been up to. Got to say, it’s really kind of depressing that Jessica’s home is still a wreck going on two years later. Despite this, everyone turns out great performances. I especially liked Luke’s exit from prison. Can’t scream a subtler insult then by making it clear to everyone including the warden that you were 100% choosing to remain in prison. Sigourney Weaver’s Alexandra is very well done. This woman exudes a sort of power that makes everyone warry, even Madam Gao. When the woman I’ve been saying is off putting is she herself off put, you know you’re dealing with a tough SOB. Er… DOB, I guess. Whatever they’re planning probably isn’t good. Just saying. So yeah, other than feeling a little rushed in places, this was a darn good opener and I can’t wait to see more. Have a good night, everybody. 

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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero