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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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