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
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