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.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/15130185
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
No comments:
Post a Comment