Viewer Log: The Defenders ep 8

            All things come to an end.

Alright, here we are, we’ve hit the grand finale. Will The Defenders stick the landing, or flop onto its face? How will our misfit heroes stop the Hand’s evil plan and save New York? Will Jessica seriously consider going to an AA meeting for real? All these questions except one will be answered… NOW!

So, this time we open on Colleen and Matt trying to convince the others that setting off a bunch of C4 and destroying Midland Circle and the Hand is the only way to stop the bad guys for good. While I can respect their thought process, I think I side with Luke on this one. Why? Because blowing up a building is dangerous. They’re able to eventually sway Jessica and Luke to their plan, when it’s revealed that the building is improbably empty save for the Hand, and that their plan will, fingers crossed, cause the building to collapse directly into their hole beneath the city. They have the added problem that the detonator they brought with only runs on a timer. So, once it starts they have ten minutes to make a break for it. No pressure.

So Danny is inside the chest of the Dragon that is tattooed
on his chest? That's kind of meta.

Beneath Midland, Elektra is examining the Dragon skeleton and basking in her victory. She’s interrupted by Gao and some Hand Goons joining her. Gao explains that, since Danny seemed to have escaped, a good chuck of their forces is out looking for him. Also, that removing the bones from beneath New York will cause more major quakes, and eventually cause New York to collapse into the sea. Both are super okay with that, because… evil. Thankfully, Danny was hiding nearby, head everything, and now knows he needs to make sure they don’t take the bones out.

Upstairs, the group break into teams. The Powereds, Matt, Luke, and Jessica will go down, find Matt and get the heroes clear before things go boom. The Normies, consisting of Colleen and Claire, will go and set the bomb. Colleen is rather upset at, from her perspective, being left behind. But, Claire does point out that she really, really needs some backup just in case the Hand goons find her. Colleen reluctantly agrees to go with.

Outside, the Cops find out that the C4 was taken. Neither Misty nor the Captain seem to question how someone slipped that out of the Evidence locker, how odd. It takes them a moment, but they realize that if the Defenders took the C4, they probably are planning to use them. They hurriedly start shouting for the bomb squad. Back at the police station, Karen is examining the police’s web board thing about the Hand. What is that thing called, I have no idea what the proper term is. Anyway, she’s examining it, and Trish comes in. The power comes back on, which is good. Malcom and Foggy come in, and let the ladies know that their friends/family have an APB out on them, which is bad.

The heroes descend. Matt, using his super hearing, finds a concealed elevator. Luke smashes the door open, and they find the giant elevator shaft that leads to the bottom. After everyone admits that they’re a little terrified, they rally and get into the elevator.

Back with Colleen and Claire, they bond a little while making for the central pillar.  They’re able to plant the C4, but then Bakudo walks in. They both make for cover, and Colleen draws her sword from cover. Bakudo notices the C4, seems to sense that his former apprentice is nearby, channels his inner Zod and announces that he will find her. Colleen, wanting to finish things for real, reveals herself. While the two warriors duel, Misty calls Claire. She wants to know about the C4, but Claire is kind of focused on Bakudo, so she just tells Misty to clear the block and hangs up. Misty, tired of being forced to the sidelines, pulls her gun, shoots the nearest door and breaks into the building.

A crew of Hand goons are harvesting Dragon bones, leaving them open for a nice ambush. Danny jumps down and beats them up. Madam Gao reveals herself. Danny calls her and the Hand out for defiling the bones of Shao-Lao… we’ll get back to that. Gao shrugs and points out that Danny literally/figuratively punched Shao-Lao’s heart. She uses one of her Chi punches to knock Danny on his butt, where he gets jumped by Murakami, Elektra, and the rest of the Hand. Before they can do something horrible to Danny, they hear the Elevator coming down, and prepare.

Time to descend into the Darkness. Whoops, sorry Matt.

On the Elevator, Matt hears all the craziness going on below, and formulates a plan. And it’s a fairly simple one, at that. When the elevator touches down, Jessica is the only one in it. She steps out, claiming she’s just here to talk. As weak and obvious as this distraction is, somehow it worked. Helps that it looks like they just needed a moment to get into position. Luke and Matt jump down from above and then a massive brawl ensues. Danny breaks free, knocking Gao down and then Murakami. The fight is on!

Back with the Normies, Colleen and Bakudo are really getting into their sword fight. Bakudo keeps offering Colleen her old job back, dude is seriously obsessed, but Colleen isn’t interested. While this is going on, more goons slip in to help Bakudo. Claire tries to stop them, hitting them with a wrench, but she’s overpowered. Thankfully, Misty walks in and uses her superpower, having a gun, to take them out. Colleen gets distracted for a moment and takes a slash to the back. The group tries to take him down, but he quickly disarms Colleen, gets Claire between the x of his twin blades, and then dis-arms Misty when she tries to save Claire. Literally, her arm is chopped off. Colleen gets her sword back and chops off Bakudo’s head. They then find out that Bakudo started the timer on the bomb during the fight. They have nine minutes to escape. Oh shoot.

The massive brawl is continuing downstairs. Luke is smacking folks around, Danny and Matt are using their superior skills to beat the heck out of goons, and Jessica is literally thrilling goons around. They regroup for a few moments, the three free members telling Danny about the boom plan, and Danny telling the others that Alexandra is dead and Elektra is in charge now. The brawl resumes. Matt eventually hears the bomb ticking, and tells the rest of them to fall back. He’s staying back to try and get through to Elektra again. They don’t want to leave, but Matt isn’t moving. He whispers something to Danny before they go. While the Defenders take the elevator, the bad guys climb the scaffolding.

Spoilers ahead. If you don’t want to know the ending, stop reading here. You have been warned.

It's about time they do a Power Rangers style line up.
Now they just need an color-coded explosion.

Elektra and Matt face off again. He keeps trying to talk to her, and keeps getting sliced up as thanks. Matt, buddy, there are such a thing as lost causes, all I’m saying. In frustration, Elektra tosses one of her swords at the elevator cable, slashing though it. On the elevator, the team has to fight several Hand goons, including Murakami. The baddies get thrown off, and Jessica ends up saving the day. She was able to quickly climb out and onto the scaffolding, and caught the elevator cable before it could crash. She’s able to hold it long enough for Danny and Luke to climb off.

The free Defenders meet up with the Normies. What? Every team needs a name, and these normal ladies deserve one. Misty is bleeding horribly, and they really have no time to spare. Danny, realizing Matt wants to go down with the Hand, tries to go back for him, but the cops rush in and pull them all out.

Matt and Elektra’s battle is reaching its zenith. They’re both exhausted, badly beaten, and nearly out of time. Madam Gao, who is somehow still alive, comes across Murakami, impaled on some rebar. Murakami, rather delusional from the combination of blows to the head, massive fall, blood loss, and rebar through the sternum, asks what’s going on. Gao rather simply says, “the End.” The bomb goes off, Elektra has just enough time to tell Matt that she’s sorry for hurting him before the building topples.

Outside, the others look on in horror as Midland Circle impossibly collapses in on itself. Danny reveals that, Matt’s last words to him were “Protect my city.” The Team is brought back to the station, and reunited with their entourages. Karen and Foggy are clearly heartbroken when Matt doesn’t follow the others in.

After that, things kind of go back to normal. Trish continues to investigate all that happened, and consoling her adoptive sister, Jessica. Foggy lets Luke and Claire know that they’ll see no legal trouble because of what happened. Danny uses his money to pay for Misty’s treatment, and later implies to Colleen that he might try to take up Matt’s mantel. Jessica, while out for a ‘my life is screwed up’ drink, is joined by Luke and they have a conversation they probably should have had earlier. The conversation boils down to both admitting that they both screwed up whatever there was between them. Such is life. Luke admits that he’s glad she got out okay, and Jessica reciprocates. They take a shot for Matt. Jessica returns to her place, to discover Malcom fixing up some bullet holes in her wall. Jessica, who seems to have accepted his unsolicited help, just shakes her head and reveals the new Alias Investigations logo. Karen and Foggy pray for Matt at Matt’s preferred church, and hope he’s in a better place.

We then cut to Matt, badly bruised and bloodied, covered in bandages… and being cared for by nuns. One of them says to “Get Maggie. Tell her he’s awake.” One story ends, and another begins.

Okay, so overall, The Defenders was good. Not great, but good. I think that the smaller allotment of episodes kind of hurt it, as there really wasn’t much breathing room in the plot overall. It seems like after episode one they were pretty much running the whole time. Which is fine overall, but does make things feel a little rushed in places. I really enjoyed the final showdown between the Defenders and the Hand. They did a mash up of their individual fights and their theme music that was really well done. I also like seeing the slight differentiation between Luke and Jessica’s fighting styles. Both have super-strength, so one would assume they’d fight the same. But no, thanks to Luke’s unbreakable skin, he’s able to hit as hard as he wants, using his full body as a battering ram. Jessica, on the other hand, is strong but not supernaturally durable. Meaning, sure, she can hit hard enough to break concrete, but it’ll mangle her hand something fierce. So instead, she ends up tossing her opponents around, using physics to determine how beat up they get. A small touch, but a nice one. Matt vs. Elektra was more or less what I was expecting. A lot of pleading from Matt, and a lot of hitting from Elektra. I kind of wish we could have seen Matt go all out against her, but we can’t always get what we want. Kind of a letdown send off for Madam Gao, who’s been menacing around since season one of Daredevil. She just gets blown to oblivion like everyone else. I was so going to lay down money that she’d slip away. But again, can’t get what we want. I honestly have no idea if the dragon was supposed to be the skeleton of Shao-Lao, or if Shao-Lao is like K’un-Lunise for Dragon, or what. Begs the question of how Danny punched it in the heart if it was already dead and rotted to nothing. Gao claims that Dragons used to be relatively numerous, so it’s anyone’s guess. Finally, a little factoid about Matthew Murdock to partially explain the significance of that nun’s comment. Matt is the son of Jack Murdock, who he knows is dead, and Margaret Murdock, whom Matt presumed to be dead. Just food for though. Oh, and how the heck did those Nuns get him out of there? I hope they explain in Daredevil season 3.

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