As Danny is now out of the hospital, he is able to put his charm and good nature to use, as he did back in the pilot. He has some good interactions with various characters, notably Colleen and Jeri Hogarth.
On the downside, his flaws are becoming more apparent. He's starting to show a self centered side and he takes martial arts waaaaay too seriously. His refusal to leave the dojo when Colleen told him to did initially come off as a bit obnoxious, but at least he acknowledged the fact and offered some recompense for the inconvenience. Of course, he continues to be a nuisance, which doesn't help build sympathy. He does, at least, leave this time when told, so there's that, I guess.
As to the Meachums, they are starting to form layers, though they still don't make for particularly compelling villains. Ward and Joy do start to play off each other like siblings, which helps connect with them. The latter even gets to channel her inner Victoria Newman using manipulative tactics in order to secure some sort of real estate deal.
I think the episode wants us to feel like the rivalry has weight due to their childhood friendship, but it really hasn't been working as well as the producers might have hoped. Danny is shocked by what the two are doing, but as we don't have any real investment in the relationship yet, it falls flat.
Even Harold doesn't get much of a showing. We get a better understanding of his role in regards to The Hand and I think we're supposed to feel sorry for the tough position he's in, but I'd rather just see them continue building up the organization itself as opposed to dallying about with the corporate soap opera stuff.
The scene where Madame Gao shows up was probably one of the better parts of the episode. It's odd that she's now part of The Hand, but maybe she joined officially sometime between the second season of Daredevil and now? I mean, she was in league with them, so it's probably splitting hairs. I think the writers are trying to streamline things. Having a bunch of villainous organizations working together probably sounds great on paper, but dealing with just the one seems like enough to challenge the Defenders so doing that is the simpler way to go.
There's a fair bit of action, though some of it does seem forced. The cage fight with Colleen was impressive, but again, I'm not sure how necessary it was.
Danny, alas, doesn't fare so well. We see him get the better of Colleen in a Daredevil-esque sparring match, but then some two bit goon gets the drop on him? I can buy Colleen having a tough go of it with the gigantic cage fight opponent, but you'd think Danny would be more than capable of fighting off some nameless thug.
Oddly, names become a prominent plot point as Danny refuses to be bought off. His efforts to regain his company and name make sense, but it doesn't make for compelling television. I think the writers also shot themselves in the foot by removing the more common methods of establishing identity. Because all of the conventional ways were shut down early on, they have had to come up with rather ridiculous methods like M&M's or a fingerprint on a clay sculpture that Danny made for Joy when he was a kid. It gets it out of the way, which is nice, but if they were going to do it so poorly, why do it?
For me, though, the most nagging aspect of this episode was the lighting. A lot of it takes place in the dark, which would be fine, but if you're watching it on a device, it creates a significant amount of glare, rendering the screen essentially pitch black. I honestly wasn't sure who fell off the ledge at the episode's end. It was only due to looking at the recap page on TvTropes that I was able to confirm that it was Danny.
This, like the hospital fight, is another instance of Danny not being very good at what he does. In the first episode he was parkouring all over and it worked fine. I don't get the sudden drop in competence all of a sudden. He can't blame the drugs anymore, so what else does he have?
From what I've seen of preview material, Danny is the one most eager to put the team together. The idea may have been to have him as the idealist, but if this is supposed to indicate what the Iron Fist can do, it would explain why he'd be the one most interested in having more people around to address the looming problem.
It's a slow process, but the show is finally starting to put the pieces in place and get some momentum going. Alas, the problems are still there. I do maintain that it doesn't quite warrant the backlash that it's been getting, but given that this is prelude to "The Defenders", I can understand why the fandom is generally whelmed.
With the issues of Danny's identity and his struggle to regain his company more or less wrapped up, one would hope that the show can move on to bigger matters.
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