The characters are starting to feel more dynamic, as their motivations become clearer and the interactions become more nuanced. It's quite possible that Harold is manipulating Danny, but at the same time the opening scene where they reunite still works really well. You finally feel the close connection these two families have talked about having. It makes it much more engaging.
Harold even goes so far as to open up about his connection to the Hand, which only adds to things. Again, it's quite possible that he's lying, but I hope that his story does prove to be true. I initially figured he was trying to curry favor with the Hand, but this motivation works a lot better and makes for a more sympathetic character. At the very least, his commitment to keep his family safe appears authentic, if a tad ruthless. If it is either a half truth or a complete falsehood, he really sold it.
Danny also gets a strong showing. His more noble, personable side is able to come through in spades and he even gets to showcase his fighting skills in a hallway brawl. It was a nice way to make up for him having been pushed out a window at the end of the last episode.
Some might complain about Joy's role in that whole ordeal, but to be fair, the attempt to kidnap her did fail and while Danny did most of the fighting, you do see her punch one of the mooks when they're in the elevator, so she helped where she could, good on her.
Outside of combat, Danny is still a fish out of water and the episode is able to play that up to comedic effect without going too far with it. This becomes most apparent during a board meeting where he shows up late, moves a chair so that he can sit next to Joy (which is kind of cute in its own weird way), and then insists that the company sell a new drug at cost.
The board was skeptical for obvious reasons, but I don't know why they didn't offer some sort of compromise number. They could concede the point that selling a $5 pill for 10 times that much is outrageous, but come up with something that would allow them to turn a profit and fund research while still making the medicine more accessible to those who need it. Plus, you know, more affordable means more potential customers which means more profits; so they could justify it even with a business-focused perspective. In fact, doing that would play into the "hostile takeover" mentality that was alluded to in regards to Danny's return. Him putting his foot down right out of the gate showed it to an extent, but him refusing any feasible alternatives would have really made it that much clearer to the others.
Even Ward, probably the dullest of the cast gets some depth. His relationship with Danny gets a better display as he seems driven by envy. This is especially clear when Danny and Harold are talking in the episode's opening scenes. Even putting aside the corporate control stuff, you can start to see why he would be unwilling to let Danny waltz back into their lives so easily.
If any body comes up short this time around, it's Colleen. Don't get me wrong, the cage fight was cool. Having her take down two fighters was a good way to change things up a bit, but it was still a bit on the repetitive side. We know she can fight, but it does give the show another action beat, so there's that. Outside of that, her character doesn't really move forward all that much outside of some extra cash in her pocket.
I did find it a little odd that she fared better against two opponents than she did against the one. If escalation was what they were going for, you'd think they'd play that up a bit more, but oh well.
You'd think that the build up for the Hand would fall flat, given that we've already seen them in action, but it was still done well here. Not only are they able to manipulate multi-billion dollar corporations to do their bidding, but when the Chinese gangsters that attempted to kidnap Joy hear that the Hand is in play, they immediately back down, apologize, and promise not to make any moves against Rand anymore. It was kind of awesome.
Was the ending supposed to mean something? Danny gets that note and we see he has a tattoo on his chest, is that significant for some reason? People who read the comic might squee, but I don't know if that was the note to end the episode on. No, that pun was not intentional.
All in all, though, this was a solid outing. Hopefully the following episodes take their cue from this one because it was a huge step in the right direction.
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