The motivation is also a bit lacking. The heroes coming to the conclusion that Danny should be sidelined makes some degree of sense, but they make it seem as if they wish him bodily harm. Everybody starts lurking around him menacingly when they could very easily make the case in a more diplomatic fashion that doesn't make him feel like the enemy. Heck, Luke and Danny do a rather good job of making their respective cases later anyway. It just seems like they could have saved themselves a lot of trouble.
At least the Daredevil/Iron Fist fight was cool, though. I kind of feel like Danny should have fared better, but he still held his own well enough. It actually took the intervention of the others to ultimately knock him out so that they could tie him to a chair. It was also interesting to see that the shock wave seen in the trailer was the work of Danny and not the Hand. It was a nice fake out that was supported by the "earthquake" seen back in the first episode.
Danny doesn't completely sit this one out...get it? He's tied to a chair....Anyway, his situation actually allows him to share a scene with Luke while Matt and Jessica try to follow up on a lead related to Midland and the giant hole that Matt and Elektra found.
Colter and Jones play off each other rather well, the scene is also well written, and it makes for one of the episode's highlights. After Luke and Danny each get their respective individual second seasons, Netflix should think about consolidating those two shows into a Luke Cage/Iron Fist team up series. It would save them a bit of money while also giving us more Marvel street hero action. At the very least, I see the two having quite a bit of overlap in the years to come.
Matt and Jessica also seem to be bonding. Jessica's heart of gold, which is buried deep under sarcasm and cynicism starts to become more apparent and it makes her a character you can more easily connect to.
As Matt was playing the piano, I thought he was playing the theme song to his own show. It's a bit hard to tell as it's broken up and it sounds like he hits a wrong key here or there. According to TvTropes, however, it was this show's main theme. They do have similarities, but really either way it was a nice and amusing touch.
Just as the heroes start to form bonds (long after Alexandra thought that they had, I should note) the villains start to come apart. Alexandra's leadership is called in to question. Even though the Hand routinely fights itself, this seems to be more severe.
Gao does try to play the diplomat and come to a reasonable compromise, but Alexandra is still adamant that the black sky holds the key. It was still a great scene between the two. You really did get the feeling that these two go way back. We also learn that Gao tried to stage a coup against Alexandra in the past. The moment is played for laughs, especially as a result of Gao's response, but it would also explain why she's more reticent when they're confronting Alexandra.
These scenes are all well and good, but with only a couple of episodes left, you might be wondering why everybody is taking their time.
The second half of the episode makes up for it by throwing out some curve balls that, while catching you off guard, make perfect sense. We also get not one but two pretty major character deaths to keep the viewer reeling.
The first is sad to see, as I was a fan of the character, but given what he did, I don't think there was any going back. Besides, with this show presumably wrapping up the war, his story was pretty much over.
We also get to see a better showdown between Elektra and the defenders. While they end up fighting her one on one due to circumstances, it was still pretty impressive to see her lay out three heroes in rapid succession the way she did.
The fact that the Hand now have exactly what they need to achieve their goals puts the heroes in a corner and makes the viewer wonder just how they're going to get out of this one. We're down to the final two. It's definitely going to be interesting to see how this plays out.
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