With time running out, the heroes have to confront one of their deadliest adversaries yet, government bureaucracy and protocols! After the events of last episode, all three non-captive heroes wake up in police custody. Much is made of the fact that two dead bodies were in their proximity and the cops are intent to figure out what happened.
It does lead to a lot of good character interaction, though for the second to last episode, you can't be faulted for feeling like this is taking up time. I imagine that the idea was to impede the heroes when they need to be out there the most, but there wasn't that sense of tension.
I do wonder why everyone was so reluctant to open up. Just say the old guy killed the headless guy and that the woman who killed John Raymond killed him later. It's not like they have anything to hide as far as those two are concerned.
The "you wouldn't believe me if I told you" line also falls flat. In an otherwise real world setting sure, but this is a world that has seen aliens, killer robots, and a magic cube that glows and does stuff. They know of Hydra, really this isn't that far outside the realm of possibility anymore.
It does allow for some nice debates about the battle between being lawful and being good. The trio want to stop the Hand, but the cops want to do it by the book.
Speaking of the Hand, I did find it a little weird that the cops have been "tailing" them for months. I could buy them thinking that they're going after the yakuza or some two-bit crime ring, but I'd think that the Hand has been doing this long enough that they should be able to fly under the legal system's respective radars. Considering the police think that they can handle this, that might be the impression that they have.
It ends up putting the heroes on the wrong side of the law, as they have to bust out and mark themselves as fugitives. It's fitting, I suppose, though I do wonder if it was necessary. Daredevil was already at odds with the cops, so nothing's really changed for him, but this will certainly have ramifications for the other two going forward. I do hope that Luke doesn't end up back in prison. Seeing as that's how his show ended, and how he was bailed out, it would be kind of ridiculous to end this series by throwing him back in. I guess it would maintain the status quo, but it would turn into the wrong kind of running gag.
While the Elektra vs. the remaining members of the Hand confrontation fizzled, the latter do get a better showing when they confront the three heroes after they arrive at Midland. We've seen Murakami and Bakuto fight, but seeing Gao get in on it was a rather interesting treat.
Up until now Luke's and Jessica's rougher fighting styles haven't fared well against the ninjas, but here the good ol' fisticuffs fare much better. It's just a shame that the room is so dimly lit that it seems like you can only catch glimpses here and there. You can see enough of the highlights, thankfully, but it is frustrating to see otherwise entertaining fight sequences hampered by the same albatross.
It's made worse by the fact that the Iron Fist/Elektra showdown does the exact same thing. Oh, and the episode jumps back and forth between the two dimly lit fight sequences. That definitely helped things.
Again, though, I feel like Danny should have fared better. I buy it a bit more with Elektra. She has superhuman strength and reflexes, enough to knock out Luke and Jessica with no effort. Still, for someone who's trained his whole life at this, it seems like he can barely hold his own in most fights.
Going back to the lighting, however, it also ruins what should be one of the show's big wham moments, as Danny wakes up after unwittingly opening the door to K'un L'un in the skeleton of a dragon. He's blown away, but we can barely make out what it is. You can see the rib cage, but if other websites hadn't specifically said that that was a dragon skeleton, I would not have come to that conclusion.
On the plus side, this could be laying the ground work for a Fin Fang Foom appearance or at least a mention, right?
Sadly, for the second to last episode, this one was probably one of the weaker entries to date. It had sparks here and there, but coming after what we'd seen before and trying to set up the big finale, it leaves quite a bit to be desired.
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