Thursday, February 2, 2023

'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 4: 'Target: Iron Fist'

 



The episode's opening stinger is a simple, but effective one.  We open to see Danny lying on the ground, beaten and unable to get up as a figure drags him off.

Not surprisingly, the episode cuts backward.  There's no text to indicate it, but with that sort of opening, it's to be expected.  Danny and Colleen are still a little sore over the negotiations going South.  While Danny's desire to keep Mrs. Yang safe seemed legit at the time, he realizes that neither side had any logical reason to be lurking about outside.  This raises the question of who those guys were.

Enter Misty Knight, who comes in to let them know that the police have been monitoring both gangs and that they had intended to nab both gangs until Danny's actions blew the idea to smithereens.  It was good to see Misty again and she has an interesting rapport.  It isn't quite as chummy as the one she has with Luke, but she still manages to get on fairly well with Danny for the most part.

The two do butt heads on occasion, as they both have different approaches to things.  Using the police to help keep the gang war in check seems like a reasonable option, though Danny is right to say that Davos is a bigger threat that is likely beyond the police.  That being said, his "help or get out of the way" thing was a bit much.  Colleen does manage to talk him down and he himself admits that Misty's approach isn't wrong per se, so he at least acknowledged his error there.

Oddly enough, there's no mention of Luke: be it his new enterprise or even the idea of bringing him in to help.  He could actually help on two fronts: help broker a peace deal and give Danny some backup fighting Davos.  Given how well the two play off each other, I'm surprised that the writers didn't try to do another team up episode, but oh well.

Credit to Danny, though.  He puts the pieces together quite quickly.  He notes the odd timing of Yang's stroke and goes to check on Yang himself.  He recognizes the bruises from Davos' attack and realizes that something bigger is going on. 

On other fronts, Joy figures out exactly what happened with Walker.  Alice Eve continues to shine.  She was very endearing as Mary, but her turn as Walker is something to behold.  She threatens Davos again and even puts Joy in a choke hold when the latter insisted on rummaging through Walker's stuff despite Walker's insistence that she stop.  

She also manages to ambush Danny and get the best of him in a fight.  Much like Bushmaster, she notes that she spent a lot of time watching Danny fight.  She also manages to inject some sort of sedative into him during the scuffle.  Oddly enough, Danny's friendship with Mary helped Walker here, as Danny is reluctant to fight for much of the first half of the fight and is largely just defending himself and deflecting blows.  

By the time he starts fighting back, the drug is taking effect and it isn't long before he ends up on the ground as shown in the opening scene.  He does still put up a valiant fight, though, to his credit.

In the episode's closing act, Davos is, through some sort of ritual, able to "claim what was rightly his".  I'm surprised he didn't show off a glowing fist as he said it, though that is clearly what he's talking about.  I mean, just for the sake of dramatics it probably would've given the scene a bit more umph, but I guess they were going for subtlety.

All in all, this episode was solid.  It advanced the plot quite a bit and had several strong character moments to bolster it.  I actually felt a little bad for Ward when his "olive branch" was so soundly rejected by Joy.  It's funny, they were a huge weak link last season but the writers found a way to give them a scene that stands as an emotional highlight for the episode.  This season is chugging along pretty nicely.  Admittedly, we're only 4 episodes in, still plenty of time for things to either kick up a notch or two or to spin downward.  Which direction it goes remains to be seen.











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