'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 10: 'A Duel of Iron'

Thus, another chapter in the MCU comes to a close.  While the show was not as well received as some of the others, this season was a step up in a lot of respects and this episode pays off quite well.

Not surprisingly, the first order of business is putting an end to Davos' reign of terror.  While Colleen did take some of the Iron Fist's power, because Davos interrupted the ritual, the two are now put in mortal peril.  While both parties are in a great deal of pain, Davos does escape, forcing them to pursue.

The agony doesn't seem to hinder them too much, however, as they end up in an impressive fight scene.  At first, it was a little weird that the main character wasn't facing his "enemy" in the big showdown, but he does step in later and gets a chance to throw hands for a little while.  Heck, Davos is even able to briefly fend off both fighters at the same time.  Considering what he had been through up to this point, you really can't fault the guy's determination. 

Walker and Misty even get in on the action.  I don't know if it's quite as good as the final confrontation with Bushmaster, but it did succeed in giving everybody something to contribute and a highlight moment on which to end the battle.

The fight is all well and good, but the episode balances it out nicely, devoting the second half of the episode to character moments.

Ward gets quite a few highlights.  He starts to mend fences with Joy, and even tries to step up and be a father to his impending child.  The offer on the latter is gently rejected, but it was still a pretty impressive gesture in its own right.  It's especially impressive as the Meachums were the weak link for me back in season one.  They fared a lot better this time around and the show certainly benefitted from it.

While it was certainly possible for the show to get a third season, this does feel like a pretty organic end.  Even the opening voiceover, which turns out to be a..."dear Jane" (?) letter talks about endings and new beginnings.  The episode even wraps up by showing us how they are all starting new chapters in the hopes of achieving various goals. 

Colleen has taken on the mantle of the Iron Fist, though it turns out that Danny retained some of his power as he is able to use chi himself.  On the one hand, it makes some sense.  Once you've learned to master and control your chi, you should be able to do so despite a ritual.  On the other, it kind of negates the crux of the season's conflict.  It seems like they could have saved a lot of trouble if Danny and Davos could have both had the power.  Still, it does allow him to keep fighting the good fight.  The MCU roster of heroes is adding a new member, not replacing it, and that seems like the better way to go.  Will either of them ever actually show up again?  Posssibly, Marvel does seem to be trying to tie the older stuff back into the larger narrative, so we'll see how things play out.

 Hopefully there's something as Walker's story demands a follow up.  She confronts Joy and basically does the exact same thing Davos did, forcing an extension of the arrangement due to new factors that have come into play.  On the plus side, Walker's goals aren't quite as violent.  She's aware of a third alter and wants to find out who she is.  Yes, danger is still involved, but it still seems much more amenable than working with Davos and helping his mad crusade.

Speaking of, Davos lives to fight another day.  He wants to be killed, but the heroes don't grant him that request.  He may not have powers, but it is possible for him to do something later on down the line.  I'm not sure his speech about inspiring others and creating a global perspective shift rang true.  He enlisted some street hoods.  This isn't like one of the Joker's endeavors.  You could see what they were trying to do, but it fell flat for me.

Overall, though, this episode worked well.  Still, I am glad to move on to the next series.  I've got several to go.  Up next, the return of Daredevil.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 9: 'War Without End'

 

We've come to the show's penultimate episode.  While things do appear to be gearing up for a big showdown, the first issue at hand is whether or not Colleen accepts the fist.

Initially, she doesn't.  Danny tries to convince her that it's the right move, even taking her to that abandoned closet that he went to in the premiere to whale on things.  It was nice to give that scene some more context and show what Danny was really going through.  I kind of feel like it should have been brought up before, but better late than never.  Nevertheless, Colleen declines, saying that Danny is the Iron Fist.

On other fronts, everybody is gearing up to take down Davos.   The two gangs have formed an alliance, Misty was able to acquire a task force, and Walker and Ward buy some firepower of their own.  It would have been awesome to see all these forces converge to take down Davos, but alas, that big showdown never happens, and it falls to Danny and Colleen to end things.

On the plus side, we do get to see Turk again.  That's always fun.  Another highlight is Walker completely ignoring Ward's talk about his father being "repeatedly undead".  It wouldn't surprise me to find out that she didn't care, but at the same time, you could see it as a subtle nod to the fact that this does take place in the MCU and stuff like that is just par for the course at this point.

The climax isn't without its highlights.  Danny does come out with the win, with some help from some a stash of neighborhood narcotics.  It doesn't take him nearly as long to down Davos as it did back in K'un L'un, so props there.  Even Davos' attempts to use his fist come up empty, as Danny is able to counter and deflect before any damage can be done.

The more impressive fight, though, is Colleen vs the gang of kids whom Davos had taken on as disciples.  Considering they're relative novices, they don't do terribly, but Colleen is still able to down them all with little trouble.  

The confrontation serves not only to provide a cool action scene, but to give Colleen a prompt to change her mind and ultimately take on the mantle of the Iron Fist.  

While Davos is sedated, you have to figure that he's going to wake up before the ritual's done.  There's still an episode left, after all.  It happened later than I expected, but sure enough, he does.  We see that he uses the power of the fist to break himself out of his bonds, but the episode's real kicker comes when Colleen reveals that she has fist power of her own.  I guess it makes sense, as the ritual wasn't completed, but you'd think it would be an all or nothing deal, not a 50/50 split.  

Next episode will be the big finale, then it'll be on to Daredevil season 3.  Who knows?  I might actually make it to the Disney+ era of MCU shows before the year is up.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 8: 'Citadel on the Edge of Vengeance'

 

The final battle between Danny and Davos looms just over the horizon.  As such, both parties begin preparations.  Danny and Colleen train so that Danny can get back into shape while Davos trains his recruits.

Interestingly, Danny's training is just as much mental as it is physical.  Colleen knows that Danny's connection to Davos is a "blind spot" and she also knows that Danny can get a little hot-headed.  She takes considerable time and effort to remedy these so that Danny will be properly equipped to face the oncoming challenge.

For people who don't care for Danny, I'm sure you'll like having his flaws laid out like that.  It would have been nice to see this be a more gradual growth rather than something that is shoved into one episode near the end of the show's run. Sadly, we won't get a third season to see how the development pays off, but that's just how the cards are dealt sometimes.

While Colleen's training gets rough, it's a cakewalk compared to Davos, who takes more of a Cobra Kai approach to training.  He almost quotes that dojo's mantra, it's not quite verbatim, but he's definitely carrying that spirit with him in his approach.

Joy does try to appeal to his better nature and convinces him to try and present a kinder face so that the city will embrace him rather than brand him a crazed criminal.  She does raise a good point, even if she is just playing him to stall.  Again, though, there was an opportunity to allude to other heroes and the script doesn't do it.  Even if they don't want to mention the Avengers, you'd think that Daredevil, Luke Cage, or the Punisher could be brought up as examples for Joy to help make her point.  I guess it's moot as his effort doesn't really go according to plan and he scraps it almost immediately.  If anything, the effort seems to make him crazier.  

On a similar note, Walker has a pretty stunning revelation after viewing the video that Mary left for her.  It turns out that Mary thought that Walker got her out of that Sokovian prison, which to be fair is a safe assumption given Walker's combat prowess.  Walker, on the other hand, thought that Mary was able sweet talk other people into getting them out.  As neither is true, it means that there is a third "alter" in there somewhere.  

I'm not sure if we'll get to see the third persona in action.  There's only two episodes left, but it's possible.  It would be a shame to throw that out there and never get the chance to utilize the plot point.  The same goes for all of the gangs deciding to band together to take down Davos.  Danny's convinced it's a suicide mission, but I think it'll make for a big and exciting showdown to precede the one between Danny and Davos.

This was a solid episode.  There were several strong character moments and the plot advanced on several fronts.  There was no big action beat to close out the episode, but the sparring match between Danny and Colleen was well done enough that it satisfied on that front.

I'm not sure about Danny's assertion that Colleen should be the one to take the power of the fist.  I know viewers have been clamoring for this for a while, so maybe the writers were trying to appease viewers on that front.  In universe, it is a little weird considering that Colleen has repeatedly said that she wants to walk away from that life.  This seems to be doing the opposite.  I mean, training Danny is one thing, but inheriting the mantle of a superhero is another beast entirely.  We'll see how things play out though.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 7: 'Morning of the Mindstorm'

 

Despite his injury, Danny is still determined to regain the power of the Iron Fist, stop Davos, and reclaim his title as both Iron Fist and defender of the city.

Oddly, the episode tries to paint Danny as being in the wrong.  Colleen says that he's obsessed with getting the fist back, but Danny's statement that Davos needs to be stopped is accurate.  Even if he did want the power back, is that a bad thing?  He was helping people with it.  It's only natural.

In any event, before this, the two do actually have some good scenes together.  Colleen does a good job of lifting Danny's spirits when he's at emotional low points.  

Despite her reservations, she does ultimately agree to train Danny.  It's painted as some big deal and the way Colleen talks, it's supposed to be some big game changer that alters their romantic arrangement.  It's a little forced. You'd think that it would be a good couple bonding experience.  I mean, Goku spars with people all the time and he manages to keep an element of fun to it, why can't they?

Admittedly, Danny does seem to be enjoying it, or at the very least, he's happy to see his fighting spirit come back as the two spar.  Sure, Colleen knocks him down a bit, but he does improve with every round, so it makes for a great uplifting moment.

Speaking of uplifting, Davos recruits the gang of street kids to be his proteges to aid in his war on crime.  Like Mariah before him, he does a pretty good job of delivering a rousing speech about how he's going to change things for the better.  No joke, there were times where it seemed like Davos was channeling Nick Fury the way he was talking.

It just made the lack of superhero references a little bizarre.  You'd think the kids would make reference to either the street level heroes or the Avengers themselves, but nothing.  The kids do agree to join, though judging by the look the two kids gave, they may have some ulterior motive?  I guess we'll have to wait and see.

Luke does get a mention when Misty tries to get the cops to help deal with Davos.  Unfortunately, they're OK with him dealing with the gangs the way he is, so they are on their own.  Oddly enough, when Danny says that he needs help to confront Davos, Luke's name still doesn't come up.  I know, I've brought this up before, but it's still weird.

The episode does devote a lot of time to the bowl that was used in the ritual.  It is apparently a key component, but the search does allow seemingly forgotten elements from earlier episodes to spring back into relevance, which was a nice touch. 

All in all, this episode was solid.  It managed to give each character some progression and juggle several sub-plots without feeling overcrowded.  There's only three episodes left in both the season and the series.  While there's still a lot to cover, there is still a good chunk of time left, so we'll see how things play out.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 6: 'The Dragon Dies at Dawn'

 

With both Joy and Walker in "custody", our heroes begin trying to get some need-to-know information.  It's always interesting watching Misty interrogate people and this is no different.  It's a quick scene, but it still works pretty well.  

You really have to wonder why Misty thought that intimidating Walker was going to work.  It would probably work in most instances, but it was destined for failure here.  Luckily, Walker views her job on Davos' payroll as complete, thus has no qualms about helping them out.  Joy is also cooperative, so the group is able to figure out who performed the ritual that robbed Danny of his fist.

With that, Misty and Colleen go off to see if they can undo what they did.  Meanwhile, Danny decides to track down Davos himself to see if he can talk his brother out of his current operation.  Much like Misty's attempt to intimidate Walker, you have to wonder what made Danny think this was going to work.  It's well intentioned, and it is in character, but if Davos was in a place to be talked down, you'd think that Danny would have convinced him well before all of this.  I mean, he had reached out before to no avail.

For his part, Davos' grudge against Danny seems done.  Now that he has the power of the fist, Davos goes back to viewing Danny as his brother and even offers to have Danny fight alongside him.  Given the nature of Davos' methods, Danny refuses, but it was still something of an olive branch.  Even given everything that had happened, the bond was still there, just buried.

On a similar note, Ward finally gets his chance to sit down and talk with Joy to figure out if their relationship is salvageable.  Joy still has a lot of resentment towards her brother.  Even his admission that he did what he could to protect her from their dad's violent outbursts by taking the hits himself wasn't enough to completely sway her.  Judging by the look on her face, though, the needle did move, even if only for a moment.

Much like Davos, Joy does show some willingness to mend fences with her sibling.  She says that she's not ready to forgive him yet, but she wants to be and, in time, thinks that she can be.  It's a decent win in the grand scheme of things.

Misty and Colleen get a win of their own, tracking down the women who put that tattoo on Davos.  They needed some convincing via a fight, but they eventually decide to help.

The fight was OK.  It had its highlights, but at the same time, it felt like it was there largely to give the episode an action beat.  It's a 2 on 1, and those are always fun.  Colleen herself seems to be enjoying it, as she smiles several times over the course of it.  The tattoo artists themselves are no slouches, though it does remind me of Jessica Jones' confusion over the fact that everyone they came across knew some form of martial arts back in "The Defenders"

We also get a much briefer 2 on 1 when Danny and Walker try to take down Davos.  It goes better than it could have, Walker manages to inject the drug that she used on Danny into him, but Davos still comes out the victor. He even breaks Danny's leg before the drugs force him into unconsciousness.

The episode ends as Danny is taken away in an ambulance.  You'd think that this is a good thing, but the episode makes it seem intense due to the fact that Walker has changed back to Mary and seems unwilling to help Danny take Davos in.  

It was actually nice to see Mary again.  Sure, Walker the creepy badass mercenary was a blast to watch, but Alice Eve is equally as effective selling that friendly girl next door persona.  I was wondering if she was ever going to change back.  The episode toys with it earlier when Walker seemingly calls to her "alter".  Nothing comes there, though I suppose you could call it foreshadowing.  The fact that Walker tells Danny what triggers her shifts between the two personas also helps lay the groundwork for the switch back.

All in all, this was a solid episode.  There are some great character moments peppered throughout, the episode is well paced, and it leaves you wondering where things are going to go from here.  I was operating on the assumption that this was a 13 episode season like everything else, but apparently, it's only 10, so we're closer to the end than I thought.  Should still be interesting regardless.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 5: 'Heart of the Dragon'

 

Davos has claimed his perceived birthright and become the Iron Fist.  He lets Danny go and proceeds to become the city's newest crime fighter.  

You'd think that this situation wouldn't be so bad.  Danny's fine...ish, Davos and Joy have seemingly settled their grudge and the city still has a protector.  Unfortunately, things aren't that cut and dry.    It turns out that Davos is a fan of the ol' ultra-violence and his war on crime is less Danny Rand and more Frank Castle-esque.  He voices his intent to not only end any potential gang war, but all criminals.  

You'd think with a rogue Iron Fist that the idea of calling Luke into help would come up, but no.  The idea of calling Claire to help tend to Danny's wounds is brought up and quickly shot down.  It was a nice touch, though, regardless.

Joy herself tries to back off, stating that their business is concluded and that they shouldn't be seen together anymore to maintain a semblance of cover.  Davos, of course, has other ideas.  Admittedly, I'm not sure what he really needs her for at this point.  He's the Iron Fist, he can protect the city as he sees fit without Joy's input.  It's a typical villain move, but there's no sense to it in this case, at least not yet.

This does still have pretty serious consequences in terms of the overall plot, though.  Joy hires Walker to stay on as security, though the mercenary is convinced that ending Davos is the only way to put an end to things.  This also puts her in Joy's apartment when Colleen and Misty arrive at her apartment looking for information.  It also prompts Joy to come clean about her part.  Her betrayal was on the verge of being this big emotional moment, but it has its thunder stolen by Joy's declaration that Davos still has bigger plans ahead.

Interestingly enough, the episode spends a lot of time looking back.  More specifically, giving us a glimpse into Davos' upbringing.  We see how he was essentially groomed by his mother to be the next Iron Fist and get why he thinks of it as his birthright.  It goes beyond just shoddy judges, as we see this goal as a fundamental part of his being.  Suffice it to say, when he loses, his mom is not happy, at all and she doesn't mince words about it either.

As for Danny, he's mostly out of it.  He wanders around town, wounded.  Gets beat up some more, captured, and eventually rescued by Colleen and Misty.  He does get to have a nice heart to heart with Ward about things.  The banter between the two is well done.  Ward gets some good snark in, but he and Danny also delve into deeper matters that give the scene a bit more weight.

While this episode is largely quieter and more character driven, it isn't completely devoid of action.  In addition to Davos' wrecking gangsters, we also see Walker take on Misty and Colleen.  The prior actually manages to maintain the upper hand throughout.  Her win over Danny had extenuating circumstances, but she pulls the win here without having to resort to cheap tricks.  It's a little weird that Misty somehow put up a better fight against Bushmaster, but there you go.  Colleen fares better, but even she can't seem to gain an edge.  It goes to show how good Walker is at what she does.  Were it not for Misty pulling her gun, who knows what would have happened.

Speaking of Walker, Ward is able to shed some light on her.  After doing some digging, her file came up in Rand's records.  Not only does this allow the characters to piece how she and Joy are connected, but he also mentions a military background, which would explain her tactical prowess as well as her hand to hand combat skills.

Overall, the episode is OK.  It does have some pacing problems and I doubt it will go down as the most memorable episode, but it did have some highlights and it did move things forward on several fronts.  

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'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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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 3: 'This Deadly Secret'

 

After learning of the the association between Joy and Davos (as well as the potential implications), Ward and Danny decide to host a dinner.  It is unofficially a Festivus dinner as the main purpose is for everybody to air their respective grievances, clear the air, and potentially mend some fences.

It's not a terrible idea.  The problems they all have do seem like things that can be rectified.  Even Davos, who has the deepest enmity still shows to have a bond with Danny as they reminisce over their experiences in K'un L'un.  There's a lot of fake niceties during the amusingly awkward dinner, but that moment over the grill seemed a lot more genuine.

Despite this, things go South, and it seems like there's little hope of reconciliation.  It isn't helped by the fact that Ward wanted to keep his presence secret, which ties into Joy's resentment of being kept out of the loop for her presumable protection.  It was well intentioned, as he didn't think Joy would show (which she admitted during Danny's confession) but she's still more than a little peeved.  

The latter half of the episode shifts its focus to the gang war and the attempted truce negotiation.  It's a pretty jarring plot and tone shift, but thematically, it actually makes for a nice parallel.  You have two aggrieved parties who can potentially stop a greater conflict through dialogue, at a table no less.  It goes about as well as the dinner did.  Actually, no, to be fair, there were no punches thrown or weapons drawn at the dinner party, so at least Danny and Colleen have that win under their belt.

What's weird is that the whole fight is kind of Danny's fault.  He looks out the window and sees people who he thinks are involved in some sort of trap.  As a result, he promptly cuts things short, and a fight ensues.  The people who Danny saw are never a factor after this.  Maybe they were mooks who Danny and Colleen took out, but if they were just random people who happened to be doing their own thing, shouldn't the gang leader have expressed confusion or said something to the effect of "there is no trap, stop being paranoid"?  Maybe the next episode will elaborate on it because it was a little strange how that played out.

Mary doesn't have a whole lot of screentime, but the episode manages to do a lot with it and even give her some of the episode's best scenes.  She initially comes to Danny to warn him that he's being followed and watched.  Despite her concern, he's convinced that it's just some tabloid papparazzi looking for something to sell.

It turns out that Walker is in the employ of Joy and Davos, acting as a sort of recon agent keeping tabs on him.  The mystery of Walker's identity isn't held too long, being revealed at this episode's end.  It turns out that Mary herself is Walker.  It doesn't appear to be an act, though.  Given what we've seen, she seems to have a split personality.  This is made evident by the fact that Mary's actions actually set Walker's efforts back and get her in hot water with Davos.  

To Walker's credit, she does not take kindly to Davos' threats.  She actually ends the episode with two blades held to the warrior's throat.  Between that and her creepy speech patterns, it made one hell of a first impression, that's for sure.

This episode was a quieter, more dialogue driven affair, but it worked well.  There were plenty of great character moments peppered throughout.  It did move the plot along quite nicely and it gave characters chances to progress in various ways.  I was never bored and I'm looking forward to seeing what comes next.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 2: 'The City's Not For Burning'

 

This episode does a good job of picking up where the last one left off.  It, naturally, puts the focus on the brewing gang war and Danny's attempts to stop it.

To his credit, he and Colleen actually do a good job of pitching more peaceful resolutions. It helps that the gang leader that they interact with is quite reasonable and the motivation for the conflict is one that is easily resolved (control of a dock to facilitate business dealings.)

Still, outside forces result in it not working out as well as one would have hoped, though the heroes are not aware of this quite yet.

On a similar note, Colleen is able to plead her case when the gang of street kids who she fought before come back for revenge.  Again, the gang leader is pretty reasonable and is willing to let bygones be bygones when he finds out that she actually did have their best interests in mind.  I was a little disappointed that despite his name, there's nothing really "rhino" about him. I head the name and immediately thought that the Spider-man villain was working his way to the MCU, but no dice.  That would have been cool, though.

The episode also manages to substantially elaborate on other sub-plots.  We see Joy and Davos scheming to acquire some sort of artifact that is critical to their plot.  There's some "Young and the Restless" style scheming as the two create a honeypot to blackmail the wife of a congressman.  Ward also deduces that a lot of the rights that Joy acquired in her divestment package were a deliberate smokescreen to mask what she was really after.  We still don't know what that is.

The biggest benefactor is Mary, the young woman who Danny met whilst working.  She's not the main focus, but her screen time does give her arc the biggest boost as we see that she has issues.  The episode hints at the idea of a love triangle, but Danny is upfront about the fact that he's in a relationship and even introduces Colleen as his girlfriend when he brings Mary up to the apartment to get her some water after one of her spells.  

Of course, Colleen has her own friend/potential romantic rival in the form of a fellow volunteer with whom Colleen shares some pretty good banter.  I'm not sure how he didn't get the "forget it, it's Chinatown" reference.  I've never seen the movie, but I still would have known what she was talking about.  If anything, he should have raised an eyebrow at how on the nose it was, but oh well.

A good portion of the episode is focused on a flashback showing the duel between Danny and Davos, where the prior was given the honor of fighting the dragon.  It does allow for the episode to pepper in some action amongst the plot developments.  Having the two wear masks that look like the one that Danny wears in the comics was a nice touch, though it was a detriment at points as it could get hard to tell who was who. 

Eventually, the masks do come off and even the belt that ties the two together gets severed, which results in a more straight forward fight.

Actually seeing the fight, you really have to wonder why Davos is bitter against Danny.  Danny won fair and square.  The one thing that comes close to a grievance is the fact that at one point, Davos has Danny pinned and demands that he yield.  Danny doesn't and is able to get a second wind.  Later on, Danny has Davos pinned and the judges call it. OK, yeah, they don't give him the same window of time, but shouldn't Davos' beef be with the judges?  I'm not sure why he resents Danny for what went down.  Maybe that will get elaborated on, but as of now, it seems like Davos' beef is misplaced.

All in all, this was a solid episode.  It did a good job of juggling a lot of sub-plots and gave multiple characters highlights as well as further development.  It's still early, but it does seem like this season is starting off with some solid momentum.

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'Iron Fist' Season 2, Episode 1: 'The Fury of Iron Fist'

 

It's finally time to dive into the next chapter of the MCU.  We come to the second season of a show spotlighting one of the MCU's most revered heroes, both in and out of universe, the immortal Iron Fist.  That's right, fan-favorite Danny Rand is back.

Honestly, I didn't hate the first season as much as everyone else did.  Still, you can see an uptick in quality just in this episode alone.  Danny is written well here.  A lot of emphasis is put on his easy-going and personable demeanor, which was always one of his stronger attributes.

It works especially well with his scenes with Colleen.  Given the focus that their relationship has in the episode, it's definitely an asset. 

Speaking of Colleen, it seems she's retiring from crime fighting.  Danny, for his part, encourages her to jump back into the fray and fight alongside him again, but after what happened to Misty, she'd rather help people in other ways.  It's not really a surprise that she ends up partaking in the episode's climactic fight, though she seems disappointed about it rather than reinvigorated, so we'll see if she gets pulled back in or if that was just a one-off.

I do have to give credit to the mooks this episode.  Usually, they're just beat down fodder, but they actually hold their own pretty well all things considered. 

It was a little amusing that this episode sets up the idea of Danny attempting to stop a gang war.  That was literally the plot of the last show (that Danny himself had appeared in no less).  I guess you need something that can hold a candle to the Hand, but still.

On that note, the Hand is directly reference as having a....hand in what's happening now.  In another parallel to "Luke Cage", Danny surmises that the Hand was keeping the city's other gangs in check (much like Mariah.)  With them gone, it's created a power vacuum with multiple groups vying for new power and influence.  You have to wonder if Danny will call Luke in to help broker a treaty as he did once he acquired Mariah's club.   It would be strange if his newfound position wasn't at least mentioned in some capacity.

To the show's credit, it does seem like other factors besides just another gang war will come into play.  Joy Meachum and Davos return and begin to set a plan in motion to get what they believe is to be their retribution.  It's been a long time since I saw the show's first season, so I couldn't really remember off the top of my head why Joy had beef.  I didn't remember Davos' name at first, but I did at least remember his general jist.

He already resented Danny before, but the fall of K'un L'un did not help things...at all.  Even the fact that Danny destroyed (or at least helped destroy) the Chaste's nemesis does little to convince Davos that Danny is the rightful bearer of the fist.

Joy, for her part, does waver a bit when Danny is genuinely kind and supportive of her in one of the episode's early scenes. She still commits to the revenge plan, but it is another example of how much better Danny is used here than he has been in the past.

All in all, this was a solid start.  The episode was well paced, the character moments worked, and there was enough solid action to satisfy viewers on that front as well.  We'll see if the show can use the momentum to its advantage.

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'Luke Cage' Season 2, Episode 10: 'The Main Ingredient'

 

The long-awaited reunion between Luke and Danny Rand finally arrives.  The defender of K'un L'un pops in to offer Luke some backup in regard to Bushmaster. 

Oddly enough, Bushmaster doesn't appear at all in this episode.  It's explained in universe as him laying low and recovering from the events of the previous episode.  Still, seeing a 2 on 1 fight where Luke and Danny take him on would have been cool to see.  I guess that's why they had Luke win the last round, to cement that a "team up" wasn't really necessary.    

Instead, Danny offers more in the way of mental and spiritual guidance.  Given his background, it's not that out of place.  It is a little odd, as Luke has mended fences with his dad, so you'd think that he'd already be on the way to a calmer and more assured mindset.  

In any event, it does give the two a chance to shine, as the bond between them remains as strong as it did when they met up back in 'The Defenders'.  They do get a somewhat perfunctory team up fight against some generic mooks when they raid Bushmaster's Nightshade garden.  Even though they never confront him directly, they did deliver a blow of sorts by taking away his source of strength.  Of course, we also know that the plant has severe detrimental side effects, so in a way, they're also doing Bushmaster a favor.

Where Bushmaster remains absent, Mariah steps up in spades.  We see her get her fortune back, but that's only the first step as she delivers a blow of her own to the rival criminal.  It gets to the point where even her underlings are having second thoughts.  One straight up walks off and quits and even Shades gives a horrified look as Mariah unleashes her fury.  Considering he's the one who talked her into embracing the gangster lifestyle, that's quite telling.  He probably should have kept his mouth shut and just let her start her new life as a philanthropist, but hindsight is 20/20.  

Alfre Woodard delivers performance wise.  This season has really given her plenty more to work with and she's been knocking it out of the park.  

Sadly, Misty doesn't get as good a deal.  She's left pursuing Nandi for her snitching.  You'd think that this would allow Misty to use her detective skills, but Nandi basically left a trail of large, easily seen breadcrumbs to follow.  It's almost like she wanted to get caught.

Even the interrogation of Nandi by Misty isn't as good as others the show has presented.  The two apparently go way back, but that relationship wasn't really fleshed out enough for the scene to land the way the writers might have hoped.  Credit where it's due, though, Nandi does get to call out Misty for the immunity deal she had cooked up.  It gave Nandi a little more validity and nuance than the typical dirty snitch cop usually gets.

All in all, this was a solid episode.  A little oddly placed, but it managed to work out pretty well.  It brought Mariah's villainy to the forefront, gave Luke some character development and saw a nice little mini-superhero team up.  It's an hour pretty well spent in my opinion.

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2019 Docket and Goals

Happy New Year everyone!  It's that time where we try to lay down a plan for what's to come in the next 365 days.  As noted before, a lot of what was supposed to be done in 2018 wasn't.  As such, a good chunk of this year's docket is just carry over, but we'll go through it anyway just for the sake of record.


Stephen King


Back log

Hearts in Atlantis
Castle Rock Season 1
Sleeping Beauties
Strange Weather
The Outsider
On Writing
Secret Windows
The Plant
Dreamcatcher
Black House
Cell (movie)
Mr. Mercedes series
The Dark Tower movie


New additions

Castle Rock Season 2
It part 2
Elevation




Brad Thor

Backlog

Path of the Assassin
State of the Union
Blowback
Takedown


Netflix

Back Log

The Punisher Season 1
Daredevil Season 3
Jessica Jones Season 2

New Additions

Luke Cage Season 2
Iron Fist Season 2
The Punisher Season 2



Legends of Tomorrow


Back Log

Season 3


New additions

Season 4- Once again, I'll have to wait for this to hit Netflix in order to watch it, but the plan is to binge it when it does happen.  It may not be current, but I'm going to make a point of getting through it quickly this time around.



Anime

Back Log

Attack on Titan season 3
Rurouni Kenshin (?)


Archive restoration (?)

Reviewstream

Back Log

Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition rule books
JLA trade paperbacks


The dividend income reports will continue and I will also continue to post the latest episodes of "Let's Get it Right".



Oh, and I, of course, aim to finally finish "The X-Files".


Goals


Savings challenge

I neglected to mention it in the 2018 review, though I did bring it up on Twitter, but this year I completed two savings challenges.  The 52 week "dollar a week" challenge and the "penny a day" challenge.  These were two that I had started back in the day when I was still trying the whole "self employed content creator" thing.  With my new station, I was finally able to put those to an end.

This year I plan on keeping the momentum going by taking on the extension of the first challenge.  It turns out that some people push the weekly challenge to two years.  Rather than stopping at 52, they just keep going, putting aside $53, then $54, then $55 and so on.  For all intents and purposes, I'm doing this challenge twice, as the plan is to move the slated amounts to my primary savings account, as well as the online savings account.


Bring dividend forward income to $400

Right now, my forward income sits at about $70.  I wanted to find a number that was feasible, but still somewhat challenging.  With purchases and DRIP, I think that this meets that criteria.  If I break it before, that's awesome, but right now, that's where I'm setting the goal post.


Max out IRA contribution

When I first opened the IRA, I mentioned that the odds of me doing this were slim.  Truth be told, that's still the case.  This is more of a mental thing.  I figure, if I set my sight on that, it will push me to get as close as I possibly can. Even if I don't hit the goal, I think having this mindset will still be beneficial in the long run.



$300 in Side Hustle

This is something that I haven't really talked about, but I want to add it to the itinerary anyway.  Right now, my main side hustles are Apptrailers, Epoll, and Reviewstream (there's also the Patreon, ad revenue, and the Amazon affiliate links, but they haven't really brought in income so they're side hustles in name only....SHINO.)  Epoll will bring about $60 at best.  App trailers is nice, but if I'm going to pull this off, Reviewstream will have to be a factor.  This should be a motivator for me to write more and make sure I cross that threshold.  Again, I think that this is a goal that's feasible, but will still present something of a challenge.


Car


As of now, I am without vehicle.  It's something I am aiming to remedy.  I've given serious consideration to getting a bike, which is odd as I've only ridden once since elementary school.  It's cheaper, better for the planet, and everything is fairly close by here.  It makes a lot more sense now than it did when I was living in Maryland or Kansas, but I figure I'd still need to get a car at some point.  I'm not looking forward to adding two more monthly expenses to my cash outflow, but if I can knock the car payment out quickly enough, it might not be that bad.


Walk the Year Charity Miles Challenge

I'm a big fan of the Charity Miles app.  I plug it frequently and was even going on daily 4 mile walks for a while.  I haven't been doing a good job as of late and I'm hoping that this will get me back on the horse.

Fun fact, we're one day in and, because I didn't walk today, I'm already behind schedule.  Auspicious.


Read 26 books

I noted before that I got no reading done.  I really want to amend for that this year.  I know that 52 books is the average, but I figure that starting small will work out better.  There's another reason I only have this many books coming into play, the next goal.


Read 26 graphic novels/trade paperbacks

I've been trying to get back into comics lately.  Rather than go back to the individual issues, I want to shift my collection to trades so that I can show them off on a bookshelf.  Rather than argue about whether these count as books, I'm putting them in their own separate category so that I can get the best of both worlds.


Swagbucks

I had heard that this was a great side hustle, but it hasn't really panned out for me.  The site brings my computer to a crawl (my laptop is a little on the old side,) which means I only log in when I have to.  As that hasn't worked, I want to try to put it to use in order to up my philanthropic game.  You can donate points to different causes and organizations.  Since I have the account anyway, I figure this will at least put the account to better use than it has up until now.  As the point cost isn't as high as the other rewards, I'll be able to "cash in" more frequently.



3 year goal

Oh, we're going beyond just the year.  I want to try to think in the long term, and as such I've got some goals that go beyond.

For this one, I want to bring my forward income to $6,000 a year.  This will bring my dividend income to Spoony's Patreon income level. It's important that I hit this goal as soon as feasibly possible.   I have my reasons.

It sounds lofty, but I'd like to think that I can pull this one off.





5 year goals


House

I've only ever been a renter, but the idea of being a homeowner has really grown on me.  That down payment scares the crap out of me, but I figure with enough prep time, I can take it.


3x Salary Saved for Retirement

Back in January, MarketWatch posted an article stating that, by the age of 35, you should have twice your annual income tucked away for retirement. Millenials....did not take kindly to this information.  While it was mathematically impossible for me to hit this goal after discovering it, I did resolve to hit the next marker, which is having 3 times your annual income tucked away by 40.

Funny thing is, I'm quite confident that I can pull this off.  Technically, I am still behind, but I have been viewing these past few months as a "head start".  I'm maxing out the 401k and pumping money into the IRA, both of which will generate increasing amounts of income as time goes on.  Add to that the fact that my birthday is in March and that gives me three more months before the 5 year challenge technically even starts.

Now, you might be asking where the stock portfolio fits.  It does and doesn't come into play as far as my retirement is concerned.  The dividends are designed to help finance and carry me through my golden years, but I'm not counting the portfolio into the overall total.  I could use market value, but that's way too fickle a beast.  As such, I'm viewing it as its own thing that is only tangential to the overall goal.


I'll admit that this is a lot, but I'm confident and fired up.  2019 is going to be huge.  2018 had its perks, but this is where I push myself to my limit, and then break past it.

'The Defenders' Episode 8: 'The Defenders'

Thus, the culmination of Marvel's "Phase one" of the Netflix wing of the shared universe comes to its conclusion.  It went by quick, but I can say that it was a fun ride.

As to this episode, it certainly has its moments, but it isn't without problems either.  A part of this could just be hype.  I was excited for this, and any ending would fall short of expectation.  Maybe, but at the same time, the episode did have issues.

While Luke does protest, the team does ultimately decide to go through with the plan to just blow up the building.  Granted, they say that no innocents will be hurt, but it still seems like a pretty big line to cross.  I'm also not sure how this ends the Hand for good.  Don't they have global influence?  I mean, yeah the dragon skeleton is under there, but they don't know that.

In either case, they have to get Danny first.  Naturally, it means we get a big fight scene where the team takes on another group of ninja mooks.  It's a fun sequence and there is a moment at about the halfway point where it looks like the four heroes are about to make their last stand, but considering that this is the "war for New York" that has been teased since the first season of "Daredevil", you might find it underwhelming.

Even the Hand's ultimate objective was rather blase all things considered.  All the talk about the rising was just bunk.  The shock wave seen in the first episode?  Who knows?  I'm also not sure how sucking the bone marrow out of a dragon skeleton is going to collapse the city.  I mean, the thing is big, but not that big.

Again, because the fight takes place in a cave, lighting becomes an issue.  It's frustrating, but at least you do get to see most of the memorable blows and hits.

The inclusion of a rap song was...jarring to say the least.  I know a lot of people lambasted it...but I thought it kinda worked?  In some ways it is out of place, I can't argue that, but hearing it while watching the team kick ass did make for fun watching.

We also finally get our 4 on 1 fight against Elektra.  That undead ninja assassin is one tough cookie, let me tell you.  That was cool to see.  It was also interesting to see Jessica's fighting style improve.  She's not a highly trained martial artist, but her punches look cleaner and she generally does a better job holding her own.

Colleen Wing fans will also be happy to see her get in on the action, taking on Bakuto in a one on one sword fight.  I've seen people insist that she should be the defender instead of Danny, but I think it's clear at this point that she is essentially the fifth member.  It's not really an either/or deal.

Speaking of fifth member, I was kind of disappointed that there was no appearance, or even mention of Frank Castle.  If you're talking about going to war, he seems like a natural pick.   I know I joked about it before, but I didn't really expect a Spider-Man appearance, but at least a mention would have been nice.  Maybe that'll be something Marvel can work on later on down the line.  I still think that a Spider-Man/Defenders team up not only seems natural, but maybe even inevitable.

But I digress, of course, ultimately the episode boils the final fight down to Matt vs. Elektra.  The fight is more drawn out, but these two have a more personal connection, so in some ways the fight carries more weight.  The whole thing was very reminiscent of "Return of the Jedi", with Matt trying to bring Elektra back into the light.  Or, if that doesn't float your boat, think Batman at the end of "Batman Returns" with Selina.  Cox really sells the sincerity in Matt's pleas and it gives the scenes the emotional umph they need to ascend beyond melodrama.

For Elektra's part, she initially scoffs at his naivete, but slowly seems to come back to the fold, though maybe not in the way Matt intended.  Did anyone else find it odd that Elektra went from fearing death and never wanting to go back to insisting that she and Matt were destined to die together?  It was a pretty drastic switch.  Also, if she said that there is no afterlife and that there is only empty darkness beyond the mortal coil, than why would them dying together have any sort of symbolic meaning?  Very strange.  You could argue that she's nuts, but still.

I'm torn on the whole plot point regarding Matt's "death" (spoiler alert: he's not dead.)  On the one hand, you could argue that it was a waste of time.  "Daredevil" is getting a third season, so there's literally no tension from the viewer's perspective.

On the other hand, Matt's sacrifice does affect the other characters.  Foggy, Claire, and Karen obviously; but even the other heroes are changed by what happened.  There was some solid character growth and progression on that front.  Luke and Jessica begin to mend fences and Danny finds new purpose in becoming New York's new street protector in Matt's absence.  Hopefully, finding out that Matt's still alive won't undo that.

Really, I think the episode's biggest problem is the hand wave of the fact that the team blew up a building.  The cops don't bother pressing charges?  OK, it's nice that Luke won't be going back to jail, but that really strained suspension of disbelief.  Even if they were going to argue it was in the defense of others (which they could honestly try, the cops did say that they were aware of the Hand before,) I don't think that the case would just be dropped like that.

All in all, though, I'd say the finale worked.  It gave everybody a highlight, moved characters forward on several fronts, and closed the book on the Hand (theoretically anyway, though I'm not sure what else could be done with them at this point.)  It'll be a couple of years, but I'm still hoping that the team can reunite for another adventure in the future.

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'The Defenders' Episode 7: 'Fish in the Jailhouse'

We've already hit the show's penultimate episode.  It's hard to believe, really.  It seems like we just started, but that's the way it goes sometimes.

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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