'Daredevil' Season 3, Episode 1: 'Resurrection'

 

Time to dive back into the MCU and continue the process of getting caught up.  It's somewhat fitting, what with "Born Again" currently in production and the Netflix shows officially being declared canon.  That fell a little flat for me as I always saw these shows as canon.  That was the whole point, but regardless, here we are.

This picks up right where "The Defenders" left off.  We see how Matt managed to "escape" the building collapse and how he came to be taken in by the orphanage where he grew up.

Just as Matt's last showdown with the Hand ended up breaking Matt's spirit, so too does this one.  Not surprisingly, his body is in bad shape as well, and the explosion has even thrown his powers out of whack.  He reveals that he's deaf in one ear and he later reveals that he can't taste or smell either.  As a result, he is actually blind now.  

Couple this with the loss of Elektra...again, and Matt has basically thrown in the towel.  Even his faith is broken.  

Luckily he has a sassy nun who takes him under her wing.  Not gonna lie, Sister Maggie was the show stealer this episode.  Matt's no slouch when it comes to snark, but she really does stand as one of the more memorable elements of the episode.

While you know that Matt will eventually get his groove back, it is still satisfying to see the process start.  His senses start to come back and he starts to train to fight again.  It's a slow process and it's clear that the work isn't done, but it is still satisfying to see the change in direction.  A lot of that is somewhat subverted by the episode's closing scenes, but like I said, he's not fully back yet.  

The episode only touches on Karen and Foggy.  The prior has been doing her best to keep Matt's apartment and financial affairs in order.  Paying twice the bills has naturally taken its toll and this is what prompts her to call Foggy for help.  

Financial overextension pops up again with a subplot regarding a new character, Agent Rahul Nadeem.  We learn that he lives a well off life: nice house, big yard and all that.  He's even been covering the costs for his sister in law's cancer treatments.  Alas, it's been taking its own toll.  His credit cards are maxed out and his wife is convinced that she'll have to take on another job if they're going to dig themselves out of this hole.  

For his part, Nadeem does go to his boss and ask for an early performance review.  It turns out that his have been perpetually delayed for years due to his financial situation.  Supposedly, a promotion would make him vulnerable to "recruiters" and this is why they won't do it.  If these recruiters target people in dire financial straits, wouldn't giving him a raise make him less vulnerable?  

The whole thing does seem a little "Breaking Bad"esque.  It becomes even more apparent when Nadeem is assigned to question Fisk.  Again, you think he's vulnerable to being compromised or manipulated and then send him to go talk to the Kingpin?  Consistency, people.

As it happens, Fisk is actually willing to make a deal.  After hearing that Vanessa could be charged as an accessory, he is willing to make sacrifices to ensure that she doesn't suffer for his wrong doings.  

All in all, this was a solid opening to the season.  It gave Matt a clear arc both in terms of this episode as well as the season as a whole.  It also planted other seeds for plotlines to come.  It was well paced and was able to balance the darker elements with just enough humor to keep from negating the weight of what was happening.  

'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 13: 'They Reminisce Over You'

 

The season, and alas, the series comes to an end.  On the plus side, it ends on a high note, delivering an entertaining and compelling conclusion to the proceedings.

At first, I thought that the episode would focus on the trial of Mariah, but that was only the beginning.  She does get to deliver a good speech about the role that she plays in Harlem when trying to get the judge to reconsider bail at her arraignment.  It turns out that she was Harlem's "Guild of Calamitous Intent", bringing a sort of order to the city's crime element.  She even makes a subtle nod to "A Few Good Men" in the process. Sure enough, with her gone, things do start to get crazier and more violent, as various gangs try to swoop in on the now open turf.

Admittedly, this assertion is somewhat undercut by the fact that she herself was starting to break the "rules" of the "game", but it did make for some fascinating plot development.

While Mariah spends the rest of the episode in prison (awaiting her trial), she still plays a pretty significant role in the plot.  She not only mirrors Fisk in asserting her dominance in the prison, but also shows herself to be a power player by having her own people taken out, lest they follow in Shades' footsteps and turn snitch.  

A lot of the episode's highlights feature Mariah in some capacity.  She has some great scenes with Shades, Tilda, and even Luke.  

Luke's arc here is...weird.  They really want to sell the idea that Luke now has to become the thing he hates, but I don't really buy it.  Even with Mariah leaving him the club, everybody acts like he has to become a gangster. DW abandons him and tells him to take his superhero activity elsewhere. Mariah herself clearly states that her intent in doing this is to draw him to the dark side, as it were.  

The thing is, though, he could make it a legitimate business, and the fact that he removed the Biggie poster and replaced it with something else does show that he intends to change things.  

Yes, the episode also shows him meeting with a mafia don to "broker a deal", but even that "deal" was more of a "this territory is under my protection, stay the hell out" than it was anything crime related.  I mean, the Doctor tells enemy aliens that all the time.

Sure enough, when Misty confronts him, Luke does say that crime is on the decline and that he is in the process of steering things in the right direction.  He even tells Misty that he's counting on her to keep him honest in his goings on here.  That doesn't really sound like somebody who is turning heel.  Nevertheless, that "Godfather" nod was a nice touch.

Overall, this was a solid ending.  It managed to balance action, drama, character, and even threw in a few bits of humor in there for good measure.  That's what you like to see; not just from a finale, but from any episode in general.

It's kind of a shame that the show didn't get a third season as there were plenty of seeds planted for another arc.  Who knows, maybe Luke will make a return to the MCU.  It does seem like Disney is working to better integrate the earlier shows into the bigger picture, but we'll see how things play out.

For now, though, it's kind of good to check another show off the list.  Up next, the second season of everybody's favorite hero, Iron Fist.

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'Luke Cage' Season 2, Episode 12: 'Can't Front On Me'

 

We come to the series' penultimate episode.  You'd think that things would be ramping up, but the episode is surprisingly slow.  

Some of it is justified.  Luke, for example, is torn as he doesn't know which horse to back.  Both Bushmaster and Mariah present their own threats to Harlem.  He considers just sitting it out, but that doesn't end up being an option.  Even if Mariah didn't throw the big free concert to bring in potential collateral damage from her showdown with Bushmaster, I have a hard time buying that he'd just let him kill her.

Heck, Mariah herself directly says as much when the two have a brief palaver early in the episode.  It's one of the episode's stronger scenes.  There's mutual disdain, but Mariah also gets chances to taunt her adversary and even toss him a measure of respect, though he doesn't really care for it.

He does briefly team up with Bushmaster to take down one of Mariah's drug lairs.  The show had teased the idea of the two being "brethren" more than once, so this was a good way to pay that off.  It was a good action beat.  I actually thought it popped more than the Luke/Danny raid.  The choreography was more impressive, and Bushmaster was something of a wild card.  He hits Luke once (though it seems to be more of Bushmaster acting on impulse) and Luke has to stop more than once to keep Bushmaster from killing their opponents.  

A lot of the episode is devoted to Shades offering his confession to Misty.  It's mostly recalling events from the show.  You can see it as a nice refresher, or as padding.  Credit where it's due, though, Theo Rossi does a great job with it.  The big poop eating grin he has as he's talking about what he did at various points is pretty priceless.  We also see how much Mariah's actions affected him, as all that goes away when he talks about what happened at the restaurant.

Things do converge in the episode's final half, as everybody convenes at Harlem's Paradise, each with their own goals and objectives.  It was here where the episode picked up and really saved itself.  Misty brings Shades there so that he can acquire her gun to be used as evidence, Bushmaster goes to finally take out Mariah after being spurred by Tilda, and Luke goes to keep people from getting hurt.

With an amped up does of Nightshade, Bushmaster is able to regain some of his physical menace that he had before.  I thought that the show provided a good enough reason not to have Danny participate in any attack on the gangster, but seeing Bushmaster here, yeah, the Iron Fist would have come in handy.  Despite this, the final "Bushmaster vs. Everybody" brawl was a lot of fun.  It was exciting, tense, and memorable.  It really delivered as far as climaxes go.

The whole "will Luke kill Bushmaster" thing was a weak element, though.  Why didn't he just put the guy in a sleeper hold or knock him out?  Just letting him go was pretty dumb.  It does leave something for the final episode to address, but the point still stands.

The closing bit with Mariah getting arrested was pretty cathartic.  She's convinced that it won't stick, and Luke isn't sold either, but for now, it was satisfying to see.  I did also smirk a bit when she referred to herself as a "millionaire philanthropist".  It's pure coincidence in universe, but that is one of Tony Stark's more memorable lines, so I have to think that the writers did that on purpose.

Compared to prior episodes, this is a bit of a step down.  Once it kicked into gear, though, it managed to deliver some solid entertainment.  

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'Luke Cage' Season 2, Episode 11: 'The Creator'

 

In the aftermath of Mariah's retaliatory strike against Bushmaster's family, it is discovered that there was a survivor.  

While there is a window of time where Mariah is unaware, it is short lived as Karen Page gets wind of it and makes it public knowledge.  What's funny is she doesn't even appear in the episode.  On the one hand, the continuity nod is nice, but you really have to wonder what she was thinking.  

Sure enough, Shades is dispatched to tie up that loose end. While the last episode strongly implied Shades being shaken by the attack, this episode makes it quite clear that he was not OK with what happened there.  It's to the point where he can't even bring himself to pull the trigger when he does finally find her and have her dead to rights.

He's one of several characters who point out to Mariah that she is breaking the "rules" of street crime. In addition to the ruthless attack, her newfound desire to start trafficking heroin into Harlem is called out both by another drug dealer and by hallucinations of Mariah's grandmother and granduncle, who like Don Corleone, vehemently opposed drug dealing being a part of their operation.  It's a little jarring, as a couple of episodes ago, she was building a free clinic; now she wants to bring in heroin.  

It's a pretty drastic turnaround, but it does seem like Mariah is losing her marbles.  Even the aforementioned hallucinations make a point to say that she's working through some issues.   

Alfre Woodard continues her performance streak here.  Her scenes make for some of the episode's standout moments.  Her final confrontation with Shades is especially memorable.  Not only is that scene a highlight in and of itself, but it leads to another shocking bit where he willingly turns himself in to police custody if it means helping take Mariah down.  The other underling who walked also goes to Luke with a similar pitch.  It seems like everybody has Mariah in their sights now.

Ironically enough, Bushmaster doesn't.  He is still recovering and when you see him, you can tell that he was in no shape to take on the Heroes for Hire.  It's a close call, but more Nightshade manages to do the trick, though Tilda does tell him that the process damaged his organs and he's living on borrowed time.  

This, coupled with seeing the wreckage at the restaurant is enough to convince him to just walk away.  He does have a solid scene with Luke, where he genuinely thanks Harlem's hero for keeping his aunt safe and the two discuss ideologies. The repeated comparisons between the two were a little on the nose, but Bushmaster does once again state that the two could have been close under different circumstances.  After Jessica Jones and Punisher did the whole hero-villain similarity thing back-to-back, I guess doing it a third time in a row was a bit of a stretch.  

The episode also features some flashbacks that detail Bushmaster's origins.  A lot of it is just showing us things we were told, but it flowed well.  It was interesting seeing the previous Stokes family in action and we do get a brief cameo from Cornell.  It didn't take up the whole episode, but it added a little bit of extra flavor to the proceedings.

  This was a very solid episode.  There were plenty of great character moments and instances of progression.  The status quo was shaken up on several fronts and it does seem like things are reaching the endgame.  I'm guessing the next episode will be the final confrontation with the finale acting as a denouement, but I'll just have to watch and find out.

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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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