'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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A Second Tournament of Power?

 There's been talk on and off among the Dragon Ball fandom about another Tournament of Power.  I can see the logic to an extent, a lot of characters have gotten huge power boosts (Goku, Vegeta, Gohan, and Piccolo, Frieza.)  On top of that, several powerful fighters have been introduced since (Broly, Granolah, Gamma 1.)

Still, it seems like it's too soon.  Yes, we've had two movies, two manga arcs, and the start of a third; but it still seems like the last tournament is quite recent.

OK, let's say the anime comes back: they take a cue from "Super" and re-do the Broly movie (maybe even incorporating all that footage that was supposedly cut), they do Moro, Granolah, the current manga arc (which is a lead-in to the events of "Super Hero"), and finally "Super Hero".  Heck, let's throw in a retconned "Peaceful World" saga to incorporate what still applies from the end of Z and mix it with what we've seen since.  This will have the added bonus of putting us beyond the end of Z, adding more of a time buffer, and allowing for some degree of tension should there be actual stakes.

Should there be stakes?  I'm not so sure.  It would just feel like a rehash.  Having it be a fun tournament more akin to what Goku envisioned when he pitched it could still work.  I mean, the exhibition fights were fun and there were no stakes there.

This would also be an opportunity to establish that 17's wish revived not just the 11 other universes, but the 6 that Zeno had erased back in the day.  6 more universes mean six more groups of fighters to include for added variety (and future world building.)  

On a similar note, the universes that sat out of the previous tournament can and should participate here.  You don't just want to have all the same fighters going at it again.  We're trying to buck the "rehash" possibility as much as possible.  Having the fighters partake in different matchups helps, but only so much.

The universe 7 roster is an interesting situation.  In the first tournament, they were scrambling to fill the 10 slot roster, now they seem to have too many possible fighters.  

Sadly, it seems like Krillin, Tien, and Roshi are going to have to get sidelined. One of the major selling points of the first tournament was the fact that the humans were getting brought back into the fold.  Sure, they didn't end up doing all that well (except for Roshi, oddly enough), but at least they weren't completely shoved off. However, with the addition of new fighters, their presence is harder to justify.

One other upside to moving past the end of Z, though, is that Uub can be a possible contender.  He, in addition to 17 and 18 give humans at least some presence on the team.

If Buu is going to be on the team, they'd have to commit.  Having him fall asleep again would be a potential shark jump moment.  He has things to bring to the table and it would be nice to see him be able to show them off.  In some ways, he is overpowered, but at the same time, he's been beaten enough to show that he's far from unbeatable.  On top of that, having Buu and Uub fighting side by side would be kind of cool to see.

I doubt Frieza would play a part in this go around.  He actually did a pretty good job in the first tournament and he's a lot more powerful now, but he has no reason to cooperate this time.  Goku and Vegeta were both stronger than Frieza was, and they were offering him something that he wanted (revival).  They have no leverage now.  Even if there were no stakes, Frieza would probably still gleefully kick all of his teammates out of the ring just for funsies.

So let's see

1. Goku

2. Vegeta

3. Gohan

4. Piccolo

5. 17

6. 18

7. Uub

8. Gamma 1

9. Broly

10. Granolah or Buu

The thing with Granolah is that he's probably dead by this point.  On the other hand, he could just do the 24 hour thing that Goku, Vegeta, and Frieza have used throughout the series.  That's assuming that he just doesn't get wished back outright with a different set of dragon balls.  

See what I mean when I say that there's too many options now?  It does stink that Goten and Trunks get sidelined again, especially now that they are older and more combat experienced.  However, there just aren't enough slots and while they are definitely better prepared to partake in fights like this, the other fighters are just more powerful at this point.

I've seen some people pitch the idea of Cell making a return.  He's a popular character and it would be cool to see on some level, but it doesn't seem like it's necessary here.  Unless Buu falls asleep and Granolah is gone for good, but that seems like a stretch.

Maybe the sequel arc could work some time down the line?  Dragon Ball does love its tournaments, so making a return to them is a logical choice.  I can see some potential in the idea, but it would have to be a way down the line.   

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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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2023 Docket and Goals

 A new year is upon us, as such, I wanted to start by laying out a sort of itinerary.  I used to do it back in the day and I thought it would be nice to bring it back.  The blog itself has been dormant, so hopefully this will be a sort of kickstart and help get back into the groove.

A lot of this year is going to be clearing out backlog.

For example, I want to finally get caught up on the MCU, both TV and movie sides.  The prior is relevant as I plan to keep the write ups going.  The movies I just want to watch for fun.  All work and no play and all that.

On a similar note, the same principle goes for the Arrowverse.  "Legends of Tomorrow" is the only one pertinent to the blog but checking the other shows off the list at long last will be satisfying.

I also hope to dive back into "Attack on Titan".  I actually did start to rewatch it from the beginning so that I can get back up to speed so when those write ups do resume, I'll be aware of who is who and what is happening.

Over on the other blog, I intend to wrap up the Brad Thor books.  I obviously need to pick up the pace, but that's kind of the idea.  I should also probably dive back into the King library at some point too.  It's been a while since I did anything on that front.

Will Reviewstream re-enter the picture?  I like the idea, but it's something I've said before.  It does make for an OK side hustle, and with 2023 set to be the year that it is, it may finally get the attention it deserves.

Speaking of side hustles, I did apply to be a transcriptionist for Rev.  Might amount to nothing, but it's an intriguing idea.

I also heard about something called Kindlevella.  It allows writers to submit fiction in smaller, serialized bites. My sister's been using it quite a bit and it seems like an interesting endeavor.

Beyond "work" stuff, I plan to meditate 10 minutes a day.  I've been doing 5 a day for the past couple of months and it's been working pretty well, so I'm going to kick things up a notch with more time devoted to it.

This being a new year, of course, fitness needs to be brought up.  It's a running joke (ha) as far as new year's plans go, but I actually did an OK job on that front.   I do need to work on the consistency.  I had a habit of starting and stopping throughout the past year.  If I can keep the momentum going, I think the progress will be more notable.  

So, that's the planned blueprint for the next year. We'll see how things pan out.  Ideally, I'll be able to go above and beyond, but one step at a time.

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