We’re close to the finish line now!

As you can gleam in my previous recaps here, here, and here, Iron Fist season 2 has been something most would not describe the first season as: good. With a sharper focus and committed performances, it’s hard not to get sucked in by the latest Marvel Netflix offering. So, without further ado, let’s dive back into the world of the Immortal Iron Fist!

EPISODE 7: “Morning of the Mindstorm”

Danny Rand sure likes to mope, yet after his graphic beat down at the hands of Davos in last episode’s conclusion, it’s a bit earned.

Opening the episode with a hopeless Danny Rand getting stitches and screws at the hospital. For the remainder of the episode, he spends much of his time lamenting his inability to stop Davos. He tries to get Colleen to train him, but she refuses, citing her decision to let that life go.

Misty Knight concurs, encouraging Colleen to choose what’s best for herself, though that doesn’t mean Colleen and her don’t have some work left to do. After Knight discovers the local police are dragging their feet on the investigation of Davos, she makes her own headway in the case: discovering that the key to the ritual is a bowl of sorts that came out of the same box bearing Colleen’s family crest.

Meanwhile, after his conversation with Joy, Ward has hit rock bottom, hitting the bottle at a local bar where Bethany tries to get him to come to a meeting. His belligerent demeanor causes her to leave. Ward eventually comes around, walking into an NA meeting where he overhears Bethany admit to her affair with Ward as well as revealing that she is actually carrying his child.

On the other side of the Meachums, Joy goes to visit Walker, only to find she’s still in her Mary persona. Mary is incredibly kind, even a bit lonely, and her and Joy have an uncharacteristically pleasant chat about what it means to be a good person and if someone can ever get redeemed. As Joy leaves, Mary has a flashback to what appears to be a jail cell in the rain. It’s unclear where this will go, but it’s a sweet scene that serves to humanize Mary a bit more.

Joy decides to pay a visit to Davos, who has been wreaking havoc across the city while also grooming BB- a member of the gang that Colleen attempted to help near the beginning of the season- to be his protege. Joy asks Davos about the bowl, which he claims is essential for a repeat of the ritual. Is Davos trying to turn BB into the next Iron Fist?

The episode ends with a despondent Danny attempting to train himself, before Colleen comes in and swings at him, indicating that she’s made her choice and will actually train him.

“Morning of the Mindstorm” certainly isn’t an easy episode to watch. It’s incredibly emotional and bleak, but y’know what? That’s kind of what makes it great. Everyone’s in such a hopeless place that it forces them to all come together, to work out their issues. With all the rifts that have been coming between these characters, we needed an episode for them to hit their low points.

In additional to being an effective emotional experience, the episode also set up some enticing things. I don’t see BB being the new Iron Fist, but it would be a fascinating thing to do. Ward having a child is also the perfect thing to bring him back to reality, while it’s hard not to root for Danny to pull himself up by the bootstraps and defeat Davos.

It’s hard to deny the impact of Mary’s story line, too. This character is almost representative of the series as a whole, morphing from something of a question mark to something flawed, but intriguing with its heart in the right place.

Another knockout of an episode.

8/10

EPISODE 8: “Citadel On The Edge Of Vengeance”

So THIS is where Colleen’s story is going.

In “Citadel on the Edge of Vegeance”, Iron Fist‘s plot goes full steam ahead to the detriment of the episode’s individual quality. That’s not to say this is a bad episode, per se. Far from it, in fact. It’s just that it feels like the show has been wrestled away from the  character focus of the past three episodes.

Perhaps this is necessary. Davos goes further and further down the warpath. As his training for the gang members intensifies, BB starts to grow unsure of Davos. When he refuses to go out on a mission with his comrades, Davos throws him in a prison of sorts.

As Davos and the gang go back to their efforts of “ending the Triad War”, Davos crosses a line by killing the kindly restaurant owner we met in the beginning of the season. Rhyno protests this, leading to Rhyno himself being killed while the rest of the gang continues to stay allegiant to him.

Back at Davos’ hideout, Joy busts BB out to go retrieve the bowl. However, she is stopped by Davos, while BB manages to make it out with the bowl. Ward, on the other hand, is buying flowers to attempt to make up to Bethany for his behavior in the prior episode. Quick side note: is Misty just not in this season anymore? After being a relatively important part of the previous few episodes, she’s gone with barely a mention. Anyways, that’s beside the point.

We learn a bit more about Mary/Walker as a flashback reveals that she was in a terrible incident in her wartime days as “Mary Walker”. Since neither Mary nor Walker have any memory of getting out of the incident, I think maybe there could be a third identity at play.

Meanwhile, Danny and Colleen go back to their training. Eventually Danny manages to get back to full strength, but comes to a realization. He professes that all this time he’s really just been fighting to get the Iron Fist back, and that someone else deserves it. That someone else being none other than Colleen Wing herself!

“Citadel on the Edge of Vengeance” has a lot going on that I couldn’t quite fit into a recap. It’s nice to see everything surging forward, although I was kind of locked into the pace of the previous episodes. That being said, it’s nice to see Davos full committing to villainy and even nicer to see the reveal of Colleen as (potentially) the new Iron Fist.

It’s a neat way to sort of address the biggest complaint of the series, Danny himself. I do worry that with Colleen taking the fist on that Danny will no longer get to be the Iron Fist. Don’t get me wrong, I love Colleen, but permanently de-powering Danny would be a mistake.

Moreover, it was a bit disappointing how little screen time was given to emotional beats. After everything everyone has gone through, this episode felt a bit abrupt in a lot of places. Then again, I was fully glued to my television the whole time.

My only hope is that the events of this episode will pave the way for a leisurely final two episodes that conclude this story on a strong note.

7/10

–James Preston Poole