Danny Rand is back, and fortunately for us he seems done with shouting his title at everyone as new threats threaten his city. A gang called the Golden Tigers begin the episode attempting to rob an armored car, only to come face to face with Danny. In a green hoodie and yellow mask covering his lower face, Danny looks closer to his outfit in the comics, albeit obviously more modern and swapping the half of his head covered by the yellow mask. Fortunately, there is also hope this season will have much better choreography than alst time around, because his moves against the gang members are much sleeker than they used to be. Though initially taking a sneak approach initially, he of course gets into hand-to-hand to take them on, and does a better job at proving himself a great fighter. After winning he heads home where Colleen is working on an immigrant's desire to become a full-time U.S. citizen. We get some comical moments poking fun at Danny's lack of 15 years of pop culture knowledge, and he turns on some computers to get a look at the results of the attempted robbery. He says he had no choice, not wanting them to escape after murdering guards, but Colleen seems to dislike that he put himself in danger. Danny suggests she join him as she helps him patch up a knife wound he got in the fight, but she turns down the offer, saying she likes what she does. More so, she feels guilty about Misty's arm, feeling it was her fault. Danny points out she saved Misty and Claire, but she says that's just positive thinking. As the two start having some fun, we cut to Davos meeting Yang at the docks, angry to learn the price of a shipment deal has been raised to $4 million. Though Yang talks of it as a way to keep others from seizing his business, Davos threatens that where he's from, oathbreakers are tossed into a ravine and their remains are trampled for good measure. A group of fighters circle the duo, hatchets in hand, so Davos turns to leave, saying he'll discuss the deal with his partner. Yang tosses his own threat that, like fish, the small who think they're swimming upstream get eaten. Davos counters by quickly disarming two of the grunts, then threatens to hurt Yang, his wife, and his business if the price goes up again. Elsewhere, Danny is at his side job moving furniture, joking with his friend Albert. Initially about women, then he learns the local gangs seem to be getting antsy. Albert explains that he almost joined the Hatchets, but his best friend dying turned him away. Colleen, meanwhile, is helping out with the woman who wants to immigrate fully offering to both help make a payment and give the woman's daughter clothes from the donation bin. There, she is stunned into silence upon finding a hairbrush and comb box with her family's crest on the lid. While she learns where it came from, we head back to Danny meeting a woman named Mary, who asks to take his picture after getting directions. He helps and Albert is frustrated but still lighthearted when she seems more interested in his friend, despite Danny saying he was just being nice. Danny suddenly gets a call from Rand, and we cut back to Colleen, now outside a closed down furniture shop. She learns from a passerby the owner closed down but has a cousin who runs a restaurant, Henry Yip. There she finds him being accosted by gang members, whom she stops by threatening to call the police. He says they wanted protection money and, when she asks about his cousin Choi, denies knowing anyone with that name, shutting her out. The call to Danny was from Ward, who doesn't understand why Danny is working such a menial job when he has an office at Rand. Danny replies that he enjoys a hard day's work, and says that while his pampered upbringing is part of who he is, the spoiled rich kid people see him as isn't him. The two argue a bit about money vs. ethics, and the two realize they each thought the other had called in the meeting. The door they're at opens on Joy, whom the two haven't seen in a while, and she reveals she has prepared a divestment. Those who immediately wonder what this is can easily guess, and the show then gets down to the point, anyway: Joy wants out of Rand. A bewildered Ward turns her down, believing she wants his job and noticing she wants certain stock options, though she points out it's from what he considers crap. Joy claims to want to move on and try a new life, citing how he hid their father from her for so long. Ward declines, but Danny, also wanting to move on, agrees to sign, ignoring Ward's plea that they vet the papers. As Joy points out, Ward's complaints can do nothing because of Danny holding 51% of the company's shares. Ward storms out and Joy walks Danny to the door, where he encourages her and suggests she have dinner with him and Colleen sometime. We surprisingly head to Mary's place, where she sees sticky notes on her walls telling her to not leave the house and stop moving things around. She says nothing but begins to have a meltdown, and rushes around turning on all the water faucets. As she sits in the bathroom, she begins laughing crazily amidst her sobbing. Danny goes home to Colleen again, surprised to find her on the phone asking around about the man who owned the shop. He finds the box and she reveals the crest matches her sword hilt and says her she used to sit in the kitchen while her mom combed her hair with them. As her mom was the only family to not give her away, the memory means a lot to her, and she's not sure how the combs got to America from Hokkaido. Danny suggests they go to the supposed cousin's restaurant for dinner, and ask again about the Choi when the opportunity arises, explaining he wants her to feel happy just like he has been lately. Ward, meanwhile, walks out of some sort of group meeting, telling his sponsor he just doesn't want to share, though he admits he wants to control things he can't. He heads to a closet, where the sponsor soon arrives to have sex. She again pushes what's with him, and he says it's not the time. Back with Joy, Davos arrives while she drinks, and says associating with Yang and just being in New York is polluting him. She mocks his concerns and tells him about the meeting with Danny, explaining that while initially she felt happy about what they'd soon do to him, she felt bad when he was kind to her. Despite this, she assures him she's still dedicated, and we cut to Danny and Colleen having fun over dinner. While discussing the owner's potential reason for lying, Danny shares his concern that Albert's statement about the gangs comes from them taking down the Hand, as lack of the top gang has created a power vacuum. The guys who previously beat Yip return, so they follow to the back as others evacuate. Colleen fights them as Danny heads back after noticing Tigers arriving. The leader demands to know where Yip is but Danny claims he went out to a meter and tries to play the situation off as his girlfriend getting upset with her order and raging in the kitchen. The man pulls a knife, which Danny quickly swats away, and as he prepares to take him and his men on, Colleen uses everything at her disposable to stop the other gangsters in the kitchen. Finishing up in the kitchen, Colleen stops Danny in time from using the fist, and Yip convinces the Tigers there is no problem and they can leave.
Once they do, he reveals he lied about Choi because he owes the Tigers money, as he and everyone else on the street pays for protection. Colleen is upset she got pulled into a fight and it ruined their date, but the conversation is stopped short when they see Davos. He seems angry at Danny that K'un L'un is now gone because Danny didn't return, and the latter agrees to go alone with him to discuss "family matters." The episode ends with the Davos and Danny going at it, with the former suggesting there's a way to change the fact Danny is the Iron Fist, and while the former heads back to Joy, Danny has some alone time. Thus far, I'm hopeful this season can be better than the first, which was the first Marvel series to get quiet a bit of negative reception. It often felt like Danny wasn't really that great of a fighter, considering he constantly got taken down. The opening fight was rather impressive, though, and both he and Colleen showed great skills during the restaurant skirmish. On an even better note, we didn't have a single moment of Danny exclaiming "I am the Immortal Iron Fist!" as he did so constantly in season 1 and The Defenders. That line was so ridiculous and so repeated that it became a meme, and I was one of many to hate that he constantly said it, especially since know one knew what it meant. Now that he has successfully taken down the Hand, the Iron Fist's goal, and having been told by Daredevil to protect the city, Matt seems more determined and focused on doing so. Last season could be somewhat slow due to the amount of business-centric moments and Danny having to prove who he is, and while there will likely be more business in the future, this episode had quite a bit of action as well. Speaking of, however, there was a bit of business in this one with Joy pulling out of the company, and despite Ward continuing to be a brash jerk like he came off as in the first season, I found myself agreeing with him. It's been a while since I watched season 1, but I recall Ward getting quite a bit of character progression that made him enjoyable, and he did have a point here. Danny is quick to simply sign Joy's papers without even looking at them in terms of money, which is definitely his biggest weakness. He tends to fall under the typical idea of a "boyscout" superhero, who is so stuck on always assuming the good in people and not questioning anything that he can be tricked or caught off-guard easily. This kind of character can be done well if the character is at least smart enough to read between the lines and give suspicion a go at times, but Danny just immediately assumes Joy has nothing planned. Even if she's requesting assets Ward had in the "crap for crap" pile, considering his own opposite nature that prevents him from funding less profitable things that Danny supports, the assets could actually be things that Ward wrote off. As we know she and Davos are planning something, the only mystery regarding her is what the plan exactly is, and a more interesting mystery is Mary. When first shown, she appears to be just some random passerby, but she got quite a bit of time and her thoughts on photography came off somewhat strange. More so, the scene at her apartment was downright freaky, as she seems confused to find the sticky notes on her walls, yet there is no one else in the rooms. The notes seem to hint at something she's done or been afraid of before, and the second causes her to have a bit of a psychotic break. She doesn't even say anything in this scene, adding to the mystery, and I'm curious to fnid out what her situation is. With trouble brewing both with gangs and the hidden plan of Davos, Danny has his hands full as he tries to protect the city.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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