We finally come to it: the final Defender, Iron Fist. By now, you’ve been treated to the full live tweet of Iron Fist, led by our very own Alice W. Castle. Now sit down, get some tea, and get ready for these full breakdowns of each episode. In “Immortal Emerges From Cave,” Danny takes on a challenge and Ward continues a downward spiral. Let’s jump into this but be warned, there will be spoilers.
1. This Is More Painful Than Fighting
I don’t know Kung Fu like Danny Rand so I don’t know what it’s like to get hit that hard but I think listening to this dialogue is pretty close. Iron Fist doesn’t know what kind of show it wants to be. You can do the goofball Danny thing but you can’t make me buy this rich white boy with a non regional dialect saying the most seriously generic Kung Fu movie dialogue. You can do this if you take things a little lighter. Do goofball Danny instead of the super serious Danny Rand. This dialogue just doesn’t land.
2. Claire’s Biggest Mistake
Depending on your perspective, Claire Temple doesn’t make the best decisions but this one in this episode is her worst yet and pretty illogical. Claire did not leave her hospital on the best terms with management. The reason she knows so much about The Hand is because of what she went through at her job. What makes no sense to me is that she’d go back with someone wanted by The Hand. Why not take the chance of just dropping him off at another hospital and lying? Why not use Danny’s money to get something private set up? Of course The Hand took your guy, you gave him to them.
3. Ward Hits A Bottom
“A bottom” not “the bottom” because I suspect Ward has a lot more falling to do before we are through with this season. Ward has a full blown drug addiction now and while it didn’t come out of nowhere, it did escalate really fast. Again, I question the logic here because even someone losing it like Ward is aware of how much money he has. I’m sure he has a connection somewhere from some time in his life. I’m sure he could pay someone to get him drugs.
4. Danny Answers The Challenge
A huge part of this episode is Danny answering a challenge from The Hand. He has to fight their champions and if he wins, they have to give in to his demands. He wants Sabine and them to leave his company alone. Danny answers the challenge and he’s so sure of himself winning because when he was in K’un L’un, this was his life. It was the only way for him to move up the ranks. I love the idea of this but this feels like something that could have been made even bigger and better and held off for the finale. The first fight between Danny and the Russian duo was probably the best fight scene in the series so far but still not great compared to the other Netflix series. The entire time this is going, Danny is talking mentally with Lei-Kung to get through this. He’s being pushed by him but this really comes out of nowhere. We didn’t really get this in previous episodes so it feels like a weird thing to drop on us like this, especially since…
5. Danny Becomes More Than A Weapon
One of the only things I’ve liked about Iron Fist is that Danny genuinely wants to do good things. I’ve been really annoyed with the leaps in logic and the pure ridiculousness of some of these plot points (Danny doesn’t know The Hand is real? Come on!) but this is good. Madame Gao plays dirty at the end and even though Danny has won, she’s ready to kill Sabine anyway. Lei-Kung wants Danny to do what’s best and destroy The Hand regardless of what happens to Sabine. Danny doesn’t do that. Danny puts Sabine first, just like he put the mother of that sick child first and just like he put the people who need that medication first. This is a side of this character I love so much and him standing up and defending someone who’s innocent in all of this is something that really appeals to me.
What did you think of this episode? Let me know in the comments below!
