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 “Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch,” the series finally gets down to business and makes a far more interesting watch than the first two episodes. As always, there will be spoilers throughout.
1. Finding Your Footing
By no means is “Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch” a fantastic episode but at least now the show seems to have found some footing and momentum. This episode moved at a pace the first two did not and actually moved things along. There’s actual, real tension between Danny and the Meachums as papa Meachum’s situation becomes clearer. For the first time watching this show, I actually want to see what happens next. Whether I’ll regret that is still to be seen.
2. J-Money!!!!
Jeri Hogarth has a nickname and it is J-Money and I could not be more excited about it. Jeri Hogarth is a great character. In fact, she’s arguably the best character the MCU has introduced because she doesn’t just fill a mandatory superhero trope. She’s flawed and very problematic in the things that she does but she’s still sort of amazing. Jeri has a really important role to play in this episode as she’s the one who helps Danny finally prove who he is. She comes off very sympathetic here with her personality still in tact.
3. Colleen Wing, Street Fighter
Colleen Wing hasn’t had a ton of meaningful development so far but in this episode we really see how much she cares about the people at her dojo and we’re shown her complicated set of morals. She’s a part of this community and uses her dojo to help people stand up for themselves. I love this idea of Colleen being a mentor in this community and I would really like to see more of this. Her street fight later, after telling a student it dishonors them, is contradictory but I like contradictions like this if they go somewhere meaningful.
4. A Meachum Through and Through
Joy Meachum is easily the most interesting of the Meachums. In this episode we see just how much of a Meachum she really is as she blackmails a prospective businessman with a liver transplant for his nephew. This is low down and dirty business but I kind of like seeing this side of her but again, only if it means anything in the long run. Joy seems to still care for Danny but is torn between two different worlds that she loves dearly. She likes being in charge of this company and she’s willing to do whatever she can to keep it but she’s also pushing down this empathetic person inside of her because she sees it at weakness. I think this is fascinating and I’m really eager to see it develop. She’s far more interesting than her brother and her father, who’s very quickly become weak sauce.
5. Where Is The Action?
As someone who consumes media and critiques it, I think I’m good at picking apart plot and characters. The more technical stuff, particularly with television and movies, is still something I struggle with. I don’t know anything about choreography so when I come in with a take on fight choreography, you know it’s a problem. “Iron Fist” is rough to watch. It’s really hard to track these fights and what makes that worse is that these are slow fights. There’s no flair and the camera cuts like crazy so you can’t really see the fight. Again, I’m no expert but I do get a sad feeling every time a fight happens on this show.
What did you think of this episode? Let me know in the comments below!
