"Are you a moron? You thought you could end a criminal conspiracy by destroying a few test tubes?"
Iron Fist continues to be inconsistent. This episode is, on the whole, quite good. The opening is clever: Danny suspects that Gao is after his friends, Colleen makes sure Claire is safe... and Danny finds the corpse of Harold, naturally assuming the Hand was responsible, with Ward, of course, not only allowing him to think so but twisted the knife. The contrast between Danny's naive goodness and Ward's damaged cynicism could not be clearer. And the contrast permeates the episode.
Ward and Joy are offered a prisoner's dilemma of a severance package: it must be accepted by both or neither. Both play games behind each others' backs, with Joy ultimately outsmarting her brother and rejecting it, believing sjhe can fight back. Yet she does so in a way she sees as being Ward's... gathering dirt on the board. The key brother/sister scene is very touching, with Ward resolving to tell Joy all. Yet he can't, seeing blood everywhere like Lady Macbeth, something that will surely continue... and ends by being a total arse to her. Yet again.
Danny, meanwhile, supported by a loving Colleen and a wisely critical Claire (I love the letter from Luke!), rather naively resolves to go to China and get at Gao there, which leads to some rather cool adventures, not least with a drunken boxer, although I'm not sure how he can still afford this after having been ejected from Rand, knowingly or not. There are some great character scenes with him, Colleen and Claire and much discussion of the ethics of killing and revenge. Yet the most cutting comments come from the boxer: is Danny really motivated by his loyalty, as Iron Fist, to K'un Lun?
We end with triumph, as Danny captures Gao, but not before it looked as though he would kill her. It seems it was indeed Gao who killed his parents.
This is actually good telly. Who knows what next episode will be like.
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