This Iron Fist review contains spoilers.
Iron Fist Season 2 Episode 6
Wow, I was wrong about last episode being a backdoor pilot for Daughters of the Dragon because this is the backdoor pilot episode, right down to Misty telling Colleen she has good law-enforcement instincts. Misty and Colleen fighting back-to-back was a great action scene, even though I’m not entirely sure how the Crane Sisters turned out to be kung fu experts. Are they in on the K’un-Lun stuff themselves, or just three tattooists who happened to be in the right place to get in on some magical nonsense? I assume it’s deliberately ambiguous at this stage, but I do find myself with questions.
That said, I’m going to voice a potentially unpopular opinion here in that while I like the idea of a Daughters of the Dragon show in principle, I don’t think these two actors have the necessary chemistry to make it work. It’s not outside the realm of possibility that it could develop, but much like the artificial pairing of Luke and Danny in Defenders was hugely inferior to the matching of Jessica Jones with Matt Murdock, I’m not sure this pairing is a show-leading one. I hope I get the chance to be proven wrong though, given that recasting is out of the question.
Bringing Mary into the fold is an interesting step for the character and narrative, though it’s also the first development that I’m not entirely sold on. There’s nothing as egregiously bad as the first season as plot developments go, but I think people are a little too quick to be sold on Mary as someone they can trust. I mean, Danny knows that much by now, though I think he’ll probably be a bit more sympathetic towards her even if she did bash his head in recently.
further reading: Iron Fist Season 2 – Who is Mary?
In fact, Danny running off to convince Davos to end his killing spree is also the first time this has felt like season one Danny, and the fact that he gets absolutely mashed up by his reckless behavior seems like an acknowledgement that he’s been far too impulsive in the past. I do wonder if anyone’s going to remember that Danny had a mystical healing ability for one episode last season, not that it’s going to do him much good when he hasn’t got the Fist.
Davos’ “cleansing” spree is bound to go too far eventually, but so far we’re in the situation where it’s sort of righteous and no worse than The Punisher. I will not be at all surprised if he ends up punching someone’s jaw across the room just because he caught them littering before the end of the season. And hey, he’s cool enough to make both his fists into Iron which is something we previously only saw in the archive footage of the past, non-crappy Iron Fist from season one. I look forward to the inevitable moment when Danny and Davos both have one Iron Fist each and punch them together causing a big mystical explosion.
further reading: Iron Fist Season 2 Villain – Who is Davos?
Some stuff also happens with Ward and Joy, but I have to be honest – while I appreciated them both addressing the madness of the previous season, I don’t feel particularly invested in this relationship. I liked Joy better when she was friends with Danny and I like Ward better now that he’s friends with Danny. Props to the writers for finding ways we can interact with these characters outside of the boardroom, but they’re not super-interesting to me in terms of their own relationship – only their relationship with Danny and Davos. (Oh right, sibling issues is the theme. Now I get it.)
This episode seems quite light on Easter eggs, for a change: Davos’ tattoo is explicitly called a serpent and the Crane Sisters point out they had to use steel needles to make it. That’s as close to Davos being called the Steel Serpent as we’re likely to see.
further reading: Iron Fist Season 2 – Complete Marvel Easter Eggs Reference Guide
And finally, The Dragon Dies At Dawn was title of Iron Fist #9 (1976).
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