Netflix Retrospective: Iron Fist season 1 episodes 3-4 - Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch/Eight Diagram Dragon Palm

Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch

We open at Colleen’s dojo, she feels a draft as someone forces their way in, I believe they’re Ward’s guys. They’re apparently on the hunt for Danny. Colleen kicks their asses and sends them on their way. Danny was hiding on the ceiling, she’s not happy about it, and tells him to be gone by morning. Roll credits, I have remarked just how bad this opening is, it’s definitely the weakest of the big 4.

Ward goes to see Daddy Meachum, this should be good. He’s in some kind of zen sleeping pod, I don’t know. He’s for some reason not all that pissed off that Ward ordered Danny’s murder, rather he's more interested in a pier deal. Harold tells him to increase the offer and advises he uses Joy to close the deal.

And then the fallout happens as Harold punches him in the back, Ward gets the message. Morning has arrived and for some reason Danny is meditating to hip-hop… I don’t get it… Colleen wants him and Danny just patronising her and them fighting. I’d actually believe it if the fight wasn’t 5 move spurts. Danny beats her so is why is it I believe Coleen is a master fighter and not Danny?

Colleen still wants him to leave but Danny says he’ll have it sorted out by Friday, including the door that was broken by Ward’s grunts. Speaking of Ward he says that they can’t have Danny Rand come out publicly and is working on something to ensure that won’t happen. He then ropes her in on the pier deal.

She comes home to find Danny sitting on her doorstep, having covered it oranges, flowers and scented things. They begin to talk, finally trying to build some chemistry between them. She’s been having dreams about her father. Danny mentions than he saw her father in the mental father, but believed he was a ghost.

Joy presents Danny a form, it offers him $100m for his shares, under the provision he have his name legally changed. Danny angrily refuses and leaves the house. Colleen finds one of her students, Daryl is having trouble making ends meet and is partaking in private fights, Colleen does not approve, since he’s up for a scholarship and she’d have to give a supporting statement on his application.

Danny finds the Rand Grave site, it’s had flowers delivered recently. He sits at it for a while, remembering his family, the person responsible for delivering flowers is a familiar face. It’s Jeri Hogarth! She’s been handling the Rand estate since the crash, a mark of respect for the family that gave her her first job. After some probing questions she quickly believes it’s him and says he’ll help prove his identity, providing that in the aftermath, Hogarth, Chao and Berowitz become permanent retainers for Rand.

She gives Danny some money to buy new clothes, telling him to lay low. Forgive me if I fall asleep during the Meachum segments, they’re so dull. So Harold has a boxing coach now but he finally gets a confrontation, Madame Gao… well, she is the most interesting part of the Hand. She berates Harold for leaving the apartment, he tells her about Danny Rand and she gets him to kneel on the floor covered in glass.

Daryl is apparently teaching a class, but some of his students goof off and Danny is… oh flaming nora! Colleen is not happy and tells him to leave for reals this time. Joy’s tactic to buy the pier is f*cking strange. Hogarth has gotten Danny into one of her safe-houses. He’s not used to a bed so just lies on the floor, dreaming about his past of being beaten by Monks after being shaved. Lovely.

Apparently, Harold put a clause in his will saying that if either of them leave Rand, that person loses everything. Jeez, that’s harsh. Ward is considering leaving, something which we’ll get back to later. Hogarth tells Danny that a lot of traces of him have gone. Or been burned. Danny looks for evidence of an x-ray but someone already beat him there, covering the files in something flammable and then setting it alight. Danny tries to stop him but somehow loses against someone who isn’t even well trained.

Danny confronts Ward here except this time I find his anger more justified. Still, it’s not a smart move when you’re supposed to be keeping your head down. The camera focuses eerily on a china pot thing, which Joy takes notice to. At the underground fight ring, Colleen is paying a visit. Colleen enters the ring, calling herself the Daughter of the Dragon. She’s up against a muscly guy with a mohawk. Everyone thinks Colleen doesn’t stand a chance and clearly he’s able to take a few blows but she ultimately wins out, despite him using a biting technique.

Right, time for Hogarth to make her play in front of the entire board, and it’s a good one, if a little contrived. That key pot that Joy was using, it had a fingerprint in it, and it’s a match for Danny. I… would that actually hold up in court? I’m not sure. Danny sees Harold’s photo and hears Ward talking on the phone. Danny follows him to the hotel, and climbs to the right window, he’s about to sneak in but is pushed.

Well, this episode was boring but boring is a step up from the last 2 episodes and at least this puts the ‘is this Danny Rand?’ plot-line to rest.

Rating 5.5/10

Eight Diagram Dragon Palm

Danny steadies his fall by trying to grasp one of the building’s exterior lights. He does pass out though. One intro later, Danny wakes up in Harold Meachum’s apartment and is soon greeted by Harold Meachum.

Let’s cut to the cr*p, the Hand have infested Rand enterprises and have essentially barred Harold from using the house because they don’t want people knowing they can bring people back from the dead, but have been getting him to do things with Rand like purchase a pier. Harold wants him to purge the Hand from Rand Enterprises, but Danny can’t do that whilst fighting an ongoing legal battle. Harold tells his son to drop it and let Rand have his way, even his dad’s old office, much to Ward’s chargin’.

Colleen finds a video of her beating up the guy in the ring has gone viral, Daryl has posted it online, hoping it would attract her more business. Press conference where Rand thanks the Meachums for getting him some mental help after he got back, covering their asses for sending him to the mental ward.

Hogarth arrives ready to get him to sign the contracts that give him the rightful share of the company and presumably give her what she wanted, she leaves because she’s wasted enough of her time in this boring series and won’t show up again until the finale. But there’s the problem, Danny doesn’t know sh*t about business… so when he shows up to a board meeting about them distributing a cure for something or another, he insists they give it away without making a profit, and he holds a majority share so that’s what happens.

OK, there may be some benefit they can reap from this but… Hogarth told you to ease into things… this is the exact opposite of that. Colleen begins fighting her practice dummy to hip music because what other music would work here. It’s bloody awful hip-hop music too. Ward takes a pill of some sort before answering a phone call, one of the reporters is ready to control the narrative and…

  

So, after a boring scene of Joy and Danny talking, let’s get to something interesting, Colleen is fighting 2 guys in the cage tonight. She’s brutal in the arena, breaking one guy’s arm and beating him nigh to death. More of Joy and Danny talking, Joy is taken by a bunch of guys and they have axes because of course they do, even the hallway fight scene is underwhelming, so many cuts.

Ward tells the reporter about the drug pricing incident, which she’s totally gonna use in a way he wasn’t anticipating. Anyway, Danny drops Joy off with Colleen and finds out the group that attacked them are part of the Chinese triads. Danny pays them a visit, they’re angry about Joy’s purchase of the pier, but then he name-drops the Hand, which scares them sh*tless.

Gao tells Harold to put on a mask, as they’re going for a ride. Gao is rewarding him for securing the pier, giving him a few seconds to look at his daughter from a window across the street. He also sees that she’s injured, Gao has sources that told her she was jumped, so Harold asks for a favour, the confront the triads and killed the guy who hurt Joy with his sword.

Unsurprisingly, the article in the paper branded Rand a corporate hero. Danny receives a thing with a picture of Kun Lun’s logo and a name on it.

This was a tedious episode, but ultimately had better action, and characters I didn’t want to strangle the whole time.

Rating 6/10