Netflix Retrospective: Iron Fist Season 1 episodes 11-13 - Lead Horse Back to Stable/Bar the Big Boss/Dragon Plays with Fire

Alright, let’s finish this

Lead Horse Back to Stable

We open on random cliff-face, Danny as asleep and Davos wakes him up, seeing the Dragon tattoo on his chest, and soon his glowing fist. The glow effect looked sh*t in that sequence. Davos takes him back, hoping to stand by his side, as defenders of K’un L’un.

Back in the Present, Danny’s suffering from the wound he got from Bakuto in the last episode. He tries again to summon the Iron Fist but flashes of everything that just happened (Davos breaking Darryl’s leg, Colleen helping them escape and various fights) stop him from being able to. Roll credits.

Davos found Danny using his phone, which Danny immediately breaks since he saw equipment Bakuto used to track phones. Remember this for my Defenders retrospective, I’ll have a point about it then. Danny isn’t pleased at the idea of going back to K’un L’un, when the Hand are in New York. He tries to convince Davos to help him, Davos makes him promise that once the Hand is dealt with, they head back to K’un L’un.

Colleen heads back to the Dojo, I suppose he expected Danny to come back, but of course he didn’t. Bakuto confronts her, Danny’s no longer to be considered an ally despite some very justifiable retorts from Colleen. The Hand needs the Iron Fist for reasons to be explained in the Defenders, so Bakuto tells her to report his location when she finds him.

Time for Claire to be brought back into this, as Danny trusts her to provide him medical support. How is Claire financing herself these days, anyway? She removes the arrowhead that was in his wound but is unable to stitch him with the amount of blood uses so improvises using a stapler. Claire is the master of turning household sh*t into medical devices.

Claire is brought up to speed, and Danny has a temper tantrum, like a 5-year-old child. Then insists it was nothing, just like a 5-year-old child. He needs antibiotics to keep the wound from getting infected. I could be wrong but aren’t antibiotics usually used to treat infection rather than prevent it altogether? Clair has nothing for them to wear, except a shirt with bullet holes, guess who that belongs to

So, Harold manages to knock the sand out of a punching bag. Joy has been using dealings on the tablet and has found out that Bakuto wants to move money to South America for some reason. Harold’s delighted at this news, as it’s a good weapon against the Hand. Davos and Claire get some time to talk, Claire’s interested in the prospect of healing through Chi. She’s also disbelieving about the idea of dragons for some reason. And we find out about Davos’ deal, Danny an Davos were both trained to be Iron Fists but ultimately Danny was chosen.

Colleen arrives, and Claire has a legitimate and funny rebuttal to the whole ‘factions in the hand’ bullsh*t, why wouldn’t you name your faction something else? Claire is hurt, but takes it better than Danny did, and allows her into the house so we can have the inevitable showdown, before that though, time for Danny to have a flashback, and we get the first glimpse of K’un L’un and man… this is about all we see of K’un L’un for the entire series.

This confrontation between Colleen and Danny goes about as well as you’d expect, but she does learn he needs antibiotics which we’ll see later. Claire and Danny part ways on a note that’s quite satisfying, Claire warning him about his pent-up anger. Colleen goes to see one of her former students who became a nurse, and asks her about procuring antibiotics.

Davos and Danny arrive and Joy and Harold have come up with a plan. Joy is going to close the account Bakuto is transferring the money into, luring him into the open where Danny and Davos can attack. Joy isn’t happy when he hears Danny isn’t interested in seeing Bakuto arrested. The antibiotics are given to Colleen but her student also gave her up to Bakuto, she didn’t tell him that she’d found Danny, 4 of her former students arrive to arrest her.

Despite some reservations from Joy, Harold puts his plan in action. Colleen is tied to a chair, and taken to Bakuto. He makes it very clear that he intends to kill her, and she’s wheeled along to see blood and guts and clearly, she’s not the first person here. She manages to escape and her attacks on her former students are brutal as all heck.

We get an interesting talk between Davos and Danny but it’s interrupted when they see Colleen escaping and she and Danny reconcile. Davos sees and now has the answer to the question he’s been asking.

These episodes are getting shorter, which is a relief… and this episode is good. The problem is we don’t have any connection to K’un L’un, we see at best a picture of it and the odd description. I guess it’s a budget thing but it is killing this subplot.

Rating 7.5/10

Bar the Big Boss

We open back at the facility Ward is chained up in, he sees his father, basically as a zombie trying to kill him, then he sees that no-one was there. Until he sees him again and he screams, alerting the attention of Nurse Hill. He tries to bribe his way out, but she sees it as withdrawal from the drugs and leaves him be. Later on, Bakuto pays him a visit and provides him something that can help his withdrawal. He says also that he can help Ward get out and provide him with the means of putting Harold down for good.

He also offers to give the antidote to Rand so they can profit from it. In return he wants help capturing the Iron Fist. OK, good move… Also, Danny did a terrible job of watching for him leaving. Speaking of that terrible job, Collen and Danny are back on good terms, which Davos isn’t happy about, especially given her allegiance to the Hand. Oh wow, Danny’s acting as a mediator between them. God I wish this happened earlier, instead of being convinced in every way possible that Danny is not a good mediator.

Davos walks away and we cut to Harold and Joy, who you might remember are in serious trouble since Danny and Davos have stopped looking out for Bakuto, they could be targeted and killed at any moment. Of course, Bakuto’s plan is a little more subtle. Ward arrives at the house, wanting to talk to Joy alone but of course, Harold isn’t having any of it, but eventually Joy talks him around. Ward tries to warn her about Harold but she doesn’t believe him.

Making matters worse, Bakuto did a lousy job securing his release from the hospital, since no doctor signed off on his release. So, with that plan failed, Ward pulls a gun on him and forces Joy to call the elevator, unfortunately Bakuto and several of his men arrive in the elevator. Ward had turned him over and Joy calls him a monster. Harold’s men try and pull guns on Bakuto but Bakuto’s men kill them.

Apparently beheading Harold will stop him coming back, Ward begs that he not do this in front of Joy but Bakuto wants Ward’s phone. Colleen is still very shaken from discovering pretty much everything, but she refuses to hide and wants Bakuto dead. Oh, Davos is still here. Bakuto calls Danny, shooting Joy in the stomach and saying he’ll do worse if Danny doesn’t give himself up to him. Davos tries to stop Danny and we get this line

“You don’t tell me what to do”

Yup, they had that line too… I swear even 10 is too old to be saying that. Danny arrives right on time, and they cuff him, right in time for him to hear that this was part of Ward’s plan. Bakuto doesn’t kill Harold but now Ward knows exactly how to. Bakuto says someone else in the Hand wants to work with him, we’ll find out who she is later in. Once on the landing, Danny is able to briefly use the Iron Fist to escape the Handcuffs, as Collen and Davos ambush them and take out the guards.

Bakuto makes a run for it, with Danny, Colleen and Davos in hot pursuit. Bakuto baits out Colleen and the pair begin to fight. Bakuto breaks her sword, but she kicks the broken fragment into his leg, eventually she stabs him, weakening him. Time for the tired old moral debate we got in Daredevil. Davos skips to the point and stabs him.

Davos and Danny end up fighting, and much of the fight is in shadows because it makes it easier to hide the stunt double. Danny is summoning the Iron Fist again, Davos yields and leaves, but warns there will be consequences for his choice, something we’ll later see. In the fight though, Bakuto escapes, clearly not as dead as everyone thought.

Joy is taken to the hospital, and signs in. Harold kinda reconciles with Ward, before saying it’s time for the 3 of them to take control of Rand and Danny be damned. Colleen and Danny kiss. The next morning, Danny is practising his moves to more awful music. I swear his tattoo has shrunk too. Anyway, he and Colleen practice together. Then the cell phone rings, Ward warns Danny to get out now as Harold has set them up, they’re men from the DEA, the Department of Extra-normal Affairs, yet another replacement for S.H.I.E.L.D. but they’re basically police so we don’t know what’s happened yet.

Well, it’s an episode that feels much like a season finale, if not for the last 30 seconds. We’ll see how this goes

Rating 8/10

Dragon Plays with Fire

So, apparently Harold set Danny up with the illegal drug smuggling ring. It feels a bit odd to me that it’d be so easily believed given his track history and the fact he hasn’t been in the city that long. Also, the DEA don’t believe in knocking first, just attacking straight on sight because they’re idiots. Harold prepares for his return to the public eye.

Ward has called in Hogarth, making her second and last appearance on the show. Ward tells her the charges against Danny are categorically false. She asks who set him up before Harold enters, I think she got the picture. He’s gonna use the old cryotherapy chestnut to explain how he’s alive. He tells Ward he’s been messing with Danny for a long time, and says it’s his last chance to come aboard.

Danny wants to get in contact with Hogarth to find out what evidence the DEA has against him, they use Claire as a go-between. Oh, if only she knew the shady sh*t Hogarth had been into. Anyway, Hogarth shows them the evidence, it’s files from the Tablet but it’s been modified to make it look like Danny was responsible rather than the Hand. He has one person he can turn to, the one person they trust less than Harold, Madame Gao. The head back to the academy which is completely deserted interestingly.

They find Gao, just left there to rot. Gao again gets inside Danny’s head, but tells her that it wasn’t her that arranged the plane accident, it was too noisy for her tastes, she in fact tried to stop. Harold Meachum was responsible. Oh, and she doesn’t have any further backups of those files, they need that tablet to prove his innocence. And Danny is having a meltdown over this revelation, again! Colleen offers to kill Harold in his place whilst Claire is still horrified over the idea of killing at all. They need the tablet, and their only way in is with Ward

Ward pays Joy a visit in the hospital, she’s rightfully p*ssed off at him. He shows her the newspaper featuring Danny. Speaking of Ward and Danny, Ward doesn’t know the combination to the safe, but their interests both align with putting Harold in jail, or in a body bag. Joy pays the office a visit, Harold tries to spin it but good god does it sound stupid. I’m glad that Joy is showing her intellect by not buying it.

She leaves, really not sure of herself any more as Ward arrives. Harold is on the phone to someone or another, Ward tries to warn Danny that the plan can’t go ahead but Harold strikes him on the head with a golf club, Danny can hear this over the phone and decides to put the plan in motion anyway. Claire buys a hotdog stand and set it on fire to distract the guards.

Harold knows that he’s coming and has his men ready to shoot the elevators, but Colleen somehow gets there first, and Danny smashes through the windows. With Danny pinned down by gunfire, Collen tries to make a move but is spotted, Danny punches the ground and creates a shockwave, bringing down the whole floor. Colleen and Ward are blocked off, but they do manage to secure the tablet.

Danny follows Harold to the roof and takes cover, but is shot in the hand when he tries to make a move. Danny manages to kick him, but stupidly doesn’t disarm him. Then he does, but can’t use the Iron Fist, then they fight with Sticks and Danny is somehow losing. After getting a second wind he kicks Harold onto a convenient spike.  Of course it’s in the stomach so he can survive. Danny continues to flash and sees 2 red lights to be like the dragon from K'un L'un. He says he’s done, but Harold wills himself off the spike and tries to shoot him, Danny deflects the bullet, healing his hand I guess and Ward shoots him off the roof.

So erm, terrible CGI bird’s back, my god does it look awful. Ward and Danny see Harold’s body ready to burn. Hogarth tells them that thanks to the new evidence and a generous contribution, the DEA have dropped all charges. They set the flames to burn Harold’s body. Colleen is still teaching Claire how to fight, Danny comes back and offers to help Colleen rebuild anew, free of the Hand. He also says he’s going back to K’un L’un.

We get a speech pretty much straight from Arrow, yay! It’s not the only concept it’s copied from Arrow, Danny Rand and Oliver Queen have a lot of similarities, both in and out of comics. Ward returns to the business, and now and he and Danny have pictures up. Meanwhile Joy is talking to Davos, who is now an idiot who wants the Iron Fist dead, also Gao is listening in. I just… what? What the actual f*ck?

Danny and Collen head to the gateway to K’un L’un, and find it marked with blood, they find several bodies, Hand agents. They find that K’un L’un is gone.

And that’s Iron Fist, is it any good… yes and no. The real weakness in this series is the writing, which focused much more on the human aspect of Danny Rand and very little on the Iron Fist. Establishing the culture and mythology of K’un L’un was essential to making us care that Danny left his post and it’s sad that they failed categorically with that.

Bakuto, for all his charm, is much less interesting that Gao as a lead villain. As for Harold Meachum, we knew from the start that he was a villain and having everyone else come to realise that is just boring. Ward is probably the second-best character in the series, after Colleen. He’s certainly not perfect but he has an arc and becomes better for it.

Meanwhile Joy is… what the f*ck was that last scene? To be continued in Iron Fist season 2 no doubt. But I need a break. We’ll be back next week with Voltron. And a return to 20-minute episodes thank god.

Rating 7/10