Netflix Retrospective - Iron Fist Season 2 Episodes 5-6 - Heart of the Dragon/The Dragon Dies at Dawn

We continue our look at the second season of Netflix's Iron Fist and things have stepped up as Davos has transferred the power to himself and injured Danny in the process, what will happen next, let's take a look

Heart of the Dragon

Davos now has the power of the Iron Fist, his fist glowing red rather than gold. He’s also wearing the classic Iron Fist costume. We flash back to his childhood with Danny, where his mother beats his arms with a stick, trying to make him not feel pain. Once again, the child actors seem a little cr*p, but I do like them putting more effort into explaining Davos’ motivations, wish they would do the same with Joy.

He sees members of the Golden Tigers attacking a man, he kills the attackers and discovers more Golden Tigers will be at a club. He now identifies himself as the Immortal Iron Fist. Roll credits.

Colleen is worried about Danny but is glad Misty is about, me too Colleen. She’s taking some vacation days to consider her offer of promotion so this has her full attention, she takes the pictures and drawings, hoping to find Mary’s fingerprints since Danny managed to mention Mary in the phone-call.

Walker leaves Danny on a bench, and injects him with adrenaline to wake him up, but it hasn’t stopped his injuries, so he limps away. Walker shows video footage of injection to Joy, showing she lived up to her side of the deal. Joy looks uncomfortable but she did the job asked of her, so she agrees to pay. Walker warns her that Davos is someone she should watch her back around.

Colleen and Misty meet up with Ward, hoping he can run the prints faster than the precinct can. Danny wonders into the kid gang, puking up his own blood. They knock him out, easy when he’s injured and think they can offer him up to the Tigers for money.

Davos arrives at the club, so seizure warning to everyone with eyes. Davos takes out the security in seconds, and his target in even less time but a guy wearing an eye-patch tells Davos he can lead him to all the triad leaders and criminals in the city, I'm gonna call him Patchy. He gets a text from Joy and tells Patchy to meet him in 2 hours at the Greenpoint Pier with a list, or he’ll be the next target.

We flash back to just after the big fight, where Davos’ mother talks about how ashamed of Davos she is.  

Danny wakes up chained to a crate, he tries to buy them off but they first saw him hauling furniture and don’t recognise Daniel Rand because they’re idiots. Colleen gets some guilt off her chest and Misty Knight continues to be awesome, they’re not having much luck though. When they head into Misty’s car they hear over police band that there’s been a incident with multiple fatalities that may involve someone with abilities.

BB helps keep Danny alive as that’s how the Tigers will want him. Danny recognises him and realises he knows Colleen. He tries to get him to call her, it doesn’t work at first but not wanting a corpse on his conscience does eventually turn BB around.

Davos now wants to recruit Joy to his cause, she wants no part of it but doesn’t have the guts to say that straight to his face. Davos gets the picture though and warns her if things head south, she may find herself on the wrong end of his fist. Joy quickly makes a call as he leaves. We flash back to Davos trying to speak to his mother as he’s about to depart to bring back Danny. She seems to be wavering, but never actually says anything.

Colleen and Misty arrive at the club, and find out that whilst it wasn’t Danny, it’s someone with similar abilities, Colleen gets a call from BB. With the Tiger leader dead, no money’s coming from them. They’re about to torture Danny for money when Misty and Colleen arrive. Misty continues to be awesome as she scares off the kids.

Danny’s in bad shape but because of Davos having the fist, he can’t be in a hospital right now and Claire is not around at the moment so that’s out. He hopes that Ward has a Rand Doctor on standby. And he doesn’t, luckily Bethany has some medical experience so she’ll have to do. She’s literally staples his body back together. Bethany is a complete dick again, btw. Turns out that Mary/Walker is ex-military with a long list of redacted files, dismissed on medical grounds and went freelance

With the mention of Davos killing triad members, Ward is worried about Joy. He refuses to accept the idea that she’s in any way involved. Misty and Colleen head to pick her up, with Ward stays with Danny. Joy is conferring with Walker over this exact situation, she suggests hiring her to kill Davos, which could present its own set of issues.

Danny and Ward talk with Danny expressing his regrets about how he’d become overly reliant on the fist or something. Here’s the thing though, that isn’t what landed you in this mess. Davos played the long game, had Walker study your every move, and then drug you to make sure the odds were stacked in her favour. Whether you were using the Iron Fist sparingly or every minute wouldn’t change that. Strangely enough though, Ward finds himself relating more to that struggle than anything from the NA meetings. I’d have to be willing to sit through s1 again to gain full context for that I don’t feel like torturing myself.

Misty doesn’t like Joy from the moments she sets eyes on her and thank you writers, thank you Simmone Missick, I really needed that. Misty immediately realises Walker is in the room and barges in, gun at the ready. Unfortunately, Walker is a little trickier than Misty is used to, she even gives Colleen a run for her money, but two against one is still bad odds and Misty has her at gunpoint and gets her to surrender, much to Joy’s facial displeasure.

Danny offers his advice to Ward and whilst I do see what he’s getting at, this is another of those occasions where it’s a case-by-case basis, and we’re about to see that put to the test as Misty and Colleen bring Joy and Walker around, where Joy openly confesses that she was involved in everything.

It’s a little on the slower side, but the screen time given to Misty and her being just awesome allows me to forgive a lot about this episode

Rating 7.5/10

The Dragon Dies at Dawn

We open with Misty Knight throwing shade right over Joy, have I mentioned how much I love Misty Knight. She’s having less luck with Walker, who asks her to lift her shirt up, revealing a scar from being tortured, meaning she knows the difference between an idle threat than one that would actually be carried out. Joy tells Misty what she knows, but in a condescending way, so Misty still thinks she’s scum. Roll credits, I guess

Danny reckons he can convince Davos to stop, an idea that’s scoffed at by everyone in the room. They can’t easily arrest Joy and Walker without revealing everything and bringing a media frenzy straight down on Rand (person and company) and if Misty calls in the cops, or Ward's forces that he has apparently, it’s gonna be a bloody massacre. Their best bet is to try and transfer the power away from him, and the first step to that is finding the Crane Sisters.

Danny’s recovering remarkably quickly all things considered but he’s also in no shape to be heading off, so Misty and Colleen do so. Meaning Ward is now in charge of both Danny, and the crazy people, including his sister. Walker easily escapes the handcuffs Misty had her in, and says she’s going to go far away and advises Joy do the same. If Davos is arrested, she might go down with him, but if he isn’t, she may end up a target. Joy decides to reopen negotiations on hiring Walker to kill Davos.

Davos and Patchy, have crossed off another few names off their list of mob bosses. Patchy suggests a Pizza joint but Davos reminds him he’s a vegetarian and Patchy remarks on the hypocrisy that he’s happy to kill people, but won’t kill animals.

Ward is reacting as you’d expect but Danny is more in control of himself and helps calm Ward down. Walker exits her room and says she’ll take Danny to Davos but just him if she’s paid enough to get the hell out of town. Danny wants to try and get through to Davos and this offers him one last chance to do so. Everyone around him is telling him doing so is a stupid idea and I’d respectfully agree. Nothing Davos has done has been spur of the moment. He plotted this, and in doing so knew exactly what he was going to do in the aftermath, it’ll take more than a few words to turn someone around from that. But Danny has a backup plan, have Walker enact the same bag-and-tag routine she did to him, so he’s not entirely stupid. Just mostly stupid.

Walker wants $500,000 for her role, which Danny agrees to despite Ward’s reluctance. Ward asks Walker if she was the one who told Joy about his NA meetings, and she basically confirms that it was.

Misty Knight and Colleen have a conversation and it’s only really of note because its Misty Knight and Colleen, we might get to the contents of it another time. Davos and Patchy arrive at their next target, a ‘chop shop’ used by the Hatchets. BB and a couple of the other street kids notice their actions. Patchy does a baby driver and begins using music to drown out the screams. The kids also gain Davos’ notice.

Danny asks Walker about Mary and everything about her DAD comes to light. Stress brings out Walker as a dominant personality and strobe lights and running water bring Mary back. I’m sure she will not regret telling him this at all…

Colleen and Misty arrive at the place where they’re told the Crane Sisters would be. A fight quickly ensues. Misty follows one outside who tries to run her down with a bike but her arms actually come in use for once. But Colleen fighting off the other two sisters is the real highlight here.

Danny and Walker arrive at the warehouse where the ritual took place, Danny realises that trying to talk down Davos would put him close enough to inject him himself and asks Walker for the syringe but she refuses, feeling scared of a dripping nearby. Mrs Yang is not happy to see the massacre of her people and wants whoever did it found and killed.

The Joy pity party continues… I still don’t give a f*ck. Your plan did not require having anything to do with Davos. It’s just unfortunate you two happened to meet and you had a hard on for making Danny suffer because of reasons outside of his and anyone else’s control. Joy leaves, telling Ward it’s for good.

The Crane sisters reveal what the now about the ‘ritual’ to Misty and Colleen and with a bit of hard persuasion they agree to help reverse it. Patchy delivers Davos to his ‘home’ where asks about the kids, Patchy tells them about their home near Manhattan bridge but Davos claims they’re not on the list, yet.

Danny having worked out the Walker isn’t entirely working with him, asks enough questions to hear that Joy put her up to killing Davos. Danny manages to talk her around, as Davos enters. Their ‘talk’ goes about as well as everyone thought it would. Walker tries to enact her plan, using a line to stop the Iron Fist but Davos is able to transfer it to his other hand, and uses a shock-wave to send both Walker and Danny back. With that threat eliminated, and Danny in no real shape to fight, Danny and Walker are easily defeated. Davos uses the fist on Danny’s leg, breaking it before the drug takes its toll and knocks him out.

Walker takes Danny away, not using the opportunity to finish Davos off for some reason, patches up his leg briefly and calls an ambulance before the outside storm and the strobing lights from the ambulance sets off a trigger and brings Mary to the surface. Danny asks how to bring Walker back except he already knows how, elevated heart rate and stress, since that’s unlikely to happen in the next 3 minutes and 19 seconds, it’s likely she’s gone for the episode. Mary doesn’t want the cabin, and runs off.

It’s probably the weakest episode so far this season but it’s still a pretty solid one

Rating 7/10