Netflix Retrospective - Iron Fist Season 2 Episodes 9-10 - War Without End/A Duel of Iron

We are back for one last time with Iron Fist

War Without End

It’s January 3^rd as I write this, and never has this title felt more relevant

Danny shows Colleen his little subway hideout, confessing his feeling about the Iron Fist. Colleen did wonder, but chose to focus on telling him to slow down. Danny realises that she was right, that he can’t continue using the fist, but Colleen refuses. Flat out, her rationale makes a deal of sense but Danny’s does also, this is compelling drama.

BB, rather than going to the dojo, decided to head to the shelter. That was a dumb move, he hopes the combined Hatchet and Tiger forces would protect him but he makes the even dumber move of calling one of his old friends, and giving away his and everyone else’s location to Davos. They confront Joy over her role in this and she tells Davos straight that he’s full of sh*t. Davos responds by pushing her over the ledge. Roll credits.

Looking at the scroll describing the ceremony, Danny practices the hand techniques used to transfer the power of the Iron Fist. Misty comes with a multitude of good news, including a police task force and a face-to-face with Frank Choi. He had cut a deal with the feds to turn on the Golden Tigers, who Misty had a word with, turns out the box belonged to Colleen’s mother, which means she’s in town. Colleen does not take this well, so Misty tries to console her. Misty tells Colleen the first would be in good hands with either of them.

Ward procures Walker the file, she reads through it, before burning it. Ward considered the file none of his business so didn’t read it. Deciding she can’t face Davos without some firepower, Walker pays a visit to Turk, why is it daylight suddenly? Weren’t the attacks supposed to happen at daybreak. Walker gets enough firepower to arm a small army, and Ward gets a handgun.

Joy wakes up, the fall hasn’t killed, just severely injured her, she struggles to her phone but finds it broken and making matters worse, Patchy is still around. She tries to bribe him but Patchy isn’t interested. Joy laughs at him, telling him that she’s a better person and look how she turned out. Debateable but her point stands.

Back at the community centre, BB gives the bowl to Danny before noticing his old crew outside. BB goes out to confront them as the Hatchets and Tigers attempt to evacuate the civilians, unfortunately running into Davos whilst doing so. BB believes he’s getting through but like I said, he’s a dead man walking and they shank him. Colleen witnesses the attack and engages the kids. You can see the kids’ fighting has improved, but Colleen is well out of their league and she kicks their asks.

And it comes to this, Danny and Davos fight, with the remaining Hatchets and Tigers protecting the children at the centre. Danny has procured sedative from the centre’s confiscations and injects Davos with it, weakening him enough for Danny to knock him out. BB passes away as the other kids recover, fortunately Misty arrives with backup to force their surrender. Misty passes advice onto Colleen, leading to her realising her destiny and agreeing to take the power of the Iron Fist.

They take Davos back to the dojo and summon the Crane Sisters to perform the ceremony. Danny cuts the dragon tattoo off his own chest, now that’s commitment right there. Misty enters Davos’ dojo in search for Joy. She finds Joy tied to a chair but Patchy is ready to fight. Before the fight can conclude, Ward shoots him with the handgun. As he drags Joy away, for some reason Walker knocks Misty out.

With the tattoo completed, Danny begins to show Colleen the power transference technique. Wasn’t this supposed to be fatal to the uninitiated? As she does so, Davos wakes up, breaking out of his cuffs. The episode ends with both Davos and Colleen showing they have the Iron Fist powers now.

A lot of what makes a good climax comes up in this episode, and all that’s left is the conclusion.

Rating 8/10

A Duel of Iron

We flash back to K’un L’un, showing Davos helping Danny warm up after he’d been found out in the blizzard. Danny later shows Davos how to make a paper aeroplane, and later helping him after he’d attained the Iron Fist. There’s some narration but it’s not important.

Both Colleen and Davos are weakened, with the power transfer incomplete both of them are at risk. Davos creates a shock-wave that tears up the place and facilitates his escape. Roll credits. One last time.

Misty wakes up locked in the same cell BB had been locked in the night before, she begins punching the wall with her robotic hand. Walker drags Patchy’s corpse around a bit, leaving a bloody trail and prepares her assault weapons. Joy is being taken to hospital, with Ward giving his latest speech that might actually get through to her now he saved her life, in spite of everything, though being shot up with 50cc of morphine probably helps also.

Davos arrives at the dojo and sees the blood on the ground, Walker fires but Davos manages to get to cover just in time. As Danny explains to Collen, if Davos dies, so does she. Thanks to the miracle of the mechanical hand, Misty manages to dig a hole in the wall to get access to the lock. Davos manages to force Walker to ground as Danny and Colleen arrive but their plans are at cross-purpose leading to Danny having to fight Walker as Colleen fights Davos.

Danny receives some help from Misty, Danny cuts a water pipe, to create a rain effect and instructs Misty to use her phone as a strobe light, bringing back Mary. Misty’s arm is badly damaged so she can’t help against Davos. With a clash of fists Colleen is down, Davos attempts to draw power from her but Colleen recovers just in time. Danny arrives and the two together manages to knock Davos down and hold him down long enough for Colleen to complete the transference.

Davos begs for death, but Colleen walks away, he gets up and tries to attack, but Colleen uses an Iron Fist shock-wave to send him back. He’s arrested and Danny gets one last chance to talk to him. And we get to the baiting for season 3 that will never happen. There’s still half an hour left of this episode and only the minor subplots to wrap up so expect a lot of this. Davos says he inspired a lot of people (no he didn’t) and that his actions will evoke change regardless (we’ll see whether the Hatchet/Tiger peace lasts I guess never).

Misty and Colleen have a talk about the power, Misty’s looking for some upgrades now her arm is… Colleen tries to convince Misty to take the Captain job, also was that a jibe at DC’s Nightwing? There’s also brief mention of where we left off with Luke Cage that will be resolved never. But of course, all this change has the consequence of splitting Danny and Colleen up. The foreshadowing for this has been both exceptionally blatant and rather confusing.

Danny looks at the ruined apartment and begins fixing it up again. I would personally get my Rand contacts onto fixing the floor. Unfortunately, among the destroyed items is the box from the beginning of the season; Danny notices a talisman (?) from the box, we saw the birds on one side and Danny is shocked by what he sees on the other side.

Colleen heads to the community centre to return the van they used earlier, he asks about the boys, and wants to find a way to help them peacefully. She asks them to hold a service for BB. Mrs Yang promises the peace will last and hopes to move into more legitimate lines but says that won’t happen overnight, Colleen promises that she’ll be watching. 

Ward heads to an NA meeting to finally share and possibly make amends with Bethany now she’s carrying his child. Frankly, Bethany’s hardly a great role model either so let’s just wrap this up. Bethany ultimately decides to try and raise the child on her own. Walker decides to pay Joy a visit, Joy thinks it’s just to get her money but with Walker having discovered her third alter-ego, she decides it’s better to stick near her and draw from her reach. To be concluded never

Colleen returns home to find the apartment fixed up but also a letter from Danny. The story Frank Choi had told, having heard it from Colleen’s mother is a story he heard in K’un L’un, the story of the first to conquer the dragon, he’s off to investigate whether a larger destiny as at work connecting the two.

Unfortunately, kinda, Ward gets wind of his chartered flight and… I have no idea what his intentions were but it does allow us to get in some more exposition about what Danny is actually doing. You remember the Iron Fist corpse Davos used for the tattoo paint, he’s managed to trace that back and is going to pay them a personal visit. 

He also believes the journey will be worth it philosophically, as he searches for his purpose. Danny offers Ward the chance to come with him and I feel it should’ve been done the other way around. Danny may not have been best but he was at least trying, Ward wasn’t, not really, so to offer support and maybe considering his own path, I feel he should’ve volunteered to go with him.

Cut to months later in New York City, a bunch of bank robbers are stopped, Colleen is able to channel the Iron Fist through her blade. Ward is in a bar in Japan, asking for water which is something, I guess, he’s talking to someone he believes could be a link to the Iron Fist corpse. Apparently, they have a name Orson Randall. Ward admits to some incidents that happened that gets the guy to set his enforcer on. Danny now has two glowing guns. Again, to be continued never.

This is actually a pretty weak episode that spends more time setting the next season that will never happen than actually wrapping up the plot. The actual conclusion is solid though.

Rating 5/10

Iron Fist season 2 was an astonishing step upwards from season 1. Gone was the garbage with the hand, and fight choreography has been spectacularly improved. Davos and Walker both make compelling villains who are a major step up from Bakuto. The cut in the number of episodes lead to the pacing being much improved. Misty Knight is a welcome addition to the regulars of the crew and I’d have preferred to see more of her moving forward than any more of Claire.

Finn Jones is still perhaps miscast as Iron Fist, which is unfortunate when he’s the title character. His character’s improved but perhaps veers from jokey to depressed a little too quickly now. I kinda preferred how his character was portrayed in Luke Cage, although it would’ve been difficult to set out a personal arc for him using that. Notice how his removal job basically got ignored after the first few episodes.

Ward’s arc is weak, but fortunately they don’t spend a lot of time on it. Joy is still the major question mark, as her turn in attitude feels overly hostile, especially towards Danny.

Unfortunately, with Disney+ on the rise anyway, plus the sadly still poor reception this series got, Netflix decided not renew the series. I personally would stop after the first 30 minutes of the final episode; I wouldn’t bother with all the sequel baiting.