Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Starring Finn Jones (Danny Rand / Iron Fist), Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing), Tom Pelphrey (Ward Meachum), Jessica Stroup (Joy Meachum), Sacha Dhawan (Davos), Samone Missick (Misty Knight), and Alice Eve as Mary / Walker
IRON FIST SEASON ONE
Produced by Marvel Television
Originally aired on Netflix
Number of Episodes: 10
Initial Streaming: September 7, 2018
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Fun Iron Fist: Season Two Facts
Iron Fist: Season Two was the tenth series produced by Marvel Television for the Netflix Streaming Service. You can read about the history of Marvel Television from its inception as a division within Marvel Entertainment overseen by Ike Perlmutter and run by Jeph Loeb to its incorporation into Marvel Studios and the eventual canonization of Marvel Television’s Defenders Saga into the Marvel Cinematic Universe under the Fun Facts section of my Iron Fist: Season One review. That post can be found on the dropdown menu of the site under the MCU PHASE THREE REVIEWS tab.
Between Iron Fist: Season One and Iron Fist: Season Two, Danny Rand’s story can be followed in the Netflix original series The Defenders, which sees Danny team up with other heroes such as Matt Murdock / Daredevil, Jessica Jones, and Luke Cage. Danny Rand also makes an appearance in Marvel Television’s Luke Cage: Season Two
Upon the MCU (Sacred) Timeline, Iron Fist: Season Two takes place after Luke Cage: Season Two and before Daredevil: Season Three.
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My Iron Fist: Season One Review
The Fury of Iron Fist – Directed by David Dobkin. Written by M. Raven Metzner
Having consumed the entirety of Iron Fist: Season One, I’m not looking forward to consuming its Second Season. Iron Fist: Season One is easily my least-favorite of the now former Netflix series’ thus far, so, I have very low expectations going in. This first episode did very little to intrigue me. We get caught-up with Danny Rand and Colleen Wing and see that Danny is struggling with the task of juggling defending the streets of Chinatown, his relationship with Colleen, and being the majority of shareholder of his own company while working a common job, grounding himself in physical labor. One afternoon while working, Danny meets an enigmatic artist named May Walker before he is summoned by Ward Meachum to a meeting that turns out to be with Ward’s sister Joy, who proposes a buyout from her Rand contract, which Danny approves, upsetting Ward. Yay. More Meachum Family / Corporate drama. Ugh. Joy is of course in cahoots with Danny’s now former friend Davos, working against Danny, as we saw at the end of the previous Season.
Danny and Colleen go out on a date and encounter a gang led by a street thug known as Rhyno. They also encounter a rival gang known as The Golden Tigers. The kitchen fight between Rhyno’s Gang and Colleen and Danny was the easy highlight of this otherwise rather boring episode.
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The City’s Not for Burning – Directed by Rachel Talalay David Dobkin. Written by Jon Worley
This episode features several flashbacks to K’un-Lun as we see the fight between Danny and Davos for the right to face Shou-Lao and the chance to obtain the power of the Iron Fist. I did not enjoy these flashbacks at all. The sins of making the Realm of K’un-Lun as unspectacular as possible in the First Season are repearted here, and the outfits Danny and Davos wore that were based on the traditional comic book look of the Iron Fist, looked pretty awful.
In the present, after Danny introduces Mary Walker to Colleen Wing, Colleen confronts Rhyno’s Gang after Rhyno sent a member to kill her. She insists to Rhyno that her interference with his gang was done in an effort to keep them off the radar of The Golden Tigers, but Rhyno declares that he thirsts for war with The Tigers.
Meanwhile, there is more drama with Ward and Joy and pairing the charisma vacuum that is the Davos character with the quite bland Joy character seems like a horrific creative decision and Ward has reverted back to the annoyingly uninteresting character that he was at the beginning of last Season. Davos goes on to attack Hai-Qing Yang, using a K’un-Lun technique to cause him to have a stroke as his and Joy’s elaborate plan begins to come together.
So far, the only remotely interesting thing about this Season has been the introduction of the Mary / Walker character, who I know from the comics (as Typhoid Mary).
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This Deadly Secret – Directed by Rachel Toa Fraser. Written by Tatiana Suarez
Having discovered the partnership between Davos and his sister Joy, Ward Meachum convinces Danny to host a dinner party with Ward, Joy, and Davos so that everyone can formally air out their grievances. Ward also convinces Danny to not tell Joy that he will be attending. No one is particularly thrilled about the get-together, but Danny and Colleen host Joy and Davos nonetheless, while Ward no-shows. Rather than using the dinner as an opportunity to resolve things, all parties involved end up lashing out against each other in various ways and Joy and Davos end up leaving angrily, with Joy chastising Danny for lying to her about her father Harold, and Davos getting panicked when he discovers that Danny and Joy are in possession of pictures that Mary / Walker was hired to take by Joy and Davos. Danny came to possess said pictures due to Mary giving them to him in an effort to warn him.
From there, Danny and Colleen accompany Sherry Yang (Hai-Qing Yang’s wife) to an attempted gang parley that ends in violence after Danny notices a commotion outside. Yang, Danny, and Colleen all make it out alive, but blood is shed, and lives are taken. Elsewhere, Joy and Davos confront Walker over how Danny came to possess the photographs, but she is anything but helpful.
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Target: Iron Fist – Directed by MJ Bassett. Written by Jenny Lynn
This episode starts with Walker attacking Danny at a subway station and then shows the series of events that led up to that attack.
Mary / Walker continues to be the most compelling thing about this series by far. Alice Eve is really nailing the part! Walker and Joy share a very intense sequence in which Joy discovers that Walker suffers from DID, leading to a violent assault by Walker, who flirts with killing Joy right then and there, but refrains due to needing the job that Joy and Davos hired her to do. Joy now realizes that there is Walker and there is Mary, two distinct personalities that share the same body, and though this concerns her greatly, she decides to keep moving forward with her partnership with Walker.
Misty Knight shows up in this episode to chastise Danny and Colleen for their involvement in the skirmish at the parley the previous evening in which an undercover cop was seriously injured. Misty confronts Danny and Colleen outside of the Yang home where Danny and Colleen attempted to smooth things over with Sherry Yang, only to make things worse due to Danny approaching a comatose Ha-Qing Yang and discovering that it was Davos who caused his condition.
Misty urges Danny to back off from interfering in her investigation, but Danny (who has been erratic, irritable, and quickly angered throughout this Season) cannot bring himself to do it due to the threat of Davos, who commandeers the corpse of a former Iron Fist and embarks upon a complex ritual that will presumably bestow upon Davos the power of the Iron Fist. For the ritual to work completely, Walker delivers Danny to Davos and a trio of local tattoo artists, and the ritual is completed via a complex ink / blood skin transfer.
My goodness, I can’t think about many worse places to take this series than having Davos become the Iron Fist. Every time that the Davos character is on-screen, I want to fast-forward, if not turn off the show completely. He is just so uninteresting and underwhelming and unentertaining. Between Davos and Joy and Ward, this show feels like a chore to watch at this point. I will soldier on though for you, my dear readers, so that you can read this review and get up to speed on the accompanying MCU lore without having to endure watching this as I have.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Heart of the Dragon – Directed by Mairzee Almas. Written by Declan de Barra
Davos begins rampaging through the city as the new Iron Fist, showing no mercy to any criminals that he encounters while Walker leaves a badly wounded Danny on a bench where he is found by Rhyno’s gang, who beat him further and take him back to their hideout. In the meantime, Collen and Misty turn to Ward for help with identifying the fingerprints on the stalker photos that Mary gave Danny, and Walker goes to Joy for payment over what has become of Danny. Davos soon meets with Joy as well, troubling her with his words and demeanor. Elsewhere, Joy and Misty rescue Danny and Ward arranges for him to get the medical attention that he needed in order to save his life.
Ward had also retrieved some extremely concerning details pertaining to Mary / Walker, so Misty and Colleen go to interrogate Joy over her ties to Davos and her potential ties to Walker. Thier arrival interrupts an ongoing meeting between Joy and Walker, as Joy was seeking to hire Walker to protect her from Davos. Walker attacks Misty and a brawl ensues, but Misty and Colleen eventually take charge of the situation and take Joy and Walker both back to Danny and Colleen’s apartment. There, Joy admits to hiring Walker and conspiring to take the Iron Fist from Danny with Davos in an effort to hurt Danny.
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The Dragon Dies at Dawn – Directed by Philip John. Written by Matthew White
Misty interrogates Walker and Joy and learns the details of the ritual that transferred the power of the Iron Fist from Dany to Davos. She decides against arresting either of them, as a plan is devised to reenact the ritual and reverse the transfer. To do this, the tattoo artists and Davos are all needed, so Misty and Colleen venture to find the three women while Ward is left to keep watch over Danny and Joy. This allows for some decent character moments and conversations, particularly one involving Ward and Danny as they truly relate to each other for perhaps the first time ever and therefore bond. I really liked that moment. The conversations between Ward and Joy? Not so much. The writers are going to extreme lengths to make Joy unlikeable, and it feels like a lot of unnecessary drama to me.
Anyway, Danny decides to leave with Walker to go and confront Davos. He ultimately does, and Davos of course uses the Iron Fist to beat the shit out of Danny and he breaks Danny’s leg. Davos is successfully sedated during the fight though. As Walker treats Danny, she calls in an ambulance for him, but as it arrives, a rainstorm develops, and the steady drops of water combine with the flashing police lights to cause Walker to revert back to her Mary persona. Confused and panicked, Mary flees the scene as Danny begs her to contact Misty and Colleen and to get Davos to them.
I could do without the wordy confrontation between Danny and Davos, but I liked the suspense of the final sequence with Mary / Walker getting triggered and the sincere conversation between Danny and Ward is the best thing this Season has produced so far. Still, a lot of filler that doesn’t quite land.
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Morning of the Mindstorm – Directed by Stephen Surjik. Written by Rebecca Dameron
Colleen and Misty catch up with Danny at the hospital where he is treated and fitted with a high-tech leg brace. Meanwhile, Davos recruits Rhyno’s Gang, offering to train them. As Davos’ reign of terror continues, Danny blames himself and along with recreating the ritual that took from him the Iron Fist, Danny wants to essentially save Davos’ soul. In the meantime, Joy realigns with Davos on the surface, but hopes such a move will gain her the required ceremonial bowl that is needed to reenact the ritual.
Elsewhere, Ward falls off the wagon and gets into a drunken brawl at a local bar despite the attempted help from his sponsor (Bethany), whom he has been sleeping with. After she leaves in disgust, Ward ventures to the NA meeting that she usually leads but is now taking part in where he overhears her say that she is pregnant.
The episode ends with Colleen begrudgingly agreeing to train Danny for his looming showdown with Davos.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Citadel on the Edge of Vengeance – Directed by Julian Holmes. Written by Melissa Glenn
Collen pushes Danny to his mental and physical limits with her training while Joy conspires with one of Davos’ students to retrieve the ceremonial bowl that is needed to reenact the ritual that bestowed upon Davos the power of the Iron Fist. She reaches out to Ward, and he deduces that she is in danger and Ward tasks Walker with protecting his sister at any cost. As for Mary / Walker, her mysterious past is delved into, including her time as prisoner of war in Sokovia where an incident occurred that neither she nor Mary have any memory of, suggesting the possibility of a violently dangerous third alter.
The episode ends with Danny suggesting that it should be Colleen Wing who absorbs the power of the Iron Fist when it comes time for the ritual.
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War Without End – Directed by Sanford Bookstaver. Written by Daniel Shattuck
Davos pushes Joy over a rail in an effort to kill her, but she survives the fall. Meanwhile, Ward and Walker buy guns from Turk Barrett and set out to rescue Joy while Colleen retrieves the ceremonial bowl that was sent by Joy through Davos’ student (BB). He is soon thereafter killed for his efforts. Danny fights Davos and successfully subdues him. The ritual to transfer the power of the Iron Fist from Davos to Colleen gets underway, but it is interrupted when Davos regains consciousness. Nonetheless, Colleen’s fist begins to glow.
Elsewhere, Misty sets out to rescue Joy and arrives about the same time that Ward and Walker do. Ward is horrified by the state of Joy. Walker kills Davos’ right-hand (and one-eyed) man and then knocks Misty out with her gun.
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A Duel of Iron – Directed by Jonas Pate. Written by M. Raven Metzner
Davos flees the ritual and Danny explains the urgency in catching up with him to Colleen, revealing that if Davos dies before the ritual is completed, Colleen too will die, and that’s not good, as Walker is armed, loaded, and anxious to kill Davos, waiting for him at his base. Davos survives her onslaught, but Danny and Colleen soon arrive and Danny and Misty force Walker to revert to Mary while Colleen fights Davos. Eventually, Colleen completes the transfer and fully becomes the Iron Fist. Davos is taken into custody and Ward rides with Joy to the hospital.
From there, Ward tries to make amends with Bethany, but doesn’t get very far. His speech at the NA meeting was nonetheless a good scene. As for Joy, she returns home and is confronted by Walker, who refuses Joy’s money, stating that she likes the idea of keeping Joy on as an ally, but Joy is none too thrilled about the proposal. Danny leaves Colleen, writing her a sweet letter saying goodbye and explaining that he believes it was all along Colleen’s destiny to become the Iron Fist. Danny and Ward then venture to Asia to learn more about the legacy of the Iron Fist. In the final scene of the episode (and the show), Danny is seen having regained the power of the Iron Fist, which he can now channel into glowing guns, much like Colleen is able to do with her katana.
So, when I wrote my review of Daredevil: Season One, I kind of called Kevin Feige out on his hesitancy to adopt Marvel Television’s Defenders Sags as official MCU canon, reasoning that there was some really, really good stuff that was done, and I still believe that when it specifically comes to the casting and the performances of so many talented actors and actresses, but after finishing Luke Cage: Season Two and then watching Iron Fist: Season Two in its entirety, I have to say that I now understand why Feige was so hesitant. Maybe it wasn’t pride and pettiness after all … maybe it was because there was some really, really awful stuff that was done as well.
Iron Fist: Season Two sucked. This story did not warrant ten hours and a lot of the cast deserved better than what they were given to work with. I thought Finn Jones did some of his best work during the Season, the oftentimes cheesy dialogue notwithstanding. I also adored Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing throughout the Season and loved the story arc dating back to Season One that began with her working as an oblivious disciple to The Hand and ended with her becoming the Iron Fist! Her story was good. Her performance was good. She was great!
Aside from that though, this show was just bad. It was slow. It was at times boring. It was at other times confusing. The main villain was bad (again), and the finale was for me, horrible. Colleen and Danny splitting up, Ward getting dumped by the mother of his child, Davos surviving, never seeing Mary / Walker’s third alter, and whatever the hell that final scene in Japan was with Danny and the glowing guns, having somehow regained the power of the Iron Fist with no explanation … there was a lot of BAD. Would I like to see Colleen Wing and Danny Rand turn up in the MCU again with Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick reprising the roles? Yes. I would especially love to see them share the screen with Simu Liu’s Shang-Chi! But do I want to see another Season of Iron Fist? Absolutely not. And do I ever again want to see the Meachum Family in the MCU? No. Not really. Though Tom Pelphrey had his shining moments, the Joy and Ward characters just aren’t that interesting, and I’ve had my fill of them. Again, seeing Danny again in a franchise like Shang-Chi and exploring the mythology of the Iron Fist with an actual budget that can bring dragons to life in spectacular fashion as opposed to the mere glowing red eyes that this show gave us … I’d be all-in for that. Bring back Danny. Bring back Colleen. Bring Alice Eve back as Mary / Walker and have her share the screen with Oscar Isaac’s Moon Knight. I love those notions, but everything else … Leave it be.
For me, this is the worst Season of any of the now former Netflix shows and is one that I doubt I will ever watch again.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of Iron Fist: Season Two:
Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing
Finn Jones as Danny Rand Alice Eve as Mary / Walker
Ward and Danny bond over the “Dragon”
Fight choreography
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