Well, we’re almost at the end of Iron Fist, and I have to say, it doesn’t look like we’re going to get a finish that delivers much of a wallop. Oh sure, there’s a sense that “Bar The Big Boss” is certainly trying to drag the show up to a better base line thanks to some standout moments, but at this point I’m essentially done with virtually all the characters completely. While things first started off as a more awkward version of DC’s Arrow (millionaire back from the dead returns to civilisation with enhanced abilities), at least the CW-based adventures of Oliver Queen essentially turned him into green Batman – all Danny Rand fans have seen him do so far is fuck everything up and be a pretty terrible martial artist.
Anyway, now that I’ve gotten that off my chest, there’s a sense that with an overabundance of villains to deal with, Episode 12 has decided to triage them and sort them out accordingly. But while antagonists are neatly doled out for both the Defenders and a possible season two, what’s going to be left for the remnants of season one?
It’s seemingly time for a multi-faced reckoning. With Bakuto’s faction of the Hand now reigning top dog, the cult leader is now tightening his grip on a fairly expansive to-do list. Realising that Harold and Joy Meachum are conspiring against his plans to drain the funds of Rand Industries dry, Bakuto frees Ward from the psychiatric hospital where his father dumped him in order to have him stage another coup. After storming Harold’s penthouse, Bakuto looks on while Ward tries to get his sister to see that their father has been rendered insane due to his multiple resurrections. However, disposing of Harold is only part of the Hand’s plan, as he also wants the Meachums to lure Danny Rand back to the penthouse in order to capture him.
Meanwhile, Danny himself is torn between believing former Hand turncoat and maybe-girlfriend Colleen, and his old friend from K’un-Lun, Davos. A zealot of their old order, Davos is all about killing the Hand outright and returning to guard their inter-dimensional monastery, while Colleen pleads for a more balanced use of Danny’s fluctuating powers. However, after being called in to help the Meachums, Rand surrenders himself over to Bakuto in order to keep the dysfunctional family (who frequently double-cross him) safe.
It all ends in something of a battle royal that first sees Colleen finally face off against her former sensei in a battle to the death, and then leads to a frustrated Davos finally turning on Danny when they opt not to kill the defeated Bakuto. But with Davos turning his back on the Iron Fist after murdering the Hand leader, it seems that both will eventually become larger threats – especially after we find that the body of the leader of a corpse-reviving murder-cult unsurprisingly missing.
So, in its dying episodes, it seems that Iron Fist season one is taking some ill advised tips from Iron Man 2 by continuing to funnel a lot of its plot into setting up shows that haven’t even begun yet. Of course, this isn’t quite as glaring an issue as Iron Man 2 farming out sizable chunks of its runtime to hype up The Avengers (it’s really the sole reason Scarlett Johansson’s Black Widow appears), because television has always wracked up sizable episode space setting up future endeavors – but you can still feel the narrative wheels turning as the show irons out (no pun intended) future threats before the finale. To be honest, Episode 12 is messy as hell and has hastily made plans failing all over the place while our leads chase their tails. No doubt the writers were intending for this to all be an unpredictable, fast paced, white knuckle ride – but instead, it’s just tangled chaos interspersed with a few good moments.
Do you know what? I’m actually getting a little tired of continuously crapping on this show with each and every review, so I’m going to start out positive for a change – although it probably won’t last too long. While the fights with both Bakuto and Davos ultimately remain inconclusive and suffer from some of the basic choreography and editing that’s made some of the show’s fight scenes such a disappointment, they actually carry a fair amount of dramatic heft for a change due to some cool cinematography and the copious use of a rain machine. It may be a basic enough trick, but having the desperate combatants pelted with torrential hail as they face their foes manage to make up for a fair amount of faults. Also, having Colleen be the one to face her former teacher proves to be a savvy choice despite the fact that we’ve barely had enough time to establish him as a credible threat, let alone thrust him into a blood duel with a former student.
It’s nice that the show is making a concerted effort to give Colleen meaty plots rather than just having her be the Iron Fist’s girlfriend, and while the romance part of their arc has gone off the boil as of late, the scene where they both meditate in tandem while “Come Back” by Anderson .Peak plays is one of those rare moments when the show finally gets that modern Kung-Fu aspect virtually perfect.
Similarly, while the fight between Danny and Davos suffers from a rushed build up and a lack of the deep melodrama that a good Kung-Fu fight requires, but it’s a decent first act of a growing rivalry that won’t actually hit paydirt unless Iron Fist gets a second season.
Regrettably, the rest of the episode is something of a rushed muddle, that sees everyone running to Harold Meachum’s penthouse like some sort of deranged farce. The whole Harold/Joy/Ward stuff has gradually gotten pretty stale, as the bickering family and their metric ton of secrets have been just as guilty of slowing the show down, as much as Danny’s incredibly erratic crime fighting. Ward hasn’t even been around for two episodes to suitably build up his return, and Harold’s plunge into Pet Sematary-style madness has been frustratingly slow to come to fruition. Worse yet, Joy’s uncertainty about which relative to side with is more irritating than gripping, and once again the whole thing stinks of being drawn out way too much thanks to that ever-present problem of the Netflix/Disney shows being frequently unable to fill thirteen episodes with enough plot to avoid having to stretch various threads like melted cheese. While Iron Fist has certainly had worse episodes, the fact that we’re one episode away from the end invokes a sense of relief more than excitement.
Iron Fist’s penultimate offering may not suddenly snap the show back into shape before it’s finale, but at least the episode moves at a fair old clip while getting it’s affairs in order. But while prospective villains have been neatly arranged for any future appearances, for the interminable Iron Fist, it hasn’t exactly set up a lot of excitement for its own finale.
Chi whizz.
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