Episode Title: Lead Horse Back to Stable
Originally Aired: March 17th 2017
While it is named after an actual Kung Fu move, I think the 11th episode of Marvel’s Iron Fist should have been named Lead Horses Back to Stables. This episode was about two people being pulled in different directions. The life they have known for years versus a new life with someone special. Davos is determined to lead Danny back to K’un-Lun and Bakuto is unwittingly leading Colleen back to Danny and only Danny.
This episode was light on the action with only one fight scene in its final minutes and had to be carried by its performances. I think it was mostly successful at meeting its challenge. I am still uncertain if Finn Jones is a very good actor and it is just writing and the current state of the character Danny Rand. I am excited to see how he and Danny evolve in The Defenders and Iron Fist season two, whenever that happens.
Davos is a great new character and I really hope he sticks around. He has abandonment issues from Danny running off “like a thief in the night.” Danny did run off without telling anyone where he was going or why he was going and after “stealing” Davos birthright the Iron Fist. If Danny is unwilling to return to K’un-Lun, he will have a major fight on his hands, because Davos has the same training and is suppressing a lot of rage.
Colleen has the biggest moments in this episode; she has the only action scene and is nearly killed, before wishing she were dead as her world crumbles around her. Jessica Henwick does a good but not great job in this episode and it may be a function of not working well with the actor who plays Bakuto. She doesn’t handle their confrontations as well she does with her students, Claire or Danny. It is hard to say where colleen with go after this, she could choose to run away or join up with Danny and Davos to take down the hand.
I wonder if Gao is right about Claire is she burning to be a hero like Danny, Luke and Matt. She is back this week and we first find her reading several books about chi and reiki. I think she may be looking for a way to make herself a special healer. She does a good job of healing Danny this week; she removed an arrowhead shaped piece of metal and stapled him closed. I think the injury and his internal turmoil over Colleen is what is keeping him from refocusing his chi and summoning the Iron Fist.
Everyone has a plan going forward about how to destroy or control the other and we have two episodes left to see who will come out on top. Will Bakuto win and unleash the Hand on New York or with he be taken down by Danny and what is Howard’s end goal. He will not be good with just being free, he will want to punish everyone responsible for his posh imprisonment, he needs that power, and will not settle to just being a person. Come back next week to find out who wins the first battle in the war.
Channel: Superhero 