Iron Fist 1.08: “The Blessing of Many Fractures”
Episode 8, “The Blessing of Many Fractures,” doesn’t waste a minute reminding you that Iron Fist is just the latest installment of Marvel Netflix series leading up to The Defenders. Literally within the first minute we see Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson) reading a letter from the currently incarcerated Luke Cage.
This happy sequence reminding us of Claire’s love (sorry Jessica!) doesn’t last long though, as Claire is attacked by an intruder that turns out to be Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) coming to protect her from The Hand.
Meanwhile Danny (Finn Jones) finds Harold’s body, and Ward (Tom Pelphrey) does an excellent job of convincing Danny that it actually is Danny’s fault for angering The Hand. Too bad Danny didn’t notice the only guilty hand around was Ward’s.
Making the Same Mistakes
Claire tries to talk Danny out of making Matt Murdock’s same mistake of taking on The Hand, but as you’ve probably learned by this point he’s not great at taking advice. We’re also reminded Claire has her own motivation for revenge against The Hand, who killed her friend in season 2 of Daredevil.
While it’s great to see Claire ready to kick some ass, I wish it wasn’t always because she’s been dragged into someone else’s drama.
Shakespeare or Superheros?
As much as the series tries to make Ward and Joy sympathetic because of their daddy issues, the boardroom drama and redemption plot line seems out of place in the show when they try to fight to regain their company.
And Ward’s hallucinations of blood are a little too Macbeth in this Shakespearean wannabe. After double-crossing each other to both get what they want out of the company’s settlement, they reunite and scheme together. It turns out that with the help of a certain private investigator with a drinking problem Joy has also discovered her devious side, digging up dirt on the Rand board as a way to get their jobs back. Sadly, Ward’s hallucinations and paranoia prevent him from revealing the truth about their father and causes him to push Joy farther away.
Danny, Claire and Colleen are on their way to China to get their own answers. When the plane goes through turbulence, we see some of Jones’ best acting in the series, living out the PTSD of his crash. Claire is pretty experienced at calming down heroes in duress, so it might be time to become a licensed therapist instead of a nurse.
Finally in Anzhou, Danny and Colleen manage to break into Gao’s factory but she arrives just in time for them to have to escape. Fortunately Claire has a getaway car (where did they get that in a factory village in China?), but Danny and Colleen stay and fight.
Per usual, Colleen is the one who gets all of the beautifully choregraphed fight scenes (why isn’t she the Iron Fist??), though Claire does get to drive through a fence…so there’s that. Then Danny fights a drunk British ninja who turns out to be incredibly skilled at both martial arts and shaking Danny’s confidence, sending him into a rage where he almost murders his opponent.
Danny doesn’t get the confession he’s looking for yet, but deduces that Gao used the same poison her warriors are currently carrying to kill the pilots on his parent’s plane. The episode ends with the question, what will he do with this new revelation?
Read on for our review of Iron Fist 1.09: “The Mistress of All Agonies” on the next page to find out.