Iron Fist 1.09: “The Mistress of All Agonies”
Have you watched the beginning of episode 9 yet? I’ll wait…
What the heck?! Harold Meachum is alive! The quality of his mental state is questionable, but he is somehow alive and kicking thanks to the old bargain he made with The Hand. If we thought Ward was on edge last episode, wait until he finds Harold alive…again!
Back to Danny and team, they still don’t know what to do with Gao until Claire suggests using truth serum. To be honest, I didn’t know this was a real thing but Claire is supposed to have medical training so I guess so?
When Danny leaves to steal the serum, Gao dishes out some unwanted truths – no serum required. Gao points out how Claire is the common thread between all the Defenders – and their failings. This whole idea, that Claire is hurting her hero friends instead of helping them, goes against all of Claire’s ideas about herself and leads to great tension in the scene. While Gao is playing head games with Claire, Colleen becomes physically sick from the poison inflicted in China.
Who’s your daddy?
Weirdly, Ward does not seem very phased that his dad is back from the dead again. He must have been on A LOT of drugs to not run screaming in the other direction.
Mostly Ward just doesn’t want anything to do with Harold although Harold tries to make amends. In fact, Ward is still trying to find ways to kill his dad. This turns out to be a wise investment since he finds out from a source that each time Harold comes back to life he becomes more unstable and violent, attacking those close to him. (RIP Kyle). Ward ends up in jail after a set up by his dad using planted drugs, who it turns out wasn’t really looking for a reunion.
Joy’s reunion with Harold is much happier (and she is more adequately surprised to see her dad back from the dead).
Meanwhile at the dojo, Danny demands the truth about his parents, but only gets half of the story from Gao who isn’t affected by the truth serum. She tells him it was Harold Meachum who made the original deal that led to his parents’ deaths. The Hand finally shows up to rescue Gao and timing couldn’t be worse since Colleen’s condition is deteriorating. Gao offers Danny a chance to save Colleen, but can she be trusted?
We don’t get to find out since Colleen’s sensei Bakuto arrives and tells Danny he can save Colleen by channeling all of his chi to cancel out the poison. This drains all of Danny’s power though and Colleen and Bakuto appear to kidnap him against Claire’s protest.
Is Colleen double-crossing Danny? Click the next page for our review of Iron Fist 1.10: “Black Tiger Steals Heart” to find out.