Iron Fist season 2 picks up after the last time we saw Danny Rand on screen, in Luke Cage season 2 episode 10. With K’un-Lun destroyed and the Hand defeated, Danny appeared to be taking the fallen Matt Murdock’s place as protector of New York City and finding balance in his life. Now it’s time to recap Iron Fist season 2 episode 1!
Defender of K’un-Lun, Protector of New York City
We meet up with Danny as he stops an armored truck heist by the Golden Tigers gang. Danny is more violent than in the past, leaving a lot of collateral damage in his wake. In spite of Colleen’s protests, Danny has become increasingly violent in his role as masked vigilante. Danny learns that with the Hand’s defeat, there is a power vacuum that the various members of the Triad are rushing to fill. The old treaties and boundaries are no longer being respected as each gang looks to increase its wealth, power, and influence throughout Chinatown. Danny knows that a war is coming, and he’s going to be ready for it.
Just When I Thought I Was Out…
Colleen was still dealing with her guilt at having killed her former master in the Hand, Bakuto, in order to save Claire Temple and Misty Knight in The Defenders. She has run away from the violence and vigilantism, finding meaningful work volunteering at the local center where she helps her neighbors apply for citizenship and disburses donations to those in need. While going through a pile of recent donations, Colleen comes across a wooden box with a crest inlaid in the lid. The crest was the same on the guard of her katana. It was the crest of Colleen’s family. Inside the box are a comb and brush, which stirs Colleen’s memories of her mother.
In her attempt to learn more about who donated the box and how it came to be at the center where she works, Colleen finds herself swept up alongside Danny in the escalating conflict between the Golden Tigers and the Hatchet Gang, two of the warring triad factions.
“He Walked Into My Life and He Turned it to Ashes.”
While Colleen was reminded of her past, Joy Meachum was attempting to forget hers. After disappearing at the end of Iron Fist season 1, Joy has returned to New York City and has called a meeting with Danny and her brother Ward at her new apartment to present her proposal that would divest Joy from her stake in Rand Enterprises. What she doesn’t tell the guys is that she has another partnership going on, one that she plans to use to burn away the painful relationships of her past.
“When Will This ‘Value of a Dollar’ Thing Be Over?”
Ward was furious. He sees Joy’s proposal as an attack against him, a power play for his job at Rand Enterprises. To Ward’s chagrin, Danny agrees with Joy that she should be allowed to blaze her own trail and signs the proposal. Ward turns to an NA meeting to help him deal with his anger and frustration, but it’s not in the program that he’s searching for solace, rather in the supply closet affair with his sponsor.
“It’s This City. Every Breath I Take of its Fetid Air is Like Poison in My Lungs.”
Joy’s partner is Davos, Danny’s former friend and training partner from his time in K’un-Lun. Davos is a zealot on a righteous crusade to take back the birthright that he feels Danny stole from him, the power of the Iron Fist. Davos asks Danny the whether Danny would take it all back and give up the power of the Iron Fist if there was a way to do so. Danny doesn’t deal in “what ifs”. He earned the power himself. Danny’s response steels Davos’ resolve to bring Danny’s world crashing down around him.
Don’t Leave The House
We were also introduced to Mary, a young illustrator from Wisconsin who has moved to New York looking for work. She seems nice and normal, when Danny meets her on the street, but her apartment is littered with post it notes with instructions for Mary, instructing her on what to do and what not to do. The notes cause Mary to suffer what appears to be a panic attack, which ends with Mary on the bathroom floor, torn between sobbing and laughing.
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