The Defenders 1.08

The Defenders

Luke Cage doesn't want to help Daredevil and Jessica Jones but they (with some help from Colleen Wing and Claire Temple) talk him into helping them rescue Iron Fist. The three main characters find the elevator and head down into the pit. Colleen and Claire plant the explosives which are supposed to take down the building. Daredevil, Luke, and Jessica meet the the bad guys (Elektra, Madame Gao, Murakami, and a slew of Hand thugs) at the bottom of the pit. A big fight ensues. Jessica, Danny, and Luke make it back on to the elevator and start to exit the pit. Things get dicey when the elevator cable gets cut but they still make it out alive. Matt stays behind to try and talk Elektra into switching sides.

Claire and Colleen encounter Bakuto, Colleen's old sensei, while they are setting explosives. Colleen and Bakuto fight. Misty shows up and gets her right arm chopped off. Colleen kills Bakuto by chopping his head off, just like Stick killed Sowande in 1.05. The timer on the explosives is set. Claire, Colleen, and Misty head for the exit. They run into Luke, Danny, and Jessica as they are exiting the building. The explosives go off. The building collapses into the pit.

There are a number of special effects which didn't do it for me in this episode. The collapse of the Midland building was probably the worst. It isn't the worst ever but considering how close the heroes were to the building when it imploded, they and everyone around them should have been enveloped in a cloud of dust.

On the whole I found the dialogue to be very rough and lacking in subtlety of any kind. It seemed like every single member of the supporting casts of the four shows leading up to this one had to make an appearance. It all just felt very forced.

The end of the show, the last 15 minutes, isn't much better than what came before. It is the next day or maybe a few days have passed and there are few scenes which show how the survivors are picking up their lives and moving on. Matt is assumed to be dead but the very last scene shows him in a bed, bandaged up. It reminds me of a similar scene from Born Again.

On the whole this was a disappointing series, in the same way that Iron Fist was disappointing. If this is the direction in which Marvel Netflix shows are headed then I may not be watching too much more of them.

The Defenders 1.07

Fish in the Jailhouse

Matt, Jessica, and Luke are taken to a police station. The police question them but don't get much out of them. Luke is unconscious but eventually comes out of it.

Elektra has a chat with the three remaining fingers of the Hand. They don't trust her. They question her motivations but ultimately they follow her lead.

Matt, Jessica, and Luke break out of the police station and make their way to the Midland Buiilding. They are confronted by Madame Gao, Murakami, and Bakuto. They fight but in the end bad guys create a distration and then vanish.

Elektra fights Iron Fist in the pit below the Midland Building. She opens by trying to talk him into opening the gate but he doesn't want to be a party to anything that the Hand is interested in doing. She claims that she isn't with the Hand but he isn't listening. They fight. She tricks him into punching the wall which opens the gate which is where the episode ends.

Misty Knight is severly underused or misused in this series. She seems to spend all of her time as the representative of the NYPD. All of her lines seem to be variations on: "What is going on? You have to tell me what you know." I thought she was an integral part of season 1 of Luke Cage but so far I feel as though she could be replaced with any generic police detective.

On the whole not a great episode. There were just a few too many plot holes and a little too much fast forwarding to satisfy me. Hopefully the last episode of this season will be better than this one.

The Defenders 1.06

Ashes, Ashes

Dissension in the ranks strike both the heroes and the villains. Danny doesn't like Stick's theory that the Iron Fist is the key to opening something, even though the other three seem ready to accept it. He fights with Daredevil and gets knocked out by Jessica. They are afraid he will get himself caught if tries to go it alone.

Alexandra is experiencing something similar as her compatriots beign to turn on her. They question her choice to bring the Black Sky into the picture. They see the Black Sky as volatile and unreliable. Alexandra does her best to assure them that is not the case and that she has her under control.

Elektra leaves Matt's apartment before he gets back. She finds a prayer card from the service for her funeral and takes it. Matt notices that it is gone but doesn't tell Jessica who is with him when he finds out. He is already in deep water with the others for (a) not telling them about his past with Elektra sooner, and (b) not telling them about the pit beneath Midland HQ. This probably won't help to bring the goup closer together even if they don't find out about it.

Matt and Jessica got to visit Michelle Raymond but end up taking to Chloe, her daughter. While they are there they find John Raymond's plans for Midlands HQ hidden in the piano. There is more to the plans than just the building, there are also maps of catacombs beneath the building.

Iron Fist tries talking Luke and Stick into untieing him but they won't. Stick pulls a fast one and knocks Luke out with some incense. Stick is ready to kill Iron Fist to prevent the Hand from getting their -- uh -- hands on him. Before he can do it Elektra shows up. She gets the upper -- uh -- hand and kills Stick just after Matt and Jessica return. Luke wakes up. All three heroes try to take Elektra down but she takes them down fairly easily.

Elektra returns to Alexandra with Iron Fist. Everything looks like it is going Alexandra's way until Elektra turns on her and kills her with a Sai. Elektra then tells the three remaining leaders that they work for her now.

There's lots to like here. I loved the fight between Daredevil and Iron Fist. Maybe not the best fight ever but it worked for me. I still don't get Iron Fist. He is such a contradiction. He constantly talks about balance and control but he seems to lose his cool fairly easily. It is hard for me to believe that someone as hot headed as he is was ever able to master the Iron Fist.

On the whole a very enjoyable episode. Better than the last one and on a par with the one before that.

The Defenders 1.05

Take Shelter

The Hand continues their assault on the Royal Dragon. The leaders of the Hand are there but they aren't all equally active in the attack. Sowande fights with Luke Cage and Matt fights with the Black Sky (Elektra), while the other three deal with the rest of the team of baddies that the Hand has brought in to capture the Immortal Iron Fist.

Sowande is a new character although the way they talk about him makes it sound as if he also showed up in the Iron Fist series. Using martial arts he does quite a number on Luke Cage.

Matt tries talking some sense into Elektra. She still doesn't seem to recognize him but it does seem like she at least gathers they have a shared past.

The heroes escape into the sewer and then regroup at Colleen's dojo. Luke, who was separated from the others before they departed the Royal Dragon, shows up with a prisoner: Sowande. They don't get much in the way of information out of him other than the warning that all their loved ones are now at risk. The heroes make an effort to make sure their non-powered friends are okay.

Jessica is attacked by Murakami while she is attempting to get Trish to safety. Murakami gets the upper hand but Daredevil shows up and intervenes. Murakami is knocked off a balcony and disappears.

Bakuto, Colleen's former sensei returns. She believed he was dead. They fight. He injures her pretty badly. The other heroes show up and Bakuto vanishes. Later in the episode it becomes clear that Bakuto is one of the leaders, one of the five fingers of the Hand. The others are Alexandra Reid, Madame Gao, Sowande, and Murakami.

The heroes interrogate Sowande but he seems fairly confident that the Hand will win in the end. Daredevil gets into an argument with Danny, Luke, and Jessica when he tells them about Elektra, how she died, and his past relationship with her. Sowande gets free of his bonds while they are arguing. He grabs Danny and holds a shiv to his neck. He doesn't get very far. Stick intervenes and cuts off Sowande's head. He looks dead but could he be brought back? Probably.

Elektra leaves Alexandra's apartment and finds her way to Matt's apartment. She lays down on his bed and the episode ends there. It seems like Elektra is starting to remember things or at least trying to. My guess is that by the end of the season she will recall who she is but for some tragic reason she and Matt won't be back together again.

I don't understand why they didn't take Colleen to a hospital emergency room after Bakuto sliced her stomach. They took her to a police stations, the one where Misty works. A number of other familiar faces winds up there too: Trish, Malcolm, Karen Page, Foggy Nelson, and Claire Temple. Colleen and Misty meet for the first time. It feels awkward and forced. In the comic books they teamed up and were collectively known as the Daughters of the Dragon. They were mostly supporting characters in Power Man and Iron Fist and rarely featured in stories of their own.

Apparently I was wrong about the Punisher showing up. The van full of weapons belonged to the Hand. It is probably just as well. This story is crowded enough as is.

On the whole a decent episode but I think I preferred the previous one a little more.

The Defenders 1.04

Royal Dragon

Jessica, Luke, Danny, and Matt run from the Midland Building and take refuge in Royal Dragon, a Chinese restaurant on W. 47th Street. The owner doesn't want them there but Danny spends enough money to buy his cooperation. Matt is still wearing Jessica's scarf across the upper portion of his face. He and Danny share with the other two what they know about the Hand. Jessica knows who Matt is but the other two do not. He is very reluctant to remove the scarf but eventually he does.

Elektra still doesn't remember her past life. Alexandra reminds Elektra of what she is now, the Black Sky. Is that enough for Elektra? I don't know. She doesn't seem to be satisfied but she also isn't rebelling against what she has become.

Stick shows up at the Royal Dragon. He explains that he is all that is left of the Chaste, an army that was formed to serve the Immortal Iron Fist. He doesn't know why Danny was never told about their existence. Stick also explains that the hand are there to take over the city and that the four of them are all that stand in the Hand's way.

Jessica has heard enough. It is all a little too much for her to believe so she leaves. Matt isn't happy to see Stick but he stays put. Jessica spends some time looking at images of documents she acquired a couple episodes back. She notices a pattern in the documents which originated from periods over a great span of time. They all seem to have been signed by the same person. She then finds out that someone has been keeping tabs on Michelle Raymond.

Matt, Danny, Luke, and Stick stay at the Royal Dragon for the rest of the night. Stick tells the other three about the Hand. He shares a private moment with Matt and explains to him that what looks like Elektra isn't Elektra. She has no heart beat. It isn't the woman he once knew.

As day breaks the four men notice that they have company. Someone in a van with weapons is nearby. Could this be the Punisher? I'm not sure. Alexandra shows up and tries talking Danny into coming with her. She tries telling him that he can save lives by coming with her but Luke and Stick push back and prevent Iron Fist from doing something stupid. Alexandra gets tired of chatting and calls in her ace in the hole, the Black Sky. Before she can do anything, an SUV comes crashing through the front of the restaurant and blindsides the Black Sky. Jessica walks into what's left of the the Royal Dragon and joins the others.

This was my favorite episode so far. Not perfect but I am enjoying it more than I was a couple episodes back. I like the banter. It wasn't too humorous but there were some humorous moments. I hope that at least the beginning of the next episode lives up to the promise that end of this one makes.

The Defenders 1.03

Worst Behavior

Three months ago Elektra was revived thanks to Alexandra Reid and the Black Sky. She didn't remember who she was or how she got there. Alexandra has her trained to bring her fighting skills back to where they were. In the present Alexandra and Elektra interrogate Stick who was shown to be their prisoner in the last episode. Their methods aren't very effective and he escapes from the handcuffs they have him in by cutting off one of his hands. This part was a bit messy and I'm not talking about the blood but about how Stick managed to get one of the short swords (wazikashi) from with Elektra or Alexandra. It all happened very fast and it was kind of dark but it still seems kind of suspect the way it happened.

Claire Temple formally introduces Luke Cage to Danny Rand and Colleen Wing. The two men try to talk things out but they fail to see things eye to eye. They part ways having learned more about one another but without coming to any sort of understanding. This part of the episode felt very forced. Luke's scenes, later in the episode, without Danny were much better that the ones with him. Danny's scenes without Luke weren't better than their scenes together so I blame Finn Jones for the lack of anything approaching good in their scenes together.

After the inconclusive meeting, Danny heads to Rand Corporation looking for clues. Luke visits Cole in jail. Cole won't tell him anything. He knows that he needs to keep his mouth shut. He asks Luke to visit his mother and buy her some lottery tickets. Danny gets some information from Rand that leads him to a company called Midland, so he heads to Midland's corporate headquarters. Luke visits Cole's mother. While he is there Cole's mother gets word that Cole is dead. Luke consoles her and finds a clue, a wad of cash and a piece of paper with the name Midland.

Jessica Jones doesn't know who Matt Murdock is and doesn't want his help. Later in the episode she tails him into an alleyway. She takes a couple pictures of him as he leaps up a fire escape and disappears over a wall. Jessica goes to see Michelle Raymond and then she heads to the architecture firm where John Raymond worked. A representative of the architecture firm who thinks she is a potential client gives her the name of a few places they have worked on recently, one of which is a building for a company called Midland, so she heads there.

The episode ends with a big fight in the board room of the Midland Building. All four heroes converge and fight several squads of men and women in business attire who are presumably ninjas, members of the Hand. Every time they seem to take down one group of them more show up. Alexandra Reid is present but she hangs back and watches until she feels the time is ripe and then she sends Elektra into the fight.

Matt fights with his former lover. He is not in his Daredevil attire. He is just wearing Jessica's black scarf around the top half of his head. Elektra is much stronger than she once was. She almost kills Matt but Danny steps in and uses the Iron Fist to shatter her sword and send her flying backwards. The episode ends with the four heroes fleeing the Midland Building.

On the whole not a great episode. There was a little too much Danny and not enough Matt or Jessica. It was good to finally see all the heroes come together and work as a team but it still lacked in character moments. The best scenes were the fight scenes. The scenes that connected the fights were so-so at best. I'm going to stick with it for now but my hopes are not high that I will see a vast improvement in the quality of the show.

The Defenders 1.02

Mean Right Hook

Matt Murdock reluctantly returns to fighting crime, out of costume, after the earthquake. He doesn't seem to want to return to being Daredevil but he opens up the chest where he keeps it. He looks like he might be about to do something with the costume when Foggy calls him. They meet at Josie's Bar. It doesn't go well. Matt ends up walking out. One thing that becomes clear, which I had forgotten is that Foggy knows he is Daredevil.

Misty Knight visits a crime scene and finds Jessica Jones there. Jessica is the one who called in the police and then walks off with some evidence just after Misty arrives.

Trish Walker gets a caller into her radio program (Trish Talks) who claims to be an expert at earthquakes. The so called expert gets cut off just after she points to some startling evidence about the origin of the earthquake.

Alexandra Reid meets with Madame Gao who has more information for her. Her people have found a wall that they can't penetrate. It has markings that identify it as having some connection to K'un L'un. Alexandra thinks that it isn't a wall but a gate and that there must be a key. What's that key? My guess is that Danny is that key.

Luke helps some people in his neighborhood after the earthquake. He goes looking for Cole (the brother of Candace) and evidence that he's working for criminals. He finds Turk who points him in the direction of some guy who dresses real sharp and wears a white hat. He finds the guy in the white hat and sees Cole with him. He calls Misty and urges her to get a warrant but before he can give her the details Cole gets in a van with a bunch of other young men. Luke hangs up and follows the van.

Danny and Colleen wonder if they have any allies in their fight with the Hand. They track down an extremely rare sword and find several bodies that look as thought they are fresh. They hear some noise and hide. Several people in HazMat suits walk in and start spraying down the bodies. Colleen and Danny attack. One of the people spraying down the bodies turns out to be Cole. When Danny chases him into an alley he runs into Luke Cage.

Luke and Danny fight. Danny lands lots of blows but they don't have any effect until he uses the Iron Fist. The police show up. Danny and Colleen take off running in one direction. Luke takes off in another direction. Cole gets arrested.

Jessica runs into Jeri Hogarth while doing some research. Hogarth tells her to stop looking into the company she is investigating. She warns her that John Raymond is now being watched by the Feds. Jessica heads home after they part ways. Jeri meets with Foggy Nelson, who now works for her. She tells him to keep an eye on Jessica and make sure that nothing she does gets traced back to their law firm.

Jessica gets home and finds her neighbor Malcolm and John Raymond in her apartment. Raymond has a gun to Malcolm's head. He wants to know why Jesscia didn't heed his warning and stay away from the case. He insists that she is working for some unnamed organization. He must be referring to the Hand. Jessica is confused and doesn't understand. Elektra shows up, before the conversation can get very far, and Raymond kills himself.

Elektra takes off. Jessica tries chasing her but Elektra gets away. Misty shows up and arrests Jessica. She is taken in for questioning. Matt Murdock shows up and claims to be Jessica's lawyer.

This was a big improvement over the last episode. It still doesn't all make sense. There are going to be holes in the plot, big holes, but I am enjoying this show a little more now. It is good to see some of the major players starting to meet.

The Defenders 1.01

The H Word

Matt Murdock is working solo now. He and Foggy parted ways in season 2 of Daredevil. Matt is doing pro bono work now. It makes him feel good. He has lunch with Karen. She is still working for the Bulletin. Officially she is there to interview him. She knows that he is Daredevil. They chat at a diner over lunch.

Luke Cage gets out of Seagate Prison. It is unclear how long he was there or why he was released. He meets briefly with Foggy Nelson before he is released. He goes back to New York City and sees Claire. They finally get to have that cup of coffee. Misty stops by and tells Luke about death of Candace' brother. Misty suspects it was murder. She encourages Luke to go see Candace' remaining brother. Luke visits with him but he doesn't want to talk to Luke and pushes him away. Clearly he has something to hide.

Jessica gets a visit from a woman who is looking for her husband, John Raymond. He's missing. Jessica shoos Mrs. Raymond away but then gets a call from someone telling her not to take the case. Now she is interested and starts to investigate. She begins by tracing the call.

Danny Rand and Colleen Wing return to New York City after getting into a fight somewhere else, presumably Asia. I would probably have a better idea of where it was if I had watched more than just the first 5 episodes of season 1 of Iron Fist. The person Danny fought was a woman but her identity wasn't clear. I'm pretty sure it must have been Elektra.

Alexandra Reid (Sigourney Weaver) finds out that she doesn't have long to live. She has more tests done but her options are limited. She meets with Madame Gao in Central Park and orders her to move up the time table. It isn't clear at first what she is talking about but towards the end of the episode an earthquake or earthquake-like event hits New York City. From the way it is depicted it seems pretty clear that this must be the event that Ms. Reid had moved up. All the heroes are shown reacting to the earthquake.

So far the show is just okay. It feels a bit rushed. It also feels overcrowded compared to the other Marvel Netflix series. So far none of the heroes have crossed paths with one another. The Iron Fist parts, especially the fight that opens the episode. failed to impress or please me. It was too dark and muddled to tell exactly what was doing on. The parts that didn't involve Iron Fist were good but certainly not flawless. I'm going to continue watching but I'm not expecting greatness after this opening.