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TV Review: Iron Fist S1E9 The Mistress of All Agonies

The strongest episode so far keeps it simple.

Madame Gao plays mind games. Ward’s old habits catch up with him, and Danny discovers that he still has much to learn about being the Iron Fist.

Colleen’s not doing well in what was foreshadowed in the last episode. Madame Gao though is tied up and screwing with everyone. If this series has done anything, it’s made me love Madame Gao more. The delivery of lines, the attitude, the bad assness, it’s all great. And, it shows that the characters is so underused in the previous seasons.

But, the episode really emphasizes the secrets everyone is keeping. The Meachums have their secrets about their father. Danny has his secrets about his training and what happened. Colleen has her secrets as to who she works for and her training. And enter Bakuto, Colleen’s sensei who helps save Colleen.

Why this is important is the fact he knows how to do this.

It’s clear Bakuto’s knowledge and mentorship of Colleen has much more to it than initially let on. It’s clear he’s with The Hand in some way, but the fact he knows enough about Danny’s power to help him is interesting and intriguing.

This episode is the strongest of the series overall, except the Meachum stuff which continues to be out of place. We get to see Danny use his power in an interesting way and there’s a little action. What it does well is focus on a theme that threads throughout everything going on and shows off the characters’ beliefs. How they all want to handle Madame Gao is also interesting and really shows off a strong belief system that has been subtlely present throughout the series.

It’s a simple episode in some ways and also the strongest by keeping things focused and exploring the Iron Fist and what it can do and mean.

Overall Rating: 6.50

By Brett

Brett is a political consultant who resides in Arlington, VA. He grew up in Cleveland, OH and Buffalo, NY and attended the University at Buffalo, majoring in Political Science.
Since then Brett has made his mark on politics working in various positions such as a Legislative Staffer for the Erie County Legislature, Special Assistant for Senator John Kerry, as the Database Administrator for Forward Together PAC, Database Director for Chris Dodd for President, and Internet/Database Director for Virginians for Brian Moran, and Email Deliverability Czar for Salsa Labs and NGP VAN.
In 2007 Brett formed 5B Consulting providing his expertise on database solutions, new media and email strategy.
He's a long time geek, reading comics since he was a child and learning to spell his name on an Atari 800. When he's not working, he's reading comics, playing video games and relaxing with a nice cup of tea.
You can follow him on Twitter @bhschenker