As Danny steps up his training, Davos ramps up recruitment. Ward falls prey to old demons, and Misty butts heads with a captain.

Danny’s hurting. His leg is destroyed and body is battered and Davos is running loose cleaning up the city from Triad criminals. The premise of the episode feels rather familiar as we’ve seen it play out a bit in Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, complete with leg/knee brace.

But, where that movie trilogy is standard with the hero rehabing and defeating the villain, Iron Fist is going a bit deeper with a dual story of Ward and Danny. In previous episodes, Ward has related to Danny and the power of the Iron Fist. And for the viewer, that much like Ward, Danny has an addiction in a way to the power. He needs it to function. He needs it fight and attempt to do good. The concept shows little difference to an alcoholic who has to have a beer to function during the day. Colleen sees it too in the episode when Danny approaches her to train him so he can take on Davos. She realizes it’s as much about getting the power of the Iron Fist back as it is in defeating Davos and bringing him to justice.

The episode has some solid moments throughout, especially a conflicted police department that likes what Davos is doing. But, what stands out is that the episode relies on tropes but doesn’t completely fall into them.

We get the beginning of a training montage. We get Danny being hurt and broken and trying to train on his own. But, it’s all presented with reflections of themselves in other ways, like Mary/Walker’s scenes that also tie into the theme of addiction. That theme is what makes the episode go from eye-rolling prediction to something a bit more.

But, what I like the most at the end is that it feels like we’re getting a broken Danny who’s being rebuilt in a way for the viewers. It points to a season finale where we may finally get the shedding of bro-Fist and deliver us the Iron Fist we all want.

Overall Rating: 7.90