The Defenders S01E08 [FINALE] Recap

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.

I was underwhelmed by the reveal of what was behind the door going into this episode and I remained underwhelmed well into it. It really was just dragon bones and said bones were the substance. Beyond just being underwhelmed, I was also very confused.

Was it just me hyping it up to be far more than it was suggested to be or had Alexandra actually made it out to be more than it was? Because I can’t help but think of the conversation she had with Elektra when the latter had just been resurrected and in which she said something about them never having to experience the darkness that comes with death again since they’d been brought together.

That implied that they would never die again and, by extension, have to die to be brought back. At least that’s how I interpreted it. That implied that whatever she was planning that Elektra was a necessary component of, would make them unable to die and really, truly immortal; that the Hand would achieve actual immortality. That just wasn’t the case.

Firstly, Elektra was a glorified retriever. Her key role in all of this was securing Iron Fist. Given that Alexandra had said in a previous episode – the fourth to be exact, right before the boardroom right – that she had killed previous Iron Fists, she clearly didn’t need a super being like Black Sky to capture him. In fact, given that the Hand had done this exact thing several times in the past without a Black Sky further proves how unnecessary she was. She served no vital purpose.

I suppose as long as there is an Iron Fist to kill Shou Lao, there would always bee “substance” for the Hand to mine. That is an interesting idea; that their sworn enemy, whose entire purpose is to defeat them, creates the very thing that fuels them and makes them the Hand.

Coming onto the very end of the series, they introduced the Hand’s other ultimate goal of returning to K’un L’un.  So I thought that what ever was behind the door would help them achieve that or even be K’un L’un itself. But nope! It in no way got them closer to achieving that particular goal. I don’t know why it was mentioned if it wasn’t going to go anywhere.

The big, all out brawl in this episode was a good example of not having disorienting tracking shots in an action set piece. Why they were able to do it in this episode and not episode four is beyond me. I kind of like the music they chose for this scene. It was jarring at first because you don’t really hear hip hop as background music for fight scenes, but it grew on me. The fight choreography here was, again, really good and the fight was fun to watch.

I didn’t like it when Luke said in the beginning of the episode that they had to make sure that not a single innocent person would get hurt when they blew up Midland. That was the equivalent of saying “What’s the worst that could happen?” or “It can’t get any worse than this.” It made me think that someone would get hurt and someone did. Two, in fact.

Misty lost her arm! I couldn’t believe that when it happened. I didn’t think any of heroes would received any serious injuries. So I wasn’t prepared for Matt not making out before the bomb went off either. I expected him to come running out right before it went off. Instead, he decided to stay with Elektra and die.

I wasn’t convinced that he could get through to her like he said he was going to try to do because there was nothing to “get through.” She was no longer the Black Sky. She was Elektra. She’d regained her memories and remembered who she was. She wasn’t doing anything she did under the influence of the Hand. It was all her. She made that choice.

I didn’t think that he was actually dead. For a while there I thought that it was possible that he was, but I wasn’t going to believe it until the final credits rolled and it went to black and we didn’t see Matt at all through the epilogue. And we did see him! His was the very last.  I have no idea where he is or who the nuns are, but for now I’m just going to tell myself that he inhaled some of the crushed dragon bone and that is how he survived.

Overall I had a really good time with the series. I had a few slow episodes, particularly the first and fourth, but they were necessary for plot development. I enjoyed the action sequences and seeing these four characters come together for the first time. I only had one major gripe about the series and I discussed it in the first half of this recap. It’s by no means perfect, but I like it.

Random thoughts:

1. Luke is the only one against blowing up Midland.
2. Don’t you dare threaten Misty’s job!
3. Karen and Trish finally talked!
4. Why doesn’t Jess do some of the wall breaking too? She’s super strong.
5. Can’t they just accept Matt’s sentiments?
6. Yeah Misty!
7. Is Bakuto immune to bullets now?

All eight episodes of Marvel’s The Defenders are currently available for streaming on Netflix.