SOME SPOILERS AHEAD.
If the Avengers assemble, what do the Defenders do?
This show is wasting absolutely no time in giving us answers. Any questions or suspicions that we have in one episode are answered in the one that follows. With only eight episodes in the season, versus the Netflix Marvel series’ usual thirteen, that’s understandable. But this series doesn’t at all feel rushed.
Alexandra got the Harold Meachum Death Special – several times – confirmed. With none of the side effects. To be honest, I didn’t think that was why she was so long lived, although that was kind of obvious. It is what the Hand specialises in after all. From her conversation with Elektra, she has no intention of dying. Whatever it is that she is doing now looks like it’s supposed to make her actually and not functionally immortal (in that she won’t need to die and be resurrected, she simply won’t be able to die) and Black Sky is the key to doing that or simply has a key role to play. Just when this show gives us answers, it raises new ones.
Another question that was raised concerned Danny. Specifically, his role as the Iron Fist. Alexandra let on that the Iron Fist is more than what everyone’s been told. Perhaps including Danny himself. There is that door that’s preventing the Hand from getting to whatever it is they’re looking for. From the moment they mentioned that door, I suspected that Danny would be the key. That would explain why she wants to keep him alive rather than kill him, like she said she’d done to other Iron Fists she’d encountered before.
How Jessica was with Matt, all sassy and rude, is how I wanted her to be with Misty. But she was all subdued then. Matt, having read her file and knowing about her powers etc, I think he could have let on a bit about what he used to do as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. Just to convince her to tell him about what happened. But he knew what he was doing.
The only reason that I guessed that Matt was following Jessica was because of the music in the scene. It wasn’t sinister in any way. It was kind of comedic actually and the scene itself was pretty funny; Jess had circled around to then herself start following Matt. Just like she had been aware that he was following her, he knew immediately that she was following him.
I know that Danny had punched Luke really hard, but it was still strange to see him ice up. I was so happy that he told Claire about Danny and not just brush off the encounter and keep it to himself. Claire called Danny immediately too. I love how she treated the two of them like children and put them in a time out to work out their differences. It was only until Danny started telling Luke about all of the mystical mumbo jumbo that I realised that Luke was the only one on the team who dealt with normal criminals.
Danny and Luke’s time out was going so well until they got to the philosophical debate about how to deal with criminals. Luke does take a softer approach to how he deals with them than Danny does. Luke doesn’t fight unless he has to because he doesn’t need to; he’s invulnerable. Whereas Danny pretty much goes in guns blazing and ready to punch someone. As exemplified in their conversation, Danny has a very black and white view of things. He doesn’t care why you’re committing a crime (especially if it’s for the Hand), you need to be stopped. This is definitely because of his wealth; he never had to struggle to feed his family. I was quite surprised to see the show bring up class privilege.
Finally our four heroes converged on Midland Financial Corporation, each getting there own lead that got them there. Danny got his by doing what Luke suggested and using his corporate connections, Jessica by infiltrating the architecture firm that John Raymond worked for, Matt followed her and Luke by visiting Cole’s mother and buying her scratch tickets. I knew that the Hand was about to kill Cole. Luke was pushing kind of hard when he was talking to him and mentioning the organisation was not a good idea. It was apparent that those scratch tickets Cole insisted Luke buy his mother would be important.
Danny’s fighting in the boardroom brawl was better than usual. At no point did it seem slow or look fake to me. I loved how Luke just burst in through the door and he and Danny more or less immediately got into a rhythm. It was funny how Matt did all of his fancy acrobatics and took the sneaky way around to get to the boardroom when Jessica just took the elevator.
The camera work in the hallway fight was very disorienting. The constant motion of the camera wasn’t the problem. It was that the tracking shots would follow the characters until they went out of frame and when it picked them back they would be shot from completely different angles with completely different framing that didn’t flow smoothly from previously. Not just that, the action they were performing just didn’t look like it logically followed what they’d been doing when they went out of frame. It was a strange way to choose to shoot it.
Matt didn’t have time to react to “Elektra” being alive. I wonder how he will when he has the time to process it. I do think that he will tell the others who she is and about what happened the last time he faced the Hand. Combined with what Danny knows, the two of them should be able to paint a pretty good picture of what they’re dealing with.
Random thoughts:
- Alexandra just name dropped Constantinople…
- “Months ago.” They’re not even trying to establish a timeline.
- Stick: “He’s a real handful.” Ha! Puns!
- Danny and Colleen are about to get this random woman killed by the Hand!
- Alexandra walked in so cool and calm and just…touched Danny on the shoulder. Love it!
All eight episodes of Marvel’s The Defenders are currently available for streaming on Netflix.
As I’d expected, the aftermath of the quake was the catalyst for Matt getting back into the hero business. Except that that was to be short lived…for now. That was a “momentary lapse” and he still intends to continue being a civilian. I think that if Foggy hadn’t called, Matt would have put on the suit. Matt didn’t seem like he was ready get back into it so much as he was compelled to, like an addict. Which is why I’m glad that he didn’t put it on.
Before she had Foggy on Jessica, Hogarth went directly to her and warned her to stay out of the investigation of John Raymond. I found this odd. Not that I think that Hogarth is involved with the Hand, simply that both John (who was the caller and wasn’t working for the Hand and was in fact trying to stop them) and Hogarth warning Jessica to stay out of it is too much of a coincidence. But for now that seems to be the case since Hogarth is protecting her firm’s image.
It just so happened that as Luke was following Cole, Danny was in the exact same location following a lead about the man Elektra killed in the first scene of the first episode. Here we got our first meeting between the members of the Defenders and, of course, they fought.
Matt has returned to civilian life and is no longer the Daredevil. He just won an eleven million dollar lawsuit for his client and regularly goes to confession. Jessica is still a drunken mess, but because of her defeat of Kilgrave the press is clamouring to speak to her. Luke just got out of prison and finally had coffee with Claire. Danny is halfway around the world chasing the Hand, only to be told that the real fight was in New York City. He’s also having nightmares about K’un L’un (I don’t think that it was destroyed and it’s people massacred. Or rather, I’d like to think that it wasn’t. I think that it simply relocated).
Mariah was name dropped twice in the episode. The first time I figured it was just to remind us of who Luke’s next villain would be. Two name drops however, I feel like has to be an indication of something. I think that she’s not only involved with the recent deaths of Harlem’s young men, but that whatever she’s doing with them is at the request of the Hand. Even if Mariah isn’t working with the Hand, it’s a given that they are behind the events in Harlem.
I wonder if the earthquake at the end of the episode had anything to do with the giant hole from season two of Daredevil. I’m also very curious to see what it caused and how it fit into the Hand’s overall scheme. It looks like the aftermath will get Matt back into the hero game.
I was glad when Harry and the other detective checked the veracity of her story. They found more than ample evidence that she was lying. It seems to me that she injected Frankie into something that had happened to her. I do believe that the story itself was real, but not the part of it that pointed to Frankie being the man who had wronged her. That Mason know of this (or a) person named J.D., but not if what said she was was true points to that.
I do think that he just wants to learn the truth and find out what’s going on with Cora and why she killed Frankie – in which he’s justified – but it feels like he’s also doing it because he wants to make this man who hurt his wife – before he even met her, mind you – pay for what he did to her. And I find that rather sweet.
Cora’s mother is far more than a piece of work. I don’t blame Cora for saying that her parents are dead and screw her mother for blaming Cora for Phoebe’s illness. She clearly hates Cora and I don’t know if that hatred preceded or followed Phoebe’s birth (once she learned that she was ill). She did tell Cora that giving birth to her left her barely able to have Phoebe. There may be some truth to that, but it’s terrible of her to lay that at Cora’s feet.
Cora was unsure of where she stabbed Frankie except for in he neck. She guessed that she had stabbed him in the face, but we didn’t see her stab him there. Mason said that Cora went up to Frankie’s girlfriend, Leah, afterward and spoke to her, saying that she was okay and that Frankie was gone, but we didn’t see that. However, at that point the camera had been behind Cora so she could have. Patrick said that Frankie grabbed Cora’s arm on the first stab and then let go when he recognised her. That part did happen as far as we saw.
I was surprised that Cora retained any memories from the stabbing; she seemed to be very out of it and unaware of what she was doing at the time. I considered that she had a moment of temporary insanity during the attack and that she was just parroting what she heard others say. Or that she was putting on an act; pretending to have lost a few of her marbles in order to escape culpability.
She went from seemingly depressed when she showed no interest in having sex with Mason and taking sleeping pills just before doing it, to seeming a bit obsessive compulsive with her cleaning and laundry folding, to temporarily insane when she stabbed Frankie, to completely losing it when she was jailed and couldn’t get her sleeping pills.
I didn’t like Will and Alice in this episode. I really, really didn’t. Alice more so than Will just because of a couple of the things she said after Anne had come to London, which were very revealing of her character and not in a positive way. Will too said things that made him look like an a-hole, but he sort of made up for it by the end. Although, I don’t think that it will stick.
Will was trying so hard to get rid of Anne and their children for the first half of this episode. It took me a while to realise why. I thought the he wanted them out of the way ASAP so that he could get back to Alice, but as he hurried them out of the theatre I realised that it was because of guilt. He couldn’t face them.
Will said some frustrating things himself. Case in point, that he’d never been happy until Alice (I guess his children mean nothing to him), that he didn’t have enough room in his apartment for Anne and their children (limited space wouldn’t matter if he really loved and cared about them; he’d want them there) and that Alice was more real to him that life itself and that they were his children and Anne was their mother (like that’s supposed to mean they mean nothing to him beyond his obligation to them in those capacities). He was deplorable.
I’m disappointed in Presto for running away from the theatre. Working with the theatre would have been good for him. He wants a better life for himself and his sister and that was precisely the way he could have earned such. Never mind Will being a Catholic. A golden opportunity had just fallen into his lap. Will could have taught him how to read even.
The trailer for the film adaptation of Trinidadian author Michael Anthony’s acclaimed 1967 novel of the same name, was released on the film’s 
What are we going to do with Daenerys? At some point she is going to have to realise that the methods she used to deal with the Great Masters in Slaver’s Bay, now the Bay of Dragons, will not and cannot work with the Lords of Westeros. And she still hasn’t been humbled yet.
Despite his warnings and advice to be more merciful, she went right ahead and burned Randyll and Dickon. R.I.P. House Tarly. She did have a point that since she said she would kill them if they didn’t kneel, she kind of had to, but she shouldn’t have made the statement in the first place!
Jon said he served with his father. Sam said that he served with his father. All he had to say was “I met one of your brothers at the Citadel. He cured me.” And Jon would have known who he meant! It was like Brienne being with Sansa and Jon at Winterfell for however long and never telling them about Arya all over again. How and why do these characters exist in spaces with other characters whom they have information that would be valuable to them and never share it?
Like Daenerys, Jon gives eloquent and moving speeches. The only thing I took away from it however was him firmly reminding her that he is a King and doesn’t need her permission for anything. She looked really concerned and unhappy about the idea of Jon leaving. Which really only confirms the growing feelings between the two and makes my fangirl side very, very happy. Her telling him that he didn’t have her permission to leave had nothing to do with her exerting her power and everything to do with her fear for his well being.
The reunion of the Lannister brothers went about as tensely as one would expect, given that the last time they saw each other Tyrion killed their father. Jamie’s still salty about that. At least now he knows for sure that it wasn’t Tyrion who killed Joffrey. So there’s that. I just felt bad for Tyrion, who understood how his brother felt but was still hurting because of how angry Jamie was with him. I felt sorry for Jamie as well.
I knew that he was going to tell Jon that he is Robert’s bastard. And they kind of bonded over their shared bastard-hood too (except Jon isn’t a bastard) and their meeting was kind of a spiritual reunion of Robert and Ned (except Ned isn’t Jon’s father). Gendry even reunited with the Brotherhood and the Hound. Jon reunited with Tormund…the Eastwatch scene was just one big reunion in and of itself.
I don’t blame Sam for getting frustrated with them and just stealing the books from the restricted section and bailing out of there. I knew he wouldn’t stay at the Citadel. I just didn’t think he’d up and leave. I don’t blame him for ignoring Gilly either when she was telling him the most important piece of information he could ever receive besides how to finally defeat the White Walkers. Just because he doesn’t know the significance of it.
It’s admittedly a little disloyal of her to be playing it safe so that they will continue to like her, so that they will remain loyal to her in case Jon doesn’t come back. That being said, it’s also practical. Arya’s philosophy of beheading dissenters is extreme and that didn’t work in the past for the Stark children. That’s how Robb lost the Karstarks and eventually the war.
I’m hoping that Arya doesn’t immediately just act on the content of the letter and confronts Sansa about it first. Then she could tell Sansa all about how she followed Littlefinger and Sansa would know instantly that he planted it. Then the two can bond over their own scheme to trap him and bring him down.