Danny is meditating, as a voiceover that sounds like Splinter from the current Nickelodeon TMNT cartoon tells him he will always be a target because of who he is, that every stranger on the street could be an enemy, as we see some kitchen crew breaking down a pig carcass then suddenly taking up cleavers in defensive positions as they hear screaming outside the kitchen.They look out at an empty dining room, but find a note that seems to please them. Then a scientist lady of some sort receives a similar note and reacts with the same evil glee. Next we see a guy singing really bad karaoke of Ah-Ha as he murders a roomful of people. A terrified woman trembles as she hands him the same note as the others got and he too smiles evilly and says the time has come. The voiceover concludes that this is why he will brook no doubt from Danny, because doubt leads… and Danny’s eyes open and he finishes the thought by saying “to death”. Opening credits.
Ward wakes up at his desk and Joy comes in giving him an info packet from a crisis management team. She scolds him again for getting high. He tries to brush off the muscle relaxants, tossing all his pills in the trash. Because of course he is, since he has the heroin now. Danny is going through files in his office when Ward comes in. He and Joy want Danny at an important meaning to fix the mess he caused with the mother of the sick child. Danny is more interested in searching warehouses for the chemist’s daughter. Ward goes with him to make sure Danny is back in time for the meeting.
Claire wants to take the chemist to a hospital but he refuses and Colleen says they’ll wait for Danny. Danny and Ward roll up to the fourth warehouse. Ward still believes there’s no heroin coming through the company, but he follows Danny anyway. They find the head of the goon Shadow Lady killed last episode. Ward freaks out and starts to call the police, then realizes he can’t have Rand Industries tied to this. Danny meanwhile finds and invitation to meet the Hand’s best fighters in combat. He goes back to Colleen’s place and Claire and Colleen are so NOT thrilled with the idea of him accepting the challenge but it’s the only way to get the chemist’s daughter back. He reassures him that he is the Iron Fist and can’t lose. Claire just sighs and rolls with it.
Ward is back at the office trying to get blood off his suit and rescue his pills from the trash but maintenance has already emptied it. Joy fetches him for the meeting with crisis management. The cm guy thinks they can spin this to their advantage. Danny meanwhile is doing Tai Chi to prepare for the challenge and Colleen doesn’t want him to go.He explains it isn’t confidence that fuels him but the knowledge that any doubt of his success will get him killed. She leaves and Danny has a conversation with his former master across dimensions. Claire comes in and thinks he’s talking to himself. Danny leaves for the challenge while the chemist lapses out of lucidity as Claire changes his bandages. Colleen pretends to be his daughter to keep him calm. Claire says they have to take him to a hospital now and hope Danny wins the challenge.
Danny arrives at a Chinese garden and follows a path of paper lanterns to a brick well. He says aloud he accepts the challenge and offers his terms. The Chinese lady from Daredevil who ran the drug operation using blind people comes out and accepts his terms, and says in turn if he should lose but not die he must remove himself from all of their dealings. He agrees. The first pair of fighters, the kitchen crew, mock Danny, refusing to believethe lost rich kid from the news is the Iron Fist. They cut their hands with knives, (and why do they always bloody cut their damn palms?), and paint a circle with the blood, telling Danny if he dies or falls outside the circle, he loses. And so the fight begins.
An image of Danny’s sensei appears to him as they knock him off his feet, telling him to be a double edged sword. The Russian fighters try to play mindgames with him, but his sensei’s voice powers him through, and they both fall to him.The one that’s still conscious crawls outside the blood circle to yield. Danny awaits his second challenger as he tears a sleeve off his jacket as a makeshift bandage.
Claire brings the chemist to her old hospital and runs into her old boss who covered up the Hand attack from Daredevil season 2. Back at the unsdisclosed location, Danny meets his second opponent, the lady scientist. She’s dressed ridiculously slutty for no good reason and tries to play mindgames talking like she’s Michelle Pfeiffer as Catwoman and this is just painful. The slutty femme fatal assassin trope is just so ugh. She uses chemicals to cheat and disorient him. He sees through her mindgames and tries to calm himself to stop the poison spreading. He sees his sensei again teklling him grief his weakness and to banish it.Danny powers through the poison and as it turns out, the slutty scientist trope can’t actually fight worth a damn. Danny is still poisoned though, and heads off to his final opponent.
Ward is tripping balls and hallucinating dead criminal heads as Joy and the Damage Control guy talk. Ward is in withdrawal and desperate for more pills. He drives to a pharmacy hoping he can con a doctors office out of pain meds by slamming his hand in the car door. Joy catches him and gets him out of there before he gets himself in real trouble.
Claire tells Colleen why she doesn’t trust her old boss. and they realize the Hand used her ex boss to re kidnap the chemist. Danny’s old sensei tells him the only way to survive the third fight is to kill Danny Rand and let the Iron Fist fully take his place. The Karaoke guy uses the same petty insults as the others and Danny is getting real tired of this shit. The fight begins and both seem pretty evenly matched, neither really gaining a real advantage. Danny finally beats the Karaoke guy, but before he can deliver the killing blow, Madame Gao proves her dishonor by threatening to kill the girl. He withdraws from the duel, ignoring the ghost of his sensei. Madame Gao toys with him and leaves, and he takes the girl away. End of episode.
