Netflix & Marvel’s Iron Fist Recap Episode 11; Lead Horse Back to Stable

Reviews, Top Story

We open with a man in ragged clothes running through a lush forest and finding Danny out cold in a creek, the dragon tattoo freshly burned into his chest. Danny wakes up, fist aglow, and the other man tells him he did it, he’s the Iron Fist. It’s the guy who rescued him in New York last episode. Danny looks back at a small cave entrance fearfully. Back to the present, Danny is cleaning up his wounds and having flashbacks to that cave. He still seems to be blocked and struggling to focus his chi. Opening credits.

Danny’s monk friend is keeping watch. He again insists they need to return to Kun Lun and doesn’t understand why Danny wants to stay, still telling him he’s betraying his duty. Danny says if his duty is to destroy the Hand then here is where he needs to be. He agrees to return to Kun Lun after he destroys the Hand if his friend will help him. He agrees and asks Danny who Colleen was. Danny says no one who matters.

Speaking of, Colleen returns to her dojo to find it trashed. Akuda is there waiting for her, asking where she went. She says he already knows. She had to help Danny after Akuda attacked him. He lies through his teeth and says Danny attacked them.  She yells at him that he expected her to lie to him and now he’s out there bleeding and doesn’t trust her. He snaps at her to respect him, and this is clearly not a relationship on equal footing. He rambles on about rescuing abandoned and abused kids despite clearly caring more about weaponizing them than building them up. He orders her to find Danny and report back to him and she reluctantly nods.

Danny knocks at Claire’s door with his monk friend, who I now hear is named Davos, which is a mere one r from making me squeal like a fangirl. Danny asks Claire to patch him up. She says to heal himself like he healed Colleen. He says he can’t. Davos is annoyed that she knows about the Iron Fist. She grabs Davos’ hand and presses it on Danny’s wound. She sets his ribs and goes about bandaging the wound and asks about the people that took him and is Colleen okay. He asks Davos to check the perimeter and Danny fills Claire in about Akuda and Colleen being part of the Hand. Claire says Colleen may be brainwashed and Danny gets ragey saying no she’s a liar, but Claire calms him down. She tells him his feelings for Colleen and vice versa are real and he needs to deal with that. She laments her knack for attracting crimefighters with aggro issues and finishes patching Danny up, giving him a clean shirt.

Harold is beating on a workout bag in the penthouse and pulls a Steve Rogers on it. He goes over to Joy who looks tired and suggests she needs rest. She’s too excited going over the info on the tablet Danny brought Harold a few episodes back, and has found a lot more useful info than just about Gao’s drug operations, including money transfers. Joy worries about Ward but Harold brushes it off.

Claire comes back to her mom’s apartment to find Davos alone and asks where Danny is. He replies he’s off thinking and snidely dismisses Claire’s offer to order pizza as poison for the body and soul. He asks her how much Danny has told her, and she asks him questions about Hun Lun. Questions about the dragon Shao lau gets us a sneaky Disney plug for Pete’s Dragon, (which, as a lifelong fan of the original since age 4, I actually recommend because it’s pretty damn good), and Claire tells Davos that Danny is trying to make the world better. Davos says this is not his world and seems incapable of empathy or understanding why a child of this world who never chose to be raised in Kun Lun might want to be a part of the world that was taken from him. He sees Danny as a thief, a brother who betrayed him and stole the Fist. He says if he has to he’ll force Danny to “come home”, and Claire is not impressed.

Claire goes downstairs to pay for the pizza she ordered anyway after the delivery guy buzzes and finds Colleen waiting with the pizza. She lays into Colleen about keeping the truth from them even after learning about Claire’s history with them. Colleen again tries to pimp Akuda’s lie that her version of the Hand is good and only Gao’s was bad but Claire thinks if that were true they should have renamed themselves to overcome Gao’s bad pr. Colleen didn’t want to hurt her or Danny. Claire tells her she lied and what did she think would happen? She nontheless says despite her feelings being hurt, she’s not going to attack her, and invites her in to talk to Danny.

Danny is doing meditative tai chi on the roof, trying to get past the block preventing him from focusing his chi. He recalls a time back at the monestary with Davos. He’s guarding the path to Kun Lun and is bored out of his skull. His memory is interrupted by Colleen. She and Danny argue about Akuda’s intentions and true purpose, about Akuda attacking him and claiming the reverse, about how he’s using the kids he teaches. Colleen still isn’t ready to see the truth and Danny isn’t ready to forgive her, leaving them at an impasse. Colleen says she cares about him and wanted to be able to say that she at least tried to make things right between them. Danny asks if Akuda told her to say that. He wonders how he can ever trust her again. She has no answer to that. He says he is the Iron Fist, Sworn enemy of the Hand. She says she’s Colleen Ling, who chose to serve the Hand and she’s sorry for everything whether he believes it or not. She leaves.

Danny comes downstairs with another reckless plan. Claire suggests that running in to one reckless angry plan after another hasn’t really worked for him so far, so maybe he should strategize. She tells him whatever he is looking for, he won’t find it in Kun Lun, and he needs to let go of the rage and anger he’s been holding onto since the plane crash. HYe thanks her for caring and asks to borrow her car.

Colleen arrives at a hospital where Akuda got one of her former students a job. She asks Becca to give her antibiotics, and hints that if she doesn’t comply Akuda might be angry to test if anything Danny said is true, and seems heartbroken when Becca complies, saying the Hand comes first.

Danny and Davos arrive at the penthouse and discuss strategy. Danny wants to find a way to storm the compound but Harold has a better idea to draw Akuda out instead, since Akuda has been draining Rand accounts to prepare for something and Joy, having been reinstated, has access to those accounts and can cut Akuda off, which Harold figures will force Akuda to come to the penthouse to correct the oversight. He tells Danny and Davos to go stake out the compound and wait for Akuda to leave and take him out then. Joy realizes they mean to murder him, not arrest him, and she looks so not thrilled.

Becca gives Colleen the antibiotics but it’s a trap, as a van with her former students pulls up and Becca says that duty to the hand comes first and hers was to report Danny’s whereabouts to Akuda. She runs back inside as Colleen confronts gher ex student, asking if they’ve kept up with their training.They say she needs to come with them, Akuda wants to talk to her. She says he can meet her at her dojo. They insist, and Colleen reluctantly complies rather than kick their asses. If she doesn’t believe Danny by now…

Joy and Harold are talking and Joy isn’t happy about the murder plan. Harold says whatever it takes to end this. She’s worried about the consequences of pissing off the Hand. Harold snaps at her and she realizes fearfully that saying no isn’t really an option.

Colleen’sstudents have her strapped to a wheelchair and take her to Akudo. He says they respect the chain of command. He blames himself for her betrayal and says letting Danny poison her mind with doubt can’t be cured, and says that even in her death she’ll help the Hand. He leaves, like all idiot ball carrying overconfident bad guys, trusting her ex students to kill her. They take her to a room where as one prepares stuff presumably to kill her, another asks her how she could betray the Hand and mocks all the “sanctimonious” lessons she used to give. Colleen headbutts her when she gets too close, breaking her nose. She uses the distraction to free herself and reminds her students why SHE was the teacher.

Danny and Davos are staking out the compound, talking about life back in the monestary. Danny talks about the burning anger inside him, getting harder and harder to control. Davos, sounding every bit the brainwashed faithful, says it’s Danny’s fault for abandoning their master’s teachings and not following the path he lied out for him. He tells Davos he thought that he wasn’t supposed to be the Iron Fist and looked for a sign, and an eagle appeared and lead him to a path out of Kun Lun. Davos still refuses to open his mind and repeats his annoying culty parrot speak “you belong in Kun Lun BRAAAAWWWWK!!! Davos wanna cracker!”. danny sees Colleen running from the compound and, ignoring Davos, goes to check on her.

Completely demoralized by what Akuda just did, she swings a long rebar pole at Danny. He says he’s not here to hurt her. Crying, she screams why not? I’m the Hand and you’re the destroyer of the Hand. She all but begs him to destroy her and admits she was wrong. Danny finally realizes they’ve both been brainwashed and that they have to stop running, stop destroying everything. He holds her while she cries as Davos watches a few feet away, angry. End of episode.

Only 2 episodes left! See you soon!

Penny is a now divorced intersexed disabled lesbian in BC Canada. She's been watching wrestling and reading comics since she was a kid, and knows her stuff. She lives with her pets and passes her free time writing, drawing, doing paid photoshop work (including logos done for Pulse's Own Mike Gojira), and is a part-time Queer model.