Marvel & Netflix’s “The Defenders” Recaps By Penny Episode 7; Fish In The Jailhouse

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We open with another flashback, with Elektra meeting Stick outdoors at night to tell him Matt isn’t into being a soldier in his war. Stick says the Chaste need Matt in the war.  He accuses her of being weak because she fell in love with Matt. Stick as always is a black and white asshole who only sees one way to do things. Back in the present, the camera pans over Stick’s dead body and everyone else’s unconscious bodies to the tune of a gyuitar intrumental version of Muddy Waters’ “Black Girl” that sounds a lot like Nirvana’s unplugged cover “Where Did You Sleep Last Night”. Opening credits.

Jessica is in a police interrogation room handcuffed while Misty interrogates her about who killed Stick and Sowambe, having found their bodies when they found them. Misty wants Jessica to stop stonewalling her and just tell her the truth. She admits that just one woman, Elektra, killed Stick and knocked them all out. Matt wakes up to Foggy trying to calm him down. He tells Foggy about Elektra. Misty grills him for info too, saying she knows he’s a lot more than just a lawyer and she wants answers. she says he’s a witness. He jokes about his blindness, asking id she wants to know if he heard anything. Misty again says cut the shit, and tells Matt with someone as high profile as Danny missing, he could be in deep shit.

Claire and Colleen are watching over Luke, who’s still unconscious. Claire is worried because only Luke’s skin is bulletproof, not his insides. She wonders how her life became this when she tried so hard to avoid superheroes. Colleen says that she thinks Claire is the type who could never just sit by doing nothing even before she met Luke. Luke wakes up at last, groggy and still a bit dazed.

Elektra is wiping Alexandra’s blood off of her sword and Bakuto tells her that her being in charge now is not how the Hand works. She says it is now. Murakami says they outnumber her. She asks if that’s a challenge. Gao look unsettled as Bakuto says this isn’t their first coupe. Elektra replies it is without the Substance. Gao tries to explain how the Hand is powerful because they hide in the shadows. Elektra says that isn’t power, power is being all that out in the open. Bakuto says she knows nothing of power because she didn’t exist until Alexandra resurrected her. He says it’s not what you do but how you do it. She says from now on how they do it is HER way.

Misty is releasing Matt, Luke and Jessica because, as she points out to her captain, they have once again nothing actionable to detain them on. Her captain explains that Misty has convinced him their best option is to have the three of them on his side and they again ask them to share info. Matt starts to try to no sell them with more lawyer talk but Luke has clearly had enough of the whole “let’s stupidly keep our allies in the dark like total idiots because we think not knowing about the Hand will magically keep the Hand from hurtiung them somehow” and tells Misty and her captain exactly who and what the Hand are and why they kidnapped Danny. Luke says the police would be paper targets and only they can handle them. The captain is about to arrest them for obstruction but Misty convinces him to give them leeway.

Karen asks for a moment alone with Matt, asking him what’s going on. She doesn’t understand why he’s doing this after everything they’ve worked for. He says this is who he is. Colleen is looking at some gunshot evidence photos and Claire tries to be reassuring about Danny’s chances. Colleen says thank you but she knows deep down Danny is still a wounded kid searching for his family. Luke tries to make Misty understand why he’s keeping her out of action by stonewalling her on where to find the Hand.

Elektra is going down the elewvator into the hole under Midland with Danny restraind on a dolly. The remaining three fingers watch on a camera feed. Murakami wonders why they shouldn’t just kill her. Gao points out she’s taking the Fist down to the door and thus they’re closer to their goal than Alexandra EVER got them to their goal. Danny wakes up, and Elektra tells him whatever happens next is up to him. When Danny sees the door/wall, he clearly recognizes something he sees, because he looks almost frightened.

Jessica and Matt fill Luke in on what they discovered at Raymond’s house, about how he had planned to implode the hole to prevent the Hand from reaching the door/wall. They discuss what to do when Foggy interrupts. He tells Matt that he needs to keep his two lives separate, that the police can ONLY ever know him as a lawyer. He says he’s brought Matt a change of clothes, and after Foggy leaves Matt realizes it’s the Daredevil suit. Misty’s captain says she needs to get those three to just tell her the truth because id she can help take down the Hand it would make her career. That’s when an alarm goes off and they find a giant ass hole in the building in the room Luke, Matt and Jessica were in.

Elektra wants Danny to translate the symbols on the door. He recognizes them but doesn’t understand them. She explains an Iron Fist sealed this door, so only an Iron Fist can open it. He says he was trained to destroy the Hand and will never open it for her. She says shje’s not the Hand, she’s choosing her own destiny and so should he.

Colleen is taking advantage of the confusion at the precint to nose around the evidence locker, apparently unguarded in the ruckus. She finds the Architect’s blueprints and the explosives, and she yoinks them. Matt meanwhile listens to police radio in a passing patrol car as he and the others hide in an alley. There’s an APB and the cops think Luke and Jessica kidnapped him. As they’re still 20 blocks from Midland and all their wallets are still at the station, they catch the subway to get closer to their destination. Jessica steals a beer from a sleeping homeless guy on the train and rresponds to Matt and Luke’s “wtf seriously?” looks by saying it’s been a long week.

Misty and Claire chat about Luke’s intentions. Claire points out it was Misty who took him on a long walk and told him he could save Harlem when Misty worries that doing what he’s doing now will just get him arreested again and how Harlem can’t afford to lose him. Claire says Misty is damned lucky that Luke is the kind of determinator who always does what’s right regardless of the consequences. That’s when they both notice Colleen is missing. Meanwhile Foggy tells Karen he gave Matt the suit and all they can do is hope that when all this is over they’ll have him back.

While Elektra continues to try to convince Danny that he, like her, was a slave to a destiny others forced upon him while keeping secrets from him, the other three arrive at Midland. Jessica again scoffs at Matt’s costume while Luke says their best bet is the parking garage. As they enter, they’re met by the remaining three Fingers, and they say they’ve come for Danny. Gao say he belongs to them, Matt says they’re not leaving without him, and Bakudo says well then you’re not leaving. Elektra goads Danny by telling him she understand why he ran away from K’Uhn Luhn, because his destiny scared him and he wanted to find his own way. He says one thing that he’s not scared of is her, and both above and below the fight begins.

Gao proves to be as physically badass as she ids mentally, using martial arts to toss Luke and Jessica around like toys while revealing she has telekinetic powers by willing cars to smash into them. Matt meanwhile is holding his own against Bakudo and Murakami, but just as they finally overpower him and Bakudo goes for the kill Colleen shows up to block the blow. The Fingers all decide to bail and set a gas pipe ablaze to cover their Ninja vanish. Luke squeezes the pipe shut and asks why she isn’t at the precint. She says “you’re welcome”.

Danny is mostly holding his own against Elektra but she still keeps outfighting him. She tells him it was she herself who went to K’Uhn Luhn and slaughtered everyone, and he finally uses the Fist, freaking out and lunging at Elektra, sending her flying again. Claire and Misty arrive upstairs in the parkade and Misty says she’ll stall the other cops just go. Elektra maneuvers herself against the door and tricks Danny into punching it. The whole city goes dark. And while the heroes topside reluctantly agree they need to follow the architect’s original to blow up the hole, Danny wakes up behind the wall, surrounded by the bones of a long dead dragon.

End of episode.

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.