Danny wakes up, bandaged and in bed, in a room with flowing white curtains on the windows. He sees Colleen in bed with him, and wakes her with caresses, asking where they are. She says home, but not the dojo. He says he feels tired and she says she was worried about him. She says he healed her and saved her life, and thanks him with a kiss.
Joy is talking to Harold and says she understands why Ward was crumbling now, under the weight of such a huge secret. Harold thinks they’re losing Ward. She’s justifiably angry about being lied to. He explains he had no choice. She says it was unfair to Ward. Harold recalls his final days in the hospital before his first death, and how he wanted to protect her from further suffering and apologizes for everything. She asks what being dead was like. He says it was like coming home from school, freezing on the porch, unable to get to the warmth on the other side of the door, getting colder and colder. Then he was revived, and now he wants his family restored. Joy is a bit overwhelmed. They talk about Ward’s addiction and Joy’s plan to retake the company. Harold tells her not to go the blackmail route, that he has a plan. As they hug the camera pans and zooms in on Kyle’s quite dead face sticking out of the sand at the bottom of Harold’s aquarium. Opening credits.
Colleen is giving Danny a tour of the school where Akudo trained her after she left Japan and her grandfather. Akudo welcomes Danny and Danny thanks him for showing him how to heal Colleen. He asks Danny if he wants to recharge his chi. Danny doesn’t know how. He says his training kinda went sideways. Akudo seems to know a great deal about the Iron Fist, perhaps even moreso than Danny himself. They do tai chi together and Akudo tells Danny he’s connected to the force of life itself and to let it flow through him and fix everything that is broken. He sends Colleen to let the kitchen know they’re coming to eat, and talks to Danny in private. Danny wonders why Colleen never mentioned Akudo or this place, and he explains it’s a safe haven for people who need a safe place to find themselves. Danny wants to know where Gao is. Akudo says she’s contained until they can be sure that turning her over to the police will actually get them somewhere.
Danny wants to know what Akudo gets out of training all these people. He explains that something is coming that they all need to be prepared for. He knows that Danny is a good person who can bring about change. He shows Danny a video from 1948 showing a previous Iron Fist protecting a mountain pass from Chinese soldiers. The Fist in the grainy black and white video is wearing the original comic book costume as wink to the fans. Danny is suspect of what Akudo wants from him, and Akudo says he needs someone like Danny at his side to stop the Gao’s of the world from hurting people. Danny is skeptical, and Akudo says he can help Danny both regain his company and master his powers. He gets a call from Joy and Harold. They need him to come to the penthouse so they can reclaim Rand. Danny lets him know Gao is out of the picture. Harold wants to share scotch with Joy to celebrate Gao being taken out of play and smashes the bottle when she refuses. He apologizes and she looks shaken.
Akudo proves himself to be someone we perhaps shouldn’t trust by having had one of his men eavesdrop on Danny’s call from Joy. He tells his man to keep an eye on Danny. Colleen comes in and asks how Danny is. Akudo doublespeaks at Colleen. She wants to tell Danny everything, he wants her to wait. Danny is wandering around the grounds when Daryl spots him. Daryl is happy to see him, and Danny asks him what life is like here. He asks him about how free to come and go they are and if anyplace is off limits. He then goes where Daryl says, a building he saw two suspicious guards by earlier. He sneaks in and takes a look around.He hears some voices and investigates. He sees a monitor with an unconscious man on a bed, then after what appears to be an orderly leave, finds another monitor on which he see Gao. She can apparently see him, and berates him for being an idiot. She tells him he’s let his blind trust screw him and that Akudo is the Hand. Akudo shows up exactly at that moment to dismiss her claim as her spinning her usual web of lies.
Akudo takes him back to Colleen. He tells her Gao is here. She asks if he spoke to her, and he says she’s her usual self. Colleen admits that they are the Hand and says FGao is behind all the murdering and crime, that she and her followers don’t represent the true Hand, but Danny isn’t buying it. He tells her she’s a liar and asks her to make it make sense. She says her feelings for him came before Akudo decided to recruit him and says she was afraid to tell him the truth because he’s been brainwashed, that all he ever heard in the monestary were lies. She says Gao is a rogue faction of the Hand but the true Hand are a force for good. She says this is her family. Danny says his family are dead because of hers. She insists that was Gao and he says everything she says is bullshit and leaves.
Harold is about to have dinner in the penthouse and finds Akudo waiting. He full on affably evil, telling Harold that he now owns all that was Gao’s and offers him a return to public life and a way out if he continues to work with them, and it’s clear Colleen is the one who’s brainwashed if she seriously thinks Akudo isn’t the bad guy. Later that night Danny sneaks out and starts looking for a way out of the compound. He breaks in to what appears to be a classroom doubling as a surveillance centre. He smashes the place to shit in anger. Akudo shows up and slips into smug snake mode, revealing his true character, and says Danny failed a test. He would have preferred Danny kill Gao and there’s no doubt left who the real big bad is. They fight and Danny hands him his ass, then flees. And of ALL bloody people it’s Drunken Monkey guy who shows up to save him, berating him for being the worst Iron Fist ever and leading him out.
At Rand, Lawrence is entering his office and finds Harold waiting in the dark. He’s in shock, asking how he could possibly be here. The goon with Harold leaves them alone, and Harold suggests Lawrence read the file on his desk, which contains proof of multiple illegal activities. He doesn’t want to blackmail Lawrence, but he suggests that if this info went public it would destroy Lawrence’s mentally ill son. He tells Lawrence to kill himself and spare his son the truth about him. He shoots Lawrence in the head, and the goon comes back in to stage the suicide and get out before the security system he disabled reboots.
Alarms go off at the compound and drunken monkey guy is actually surprised to learn it’s a Hand compound and suggests they kill as many as they can as they leave. The alarm wakes Colleen and she knows something’s wrong. And now that I see their facesI see Danny’s rescuer isn’t drunken monkey guy, but I don’t recognize who it is. They get to a gate but Danny can’t make the fist. Akudo shows up and says his hate and anger have destroyed his chi and sicks a couple dozen goons on him like a coward. Colleen chooses Danny over Akudo and opens the gate for them. Danny sees this but his rescuer pulls him away. She escapes herself and runs in a different direction,
Daryl got injured in the battle, and Akudo has him taken away to get patched up. Meanwhile Joy is meeting the board to tell them about Lawrence’s “suicide” and convinces them to undo the ting. Reluctantly the board agrees they’re kinda caught by the short and curlies and vote to reinstate the Meechams and Danny. Joy laments Lawrence dying, and talks about how she always fely Harold’s presence and now knows he was always there, manipulating everything. She asks him point blank if he had Lawrence killed, reminding him of his promise to never lie to her again. He TECHNICALLY keeps his promise by saying no, he didn’t HAVE Lawrence killed, which is technically true. Then he says they need to take care of Akudo.
Colleen is wandering aimlessly through Chinatown, feeling the full weightof what she’s just done. Meanwhile Danny and his friend stop as he turns out to be someone from Kun Lun, here to get him back and take him home. He calls Danny a failure who turned his back on them and wants answers, as Danny leans on a streetlight, bleeding from his wounds. End of episode.
See you soon for episode 11!ous
