1x05 Take Shelter

[6.2/10] One of the things I have to remember about these Marvel Netflix shows is that sometimes the visual presentation is going to be better than the storytelling presentation. That's not a hard and fast rule -- there's plenty of times when our heroes fight nondescript goons in nondescript dark warehouses -- but for the most part, even when the story is sagging, the show will add some visual flair, even if it's just a unique shot here or there.

In this episode, it comes in the form of the opening assemblage of the fingers of the hand. The episodes starts with elegant orchestral music as Gao, Alexandra, White Hat, and Bear Guy all start to move into place. The parallels are pretty cheesy with the good guys teaming up just as the disparate bad guys are teaming up, but the sequences of each of them preparing for this fight and their part of it creates a certain beauty and order to what could be a standard "well, here they all are" sort of deal.

The actual fight has its moments too. There's a nice progression of Bear Guy jumping through the window and landing blows, Elektra doing her usual flippy sword fighting, and a spate of machine-gun wielding henchmen to give Luke a chance to shine (even when he's not tracking down White Hat).

Unfortunately it leads to one this episode's major themes, which I'm going to refer to as "Remember, Elektra. Reeeemeeeember." Look, I was never sold on the Matt/Elektra romance in the first place, so I'm already not a natural audience for Matt putting everyone else in danger just to have a moment behind the restaurant with her. But at least the show has the sense to call him on it, in a sense, with the rest of The Defenders being upset that he not only wasn't up front with them, but abandoned them just because she was around. (And this is the guy Stick says should be leading the group!) At the same time, we get lots of scenes of Elektra seeming to recall bits of her own life, and look around wistfully as though she's mentally reaching for something she can't quite get her hands around. While the image of her curled up in Matt's bed is a striking one, the "dog bites new owner" bit with her is pretty tiresome, and the inevitable turn when she throws off the shackles of her brainwashing and helps The Avengers can't come soon enough.

Thankfully, the other big theme in this episode is rounding up the secondary characters (after White Hat threatens them) leading to some nice scenes and mix-em-ups. Jessica Jones rescuing Trish (and saying "hey I can't explain) and then getting into a fight with Bear Guy has a good bit of urgency to it, even if it mostly serves as an excuse to get Matt back into the (still kind of goofy looking) Daredevil costume. Danny retrieves Colleen and gets her down to the police station, where Misty is basically running a hideout. The same goes for Luke Cage with Claire, and she and Colleen have a nice moment (or at least a nice performance from Jessica Henwick) reflecting on how Colleen feels lost without The Hand in some way.

Oh yeah, I forgot, Bakuto is back! And he's as awkward and unimpressive as he was on Iron First. I knew in my heart they would resurrect him, but it's still a shame to see his bad acting back in the fold. Frankly, seeing the villains pontificate to one another in the usual stilted bad guy speak is pretty uninteresting. The Hand has always loomed as a kind of underwhelming ubervillain on the fringes of The Defenders shows, and seeing them all speak in standard antagonist cliches does little to remedy that.

But we do get a nice scene with Matt and his far more compelling love interest, Karen Page. The exchange between them, where he comes to her door and explains that she needs to come with him for her protection is great because of her response. You can tell she's just disappointed in him, disappointed that he's back to Daredeviling around, and frustrated that she has to be roped into this even though she doesn't want to be. Debrah Ann Woll has always been one of the better actresses in this corner of the MCU, and it's nice to have her deliver the goods in a brief but meaningful scene on the edges of it.

We also get some nice secondary character interactions on their own. In addition to Claire and Colleen, Malcom and Trish have a brief but fun little bit, Misty and Colleen have a nice chat about Colleen's katana, and Foggy and Karen have a warm reunion. In an episode that spends a lot of time on the four big heroes trying to protect the folks close to them, it's nice that the show gives those folks a little time on their own.

The other big deal her is that thanks to Luke Cage, the crew has White Hat as a hostage. Not much comes of it. He gives the usual bad guy boasts. Stick gives his usual world-weary responses. Daredevil goes too far (or at least worries his confederates) in strangling the guy to try to get him to spill. (Though Danny going "that's so cool!" is a nice touch).

Overall, “Take Shelter” matches one of the Defenders subuniverse’s strongest elements -- the various series’ strong secondary characters, with two of its weakest -- the Daredevil/Elektra romance and bland villainspeak. Thankfully there’s at least hints of visual flair, with orchestral scores, surprise fight scenes, and roaring combat, to help make up the difference.