1x07 Fish in the Jailhouse

[6.0/10] Oh Danny, you’re such a dummy. He shouts, “I’ll never help you!” and then proceeds to charge up his chi-fist and send it Elektra’s way just in time for her to use her sais to direct it and unlock the magical wall. Way to go, Danny. You really saved the day on that one.

But hey, it’s in character for Danny, to just charge and hope he can solve whatever problem there is with big speeches and/or punching (something Luke called him out for). So while it makes Danny look like a dope and lessens Elektra’s credibility as a major antagonist when all she does a trick a rube like Iron Fist, at least it’s in keeping with the Danny Rand we’ve come to know over the past nineteen episodes. (This is the part of the review where I realize, to my chagrin, that I’ve watched twenty episodes of television starring Finn Jones’s dopey Danny Rand.)

While Danny is down in the subbasement of the Midland Circle building exchanging stock bits of dialogue with Elektra, the rest of The Defenders are being held by the NYPD in Misty’s precinct. It’s not a bad approach to take, separating Matt, Jessica, and Luke and letting them have to come up with some other sort of obstacle than just “let’s go fight people” but to be frank, it feels like a big heap of wheel-spinning.

There are endless scenes of people yakking all over the stationhouse. Now normally, I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. The penultimate episode of a season, particularly in shows like this that are indebted to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer way of doing things, is a great way to do some last minute character development before the major fireworks go off. Letting the characters chat in the quiet before the storm lets you give meaning to what comes next.

But that only works if the writing is, you know, good. Instead, we get a lot of dull back-and-forths between various characters with none really standing out. Claire and Colleen have a counterpoint to their “you’re the foundation” conversation earlier, where Colleen points out that Claire is the connection with all these people, but it’s pretty meh. And Misty’s chief has the usual “you’re on thin ice, rookie!” generic cop pronouncements. But really, most of the first half of the episode is a big bowl of dullness, with conversations that don’t illuminate the characters or hold your attention. Taking time out before the big fight to take stock is great, but it only works if you create compelling character interactions to fill that space.

Naturally, the 3/4 of The Defenders not captured by The Hand break through the wall and go out to rescue Danny. Them riding the subway is an amusing moment that adds just a bit of character to the proceedings, which I'm thankful for. There’s also some uninteresting hemming and hawing about Matt not revealing his secret identity to the cops, but it’s mostly window dressing so Foggy can bring him his suit so that he can wear it for the big final battle.

Speaking of which, we get Jessica, Luke, and Daredevil vs. Gao, Bakuto, and Bear Guy (I think somebody said his name was Baka?). That should be a momentous fight, but it’s shot and edited in a pretty terrible manner. The shots jump all around the battle in rapid succession, making it nigh-impossible to keep track of where everyone is or what they’re doing. There’s no rhythm or flow to the battle, it’s just a hodgepodge of images, some of them cool, some of them inscrutable, that don’t really connect.

There’s a few cool moments here and there, like Luke squeezing the pipe shut, or Gao going whole hog with her force powers for once. And it’s nice to see Colleen getting to join in the fight (since she’s the only other secondary character who’s a legitimate combatant) and for Misty to do her part by calling the cops. But on the whole, for something so hyped as a Defenders vs. The Hand fight, the whole thing turned out pretty underwhelming.

But hey, the magic wall is open, The Defenders are in the building, and we’re headed for the final showdown, so maybe The Defenders will be able to stick the landing. Here’s hoping.