Iron Fist Season 2 Episode 3 Review: This Deadly Secret

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

This Iron Fist review contains spoilers.

Iron Fist Season 2 Episode 3

It’s early days but this episode has convinced me that Iron Fist season 2 might actually be going somewhere good.

Frankly, if you didn’t enjoy the scenes of Danny, Colleen, Davos, and Joy trying to hold a civil dinner party, I don’t know what to say to you. This is what genre TV does best: use its own mythology to turn a relatable situation – like an awkward dinner party – into a metaphorical life-or-death affair. And even on its own terms I enjoyed seeing Danny and Davos interact. Their relationship is casual but filled with resentment in a way only family relationships can be (I have a happy home life, thank you). Combine that with Colleen’s polite fury and we’re seeing sides of these characters that build on, rather than conflict with what’s come before.

Ward, for example, is surprisingly believable this season after failing to land anywhere near a solid personality last year. His attempt to trick his sister into a confrontation shows that he’s still too keen to manipulate people, and his reaction to potential confrontation was to run away from it. He’s got trust problems. He prioritises his own actions over others. He is, in short, an addict who hasn’t quite figured out recovery. This is a much better angle for an addiction storyline than the hoary old “maybe he’s using again?” cliché we could have been left with.

The episode also has a theme! That practically makes it the Marvel-Netflix equivalent of Ulysses. The idea of two warring sides sitting down to talk comes up in both the dinner party and the parley between warring Triads. It doesn’t go to plan (maybe because Danny got jumpy, though I’d guess he’ll probably turn out to be correct) and the resulting fight scene is one of the best this series has delivered yet. You can argue over the plot, character and acting, but one thing you can’t complain about in this season is the action, which has consistently been great fun.

This episode also reveals that Walker, who Joy and Davos hired to spy on Danny, is also Mary, the same character Danny has been bumping into, but with a different hairstyle. No, this isn’t evidence of Netflix’s famously small budget, it’s an actual plot point. I keep threatening to spill the beans on Mary so I think now’s probably the time to do it. If you don’t like potential spoilers, look away now.

further reading: Iron Fist Season 2 Villain – Who is Mary?

So, in the comics Mary Walker is a mutant with Dissociative Identity Disorder which manifests in her having several distinct personalities, each with different power sets. Mary is a timid pacifist, Typhoid Mary is a pyrokinetic masochist, Bloody Mary is a telekinetic sadist, and Mary Walker is the “original” unified personality. In her Typhoid persona she’s a skilled assassin who worked for the Kingpin. The reason she’s in the Netflix shows rather than the X-Men universe is probably because she debuted in Daredevil #254 (1988), so I assume they’ll just not mention how she got her powers – if, indeed, she has any at all. Her twin machetes also match her Mutant Zero identity used when she appeared in Avengers: The Initiative.

Typhoid Mary is a great character and any of her appearances written by her creator, Ann Nocenti, are worth tracking down. Her appearance in the 2005 Elektra movie is not.

Further reading: Complete Guide to Marvel References in Iron Fist Season 2

Of course the references to Matt Murdock and Midland Circle are callbacks to The Defenders, in which Matt Murdock appeared to die, and it’s hard to think about Iron Fist taking over for Daredevil without referencing the time Matt Murdock went to jail and Danny Rand became Daredevil to cover for him.

Oh, and the episode’s title is taken from Power Man and Iron Fist #99 (1983).