Week 92: Shadow Hawk Takes Flight, more

Shadow Hawk Takes Flight: I think this episode fared a little bit better than its unoriginal material, thanks to two very good guest performances, James Hindman (as Simon the friendly inmate) who doesn't overreach for any of his character moments and underplays everything like it's real, and recent Emmy favorite Murray Bartlett (as Dr. Paul Edmonds) who telegraphs very subtly how his feelings shift without breaking his clinical demeanor. They're the best parts of an hour that feels like a pretty standard trapped-in-a-madhouse plot straight out of Screenwriting 101. I don't know how Danny Rand got blamed for his fight in the common room when security cameras must have caught the aggressive other inmate throwing a punch, I don't know how Joy Meachum just happens to have several 1-pound bags of M&Ms in her office cabinet or expects to test Danny with them when he has no way to mail them back, and I especially don't know how Danny could be so incredibly clueless as to keep saying and doing the wrong thing at all times to keep himself incarcerated; he's very much the giant idiot in this idiot plot. That said, I did find it amusing when Dr. Edmonds mentioned so many people believing they have super-powers since "the Incident," because Danny must be one of just a handful of people on Earth who would have no idea what that means. The ending sequence, where Danny wins a fight and punches free of his prison, is satisfying because of the long buildup to it, not because it proves some of the wild claims that he has made.

Without betraying foreknowledge of the series, I don't know what the writers are trying to do with Colleen Wing here; she's likable for standing up to Ward Meachum's bribe attempt even though she really could spend his money on the community if she wanted, but her "test" given to her students is so bizarre (she teaches how to sneak up on someone to beat them up? WTF?) and her criticism of them upon their failure is so over-the-top, that she starts the episode off very much on the wrong foot. Then there's the bewildering Howard Meachum and poor browbeaten Kyle; I won't say more about their strange subplot except that I didn't know what to make of it at this point in the series and I wonder if that's true for anyone else watching this. And when Howard and Ward can find no monastery in that part of the Himalayas nor any "Order of the Crane Mother," shouldn't Ward have been delighted by this news, since that's proof that this stranger is making up his story about being Danny from the plane crash? (5/10)

Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch: Danny continues to be the biggest problem on his own series. He is so cocksure and obnoxious that I think of him as the Scappy-Doo of the MCU; I can't help but hear "puppy power!" in my head every time he takes reckless action against all advice and common sense. Here, after taking advantage of Colleen's inexplicable generosity/pity, he mansplains kung-fu to her, ignores repeated requests to leave, and insults her leadership skills. Then he insists, "the dojo is a place of respect," before beating her student. I ask again: Are we supposed to root for this guy? He is every bit the kind of entitled jerk that Jessica Jones spent thirteen episodes painstakingly dismantling.

Joy impresses me here by being ambiguous and unpredictable. She is capable of appalling actions like arranging for someone to skip past the organ donor registry, but also regret and mercy and decency, more so apparently than her tightly-wound brother. Her off-screen trick with the candy dish was a nice touch, no pun intended. If she didn't have the scenes where she expressed regret, I'd call her an empty character whose motivations change based on the needs of the script, but for me, those moments satisfactorily resolve the contradictions in her actions. The MCU needs more ambiguous characters like her. What do you think of her characterization?

Despite the big problem at the center of the show, the rest of the episode isn't bad. Jeri Hogarth brings a sense of fun to a series that takes itself much too seriously. It's a relief to have Danny come across someone destroying his medical records without first having a scene of Ward Meachum instructing his henchmen to do so; not everything needs to be spelled out for us. The catharsis in Colleen's underground fight club scene is welcome too. (6/10)