Week 94: Immortal Emerges from Cave, Felling Tree with Roots

Immortal Emerges from Cave: That this episode turned out so well has to do with one credit at the beginning: "Directed by RZA." He's an inspired choice, given his longtime interest in martial arts movies that he brought into the Wu-Tang Clan and his previous experience directing The Man with the Iron Fists. He takes on the assignment like a man trying to make a mark, staging four impressive fight scenes in four different styles. (I'm counting Colleen Wing's rapid take-down of the fake hospital worker, since it has a brusque, matter-of-fact quality that serves as a nice contrast to the others.) The Bride of Nine Spiders battle is my favorite because it serves up something quite different than the usual punch-kick-repeat, but Scythe brings personality too, especially in his darkly comic introduction in a karaoke bar (with a clever song choice). I'd like to see more of both villains, but I fear that they've each served their sole purpose here. Madame Gao is intriguing in this episode, too; actress Wai Ching Ho communicates so much in her reaction shots, suggesting that for the Hand, this duel is mostly about learning information, and that Danny Rand has once again been outsmarted. Plus, the revelation of the severed head in the truck is as jolting as intended.

However, there's also a lot in this hour that doesn't add up: Who decorated part of the Hand's warehouse to look like a spider's web? How did the Hand know which hospital Radovan would be taken to? If they knew that Claire Temple had him and they chose Metro-General because she used to work there, why wouldn't they just attack the dojo to reclaim Radovan more easily? How did Joy Meachum know which urgent care clinic Ward Meachum would visit? If she has the ability to track the location of his phone or car, how come she hasn't discovered his clandestine trips to their father's penthouse in all these years? It seems to me like Ward's withdrawal symptoms after just a single dose of heroin are too exaggerated, but I don't have any experience with heroin to know for sure, and Google does not make it easy to find the answer amid all of the results offering to help me get treatment, so I surrender on that one. And lastly, is it really necessary to refer to Hulk as "the incredible green guy"? If this show insists on being oblique in its MCU references, I hereby proclaim that Claire really should have called "the devilish red guy" when she learned that the Hand was involved. (7/10)

Felling Tree with Roots: The plotting is more or less fine at this midpoint in the season, but I have growing doubts about how I'm supposed to feel about anything that's happening, or how the show feels. The revelation that Colleen serves a secret master is treated as casually as her ordering breakfast. Danny and Colleen attack the warehouse where the Hand is making heroin, but it's just another quick and generic fight in the dark, and besides, the Hand has endless warehouses and other resources (and now the heroin formula, which I find impossible to believe that they wouldn't have gotten earlier). The revelation that the Hand knows about Claire and Colleen feels intended to be chilling, but of course they know; they've had several encounters with both women already, and omniscience is kind of the Hand's deal. Danny breaking his vow of chastity to bed Colleen feels like it should matter more, but I do sense it in Finn Jones's performance. I don't know how Harold Meachum's interrogators wouldn't already know the answers to their own questions (don't the Hand surveil Harold in his own penthouse?), nor how Harold would get away with killing them, but it hardly seems to matter. The only things in this episode that really land are the brutality of the various killings (this show is not for the queasy!), the tenderness of Danny and Colleen's lovemaking and morning after even when they're repeating exposition to each other that they already know, the Rand board finally calling out Danny in the meeting for his idiocy and then ousting him from the company (I don't know why the Meachums would be out as well after many loyal years but whatever), and Ward's frustration with Harold finally reaching a breaking point in a satisfying and poetic resolution. The rest just drifts by. (5/10)

Immortal Emerges from Cave: Scott, I'm with you in that I don't really always understand just how these villains seem to have the ability to not only know where someone is going to be but also are able to almost immediately infiltrate the place. Okay, let's assume that they knew that they're going to take him to this certain hospital. That's cool, but then to have the ability to get the nurses' uniforms and create the entire ruse to get Radovan out of there? I get that this hospital is a bit of a shitshow sometimes, but the problem is that even in the craziest of hospitals, somebody is going to notice a nurse or an orderly walking around that they don't recognize. I understand that there is a suspension of disbelief that you have to go through to make these fictional stories work, but I think there can be some level of reality baked in somewhere. Just like any workplace, the people on a shift tend to know each other, and they tend to recognize when there's someone who doesn't belong there. They don't just assume that these three or four random guys walking around in uniforms are supposed to be there. Someone's going to stop them and say, "Hey, are you new here?"

Felling Tree with Roots: When I realized that Danny had taken a vow of chastity, I was actually a little confused. I just assumed that it was a natural progression from him living in a monastery with a bunch of dudes. But then again, I may be just assuming that it's a bunch of male monks up there. They may have established this previously, but I don't recall us having any sort of insight into what K'un Lun actually looks like, or what its demographic makeup may be. And while I'm spiraling down this rabbit hole of K'un Lun, I'm always wondering how the monks just decided to take in this boy and not try to return him back to his home. Did they just assume that, because he was the survivor of a plane crash, it was cool to just bring him into their monastery and raise him as a monk? Did they not think, in their infinite wisdom, that maybe he might have other family back home that could take care of him, or that they would be happy to see him? This feels like "Sure, it's kidnapping, but it's well-intentioned kidnapping, so it's acceptable."

I hear you about hospital security, and I'm inclined to agree. There have been studies about how easy it is to sneak into facilities, but those consider security failures at the point of entry. You're talking entirely about how often an unrecognized person would be greeted and questioned by the people who work there every day once inside, and I think you're right. But I haven't sneaked into a hospital myself to find out and I'm not about to start. (Full disclosure: I have also never fought ninja street gangs or spider-themed assassins, so I'm unfortunately I lack the proper qualifications to review this show.)