Welcome to the Second Union Iron Fist watchalong event! Watch along with us for the next several weeks as we check out the next hero in making in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (Daredevil, Jessica Jones and Luke Cage). Iron Fist’s entire first season was made available for viewing on Friday, March 10 on Netflix. Every weekend (Saturday and Sunday) starting Saturday, March 25th we will post overviews and opinion of an episode of the series. WARNING: This article is full of SPOILERS!

If you haven’t already, read the previous article for “Felling Tree with Roots”.

The Blessing of Many Fractures starts out in Claire’s (Rosario Dawson) apartment. She’s sitting alone in reflection. So deep in thought that she ignores a call from Danny (Finn Jones). Danny is trying to get in touch with her to give her the warning to be cautious of Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho), who may be sending her minions out to hurt her. But suddenly when Claire stands up, someone grabs her roughly from behind.

Across town, Danny is seen walking around Harold’s residence and comes across a long, stream of blood. Blood is everywhere. It looks as if a body was dragged across the floor.

Back in Claire’s apartment, the mysterious intruder turns out to be Colleen (Jessica Henwick). She motions to Claire to be silent as she points to a visible shadow moving under the door. We suspect is it The Hand coming after them.

Danny still standing in the penthouse trying to make sense of things is interrupted by the presence of Ward (Tom Pelphrey). Ward puts on his best Oscar moment by being shocked by the sight of blood everywhere. Questioning his father’s whereabouts. With great manipulation skills, Ward convinces Danny that he is at fault for the death of Harold. Calling Danny cancer. The manipulation works, Danny leaves Ward to do the cleanup.

Danny gets back to Claire’s apartment to discuss with her and Colleen the next step in taking down the Hand. He got the location of the Chinese town from the Chemist and wants to go there for a surprise attack. Colleen and Claire make their decision to join him in the fight. Danny reluctantly agrees although he wanted to fight alone.

Joy and Ward meet with the Rand Board of Director member, Lawrence. Sitting smugly in an office chair, he is ready to present the siblings with their separation papers. The offer is $100 million dollars severance. Ward is ready to sign, Joy, however, is not.

On a Rand chartered plane to China, Danny, Colleen, and Claire get settled for the trip. While Colleen is asleep, Claire jokes with Danny on his one night with Colleen. But when Danny ask her about her love life, she remains refrained on the subject as she firmly grips a letter. The mood changes when the plane undergoes some turbulence increasing Danny’s anxiety. Past images flash the screen of Danny’s turbulence experience. Using her nursing chops, Claire calms Danny down.

Ward desperate to get on with his life and find a break from Rand Enterprises, he meets with Lawrence to strike up his own severance deal. But unbeknownst to him, Joy has already declined the severance package on their behalf.

Meanwhile, Danny, Colleen, and Claire have made it to the Hand’s factory in China. As they wait for Madame Gao to arrive, Danny and Colleen share a tender moment as their relationship continues to develop and grow. The moment is abruptly broken when Claire gets out of the car to ask for an update. Danny is getting antsy so Colleen offers up a plan. She breaks away to go and talk to a beggar. Gives him a donation for information on the factory and Madame Gao.

Ward meets up with his sister in a park. After some back and forth regarding their life after Rand, Joy has some evidence that may help them win the case to get back in. Joy has hired a drunken, female private investigator to do some digging into the lives of the Rand board members. Turns out a couple of them have skeletons in their closets. As Joy puts it,“screwing the company, or someone who wasn’t their spouse…”.  Joy lets Ward know how much she admires him and how much of an influence he has been in her career. Ward gets emotional as he listens to Joy recite her personal vision. He wants to tell Joy everything. Everything.

Colleen gets back to the car with more information on the factory. The beggar told Colleen that Madame Gao has enslaved the workers of the factory and the guards leave the building in the evening. Claire stays in the car to keep watch while Danny and Colleen go inside the factory to burn it to the ground. Before they get inside, they take out a couple of remaining guards. While in the factory getting it ready for an inferno, Madame arrives much earlier than expected. Danny tells Colleen to go and find Claire. He will go after the Hand on his own.

Outside, Claire sees the factory works and guards heading back early. She honks the horn to give warning. As Colleen is headed out towards Claire, she is jumped by one of Gao’s minions. We get a woman cross swords fight scene with well-choreographed moves. But of course, Colleen eventually prevails.

Danny sees Madame Gao and guards entering the factory. But before he can go in, he must get past a drunken sworn defender, Zhou Cheng (Lewis Tan). A fight starts…Iron Fist versus a gourd, the defenders choice of weapon. Hand to hand combat commences. Some pretty entertaining choreography. Danny eventually wins the fight by smashing the gourd on the side of his opponent’s head. Toppled on top of him, Danny continues to uncontrollably punch him in the face.

Ward takes Joy to their father’s penthouse to reveal the truth. As they are in the elevator, he starts to hallucinate by seeing blood dripping from the elevator door. This is a result of too many back pain pills or over exhaustion of stress. As they get closer to the penthouse, tension seems to mount for Ward. He decides not to tell her the truth and instead, comes up with the convoluted notion that he wanted to borrow money from her.

Back at the warehouse, Danny is still trying to remain composed, standing over his half beaten adversary as Madame Gao appears in the room. She offers Danny training on controlling his anger. “Kill the women.” So another fight breaks out. Both henchmen are killed swiftly. After the fight, it is discovered that their weapons were immersed in poison. Looking closely at the bodies, Danny recognizes this result before. He remembers the pilots of his parent’s plane were poisoned with the same concoction. As his anger builds, Danny uses his Iron Fist to break the building’s wall with Madame Gao in tow.

Observations:

• Joys drunken, female private investigator…I wonder who that could be? Hint…Hint. Netflix MCU character link!
• Tom Pelphrey gives an astonishing performance in his self-awareness scene. The Ward character continues to develop into incomprehensible and enigmatic places. Looking forward to how much the character grows.
• Lewis Tan, who plays Zhou Cheng, actually auditioned for the role of Danny Rand. Read about that here. Also, you can see more of Tan’s martial skills in his action demo reel. Wish there was more of him in this season.