Chris Hardwick's Blog, page 2135

Sex Nerd Sandra #212: Yes Means Yes! Consent with Jaclyn Friedman!

ARE YOU ON TEAM FUN? Author, podcaster and feminist troublemaker Jaclyn Friedman helps Sandra as they splash around the murky waters of consent. Going beyond no-means-no, they examine issues in heterosexual context, showing how to move from awkward to confident and from clunky to kind.

TOPICS: The sex-positive movement vs the anti-sexual-violence movement, unscrewing masculinity/media/sex ed, sexual liberation, romance, body language, making it sexy, bad sex vs violence, affirmative/enthusiastic consent, sex scripts, consent apps, coerced experiences, thinking ethically vs legally, body sovereignty, gender, unpacking old trauma, playing Gotcha, the rules, drugs and alcohol impairment vs taking the edge off, which questions are rapey and how to violate our very own boundaries!

“If we want to be truly free sexually, we all get to be free. You can’t be free on my body.” -Jaclyn Friedman

Jaclyn Friedman is a writer, speaker and activist, and creator of the hit books Yes Means Yes: Visions of Female Sexual Power and a World Without Rape (one of Publishers’ Weekly’s Top 100 Books of 2009, and #11 on Ms. Magazine’s Top 100 Feminist Nonfiction of All Time list) and What You Really Really Want: The Smart Girl’s Shame-Free Guide to Sex & Safety. Her podcast, Unscrewed, is paving new paths to sexual liberation, and was named one of the Best Sex Podcasts by both Marie Claire and Esquire.

Friedman is a popular speaker on campuses and at conferences across the U.S. and beyond. She has been a guest on the Today Show, Nightline, PBS News Hour, the Melissa Harris-Perry Show, and numerous other radio and television shows, and her commentary has appeared in outlets including The New York Times, Vox, Time, The Washington Post, Glamour and The Guardian. Friedman is a founder and the former Executive Director of Women, Action & the Media, where she led the successful #FBrape campaign to apply Facebook’s hate-speech ban to content that promotes gender-based violence. Friedman also holds an MFA in creative writing from Emerson College.

Follow @SexNerdSandra on Twitter and Like the show on Facebook! Visit sexnerdsandra.com for updates!

Cosplay Friday #203 – Go Underwater with Static Cosplay’s Sailor Uranus Shoot

It’s feeling warm here in Los Angeles today, so we should go below the surface and cool off with a different sort of costume photo shoot. Static Cosplay shared pictures she created with Brett Stanley Photography that feature her as Sailor Uranus from Sailor Moon striking poses underwater. The reflections and fluidity of the photos make them almost dream-like. It reminds me of a Sailor Scout transformation sequence!

Sailor Uranus (Sailor Moon) | Photo by Brett Stanley Photography

Take a swim to the gallery below and then come back up for air to see more of Static Cosplay’s work. You’ll find a couple of different looks from Aion, a killer Borderlands 2 Maya costume, and more. You can keep up with each and every one of her costume projects by following her on Facebook. She also spends time behind the camera as Little-Noise Photography.

Do you or anyone you know cosplay or take photographs of cosplayers? Then I want to see your work so we can talk about highlighting your creations in a future Cosplay Friday gallery. If you’re interested, please get in touch with me at alratcliffe@yahoo.com and send hi-res photos you’d like me to feature. Be sure to provide credits for the cosplayers or photographers for each image because giving credit is good manners–bonus points if you include links to relevant Facebook pages or websites. Though I wish I knew all the nerdy franchises, I don’t, so please let me know who or what is being cosplayed.

Featured Image: Brett Stanley Photography

MS. MARVEL Gets an Amazing Fan Film That’ll Blow You Away

It seems like almost every major Marvel Comics hero has either made it into live-action or gearing up to do so sometime soon. Heck, even little known heroes like Cloak and Dagger and the Runaways are getting their crack at screen stardom in the coming years. But there is one very popular Marvel hero who hasn’t yet been announced for either film or television yet, and she’s long overdue: Kamala Khan, better known as Ms. Marvel. Introduced just a few years ago, Kamala took Captain Marvel/Carol Danver’s original codename to become comics’ most prominent Muslim superhero.

Thanks to her high profile as one of comics’ only Muslim-American heroes, Kamala Khan–a member of the Inhuman race who has the ability to shapeshift–has earned quite a stature among Marvel Comics fans. Now, thanks to the folks over at The Laughing Squid, we’ve learned that a few of Ms. Marvel’s fans have created an amazing fan made video dedicated to showing Marvel fans everywhere what a Kamala Khan live-action appearance would actually look like.

In the appropriately named Kamala from creators Landis Aponte and Anita Kalathara, Kalathara herself plays Pakistani-American teenager Kamala Kahn, as she stands up to bullies from her school and world-class supervillains alike.  You can watch the video in its entirety above.

After watching that video, I think Marvel Studios should just call up Landis Aponte and Anita Kalathara and offer them the job of creating a Ms. Marvel television show right on the spot! As a short film, Kamala shows off all the reasons why comic book fans of all backgrounds have embraced the superpowered teenage fangirl from Jersey City. Creators Sana Amanat, Stephen Wacker, G. Willow Wilson, and Adrian Alphona created a character in Kamala Khan that resonates with everyone, and it’s high time she found a live-action home of her own. This fan film only proves it can be done, and done very well.

What do you think of this kick-ass Ms. Marvel fan film? Does it make you even more eager for a proper Ms. Marvel TV series or film? Let us know what you think down below in the comments.

Images: Marvel Comics

What will the MCU look like after Infinity War?

5 Must-Have Accessories For BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Fans

Home Geekonomics is a series that features the best in geeky home decor, food and DIY. Each week will focus on a specific fandom and highlight the best of geek for your home and everyday life.

Relax, pull up a chair, and be our guest, as the live-action Beauty and the Beast hits theaters this week. Emma Watson stars as Belle to Dan Stevens’ Beast in the unforgettable tale as old as time, 26 years after the animated Disney original.

Socks, jewelry, soup pots and more — while none of these are anthropomorphic beings that will sing you a song, they’re still must-haves for any fan. So before the last petal falls off that enchanted rose, check out these amazing Beauty and the Beast home goods.

Beauty and the Beast Tote by Ollie Hank

This bag is très adorable! I can imagine filling it with fresh baguettes that I pick up while I stroll through my small provincial town…called Los Angeles. The delightful tote is the perfect size for holding all your favorite books about far off places, daring swordfights, magic spells, or princes in disguise.

Beauty and the Beast Wrap Bracelet by Love and Madness

The beginning of fairy tales is where the magic begins. This collector’s edition wrap bracelet has the entirety of the opening of Beauty and the Beast, and is an impressive 94-inches long, letting you wrap it a dozen times around your wrist. This jewelry piece is a perfect addition to your outfit whether you’re dressing for an elegant princess ball or everyday Disneybounding.

Le Creuset Beauty and the Beast Soup Pot from Williams-Sonoma

Le Creuset has always been my go-to for cookware. It’s well worth the price for its durability and ease of cleaning. Created in honor of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, this limited-edition soup pot is decorated with the iconic red rose and engraved with the words “Be Our Guest.” It’s a must for making beef ragout, cheese souffle, and probably ideal serveware for the grey stuff, which I hear is delicious.

Beauty and Beast Cake by Missy Schwabe

This beautiful three-layer cake is inspired by the classic colors of the movie. The bottom layer represents the Beast’s dress attire, with his elegant blue jacket, ruffled shirt and all. The second tier obviously showcases Belle’s memorable yellow ball gown. And most impressive is the last layer, a glass dome encasing an edible enchanted rose right on top. With this awesome video tutorial you can follow the steps to make one of these delicious masterpieces for the Beauty and the Beast fan in your life.

Beauty and the Beast Socks by Stance via Disney Style

The best way to modestly show off your fandom is with a fantastic pair of socks. These Beauty and the Beast-inspired styles come in Rose, Classic Rose, and a light and airy Belle of the Ball. The La Fille Est Belle design is modeled after Belle’s daywear that she wears for feeding the chickens and singing on mountain tops. The comfy socks even come in a classically French fleur de lis style whose pattern is appropriately named, “Handsome Beast.”

Images: Ollie Hank, Love and Madness, Williams-Sonoma, Missy Schwabe, Stance

8 Things the New TRANSFORMERS Trailer Rips Off From Other Movies

In just over three months, Michael Bay will walk away from the Transformers with his fifth and final film in the franchise, Transformers: The Last Knight. The new trailer for The Last Knight was released this week, and after seeing it, we couldn’t help but think of this classic quote: “good artists do homages; great artists steal.” You may have noticed, as we have, that several bits from the new trailer appear to be cribbed from other movies or TV shows. Today’s Nerdist News is breaking down the Bay-sanity and pointing out the details!

Join host and battle of Chicago survivor, Jessica Chobot, as she runs down these strange coincidences…or should we say these Stranger Things? We know that The Last Knight was in production before Stranger Things became a thing last summer, but damn. This trailer is really pushing that Eleven vibe with Izzy. She’s also coming off as a little Katniss in this footage as well. There are even some Game of Thrones similarities, since Izzy is apparently the mother of dragons baby dinobots. Okay then, totally not weird.

And there’s more! From the Wall-E-like Skids to a moment that could have been lifted directly from The Iron Giant, this trailer can’t STOP being like other things. There’s a touch of Star Wars in the designs for the spaceships coming out of the ground, and Bay even borrows from himself in a moment that evokes The Rock (the ’90s action film, not the former wrestler). But there is one more thing that Bay has also brought over in this film, and it’s both troubling and disappointing.

What do you think about the new trailer for The Last Knight? Let’s discuss in the comment section below!

What Does Ridley Scott’s New ALIEN Title Reveal Mean for the Franchise’s Timeline?

Mild possible spoilers for the Alien franchise beyond this point! You’ve been warned.

Like all modern movies formed from the building blocks of previous franchises, the timeline for Alien is just a little bit wonky. Sure, the first four movies started out in chronological order (even if there were a few decades or centuries of time between when some of them took place), but when it was revealed that Prometheus was actually a prequel, everything changed — and if director Ridley Scott has his way, the timeline might be about to get a lot weirder.

Speaking with Fandango, Scott revealed that he has a very specific plan for what he wants to do with the franchise next if the upcoming film Alien: Covenant proves to be successful. “There will be another one before we, kind of literally and logically, clockwise, back into the rear back head of Alien,” he said. “It will go Prometheus, Awakening, Covenant… fairly integral where this colonization ship is on the way….”

In an exceedingly odd role reversal for any actor in a science fiction franchise, Covenant star Katherine Waterston then interrupted Scott to tell him that he was giving away too much information, saying, “Yes there will be more after this. I think that was the question.”

“If this is successful, and then the next one, and then there will definitely be three more,” Scott concluded.

Obviously the big news from this is that the next Alien movie already has a title: Awakening. But hang on a minute — is it going to take place between Prometheus and Covenant?

Now, it’s easy to assume that Ridley Scott misspoke and meant to put Awakening after Covenant. The bulk of Prometheus took place in 2093, and based on what costume designer Janty Yates told Collider back in 2015, Alien: Covenant supposedly takes place ten years later, which would be 2103. Alien takes place in 2122, so surely if Scott wanted to “literally” sync up to the beginning of the franchise, he’d keep going forward into that nineteen year time window rather than backward, right?

Then again, maybe he meant what he said. It’s not unprecedented for Alien films to occur right on top of each other, after all; Aliens and Alien3 took place back-to-back during the same year, 2179 (and so did the video game Alien: Colonial Marines, which I’m sorry I had to remind you about just now), so a film that took place between two already existing ones wouldn’t be completely outside the realm of possibility.

Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past Ridley Scott to pull a Fast and Furious and start jumping back and forth along the timeline — especially since technically he said there’ll be “another one” before the franchise goes full circle. That would mean that Mystery Alien film #2 would be the one that syncs up, not Awakening, right? Unless he’s planning to do a brand new trilogy that takes place during a different time period altogether. Is that what he’s planning?

Okay, confused yet? Because I’m about to put yet another wrinkle into your brain: what if the fact that the android names aren’t alphabetical anymore is a clue?

In previous Alien installments, the name of the synthetic character in each film starts with the next letter of the alphabet. First we had Ian Holm as Ash in Alien: then there was Lance Henriksen as Bishop in Aliens and Alien3; then Winona Ryder as Call in Alien: Resurrection, and finally Michael Fassbender as David in Prometheus. But the android that Fassbender’s playing in Covenant is called Walter, which, I hate to break it to you, is not a name that starts with “E.” Is this some kind of hint that the timeline’s about to get real confusing, or maybe that Covenant doesn’t take place when we think it does?

Who knows? Guess we’ll find out for ourselves when Alien: Covenant hits theaters on May 19. In the meantime, let us know your Alien theories in the comments below!

Images: 20th Century Fox

How acidic is a xenomorph’s blood?

Weird Al’s New Box Set Includes a Full LP of Rare Tracks, MEDIUM RARITIES

“Weird Al” Yankovic has a huge box set coming out soon… or rather, an accordion set—we suppose—since the 15 discs (and exclusive 100-page book) are packaged in a replica of the parody master’s accordion. And like any good fan of Al, we’re deeply excited. Included as part of the set are Yankovic’s 14 studio albums, but the main point of interest here is Medium Rarities, a 23-track compilation of songs recorded between 1978 to now that you probably haven’t heard before. In a new video promoting the LP (above), a side-scrolling video game version of Yankovic literally runs through the tracklist, which includes everything from an early single version of “My Bologna” to a new version of “Happy Birthday” recorded this year.

The tracks are ordered chronologically, and Yankovic recently told us that the CD consists of “odds and ends, basically, but stuff that we thought that fans would be interested in, and stuff that certainly should be included on any kind of comprehensive box set.” He also compared the record to looking at old baby photos:

“I can’t say that I’m proud of them, but it’s part of history and I think that it’s important for people to know that I wasn’t always a polished artist. Things back then were pretty crude and amateurish, and I’d like to think that I’ve improved a lot over the years. I think you can see a lot of improvement between the first track and the last few tracks on the rarities album.”

Check out the tracklist below, pre-order here if you so wish, and revisit our interview with Yankovic here,

Medium Rarities tracklist

“Take Me Down”
“My Bologna (Capitol single version)”
“Yoda (demo)”
“Dr. Demento Jingle”
“Pac-Man”
“Dare To Be Stupid (instrumental)”
“Jurashiku Park”
“Headline News”
“Since You’ve Been Gone (karaoke)
“The Night Santa Went Crazy (extra-gory version)”
“Spy Hard”
“Lousy Haircut (from The Weird Al Show)”
“Homer and Marge”
“The Brain Song (from the 3-D film Al’s Brain)”
“30 Rock Theme Parody”
“Super Duper Party Pony (from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic)”
“Sir Isaac Newton vs. Bill Nye (from Epic Rap Battles of History)”
“Let the Pun Fit the Crime (from Wander Over Yonder)”
“Hey, Hey, We’re the Monks (from Galavant)”
“Comedy Bang! Bang! Theme”
“It’s My World (And We’re All Living In It) (from Milo Murphy’s Law)”
“Happy Birthday (new version)”
[the video doesn’t actually say, maybe it’s a super special secret?!]

Featured image: Legacy Recordings

Weird Al tells us all about his particularly bad day…

IRON FIST Episode Six Recap: Long Live the Iron Fist

Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the Iron Fist episode,”Immortal Emerges from Cave.” If you haven’t watched yet, in the words of Colleen Wing: “That would be a mistake.”

The Iron Fist is back and you’re gonna be in trouble / hey la, hey la, Iron Fist is back! Or something like that. Now that the Hand knows the Iron Fist has left K’un L’un and shown up in New York, they’re rounding up their veritable rogues gallery of fighters and assassins to try to take him down. We see a pair of Russians abandon their job of butchering some meat in a restaurant kitchen, a Korean scientist pause in extracting venom from spiders, and a well-dressed Japanese man finish off his last victim at a karaoke bar with the cord from a microphone. They all receive the same message, each in their own language: The time has come.

Rand Industries has hired a crisis-management adviser to try and spin the issues that have arisen from Danny’s inadvertent missteps. The video of Danny consoling one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against Rand has now gone viral, and Joy informs Ward that Danny needs to be at the upcoming meeting so they can all figure out how they’re going to handle the problem. Trouble is, Danny’s more focused on tracking down all of the warehouses Rand owns so he can determine where the Hand may be keeping Radovan’s daughter. When Ward demands Danny show up to the meeting later that day, he winds up the unwitting tag-along in Danny’s mission to investigate each of the Rand warehouses before it’s too late.

Ward and Danny hit the jackpot at the fourth warehouse on the list. They find the abandoned truck from the previous episode inside, the back doors still warped from the power of Danny’s Iron Fist punch. It’s mostly empty aside from one thing: the dead bodyguard’s head impaled on a sword. Ward wants to leave right away, since Rand doesn’t need to be connected to a murder scene – but Danny notices the message left for him identical to the one received by the assassins in the cold open. It’s an invitation, for him only.

Danny heads back to Colleen’s dojo to prepare for his first meeting with the Hand – a grand duel against their best fighters. Tradition dictates that he will have to face a series of challengers, each more difficult than the last. It was how he rose through the ranks during his training to become the Iron Fist. If he wins against the Hand, they’ll have to meet his demands – return Radovan’s daughter Sabina and remove their people from Rand Industries for good. Colleen wants to come along as backup but Danny says it’s something he has to do alone. It also explains the reason he’s back in New York after 15 years instead of guarding K’un L’un. The Hand is here; this is where the Iron Fist has to be too.

And so Danny shows up to the meeting place alone, walking into a courtyard filled with paper lanterns and trees. He approaches a fountain just inside the main door and announces his acceptance of the Great Duel against the Hand. Shortly after that, Madame Gao emerges to accept his terms; the two wash their hands in the fountain to complete the agreement and Gao leads Danny to the next room to face his first challenge. It’s the two Russians we saw chopping up meat – Grigori and Andrei Veznikov – and they don’t seem convinced that Danny is the Iron Fist, much less that he’ll pose much of a threat. Although the Russians try to goad Danny into making a deadly mistake, it doesn’t take long before he bests them, knives and all.

Danny’s next challenger is the Korean scientist – Alessa – and apparently, her love of spiders extends to her fighting style as well. She preys on Danny’s physical weaknesses and attempts to seduce him, getting close enough to stick him with small needles that are each tipped with Singing Spider venom. “You want to be free of all that is boiling inside of you to get out,” she taunts, trying to urge Danny to lose control of all the emotion he struggles to keep locked inside. “Don’t you want to be free of the burden of keeping all that in its cage?” Because of the venom’s effects, Danny is disoriented and weak, his moves sloppy. He swings out wildly at first until he remembers his training and stops Alessa just before she stabs him with a dagger, managing to overpower her and knock her unconscious. By now, Danny is limping visibly and showing signs of the toll these fights are taking on him, but he refuses to withdraw when Gao presents the option: “I’m not leaving without the girl.”

As talented a nurse as Claire Temple is, she can’t keep Radovan alive without help and so she and Colleen take him to the hospital where she used to work (you know, the one that fired her to try and cover up a giant conspiracy). She’s greeted somewhat frostily by her old boss, but they take Radovan away on a stretcher as a John Doe to try and tend to his wounds without raising any flags. Given the Hand’s wide reach, though, it was only a matter of time before they tracked down their missing chemist and they snatch him from under Claire and Colleen’s noses. The women race after the Hand-hired kidnappers, but by the time they catch up to the ambulance it’s empty; they took Radovan out by a different route.

Danny faces his third and final challenger – the Korean who also has a penchant for very sharp weapons. He invites Danny to choose one from the racks positioned around the room, but Danny declines: “I am the weapon.” As the fight begins and progresses, it’s clear that in spite of his earlier trials Danny is still a strong and capable fighter, holding his own against an opponent wielding multiple blades. They battle their way through scaffolding and by the time they emerge on the other side, Danny summons the power of the Iron Fist to cause the blade to break apart as his opponent brings it down for a killing blow.

Danny is seconds away from victory when Gao brings out Sabina at knifepoint and offers him a choice: if he kills his opponent, she will die, but if he withdraws from the duel her life will be spared. Weighing his options, Danny ultimately chooses to withdraw to save Sabina – but points out that Gao’s manipulation of the duel constitutes cheating and is a decision made without honor. She drops just enough hints over the course of their conversation to reveal she’s met Danny’s father Wendell, but when he demands to know more she lifts a hand and tosses him across the room by way of some unseen force. Danny takes the hint and leaves with Sabina, but continues to question his actions: “What was I supposed to do?”

EXTRA COMMENTARY

All throughout this episode, Danny receives counsel from an unnamed man in a robe (subtitles refer to him as the Thunderer). He seems to be a product of Danny’s own mind, since no one else can see him. In the comics, he’s Danny’s warrior mentor – so this is likely not the last we’ve seen of him.
After trashing his prescriptions to prove a point to Joy, Ward sinks further into the depths of his withdrawal. When he can’t get a refill from his doctor soon enough, he resorts to slamming his hand in a door to try and procure some pain meds from an urgent care center. I don’t think anyone realized how serious his problem is, least of all Ward.
Harold has been conspicuously absent these last couple of episodes. What’s going on with the Meachum patriarch?
Claire’s been hanging out with a certain hero for hire lately; she exclaims “Sweet Christmas!” while running after an ambulance.
We now know that Gao has been to K’un L’un at some point in her lifetime. Could we also get a flashback to a younger version of the character moving forward?

I’m guessing this isn’t the last we’ve seen of the Hand, but they definitely know now that Danny Rand is the Iron Fist. As we gear up to dive into the second half of the series, which characters are you most hoping to see? Let’s talk in the comments or on Twitter!

Miss any of our recaps? Catch up on them here!

Images: Netflix.

IRON FIST Episode Five Recap: Three’s Company

Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the Iron Fist episode, “Under Leaf Pluck Lotus.” If you haven’t watched yet, in the words of Colleen Wing: “That would be a mistake.”

The episode kicks off with a short montage: three women in business attire march down the street, each carrying an identical suitcase. As they each make their pitch to their potential customers (a businessman, a doctor and a drug dealer), we discover what they’re selling: a new form of heroin, one that’s been designed to prevent the human body from ever developing a resistance to it. In case you didn’t realize how sinister this is, each of their suitcases bears a tag with the same symbol Danny received on a note from the Yang Clan leader at the end of episode four. Drugs, pier access, Rand Industries – I’m starting to see how this all adds up.

Danny’s doing his own detective work on the sample that was included along with the note, and enlists the help of a Rand scientist named Sandi. She points out that a drug with these kinds of properties could lead to a major epidemic in New York City, and Danny says he’s going to personally look into the problem. He confronts Ward with the evidence that synthetic heroin is going to be smuggled into the city now that Rand has bought the pier away from the Yang Clan: drugs manufactured by the Hand. Ward dismisses Danny’s claims and says he has real business to handle in the real world, but if you thought that would be enough to deter the Iron Fist you haven’t been paying close attention.

Cut to: Colleen Wing’s dojo. She’s teaching a student and from the looks of things, they’re making great progress. It doesn’t take long to decipher who that student is: Claire Temple. We saw her looking at one of Colleen’s fliers at the end of season one of Luke Cage, so it was apparently just a matter of time before she decided to pursue the idea. Claire also seems to be the one character thread linking all of the Defenders together; no matter how hard she tries to live a normal life, she’s going to be pulled back into their orbit time and time again. During their cool down, Claire admits she’s still getting used to “bringing the hurt instead of fixing it”, but that she’s also “tired of people doing things for [her] all the time.”

Their training session is interrupted by Danny soon after, who shows up with an offer of takeout lunch for Colleen so he can pick her brain about the drug issue. Of course Danny’s concept of ordering takeout is bringing in something catered from his father’s favorite restaurant–candles, fancy silverware, the whole nine yards. He’s quick to insist that it isn’t a date but Claire picks up on some major vibes between Danny and Colleen and casually invites herself to lunch, too – mostly to run interference for her pal Colleen. (What a good friend, amirite?)

The three make awkward small talk before the conversation turns serious, and after Claire excuses herself Danny comes right out with the real reason for his showing up: he needs a way to gather more evidence to show Ward that drugs are being smuggled in through the pier. There’s a shipment arriving tonight, and he needs someone to watch his back. Colleen isn’t sure she’s up to the task but Danny insists that she is. Part of the reason she’s been doing those underground fight clubs is because she’s restless and unsatisfied. The drug would also be a threat to her students; by helping Danny, Colleen would be protecting their futures too. “If it helps, you can forget about rent this month,” he adds. “I bought your building.” How do so many of these superheroes turn out to also be billionaires? Colleen’s in, as long as the leak under her sink gets fixed.

Colleen and Danny show up at the pier to try and document some of that needed evidence. Each of the trucks are opened and inspected, but there’s no heroin in sight. Danny decides he needs a closer look and jumps into the back of the last truck while Colleen keeps an eye out. While Danny’s investigating the truck’s contents, he gets locked inside and the truck starts to drive away to a destination unknown. Colleen steals a van from a security guard and follows in pursuit.

Danny discovers a false back in the shipping container and ducks behind a tarp covering a door. Inside, there are still no drugs, but there is a man sitting comfortably and watching a soccer game. His name is Radovan, and he’s the chemist. He’s also not alone; a bodyguard stands up from the couch and charges towards Danny. The two of them fight all over the interior of the makeshift apartment, and they’re pretty equally matched, but in the process, Radovan gets stabbed in the chest. Danny eventually bests the bodyguard and takes Radovan with him, using the power of the Iron Fist to punch their way out the back. A quick jump onto the hood of Colleen’s stolen car and they’ve officially maneuvered their escape.

There’s just one little problem: Radovan is a wanted man in several countries, and not only is he a known criminal but the Hand will already have people out looking for him. The situation becomes even more complicated when Radovan reveals that the Hand has kidnapped his daughter Sabina as leverage to manipulate him into manufacturing more of that heroin. They take him back to Colleen’s dojo and enlist Claire’s help in trying to patch him up, but there’s only so much field medicine she can perform given the severity of Radovan’s injuries. He’s stable, but for how long? Claire is understandably terrified when she learns the Hand are involved; they were the people responsible for the death of her colleague in season two of Daredevil, not to mention the loss of her job.

Meanwhile, the truck has finally reached its destination, but without the package it was supposed to deliver. The bodyguard Danny bested meets with Madame Gao and other members of the Hand to explain what happened: “He punched through solid metal with his bare hands.” “Are you sure it wasn’t his fist?” Gao questions, examining the twisted metal left behind. Unfortunately for this bodyguard, there are consequences for failing the Hand, and Gao pulls a hidden blade free from her cane to exact his deadly punishment.

EXTRA COMMENTARY

A sideplot in this episode involves an ongoing lawsuit against Rand Industries over a plant in Staten Island that’s allegedly responsible for causing cancer in 15 people. When the Meachums roadblock the prosecution suing them on behalf of the affected families, one mother seeks out Danny to ask him to do something about it. It looks like Danny is going to continue to be caught between a rock and a hard place now that he’s officially a top dog at Rand.
Speaking of the Meachum family, Ward’s not doing so hot. We’ve seen him periodically take a pill here and there, but in this episode he finally downs the whole bottle. The pressures that come with the position are seriously getting to him.
Claire is pretty much done with running into superheroes at every turn, and I don’t blame her. Her reaction to learning Danny is another one is priceless, but she’s also going to put her faith in him the same way she has every other member of the Defenders. Claire Temple is the heart of these shows, without question.

The stakes are higher than ever before for the Iron Fist, but his journey is far from over. Were you happy to see a familiar face in episode five? Share your thoughts in the comments or come find me on Twitter and we’ll talk Claire Temple.

Be sure to check out our recap of the next episode of Iron Fist right here.

Images: Netflix.

IRON FIST Episode Four Recap: A Line in the Sand

Warning: This recap contains spoilers for the Iron Fist episode, “Eight Diagram Dragon Palm.” If you haven’t watched yet, in the words of Colleen Wing: “That would be a mistake.”

It’s not often we get an episode that picks up after a literal cliffhanger – or would that be cliffdropper? Danny’s still falling after being pushed from an open window by an unseen assailant, and while he manages to slow his descent by grabbing onto a light fixture he soon loses his grip. He’s saved by a ledge, but the impact of the fall is enough to knock him out.

When Danny regains consciousness after the opening credits, he’s nursing his probable concussion on a couch in the penthouse he was just roughly forced to leave. He soon learns that Ward was the one who pushed him out the window – “it’s what you do when you see someone trying to break in” – but before he and Ward can come to their usual verbal blows Harold walks in to break up the fight. Danny can’t believe his eyes at first – Harold looks exactly the same as he did 15 years ago – but then realizes that not only is Harold still alive, he also wasn’t hallucinating when his father’s former partner came to visit him in the hospital.

Harold finally tells the tale: he really was fighting cancer, and he was practically on death’s door when the Hand approached him with a cure. In essence, he was resurrected – something many Daredevil fans have speculated will happen to Elektra given her fate at the end of season two. Now that Harold is alive again thanks to the Hand, he’s in their debt – and since Danny is their sworn enemy as the Iron Fist, Harold needs Danny’s help in freeing him from his shackles. He’s been forced into hiding – and what’s worse, he can’t see Joy. Danny says he can’t do much because of the ongoing litigation blocking him from returning to Rand Industries, and Harold orders Ward then and there to drop the lawsuit and let Danny back in the company.

Colleen continues to weigh over the ramifications of participating in that illegal cage fight – especially after one of her students films the match and posts it online. While she’s made a point of mentioning that there’s no honor in fighting for money, it also looks like it might not be about the money for her – not really. After a failed sparring session with a practice dummy, she returns to the ring – and holds her own not just against one fighter, but two. While it’s super thrilling to watch Colleen Wing beat down a couple of dudes twice her size, one can’t help but wonder which part of herself she’s sacrificing by engaging in these fights to try and chase the high of winning. Danny certainly seems to be on to her later; he resets her pinky finger from a failed Leopard Punch, but doesn’t press her further on the details. If she’s getting in over her head, it might be a lesson she has to learn the hard way later on.

At the official press conference for Danny’s return to the fold of Rand Industries, Ward warns him to stick to the script without any deviating. When reporters begin clamoring for a quote (including one from the previously-established New York Bulletin), Danny manages to sidestep an inquiry about his time in a psychiatric hospital by emphasizing Ward and Joy’s concern for his well-being. “I couldn’t have come back strong without them,” he says, deliberately looking in Joy’s direction.

Danny’s first official day at Rand doesn’t come without its complications. When he tries to book a meeting with Joy to discuss the pier deal she made in the last episode, he’s brushed off by her assistant. He’s been given his father’s old office – complete with the desk that still has Danny’s monster stickers stuck underneath – but as he sits down to try and get to work he’s never looked more like a little kid. The truth is: Danny’s not cut out for an office job, and as the day goes on he proceeds to make some decisions that make him a very unpopular person with the board. When he uses his controlling share of Rand to insist that the company sell a drug at cost instead of raising the price to make a profit, Ward and Joy share a glance that says it all: when it comes to the future success of Rand Industries, they’re going to have to keep Danny out of the way. Joy agrees to take that meeting with Danny to discuss the pier deal after all.

Danny and Joy head back to the suite at which Hogarth’s firm is letting him stay, and without telling the complete truth he goes into some of the history of how he became the Iron Fist. To make a long story short: once he learned about the “job”, he knew he wanted it – and so he fought long and hard to earn the right to have it, even though everyone at the monastery doubted his qualifications. There’s a part of Danny that still wonders whether it was his destiny to become the Iron Fist or merely the strength of his own “stubborn will” – and as he reveals to Joy, he’s not certain it was all worth it in the end. Their catch-up session is soon interrupted by a group of men in suits at the door; they drag Joy out the door and wield hatchets when Danny follows. In a fight sequence that progresses down the length of the hallway and inside an enclosed elevator, Danny takes down each of Joy’s captors one by one – but allows one of them to flee, since he knows he’ll be able to track them to where they came from: the Golden Sands.

A tip from Colleen gives Danny more answers: it’s the name of a restaurant that serves as a cover for a local Triad mafia, the Yang Clan Company. Danny heads over to confront the head of the Yang Clan, who claims they only wanted Joy to interrogate her on why Rand stole the pier away from their organization. As soon as Danny name-drops the Hand, it’s more than enough to scare them away from any further involvement.

As thanks for securing the pier, Madame Gao escorts Harold out of his penthouse to where he can observe Joy from a distance. Harold spots a fresh bruise on her face and immediately demands to know who’s responsible. Shortly afterwards, the Yang Clan Company receives a visit from the Hand – along with Harold, disguised in a mask, who exacts revenge on the man responsible by putting a sword through his head.

Danny’s back in his hotel suite doing some tai chi when he receives a mysterious note at his front door from the leader of the Yang Clan: This is the answer for which you seek, along with a red symbol drawn on a single piece of paper.

EXTRA COMMENTARY

Ward invokes the name of another Defender when discussing Danny’s building-scaling antics: Daredevil. I wonder if we’ll be hearing any mentions of the other two members of Danny’s eventual team?
Danny waving at Hogarth during the Rand press conference was a small, adorable moment.
Am I the only one who thought Ward was going to seduce that Bulletin reporter in order to get her to ditch her story? He wound up taking a different route – and got Danny painted as an honorable businessman in the press. What could he be up to?
This episode marks the first instance in which we see the dragon tattoo on Danny’s chest. We get a shot of his glowing fist when one of the Yang Clan’s members attempts to chop it off with a hatchet, which breaks apart at the impact.

Things are definitely ramping up for the Iron Fist. What were your favorite parts about this episode? Let us know in the comments or seek me out on Twitter and we’ll talk!

You can do it! Read episode 5’s recap right here!

Images: Netflix.