'Iron Fist' Season 2 Was Marvel's Most Obvious Idea
Iron Fist found its way in Season 2. It's been out for two weeks, and we hope you've watched before reading this. Needless to say, spoiler alert.
The first season ended with Danny Rand needing to prove why he deserves to hold the Iron Fist. Season 2 addresses this right away, and takes it to the extreme: Danny gets completely stripped of his power. Davos steals the Iron Fist and everything that comes with it; the responsibility to protect Ku'n-Lun, his ego, and his entire life's purpose. Danny is knocked out, his body limp, tattoo scraped off, tied up and tortured as the heart of the dragon is sucked from his spirit. If you wanted someone to be punished for Season 1, it's here, and it's excruciating to watch.
What follows the midpoint, after Danny loses the fist, is a show that's evolved its identity. Showrunner Raven Metzner responds to last season, and finds not only Danny's purpose but the show's purpose. He also manages to creatively disguise what is the biggest, yet most obvious, twist on any of Marvel's Netflix shows. He does so via a pretty sad love story. It's not sad because of tragedy or hardship. It's two people growing apart in the most average, normal way possible.
The failing romance between Colleen Wing and Danny Rand is simply two people who aren't meant to be, and probably never were good for each other anyway. It's why the top half of the series falls flat. The dialogue dredges up old wounds, and succeeds in convincing audiences Danny is still an awful person. The only difference between Season 1 and Season 2 in that respect is that Danny owns his shit, which is at least respectable. Without Danny needing to convince viewers that he's worthy of being the series lead, Colleen Wing is given time to shine outside the context of their relationship.
Without the fist guiding his every decision, Danny comes to recognize wealth is his superpower— all without the prodding of other characters (like that wholeheartedly genuine, but cringeworthy scene in The Defenders where Luke explains white privilege). This revelation leads Danny to offer his power to someone he believes can use it better: Colleen Wing.
"It may be something you need, but it's not something I can give," Collen tells Danny at first. They've been having communication problems, and at first Colleen takes it as Danny shoving off all his responsibility on her, like he's done for the entirety of the series. But it's actually Danny's first moment of clarity, like ever, in his entire life.
Colleen Wing and Danny Rand were in a toxic, survival relationship. They both needed to rescue or save one another at any given time; Danny needed Colleen to help him survive in modern day New York, and Colleen helped him survive. He used her for stability. Until the Iron Fist Season 2 finale when they end their relationship, that was the entire point of her character. They really couldn't co-exist or grow independently or together.
They both took time to look inward, and the last six episodes took advantage of those two competing narratives to introduce its first comprehensive storyline. The mysterious box Colleen Wing finds very early in the season comes back into the picture and she discovers the real reason she feels lost. The finale leads us to believe Danny and Colleen's first meeting in that park was far from a coincidence; you don't just happen to walk up on the daughter of a previous Iron Fist. Especially since Colleen's mother appears to still be alive in New York City.
In the end, Colleen takes up the mantle of Iron Fist, or Daughter of the Dragon, if you will. Danny is no longer the Iron Fist, he's a Iron Fist (one of many living, if you count Orson Randall), and that works so much better for the series. The character evolution celebrates canon, yet overwrites it. And not in reaction to backlash but in spite of viewers capping the potential. Iron Fist might just be the kung-fu show that it seemed destined to become.
