Marvel and Netflix dropped Iron Fist Season 2 on Friday, September 7 under the guidance of new showrunner Raven Metzner. Metzner replaced season 1 showrunner Scott Buck, and the change is rather noticeable. Returning for Iron Fist Season 2 are: Finn Jones as Danny Rand/Iron Fist, Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing, Jessica Stroup as Joy Meachum, Tom Pelphrey as Ward Meachum, and Sacha Dhawan as Davos. The season also features Simone Missick reprising her role of Misty Knight from Luke Cage and The Defenders and introduces Alice Eve as Mary Walker.

It’s no secret that the first season of Iron Fist wasn’t well received by fans and critics. Many panned things from sub par fight scenes to jumbled and incoherent plots in the first season. I, myself, even heavily criticized the show, and found the lead in that season the least interesting character. It seemed the vast majority of Iron Fist suffered from needing to set up The Defenders. While Iron Fist Season 2 isn’t perfect, it seems Marvel and Netflix have fixed many of their mistakes to create a more entertaining and engaging arc for the characters.

Summary

The season picks up after The Defenders as Danny has made it his mission to protect New York City. Matt Murdock told him to protect his city, and Danny feels he’s now responsible. As the Defenders took down the Hand, various other gangs are vying for control of NYC. Danny now must find a way to prevent any of the various Triad gangs from taking total control. Meanwhile, after taking down her former mentor, Colleen Wing has resigned from training others and instead is working at a local community outreach shelter. Both are searching for where they belong in a post-Hand world. Both are questioning just how much they deserve their respective abilities and talents.

Ward Meachum seems to have come around completely to Danny’s side, and is running day-to-day operations at Rand Enterprises. He’s also been seeking help for his narcotics addiction which allows for some more subtle character growth this season. His sister Joy, who we last saw meeting with Davos at the end of Season 1 has teamed with the former Son of K’un-L’un so both can enact vengeance on Danny for taking what they felt belonged to them. Joy wants him to lose what’s important to him, as she did with her family while Davos, it’s revealed, wants the power of the Iron Fist. He feels he was cheated from the power and deserves it more than Danny.

The two hire Mary Walker, a modified version of Typhoid Mary, to gather information on Danny. However, her multiple personalities complicate things, allowing Danny and Colleen to learn they’re being watched. Calling in help from Misty Knight, the team must try to stop Davos and Joy from escalating the Triad war and finally decide just who deserves the power and responsibility that they have.

The Great

The overall highlight of the show, from the first season through the second, is Jessica Henwick’s Colleen Wing. Her character shines every time she’s on screen, and the arc her character takes is one I wasn’t expecting. Colleen’s struggling to accept the power and skills she has from her Hand training. She’s turning away from fighting, but she can’t help be drawn back into the world. Whether it’s dealing with Danny needing to use the Iron Fist or not being able to stop herself from protecting others, Colleen is surrounded by battles. And the choices she makes throughout the season have a huge impact on the show going forward. Henwick carries the show squarely on her shoulders, and she does it seemingly effortlessly.

As I stated, Marvel and Netflix seem to have corrected a lot of the problems in the show for Iron Fist Season 2. For starters, the season is the first of any of the shows that’s been shortened to ten episodes instead of thirteen. As the four primary shows have been released, more and more criticism seems to fall on how some of the story lines are drawn out over too many episodes. Dropping Iron Fist Season 2 to ten episodes creates a much tighter story, and keeps us from having too many “filler” episodes. In addition, the show focuses on one primary arc.

The Good

Where Season 1 seemed to shift focus every four to five episodes, Season 2 focuses solely on Davos as the primary villain. While Danny must also deal with various Triad gangs and Mary Walker, the conflicts with them stem directly from the primary conflict with Davos. This is a huge improvement, as it felt like the first season was directionless in terms of its plot. Here, we learn the conflict early on and Danny, Colleen, and Misty must find a way to stop it at all costs.

In addition, the cast additions this season are wonderful. Adding Simone Missick’s Misty Knight not only adds connectivity to other shows, but the Misty/Colleen pairing is just pure delight whenever they’re on screen together. Seeing the two actually fight together in Luke Cage Season 2 was a great tease for what we get this season. Iron Fist Season 2 merely ups the ante, showing the two working together more and more, hopefully hinting at a Daughters of the Dragon.

Alice Eve’s Mary Walker is also a fun addition to the show. The Marvel Netflix shows haven’t been shy about handling real world issues, and Eve is playing a character with dissociative identity disorder. She does a wonderful job shifting from lighthearted, caring Mary to intense, dangerous Walker. Her role reminds me of a cross between Rachel Taylor’s Trish Walker and Wil Traval’s Will Simpson from the Jessica Jones Season 1.

The show also did a great job improving fight scenes, especially with Finn Jones. His fights were critiqued heavily from Season 1, but here you can tell he’s been working more and has a better understanding of the choreography. Henwick’s fights are amazing as ever, but it’s great to see overall improvement.

The Bad

The show isn’t without its faults. One of the biggest is the use of Joy and Ward Meachum. It seems that with the corporate conflict solved at the end of Season 1, the two are roughly directionless. Joy’s pairing with Davos makes sense at the start of the show, but the character seems to waiver every other episode on whether she’s doing the right thing. This may tie in with the season’s overall theme, but it leaves you wondering if the writers merely didn’t know what else to do with her.

Conversely, Ward’s arc is a much more enjoyable one. He’s running the company for Danny, and is doing everything to support him in all endeavors. We even get great character moments where Ward is seen going to Narcotics Anonymous, struggling to deal with accepting he has a substance abuse problem. Tom Pelphrey does an amazing job with the character in these scenes, and sometimes they’re highlights. However, his entire arc could be removed from the show without a problem. Ward does very little to impact the overall plot until the very end. A great arc is wonderful, but without consequence to the overall plot it feels somewhat unnecessary.

Overall, the show still has it’s down moments in various episodes. While the show was cut to ten episodes, we still get a handful of scenes or even episodes where it feels like little is happening. Iron Fist Season 2 truly picks up at the halfway mark, where the stakes are raised and the ending of the show is left in question. But it sometimes feels like the show is dragging. More than once I found my attention drawn from my screen in early episodes. But once it picks up, it’s hard not to watch what’s going on.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Iron Fist Season 2 is head and shoulders above the first. Jessica Henwick’s performance is truly the standout, just as it was in the first season. Finn Jones has improved greatly as Danny, in part due to the writing and show direction. The cast does a great job, particularly Jessica Henwick, Alice Eve and Tom Pelphrey. With a tighter plot and greatly improved fight scenes, this season was far more enjoyable to watch. It doesn’t hurt that the final scenes leave me with more shock and awe questions than almost any other Marvel Netflix show has. I found myself immediately wanting to know if we’d have a third season, which was something I couldn’t say at all from the first season.

If you found yourself not enjoying or even watching Season 1, give Iron Fist Season 2 a shot. I guarantee you’ll be impressed with Henwick, as well as all of her scenes with Simone Missick (seriously Marvel, where is our Daughters of the Dragon show?!).

Final Grade: B-