When Iron Fist—Netflix’s latest collaboration with Marvel—debuted last week to dismal reviews, there may have been a few comic book and TV fans who considered skipping this 13-hour introduction to Finn Jones’s Danny Rand. But there were still more who were either (a) curious, and determined to judge the series for themselves, or (b) afraid that if they sat out this season of television, they would be in the dark for the upcoming superhero team-up of Rand, Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Matt Murdock a.k.a. Daredevil (Charlie Cox), and Luke Cage (Mike Colter), the crux of Netflix’s eight-episode series The Defenders.

As Marvel well knows, that’s the beauty of franchising. Because they’re connected, each Avengers film and Netflix season feels like must-see entertainment. But should they be? We all live busy lives. Do we really have 13 hours to spare for the sake of continuity?

Well, in case you don’t have time for Iron Fist but want to be in the know anyway, I watched the show for you—and recorded every morsel of information that could come in handy for The Defenders. If you’d prefer to watch for yourself, godspeed. But if you want to catch up quickly (or would like a few of the stranger elements of the show explained), follow along below the spoiler jump.

The basic premise of this show isn’t a spoiler, but just in case you’re completely in the dark on Iron Fist: Danny Rand is the only son of a wealthy New York business family. When he was a boy, Danny and his parents were on a plane that crashed in the Himalayas. The elder Rands died (à la the Thomas and Martha Wayne from Batman, or any number of superhero parents)—but Danny was rescued, and went to live in the mystical K’un-Lun monastery, where he trained in martial arts. He then earned (or stole, based on your perspective) the power of the Immortal Iron Fist—basically he can punch real hard—by defeating a dragon in a cave. (We never see more of the damn dragon than two glowing eyes in the dark so don’t tune in just to get your Game of Thrones fix.) 15 years after the crash, without telling his adopted monk family, Danny returns to New York with a scraggly backpacker’s beard, some slick moves, a glowing, deadly hand, and a desire to get some answers on what happened to his parents and the Rand Corporation that bears his name. So Bruce Wayne plus glowing hand plus some light cultural appropriation plus a potentially regrettable chest tattoo. Got it? Good.