A Few Notes on Mary and Walker (Iron Fist)

*Iron Fist season 2 spoilers.*

Long before Marvel gave us Steven and Marc (and Jake,) we got Mary and Walker (and a likely Alter #3, though we never got to meet them.) As I’ve gradually made my way through a rewatch of the Defenders sub-universe, I was curious to revisit this storyline in the second season of Iron Fist and see what I think about it now that I’m more knowledgeable about DID than I was the first time around. Be prepared for some inevitable Moon Knight comparisons here. (Note: I’m still very much a layman, though. What follows is purely my own opinion, and I know that others are more qualified to talk about this character than I am.)

I will say that part of the issue with the show’s portrayal of this system comes from framing their dissociative identity disorder as a reveal. We, like Danny, meet Mary first, the bubbly artist who’s new to the city and looking to make connections. When we follow her home and we see post-it notes around the apartment warning her not to leave, it’s meant to be “creepy.” When we see her responding to those notes by self-soothing and listening to the sound of running water, it’s meant to be “weird.” From the first episode of the season, we’re supposed to be asking, “Whoa, what’s the deal with Mary?”

But of course, it’s not just Mary. Walker is there too, the ex-military mercenary hired to spy on Danny and Colleen. Walker is soft-spoken and eerily calm, dangerously capable with weapons and hand-to-hand combat—she’s able to best the Immortal Iron Fist, after all! She’s laser-focused on doing her job, getting paid, and moving on, and she’s irritated that Mary interferes when she fronts.

Okay, let’s get into it. There’s a lot going on here that isn’t great. The suspenseful “reveal” of Walker and her whole vibe gives off an “evil alter” feel, and if that’s not enough, Walker learns late in the season that there may be a third alter in their system, when she realizes that neither she nor Mary know how they escaped when Walker’s unit was captured in Sokovia. Given that our only hard and fast evidence of this alter is Walker waking up surrounded by the dead bodies of her captors, this also gives off “evil alter” vibes.” When she meets with a therapist to discuss the possibility of a third alter, he seems ready to commit her then and there, on the grounds that this unnamed alter sounds violent and dangerous.

As with Jake Lockley, I don’t want to discount the possibility that this alter is a protector. During their capture, Walker and Mary were in a truly horrific situation—repeatedly tortured, raped, and forced to watch the rest of Walker’s unit killed in front of her—and all of Walker’s skills weren’t enough to get them out of it. This alter rescued their headmates and, understandably, took revenge on the men who tortured them.

Other elements fall into the “not great” category as well. The whole “switch and then immediately change your clothes/hairstyle” thing is kind of trite, an easy shorthand that’s overused in DID stories without much basis in real-life behavior. Also, it’s suggested that prior to her capture, Walker didn’t have DID and Mary only emerged during that ordeal. It’s my understanding that DID is rooted in early childhood trauma, so it doesn’t seem like someone could “become” DID as an adult. Not to mention, atypical timeframe seems to cement that Walker is the “original,” the “real one.” Certainly, that’s how Walker views it. That would’ve been a possible reaction possible anyway—Marc had that attitude toward Steven at first—but the narrative seems to validate that perspective. The therapist that Walker speaks with discusses Mary purely as an alter, never as a person, and he never asks to talk to Mary. And even though Danny and Colleen meet Mary first, once they learn about the DID, they seem to adopt a version of this attitude as well. Danny at least is mostly nice to Mary, but when she fronts at an inopportune moment, he treats her as an impediment, repeatedly asking how to get Walker back. Finally, I know that they get into a knockdown drag-out fight in the finale, but it’s kind of a dick move to Danny to end his fight with Walker by taking advantage of the triggers she disclosed to him, forcibly bringing Mary to the front.

There are some parts of this storyline that work. I like the depiction and the explanation given for the triggers that cause Walker and Mary to switch, with Mary being brought out by blinking lights and the sound of running water. And other people may diminish her personhood, but Mary never sees herself as anything less than real. When she discovers that the retirement plan Walker dreams about involves a cabin in the desert with “no triggers,” somewhere she could keep Mary buried indefinitely, Mary’s not having it, and she retaliates by trying to keep Walker from coming back out front and putting her plan in motion. It’s obvious that Walker and Mary don’t have much of a relationship—it doesn’t look like there’s any co-consciousness between them, and previous communication between them is mostly restricted to Walker’s threatening post-its. But in the second half of the season, Mary makes more of an overture. She realizes that Danny is going to need Walker to defeat Davos, so she allows them to switch, but not until after she’s made a video for Walker trying to appeal to her better nature, hoping Walker will ultimately decide not to suppress her.

So, on the whole, there are a few decent/interesting things here, but this storyline is pretty shaky. While I know that the Defenders universe shows came from different creative teams than the main MCU, it’s still probably a good thing that we didn’t get Moon Knight until last year. As with the Mandarin in Iron Man 3 versus Wenwu in Shang-Chi, it seems pop culture needed time to gain a little more knowledge and cultivate a desire to do things right. Steven, Marc, and Jake aren’t perfect representation, but their story is given way more consideration than Mary, Walker, and the third alter’s is.

Character Highlight: Danny Rand (Iron Fist)

I didn’t do a write-up specifically on Danny back when Iron Fist came out, although I did a few of the show’s supporting characters, and he remains the only Defender that I haven’t done a full write-up on yet.  I’m on record as being disappointed in the direction they went with for Danny.  Not to rehash all that again, but I’ll quickly hit the highlights.  I know that Danny is white in the comics, so casting Finn Jones for the show isn’t whitewashing – it’s in keeping with the comic, even if that comic is rooted in Orientalist/white savior tropes that feel outdated at best.  So, while the show didn’t precisely do anything wrong with the casting, I am disappointed that they didn’t take the opportunity to go in a different direction with the character.  However, given the character and the show that we wound up getting, I’m doubtful that any hypothetical #AAIronFist would’ve had writing that reflected well on his character, and Asian-American actors who went out for the role may have in fact dodged a bullet.

Because Danny?  I’m not a fan.  I know that my feelings about #AAIronFist and what might’ve been with more adventurous casting and far more interesting writing (again, that second part is critical) color my impressions of the character, but still, he’s no prize.  In fact, he’s a little bit like new Who’s series 8 version of Clara Oswald in that I’m not really sure what the writers think they’re doing with this character, and whether they entirely realize what they wrote.

The CliffNotes origin story:  as a child, Danny Rand (scion of the business giant Rand Industries) survives a plane crash that kills his parents and, as a result, is taken in by the monks of K’un-Lun.  Growing up in a mystical dimension makes for a rather unconventional childhood, and by the time Danny returns home to New York as a young adult, he’s become the Iron Fist, the keeper of a mantle passed down among the greatest of K’un-Lun’s martial artists and in possession of a power forged in the heart of a dragon.  The Iron Fist is supposed to guard the gates of K’un-Lun, but Danny has left the dimension altogether, both to reclaim his old identity (and billion-dollar company) back home and to fight the Hand in America.

There’s some cognitive dissonance between the character we’re informed of and the character we get.  I’ve already discussed Danny’s fight scenes in the first season, which do little to support the idea that he’s the greatest kung fu artist ever (because he uses the actual Fist so sparingly, it’s even more important that his kung fu be insanely impressive, and we really don’t get that.)  There’s a lot of talk about qi and how in-tune/centered Danny is, but more often than not, we get an emotionally-volatile kid who runs into things half-cocked and is easily goaded into ill-advised decisions by his enemies.

I think what they’re going for is that Danny left K’un-Lun way too soon and isn’t ready for the mental and emotional demands of his duty (the series argues that he’s all good on the physical side of things, but like I said, I don’t see it,) and to be fair, a couple characters remark that he’s a pretty terrible Iron Fist.  But over the season, I don’t see much of an intentional journey of him realizing he has to fight smarter, that he needs to reckon more with his emotions, etc.  Things just kind of happen, and I spend much of the season wondering why he’s the one calling the shots rather than Colleen and/or Claire.

As I’ve said, I do enjoy Danny more in The Defenders, although that’s really more about his place in the group dynamic than about improvements to the character.  He works better for me as a foil for the other characters – self-important, sort of blithely-naïve, and talking a lot about his qi – than as the main mover and shaker on his own show.  I like the incredulous “is this guy for real?” reactions to him from Matt, Jessica, and Luke.  Is that enough to make him worth it?  I’d have a hard time arguing that.  For my money, Iron Fist is Marvel’s first big TV misstep, and Danny himself is a major part of that.

Favorite Characters: Davos (Iron Fist)

I didn’t get a chance to see Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2 this past weekend (argh!), so today’s Marvelous Wednesday will be one more Iron Fist post.  In general, my policy is always to sit up and take notice when a former History Boy shows up on my screen, so I would’ve been glad to see Sacha Dhawan in Iron Fist anyway, but his character is, for me, another good point on the show.  Davos’s appearance in the second half of the season really helped me make it through to the finale (a few Davos-related spoilers.)

We hear about Davos long before we see him.  A friend of Danny’s from K’un-Lun, his name pops up now and then in Danny’s anecdotes about living in the mystical realm of heaven, and it’s clear that they were close.  To hear Danny tell it, they grew up together, training and working their butts off but also letting off steam and getting into some lighthearted trouble every so often.  When the grown-up Davos first appears on the scene, he’s mysterious enough that I wasn’t necessarily sure who he was, but hearing his name, I wasn’t surprised.

Through Davos, we get our best look at K’un-Lun.  Not just from the (brief) flashbacks we get of him and Danny there.  No – from who Davos is and how he acts.  Seeing him interact with Danny, as well as other characters, I finally feel like I have an idea of what K’un-Lun is about.  Davos is absolutely devoted to his home and trained hard for the chance to become an Iron Fist.  As he explains it, he was hurt when Danny was chosen instead of him, but he was able to put those feelings aside in the name of wanting what’s best for K’un-Lun.  However, he also ably demonstrates how poorly the monks at K’un-Lun equip their charges to deal with their emotions.  Davos’s feelings of disappointment and envy aren’t gone, just pushed down, and when Danny leaves K’un-Lun to return to New York – not only neglecting his duty to guard the city, but seemingly tossing aside the sacred mantle that Davos would’ve given everything to take up – it all comes rising back up.

For my money, Davos’s mini-arc might be the best-written of the season.  His character isn’t a slamdunk on all fronts (I don’t get the point of his callousness in his first appearance, before we know who he is,) but he really works for me as a friend sliding toward antagonism.  I get how deeply betrayed he feels by Danny leaving, and I understand how Danny’s apparent abandonment of K’un-Lun could make him lose it.  For him, it’s like Danny breezed into K’un-Lun as a tourist and “tried on” their way of life, seeing how he looked in it, and was somehow rewarded with K’un-Lun’s greatest honor.  When he grew bored of it, for all intents and purposes, he dropped it, leaving the city undefended and, to Davos, making light of the responsibility Davos prized so highly.  I completely get all that, and Davos sells me on the unhealthy ramifications of the “stay Zen at all costs” philosophy the monks taught him far more than Danny ever does (I don’t go out of my way to complain about Danny in every Iron Fist post I write; it just sort of happens.)

Finally, I like to see Davos trying to stay on top of things while clearly wrongfooted about being outside K’un-Lun for the first time in his life.  His confusion about commonplace New York things is good, both his wariness of most of what he encounters and his acquiescence to certain things he begrudgingly deems not a complete waste.  I could watch an entire episode of Claire introducing Davos to New York, easily.

Favorite Characters: Zhou Cheng (Iron Fist)

Yes, I’m fully aware that this character is only on the show for about ten minutes in the entire season.  I also know that he probably wouldn’t have made quite as large an impression on me if I hadn’t known the real-world saga of Lewis Tan auditioning for Danny or been primed for his appearance by rumblings online about how great his scene was.  However, the fact remains that his scene is by far my favorite thing about Iron Fist, it’s the only scene from the whole season that I’ve rewatched (and then several times,) and if Iron Fist is renewed, I hope to see much more of Zhou.  In light of all that, I think I’m justified in giving him a write-up (spoilers for “The Blessing of Many Fractures” and some comic history on Zhou.)

Any discussion of Zhou has to begin, naturally, with the fighting.  After 7 4/5 episodes of mostly muddy, lackadaisical, visually-obscured fight scenes, Zhou enters the show in a well-lit scene of skillful, entertaining kung fu.  His fluid moves and creative approach are paired with an engaging cockiness, taunting the deathly-serious Danny throughout and generally having a rollicking good time fighting what he deems a sorry excuse for an Iron Fist.  Oh yeah, and the whole time, he’s falling-down drunk.  His drunken-style fighting – staggering and weaving, using his imbalance to his advantage and relishing the way Danny underestimates him – is so much fun, and for the duration of this fight, he’s basically the man.

Zhou’s inebriation would’ve been great even if it were just an excuse to have him fight drunken style, because it’s so awesome.  However, the show gives an in-story reason for it that definitely contributes to my wish to see more of him.  Danny scorns Zhou’s drunkenness, asking what his master would think, but Zhou doesn’t take the bait.  Instead, he points out that he’s in fact acting on his master’s instructions.  While other fighters “chase the dragon,” he explains, his needs to be “sedated,” lest it break it and wreak havoc.  It’s not fully spelled out, but this is a reference to Zhou’s comic history.  As he states on the show, he is a disciple of Ch’i-Lin.  What the show doesn’t mention is that Ch’i-Lin is a creature – a demon, I think, with some resemblance to a dragon – that hungers for the eggs of the dragon that gives an Iron Fist their powers, and it possesses its servants to kill Iron Fists.  The idea of Zhou being imbued with strength of a hungry demon/dragon is cool anyway, and the thought of him needing to stay intoxicated to keep that demon under control is even more intriguing.  I’d love to see him fight Danny at least a few more times as is, letting Danny assess him as a formidable but ultimately beatable foe, before unleashing his “dragon” and showing Danny what he and Ch’i-Lin can really do.

On a side note, I like that Zhou is British here, even if his accent sounds like it wanders back and forth between Manchester and London.  It surprised me to find a number of comments online from those that were seemingly bewildered by Zhou having a British accent, wondering where on earth it came from (England) and how such a thing could possibly be (he’s from England.)  It’s a detail I like – it stands to reason that the Hand would have operations all over and recruits from various parts of the world.  Why not Great Britain?  And if they have Chinese agents working in Hell’s Kitchen, why not a British one working in China?  Even though I know the perpetual foreigner myth is a powerful one, it’s still striking to see people being utterly confused at the thought that a man of Chinese descent working in China could have been born in a western country and moved east in service of the shadowy organization he works for.  Is it easier to accept Danny’s fist glowing than it is to accept Zhou Cheng being British?  Yeesh.

Favorite Characters: Colleen Wing (Iron Fist)

I’ve spent a few Wednesdays now complaining about Iron Fist, but as I’ve said, the series does have its bright points.  Some came from elsewhere in Marvel’s Netflix show universe – like the always-awesome Claire Temple, who I’ve already written about – while others made their debut appearance in this show.  Today is my first post discussing what I do like about Iron Fist (a few Colleen-related spoilers.)

Within moments of meeting Colleen, you can tell she’s probably destined to be “the long-suffering Colleen,” since her first meeting with Danny involves what appears to be a shoeless homeless guy with boundary issues presuming she speaks Mandarin and asking for a job at her dojo.  As she begins getting to know him and his actual identity as Danny Rand, long-lost heir-apparent of Rand Industries, their interactions are marked with him repeatedly doing what she’s told him not to do.  “Don’t come back to my dojo.”  “Don’t mess with my students.”  “Don’t pay my rent for me.”  “Don’t dive headlong into dangerous situations without a game plan.”  And yet, though this dynamic plays out numerous times, Colleen and Danny continue to grow closer – needless to say, it’s a frustrating relationship.

Which is a shame, because Colleen, by and large, is pretty great.  She runs her own (struggling) dojo in Chinatown, dedicated to her craft but regrettably light on funds since she’s focused on finding students who are serious about martial arts instead of disinterested hobbyists looking for a fad.  She also works mostly with teens and young adults from low-income families and rough neighborhoods, looking to give them training that betters their lives.  Not just a physical activity to burn off energy and keep them out of trouble, but a philosophy to ground and guide them.

Colleen’s ideals are important to her, but her devotion to them isn’t as absolute as she’d like it to be.  One of the most interesting threads of the season for me is the minor plot of her beginning to take part in cagematch fights for money.  Though she chastises one of her students early on for cage fighting, telling him that fighting for profit and personal glory is against the Bushido Code, she finds herself at the cages one night, where she starts the evening with everyone assuming she’s roadkill waiting to happen and ends it with a new badass title:  Daughter of the Dragon.  It’s hard to say for sure what draws her to the fights and what makes her stay.  At first, the money is at least somewhat a factor, a last-ditch means of keeping the lights on at the dojo, but it’s more than that.  An outlet for her frustrations?  An ego boost?  A way to feel powerful and dangerous when she doesn’t like being made to feel defenseless?  The show unfortunately drops the plot soon after it begins, so we don’t delve into it as much as I would like, but I enjoy this storyline and the questions it makes Colleen have about herself.

It also just makes for good TV watching, because Colleen is pretty legit.  It’s cool to watch her in these brutal cage matches, taking on guys much bigger than her in a way that feels realistic – rather than the tiny women easily wailing on them, she fights hard for every victory she gets and relies on superior skill and smart tactics instead of pure strength.  And once she starts getting involved in Danny’s extracurricular superhero activities, she’s no slouch there, either.  Her hand-to-hand martial arts game is fairly on point, but for me, she’s probably most entertaining when she’s got a katana in her hands.  Is she Sunny or the Widow from Into the Badlands?  No, but I still love watching her swordfight.