The first episode of Iron Fist (2017).
After fifteen years in the Himalaya and thought dead, Danny Rand returns to his home in New York City, only to see that much has changed and proving others that it is really him is not as easy as he thought.
This episode provides examples of the following tropes:
- Angry Guard Dog: Subverted with Joy's Rottweiler, who gets calmed down by Danny quite easily, despite breaking into her home.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite the world they live in, Joy and especially Ward have some serious trouble believing that Danny is who he claims to be. However, Harold is more open to the idea:Harold: Stranger things have happened.
- Bait-and-Switch: Joy appears willing to listen to Danny's claims, but she's just Slipping a Mickey in the tea she gives him.
- Book Ends: Big Al introduces himself to Danny while the latter is listening to music under a blooming tree. The episode ends with Danny finding Big Al dead of a drug overdose resting against the base of the same tree.
- The Bully: As shown in a flashback of Danny, Joy, and Ward playing Monopoly, Ward was this to Danny as a child, constantly picking on him for seemingly no reason other than his father telling him that rules are for pussies. Danny later also mentions a few other times he tormented him. Despite this, Ward tries to gaslight Danny when he brings it up to prove his identity.
- Call-Back: As if acknowledging the previous Netflix Marvel series, the episode proper kicks off with a hiphop tune despite taking place in a very upmarket and white neighborhood.
- Doubles as a Mythology Gag; Power Man and Iron Fist were paired in the comics.
- Continuity Nod: The phone article about the deaths of Danny's parents and the supposed death of Harold Meachum are from the New York Bulletin.
- Cuckoo Nest: Danny is drugged by Joy and sent to an asylum, where his claims of being Danny Rand will be ignored.p
- Driven to Suicide: Big Al, the friendly hobo Danny meets, apparently commits suicide by overdose.
- Faking the Dead: Harold Meachum faked dying of cancer years ago for reasons yet unknown.
- Fan of the Past: Big Al thinks humanity was perfect as hunter-gatherers, not like the so-called advanced, civilized society.
- Feet-First Introduction: Showing that our hero is barefoot.
- Foreshadowing:
- Danny walks into Colleen's dojo and says "I want to challenge your master." Bakuto? One of the five fingers of the Hand? Sworn enemy of the Chaste and the masters of K'un-Lun? Yeah, Danny does want to challenge her master.
- Harold's remark about Kyle ("Get them while they are young. Give them twice what they are worth; it inspires loyalty") foreshadows the cult like methods the Hand use for recruitment. That sort of grooming behavior is also common among abusers, sociopaths, and narcissists.
- Friend to All Living Things: Danny displays an otherwise unused ability to calm a suspicious guard dog.
- Gangsta Style: One of the men who comes to shoot Danny dead fires his gun this way from a distance.
- Good is Not Nice: Danny delivers brutal beats to the security guards Ward sent after him, and even uses pain to learn that it was Ward who sent them.
- Key Under the Doormat: Danny tries to enter his old house using a key he knows is hidden outside. It doesn't fit as the lock has been changed years ago.
- Look Both Ways: Subverted when Danny backs into the road without looking and nearly gets run over by a taxi; he uses his skills to flip over the taxi completely, to Joy's astonishment.
- The Man Behind the Man: The supposedly dead Harold Meachum is this for his son Ward.
- Mythology Gag: That hiphop tune in the opening might well be on Danny's iPod, a neat little nod to how he and Luke Cage are famously bros in the comics.
- Not Helping Your Case: Danny doesn't seem to get being gone and presumed death for fifteen years and showing up without any proof of who he is makes it hard to believe him. Then he decides to forces his way in and almost kill Ward twice to make him talk.
- Not Me This Time: Ward thinks that Danny is one of Harold's little secret tests of character. Harold assures him that it's not.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: While being chased by Ward's security guards, Danny picks up a Chinese mask at a festival, which naturally helps him for only a few moments.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: A Running Gag involves people telling this Barefoot Loon where he can get some cheap shoes. Danny eventually accepts a pair from Colleen.
- Product Placement: Apparently K'un-L'un provides its disciples with iPods. Or has a way to charge them, as it's the one Danny had when his plane crashed.
- Revealing Skill: Colleen Wing is skeptical of Danny until she sees him fight off several assassins outside her dojo. This apparently has a lot to do with why Harold starts taking him seriously as well.
- Rule of Three: Big Al introduces himself to Danny under a blooming tree, offering advice on the internet and pissing in your shoes so the bad juju of the previous wearer doesn't get you. The second time under the tree, he gives Danny a sandwich salvaged from a bistro and offers advice about how to find food, how mankind has drifted from their hunter-gatherer past. The third time, Danny finds him there, dead of a drug overdose.
- Shout-Out: Big Al meets Danny while the latter is meditating under a flowering tree. Like the Buddha.
- Unusually Uninteresting Sight: While Danny is trying to use the elevator to reach the top executive floors, one of the Rand Corporation employees enters the elevator and then exits on her floor without even noticing the clearly homeless guy literally behind her.
- On the other hand, played realistically on the streets of New York. A random hippy with no shoes isn't the most normal thing, but, hey, it's New York.Danny: That's my building.
Hot Dog Guy: You should sell it and buy some shoes.
- On the other hand, played realistically on the streets of New York. A random hippy with no shoes isn't the most normal thing, but, hey, it's New York.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Danny befriends a homeless man named Big Al, and they share two scenes together. When Danny sees him a third time, he's overdosed on drugs.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: Ward was apparently trying to gain his father's approval throughout his life.
- You're Insane!: Ward says this to Danny after seeing him again for the first time in fifteen years.
