The second episode of Iron Fist (2017).
Danny is admitted to a psychiatric hospital and continues his attempts to prove his identity. Meanwhile, Harold's interest in Danny's claims let on that he knows more than he seems to.
Tropes Included Are:
- Affably Evil: Simon, the inmate who tries to stab Danny at first, turns out to be a quite friendly fellow, if slightly disturbed.
- Apologises a Lot: Harold points out how often his meek assistant Kyle constantly says "Sorry".
- The Unapologetic: ...which leads Harold to reveal that after living under his abusive father and having to apologize every time he was whipped with a belt for making him exert himself, he refuses to apologize for anything.
- Which, fridge logic, indicates that Kyle probably also has a horrifically abusive father, and is probably why Harold was drawn to him.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Justified. Danny's doctor thinks that his talk of an Another Dimension and having superpowers is a sign of a mental disorder, despite that the Doctor lives in a world where aliens, super soldiers, and various other forms of superhuman beings are known to exist, because the Doctor has dealt with several cases of people believing they had powers but didn't since the Incident and Danny couldn't show him his powers when he asked him to (the drugs were interfering with his chi).
- Bad Boss: Harold bullies and belittles his assistant Kyle, ostensibly under the guise of instructing him.
- Bait-and-Switch: Colleen is apparently being stalked and ambushed by a group of thugs, and dispatches them with ease. They turn out to be students from her class.
- Bedlam House: Birch Psychiatric Hospital is full of patients who've been stuck there for years despite all reassurances of only needing a few days' worth of evaluation. The initial implication is that they're all victims of an oppressive system, but given that the doctor, initially reasonably skeptical of Danny's claims, follows up on his claims and starts to believe him, plus the fact that the guy initially claiming that all those guys "started on a 72 hour evaluation" was introduced trying to murder Danny with a fork...
- Big Brother Is Watching You: Harold Meachum has cameras all over Birch Psychiatric Hospital, allowing him to watch Danny's every move.
- Blood Knight: Danny says that only in battle he felt like he was truly alive. This becomes important later on, since his powers activate when he gets roughed up by Ward's goons.
- Break-In Threat: A variation; Harold Meachum returns to his hideout to find a message written on his window. He goes to wipe it off only to find it's been written on the outside of the window, and we then get a Reveal Shot to show his hideout is located near the top of a skyscraper.
- Call-Back: Danny states that the Iron Fist is the sole entity capable of defeating the Hand, first properly introduced in season two of Daredevil.
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Harold's reason to keep Danny alive is because he could prove valuable against the Hand. Ward apparently ignores his orders and tries to have him beaten to death anyway.
- Cassandra Truth: Played with. The homeless man calling himself Danny Rand, his family plane crashing in the Himalayan mountains, these are things the psychiatrist can believe; where he draws the line is at monks taking him in and giving him the powers of the Iron Fist.
- Crime of Self-Defense: Danny is restrained and force-fed drugs after he fends off an inmate who attacks him. The inmate turns up later as one of the men who try beating a straight-jacketed Danny.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The goons Ward sics on Danny stand little chance once he gets his chi going.
- Dr. Psych Patient: Danny wakes up to see Simon in a Labcoat of Science and Medicine, pretending to be a psychologist. It lasts until he tries to give Danny a Mercy Kill with a fork.
- Foreshadowing: Danny sees a mysterious hawk flying through the skies. It's completely uncommented on and seems like a
Big-Lipped Alligator Moment, but its significance becomes clear much later in the season. - Freudian Excuse: According to Harold, his own father used to beat him with a belt, therefore developing an attitude of never apologizing.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Harold is apparently somehow involved with the Hand and seems to be quite afraid of them.
- Hero Antagonist: Danny's psychiatrist sincerely wants to help him, he just has good reasons to believe that Danny suffers from delusions, because since the Incident many people developed delusions to have superpowers.
- Hope Spot: Danny finally gets his psychiatrist to believe that he truly is Danny Rand, and it looks like he's about to be released! Until... he starts talking about being a monk in another dimension and having superpowers, torpedoing his own chances even with that revelation. Best exemplified by the doctor himself, who goes from excited upon realizing the truth to slowly putting his notes away and going into psychiatrist-mode as Danny continues to talk.
- Lotus Position: Danny meditates on his bed, trying to summon his chi. A traditional Boddhisatva mantra, "om manipadme hum", "divinity, the jewel in purity, divinity".
- Meaningful Background Event: The doctor at the psych ward asks Danny where he went to school (homeschooled). Any other teachers? Danny starts listing them. He's barely started naming them when the doctor shuts his notes in wonder. Danny's telling the truth.
- Mercy Kill: Simon tries to give Danny one when he wakes up in the Birch Psychiatric Hospital.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain:
- Colleen Wing isn't willing to believe the Meachums are behind Danny's attempted assassination and being put in a mental hospital. Then Harold orders Ward to investigate Danny's connection with Colleen, and he tries to bribe her to sign papers saying that Danny is dangerous, which only convinces her that Danny is telling the truth.
- Ward manages to accidentally break Danny free when his call for Danny to be beaten (possibly to death) results in enough pain to knock Danny out of his drug-fueled haze, letting him finally summon the Iron Fist to escape.
- Power Incontinence: Of the "inability to activate powers" variety. The psychiatrist doesn't dismiss his story about having superpowers out of hand, but since he's not able to demonstrate them concludes he's simply delusional.
- Product Placement: Joy keeps several bags of M&Ms stashed in a filing cabinet in her office. They turn out to be a major plot point in the episode. The big Pepsi machine in the asylum, not so much.
- Pun: Ward saved Harold in his phone under the alias Frank N. Stein.
- Rage Breaking Point: After being accused by him one too many times of not being Danny, he freaks out and starts roughing up the doctor's office.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: The doctor treating Danny in the psych ward isn't on the Meachum payroll. When Danny provides a lot of meaningful details surrounding the ad the doctor found, he calls Joy and asks her about it, confirming that Danny really is who he says he is. Yes, prima facia, it's more reasonable that the smelly guy with no shoes who beat up security guards isn't Danny Rand. But the smelly guy with no shoes who is the same age as Danny Rand and who knows shit no random person could know? Probably Danny Rand.
- Revealing Cover-Up: Colleen Wing was likely not going to believe Danny at all until the Meachums decided to investigate Danny's One Phone Call to her.
- Shout-Out: One of the patients who is sicced on Danny says, "Ward Meachum sends his regards."
- Something Only They Would Say: As her test to make sure Danny is who he says, Joy sends him a jumbo bag of M&Ms. When he returns it without a single brown one left (as when they were kids, they always ate them together and didn't eat the brown ones), she knows it's him and breaks into tears. Later the psychiatrist also asks Danny about details of his childhood, that are confirmed by Joy to be true, which then convinces him that he really is who he says.
- Stealth Hi/Bye: Harold appears in Danny's sleeping room within moments when the lights are turned off.
- There Was a Door: Danny escapes the hospital by punching a steel door off its hinges.
- Tranquil Fury: Danny's ability to summon the Iron Fist requires that he be at peace. When he's being beaten to death and a fellow inmate tells him "Ward Meachum sends his regards"...
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Just when Danny thinks he can walk free because the psychiatrist finally believes he is Danny Rand, he gets told that he also believes he suffers mental issues and thus has to stay for treatment.
