Ward's loyalty is put to the test, while Danny works to figure out the connection between his father and the Hand, and the mysterious Bakuto pays a visit to Colleen's dojo.
- 13 Is Unlucky: Instead of exiting through the atrium like any supervillain worth their salt, Madam Gao stops at the thirteenth floor. Turns out it's where she works β using Rand Industries' resources to smuggle her drugs.
- After Action Patch Up: As Claire is busy elsewhere, Colleen stitches up Danny's wounds from his duel in the previous episode. As usual for this trope the UST leads to them having sex.
- Ambiguously Evil: Bakuto. He (and Colleen by extension) have prior knowledge of the Iron Fist, and he asks her to continue keeping an eye on Danny.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking
- Danny says the Iron Fist lets him harness his chi, enhances his strength, and makes his fist light up. Colleen can't help laughing at the last.
- Danny shuts down the Staten Island plant and orders the board to reinstate the PA's dental benefits.
- Artistic License β Geography: Anzhou
is located in northern China. There is no reason whatsoever for a plane going there from the United States to go over the Himalayas... unless they had departed from somewhere else. - Artistic License β Law: Danny owns 51% of the stock in Rand Enterprises and the Meachums own most of the rest. The Board can't just vote to cut them out of the company because they're unhappy with them when they haven't broken any laws or regulations.
- Battle Couple: Danny and Colleen thanks to their Relationship Upgrade.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Joy tells Danny that he shows up to the office with his "face beaten to shit". There's, like, one red mark on his cheek.
- Big Damn Kiss: Between Danny and Colleen.
- Book Ends: Near the beginning and at the end, Ward is seen dumping a body in the park (first a couple of Hand Mooks, the second time his own father).
- Calling the Old Man Out: Ward finally calls his father out on his crap.Ward: You wanna know when the last time I was happy was? The day you died.
- Character Death: Both Harold Meachum and Radovan die in this episode.
- Chekhov's Gun: The tanto knife used for the Yubitsume scene is used by Ward to kill his father later on.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: It is implied Radovan was tortured into giving up information on the drug formula.
- Continuity Nod:
- When talking about change in the world, Gao refers to both the Devil of Hell's Kitchen and the man with unbreakable skin.
- While discussing their trafficking of the synthetic heroin, Gao's secretary mentions they have the Dogs of Hell (First seen in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and later featured prominently in Daredevil) working for them as couriers.
- When talking with Ward about how the Hand is using Rand Enterprises to move heroin, Harold mentions that they also have their fingers in the Roxxon Corporation, which was revealed in Season 2 of Daredevil.
- The building where the Hand was making an enormous dig in Season 2 of Daredevil also belonged to Midland Circle Financials.
- During the board meeting, Danny announces his plans to shut down the Staten Island chemical plant. The board members all express outrage at his plan, and then he mentions that he's already told his plan to Karen Page at the New York Bulletin, and she seems to think it will be front page news. This prompts everyone around the table to grab their phones and swipe their screens to find a Bulletin article headlined "BREAKING NEWS: Rand Shutters Staten Island Chemical Plant, Keeps Workers on Payroll, by Karen Page."
- Dark Action Girl: Gao's secretary, Sophia, is this, able to briefly fight off Danny for a couple of seconds.
- Did You Actually Believe...?: Harold is downright amused that Ward actually thought Harold didn't know about his embezzling from the company. "Did you really think it was that easy to steal millions from the company and not get caught? Who do you think has been hiding this from the accountants and SEC?"
- Disposing of a Body: After Harold mutilates Alexi and Vando, he has Ward dump their bodies in a swamp near Pelham Bay Park. It becomes Laser-Guided Karma when he ends up there himself.
- The Dog Bites Back: After being abused by his dad one too many times, Ward snaps and murders his father, dumping his body with a downright Psychotic Smirk afterwards.
- Do Wrong, Right: Harold scolds Ward not for embezzling money, but for doing it so poorly.
- Enemy Mine: Colleen and Danny forge an alliance with the Triads to take on the Hand.
- Everyone Has Standards: Ward freaks out and nearly vomits when he sees Harold butchering the corpses of the two Hand enforcers he killed.
- Evil Is Not Well-Lit: Lampshaded by Madame Gao at the end of her shady dealings in a dimly-lit office.Gao: We should brighten up this office.Secretary: I'll put in an order for some lamps.
- Fingore: The Hand sends enforcers to punish Harold by chopping off a finger, a standard practice for them. Alexi, the talking enforcer, points out that Vando, his mute partner, lost two of his fingers and his tongue as punishment for a previous failure. Harold cuts his own left pinkie off moments after he kills said enforcers to keep up appearances. When Ward sees it, Harold claims it was a kitchen accident.
- Foreshadowing:
- Midland Circle Financials, the corporation Alexandra belongs to, gets mentioned by Harold right before Ward knifes him. It's also seen on the spreadsheet as the company the Hand are dumping most of the their money into.
- Karen Page is namedropped as Danny's contact at the Bulletin. Since Karen is Matt Murdock's girlfriend, one sees a potential link to him come Defenders.
- Danny once again makes a reference to his "old friend Davos", who is a few episodes away from appearing.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing:
- In the start of the episode, Harold is asleep, when he's woken up by the sound of someone tapping on the glass of his enclosed bed. He opens his eyes just in time to see a handprint on the outside of the glass (just like the one from a few episodes ago), and has just enough time to say "Oh shit" before he's dragged out of the tank by the two enforcers Gao has sent to him.
- Ward shouts at his father that the last time he was happy was when he died. Harold blows him off with a "that's not very nice" and proceeds to monologue with his back turned about how much more impressive Gao is⦠and Ward stabs him in the chest until he dies.
- Heroic BSoD: Danny is not in a great mental state following his "loss" to Gao. Colleen soon makes him feel a lot better, at least until Gao turns up in his office to shake his confidence again.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: Harold is just saying that Danny doesn't know he's alive when Danny walks into his hideout and addresses him by name. An immediate fight ensues during which Harold makes sure that both Hand employees are killed.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Ward stabs Harold repeatedly after finding out the latter took all the money from his secret personal account to keep him from leaving the company.
- Insistent Terminology: Joy insists that Danny is not making an Ordered Apology, but a "statement".
- Intimate Healing: Danny and Colleen have sex shortly after she finishes stitching him up.
- I Will Punish Your Friend for Your Failure: As part of her offer of wealth, Gao reveals that she knows about Colleen and Claire. Danny instantly understands the threat.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Even though Lawrence spends the board meeting insulting Danny, he's right that Danny doesn't have the business expertise and experience the rest of the members do and shouldn't be calling all the shots without their consultation and agreement. The other members have the same point too, just not with the salty language that Lawrence uses.
- Modesty Bedsheet: Colleen wraps herself up in her bedsheet after she and Danny have sex.
- "Not So Different" Remark: When Danny accuses the Hand of "selling poison", Sophia hits back that it's no different from what the executive floor is up to.
- Not Staying for Breakfast: Played with when Colleen wakes up in bed alone, but Danny is then shown to be standing looking out the window.
- Patricide: Ward kills his father because of all the manipulating and abuse he has undergone.
- Punch-Clock Villain: Joy says that she takes no joy (no pun intended) in doing what she does in regards to the power plant affair, but she has to make hard choices as a CEO.
- A Real Man Is a Killer: Harold asks for Ward's help mutilating the bodies of the Hand enforcers, saying it's no different from when he had to dress a deer when he took him hunting as a child.Ward: I never went hunting.
Harold: Well, maybe it was your sister. - Unperson: Danny asks for his father's old files to establish what connection he has with Madame Gao. The only thing his PA can find is an archive box with his father's ID tag, all other records having 'disappeared'.
- Sanity Slippage: Ward is so addled that he starts talking to Alexi and Vando's mutilated corpses as he's driving them out to the swamp to dump them.
- Scar Survey: Danny's PA can be seen eyeing his scars and bruises when he changes his shirt.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ward makes plans to leave New York, either to Central America (his idea) or to rehab somewhere discreet (Joy's idea).
- She Cleans Up Nicely: Inverted with Ward, who looks better after dumping a body in a lake in the middle of the night than he ever does at work.
- Shout-Out: Colleen quips about 'Madame' Gao running "the best little whorehouse in the Hand." She also says that Gao is trying to sow dissension with her claims about Danny's father, which is right out of The Art of War (Sun Tzu).
- Sophisticated as Hell: Lawrence is this, finally fed up with Danny's naivete.Lawrence: Don't be a jackass, Danny!
- Their First Time: Danny and Colleen sleep together for the first time. Having been raised in a monastery and taken a vow of celibacy, Danny is likely a virgin but there's no mention of him having any difficulties.
- The Starscream: Fed up with Danny placing ethics and basic human decency over profit, the Rand board members make a move to remove not just Danny, but also Ward and Joy, from the company.
- Stress Vomit: Ward goes to vomit when he walks in on his father using a hammer to smash out the teeth of the Hand assassins. He grabs a trash bin for a receptacle, only to gag on his vomit on finding a severed finger in there.
- This Is Gonna Suck: When about to jump down the elevator shaft after Gao, Danny mutters a brief prayer.Danny: This is probably gonna hurt.
- Unfortunate Names: Colleen lampshades this regarding Madame Gao's moniker.Colleen: What, does she run the best little whorehouse in the Hand or something?
- The Villain Knows Where You Live: A variation when Madame Gao turns up in Danny's office without an appointment to demonstrate just how much control she has over the company he thinks is his. She also makes a point of mentioning Colleen Wing and Claire Temple by name.
- Villain with Good Publicity: How does Madam Gao, major player in the Hand, get to go anywhere in a building that gave Danny so much grief when he did? With her own passcard.
- We Can Rule Together: Gao makes an offer for Danny stay with the company and reap all the rewards of being Idle Rich, while she and her people continue using Rand's resources for their goals.
- Wham Line: When Radovan says that Gao is in Anzhou, Danny is left visibly horrified.Danny: It's a city in China.
Colleen: Have you ever been there?
Danny: I would have, fifteen years ago, if my plane hadn't crashed. It's where my father was taking us. - Yubitsume: The Hand want to cut off Harold's finger to discipline him. It's this trope in all but name.
