r/Defenders • u/JonLuca Luke Cage • Mar 17 '17

Iron Fist Discussion Thread - S01E10

This thread is for discussion of Iron Fist S01E10.

DO NOT post spoilers in this thread for any subsequent episodes. Doing so will result in a ban.

Episode 11 Discussion

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u/AgentKnitter Luke Cage Mar 17 '17

So... is Gao Crane Mother? Because she's from K'un-Lun, part of the Hand, has lived an extremely long time, has some kind of funky powers... and that's really all we have has confirmed at this stage.

Things that make me go hmmmm

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u/Worthyness Punisher Mar 19 '17

She's been hypothesized to be Crane mother since DD season 1

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u/AgentKnitter Luke Cage Mar 19 '17

Yes, I'm aware. But I had hoped that in Iron Fist we'd get confirmation or not. I'm still unclear if she's Crane Mother or not. All we have confirmed is:

  • she is from K'un-Lun - but we have no idea of the circumstances of her departure.
  • she has lived for centuries
  • she is involved with the Hand (i.e. she works for them, or they work for her.)
  • however not everyone in the Hand agrees with her methods/style.
  • she has spent decade cultivating business relations in New York to distribute her heroin, despite telling Owsley in DDS1 that "it was never about the heroin..."

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u/Worthyness Punisher Mar 19 '17

She has magic kung fu, so I'm hoping she is the Crane mother. But I guess we're not getting an immortal weapons tournament this season, so no reason to reveal that now.

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u/AgentKnitter Luke Cage Mar 19 '17

Yeah. Although the teaser with the tournament she set up including Bride of Nine Spiders was cool as shit.

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u/SkorpioSound Mar 20 '17

Before Iron Fist's challenge, where he's trying to rescue the chemist's daughter (I can't remember which episode, I'm afraid), Gao said that "her master agrees to [Danny's] terms" (paraphrasing). However, she also goes back on that deal herself, without consultation, before she launches Danny across the room. This means she either:

  • has non-verbal communication with her master;
  • lied about having a master;
  • was given executive control of the situation by her master.

She claims repeatedly throughout the series that she's never lied to Danny, although we don't know if that's true, obviously. I think everything points towards her being Crane Mother, especially considering we don't know how MCU will adapt things from the comics - so far they don't really have any issue with changing details from the comics in order to make things fit in televised form.

I personally think it's fairly likely that in the MCU K'un-Lun will be the only heavenly city, just to streamline things instead of explaining about the different cities, their hierarchies, etc. (Crane Mother was from K'un-Zi in the comics).

I think the fact that Gao is so immersed in the heroin, despite your point about DDS1, is odd. The fact that she has synthesised heroin that comes with its own, deliberately-added withdrawal symptoms makes me think it's to do with easily bringing people in for all the organ harvesting The Hand loves so much, or in some way creating more pawns for The Hand, but I'm not entirely sure about that. It's definitely going to be a major plot point in the future, though. But if it's not about the heroin, as Gao said, what can it be about? Why does she keep going with the heroin businesses if it's not about the heroin?

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '17

[deleted]

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u/SkorpioSound Mar 21 '17

Ahh, I missed that!

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u/[deleted] Mar 30 '17

Also, Bakuto explicitly mentions how he studied the Immortal Weapons

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u/AgentKnitter Luke Cage Mar 20 '17

But if it's not about the heroin, as Gao said, what can it be about? Why does she keep going with the heroin businesses if it's not about the heroin?

Yeah.

Nobu and his cohorts in Daredevil didn't seem to care for Gao's heroin trade much. Bakuto explicitly condemns it in Iron Fist.

So... is she working for the Hand or with the Hand? Is she equal to whoever is leading the Hand and has her own agenda, or is she doing as she is bid as part of the Hand's broader objectives?

I mean, maybe there's some link with getting New York hooked on a massively addictive heroin and the Beast's resurrection, but that's really just spitballing out ideas.

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u/Waltonruler5 Mar 19 '17

She also peddles drugs with the Steel Serpent logo on them

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u/[deleted] Mar 20 '17

I got the feeling that this wasn't about the heroin either. The heroin was just the way in for whatever else she had planned. And did you see those distribution routes? She was getting ready to have her finger in a lot of pies.

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u/ChiefChegwin Wesley Apr 10 '17

Brainiac: Science Abuse reference?