In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, many strange and unusual beings exist: Norse gods, giant green scientists, underwarter kingdoms, sorcerers supreme, even good billionaires. Obadiah Stane was not one of them. Played by Jeff Bridges way back in 2008’s original Iron Man movie, this old colleague and competitor of the Stark family went full heel, building his own suit of armor and doing battle with Tony Stark as Iron Monger. Unfortunately for ol’ Obadiah, he forgot whose name was on the posters, and Iron Man came out on top.
That was 17 years ago now, and Joe McGillicuddy has been dealing with it “all his life,” he says. Which is fascinating, when you think about it: The existence of the MCU absolutely has spanned actor Alden Ehrenreich’s entire adult life, and Joe’s too. He’s really never been a grown-up in a world where his father wasn’t an evil industrialist best known for fighting an Avenger to the death, just as many people watching this show have never been a grown-up in a world where “Iron Man” wasn’t nearly as recognizable a superhero as Superman, Batman, and Spider-Man. At least until Avengers: Endgame effectively told the audience it’s safe to stop watching, it’s been Marvel’s world ever since.
Anyway, Joe’s secret identity as Ezekiel Stane, son of Iron Monger, explains not just his obsession with advanced black-market technology, but his planned uses for them. Showing up on fire with ideas at Riri’s apartment — unannounced, much to her chagrin — he outlines a whole list of ways the tech can be used to improve people’s health, prolong people’s lives, and generally make the world a better place. In the real world the Trump Administration would have him defunded for trying to do any one of those things, but again, this is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where it’s still legal to want to do good for your fellow man.
Which is, in a roundabout way, the goal of Parker “The Hood” Robbins and his band of merry thems. His next target is an agribusiness called HEIRLUM (loving these moronically misspelled tech-company names), which uses its proprietary secrets to create floating farms that put the regular kind out of business. Because its techno-island facility is rigged to detect foreign objects, the team can’t bring any of its usual assortment of weapons: no knives, no bombs, and no big iron suit.
Whether it’s this stipulation that seals it, or the fact that the sequence is given a full 20 minutes to play out, the raid on HEIRLUM’s floating farm is far more exciting than the TNL heist last episode. The show’s approach, courtesy of a sharp and propulsive script by Francesca Gailes and Jacqueline J. Gailes, is methodical and crisp, presenting each subgroup of teammates with their own unique tasks and challenges. They don’t just suddenly show up in a control room and start kicking ass — it’s staged like a good steal mission from one of the Arkham Asylum or Spider-Man video games. Every time they make progress, you feel like it’s earned.
Riri, however, has a mission all her own. Using N.A.T.A.L.I.E. to operate the suit in her absence, she slips out of its metal confines and breaks into the part of the facility where she expects to find the Hood confronting the company’s CEO. Her goal is to use a laser cutter — smuggled past the facility sensors using a “biomesh” developed by her and Joe/Zeke — to slice off a piece of the Hood’s cape when he’s not looking, so she and N.A.T.A.L.I.E. can analyze it. Since the pair found out that Stuart, aka Rampage, was murdered after getting fired from the group, this mission has taken on real urgency. They have to know what they’re potentially up against.
So Riri has a front row seat when the Hood, angered by the CEO’s recalcitrance, turns invisible and kills the guy. We’ve already hear from Parker’s right-hand man Cousin John that this is all about revenge as much as it’s about money, though we have yet to learn what it’s revenge for.
Unfortunately, Riri’s use of the laser cutter triggers the sensors, and the teams are sealed inside the facility’s greenhouses, where the emergency system cuts off their oxygen. Separately, Riri and Parker break them all back out and lead them to safety.
All except one. Cousin John comes across Riri as she’s skulking around the facility, even though he just talked to “her” in her iron suit some minutes prior. When he sees the chunk of Hood’s hood she’s holding, he realizes his suspicions about here were correct. What follows is a fight that’s worthy of the hallway throwdowns of the old Marvel/Netflix shows, or their recent spiritual successor, Daredevil: Born Again, as the pair use their environment — dangling plastic curtains, a stray computer keyboard, a bottle of corrosive chemicals — to their advantage. Obviously we’re rooting for Riri here, but Manny Montana is so quietly compelling in the role that when the suit shows up to rescue Riri and she leaves him to die, I was legit disappointed.
And not just because I’ll miss the actor, either. Obviously the MCU is pretty loosey-goosey about permitting its heroes to kill, and Riri was facing the prospect of John revealing her duplicity to a guy who can “bend bullets to his will,” as N.A.T.A.L.I.E. memorably puts it. On the other hand, what better way to prove your loyalty to the group than to rescue a guy who’s preparing to narc on you? But most importantly, and no matter what Christopher Nolan told you at the end of Batman Begins, a superhero allowing someone to die is not morally distinguishable from killing them yourself.
It’s sad to see Riri leave a defenseless man to suffocate, since regardless of his intentions towards her he was no longer a physical threat. I think Riri realizes this, and it makes her miserable. “Are we Ocean’s Eleven or are we The Sopranos?” she asked Hood at the beginning of the caper. I don’t think she likes the answer she’s given herself.
So in the end, no one’s happy. The CEO is dead. Riri must reckon not only with John’s death, but with the sudden realization that she left Joe/Zeke’s tech on the scene. This was something he begged her, repeatedly, not to do, since his modifications are as identifiable as a fingerprint to those in the know. Now she’s gotten this poor middle-aged white man — “I’m 36, respectfully,” he tells Riri’s mom when she misattributes his age — in probably the worst kind of trouble you can get into in a post–Iron Man universe. Small wonder she has a panic attack that even N.A.T.A.L.I.E. struggles to coach her through.
And finally, Parker is devastated about the loss of his big-brother figure, Cousin John — but whatever entity powers his hood shows him a vision of John’s killer, revealed as the shadow of a very familiar iron suit.
Thanks to the show’s incredibly short six-episode season length, we’re already at the halfway mark, and it’s only been airing for a single night. If I pretended to understand the logic of streamers I’d be a liar. However, this is a strong episode with which to end the opening batch. It’s got the tensest and most thrilling action and suspense sequence of the series so far, given ample time to breathe by director Sam Bailey. Montana as Cousin John, Ehrenreich as Joe/Zeke, Anthony Ramos as the Hood, and Lyric Ross as N.A.T.A.L.I.E. are all very enjoyable, lively screen presences, prone to making the kind of decisions that hook you just a little deeper than necessary.
Weirdly, the one major performance I’m not really vibing with is Dominique Thorne as Ironheart herself, but that likely has as much to do with the character being in the middle of her obnoxiously-in-over-her-head stage as with anything Thorne is or isn’t doing in the role. It’s not an energy that’s all that pleasant to be around, even when that’s the whole point.
And are there moments when the show has the flat and airless paint-by-numbers sensation of any other MCU project? For sure, usually when the bland heroic horns kick in on the soundtrack. But the Chicago setting is pure gold, and Bailey knows it; there are several shots in this thing — Riri and N.A.T.A.L.I.E. by the river, for example, or Parker processing John’s death — that treat regular-ass lighting of a unique place in the world like the special effect it really is. Put it all together and it’s one of the most entertaining hours of Marvel superhero TV I’ve seen that doesn’t involve a blind ninja lawyer.
Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) writes about TV for Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Times, and anyplace that will have him, really. He and his family live on Long Island.
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