Marvel’s The Defenders season 1 episode 6 recap and review: Ashes, Ashes

As the Defenders figure out how to protect Danny, fractures start to show both in our Marvel team and in The Hand.

We’re down to the last three episodes of The Defenders! So… where are we headed now?

Not-So-Short Summary

The Defenders and Stick try to figure out what the heck the Iron Fist will unlock for the Hand. They want to keep Danny away from the fight, but he doesn’t believe it. The Hand just wants to divide them.

Danny tries to leave, Matt tries to stop him, and it comes to blows. It starts with just Danny and Matt, but Jessica and Luke jump in towards the end. Danny uses the Fist to knock everyone down, and Jessica knocks him out to keep him there.

Oh! The giant hole from season two of Daredevil that was never mentioned again? It was where the Midland Central building now resides. Jessica and Matt head there while Luke and Stick stay with unconscious Danny.

Stick sends Sowande’s head to the Hand while Matt and Jessica pay a visit to John’s daughter, Lexi. They have a bonding moment over Jessica’s stalking of Matt’s past and that’s when Lexi opens up about her dad.

They find the blueprints for something under Midland Circle, something John wanted to blow up.

Finn Jones as Danny Rand and Mike Colter as Luke Cage in “Marvel’s The Defenders,” photo credit Netflix.

We get a slower scene with Luke and Danny once Danny becomes conscious. They’re of two separate mindsets and it doesn’t take long for it to turn angry. Except that Luke sees he needs to give Danny a little more respect. And they bond a bit over how much they’ve both done.

Stick finds a third option to their conundrum: Kill Danny. He takes out Luke with some weird incense and goes in for the kill when Elektra arrives to take Danny. Matt and Jessica show up with enough time to distract her for just a moment. But she takes them all down, kills Stick, and takes off with Danny.

“You’ll serve,” she warns Danny. But there are fractures within the Hand. Alexandra’s not having their BS, tells Elektra to go kill the rest of the Defenders, and starts to go on a tangent about how much she’s done for the rest of them throughout the hundreds of years.

And that’s when she gets stabbed in the back by Elektra. Literally, stabbed in the back through the chest. And then decapitated once she’s hit the ground.

“You work for me now,” Elektra tells the remaining three.

Marvel’s The Defenders, photo credit Netflix

Badass Moment of the Episode

That ending scene. Firstly, how can you kill Sigourney Weaver? Secondly… that’s how. Totally out of the blue and without much warning (well, maybe some of you saw it coming).

Best One-Liner

“That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me,” Matt tells Jessica.
“Don’t get used to it,” she replies.

Alexandra has a victrola and now I need to be best friends with her. Too bad she’s dead. Maybe I can just have it?

Madame Gao’s speech about believing in Alexandra until they all get what they want sounds oddly specific. I thought it might lead to something in an episode or two, but obviously not since Alexandra’s dead.

We also discover why the Hand is so near death: the substance that keeps them all alive, Alexandra used the last of it to bring Elektra back to life.

Next: The Defenders makeup designer Sarit Klein on palettes, heroes, and beard design

Well… let’s see how these last two episodes fare after that fun twist!