Buried alive.
The Defenders sadly concludes with a deeply confused and confusing finale. The plot almost entirely crumbles in its homestretch, with the final set-piece riddled with plot holes, tedious repetition, and forgettable fight sequences. It’s all the more disappointing after the show offering up a couple of enjoyable episodes, and demonstrating these character definitely have chemistry, but this was far from the finale I was hoping for.
Where to begin? There’s a lot to dissect.
Firstly, I can’t believe the conclusion of The Defenders – Marvel’s street-level heroes, who supposedly protect the city from murderers, rapists, paedophiles, and drug dealers – takes place within the skeleton of a dead dragon in a secret subterranean cave that could only be opened by the Iron Fist.
What’s more, while the actual plan of The Hand has been fuzzy throughout the show, in this final episode it becomes even more convoluted and simultaneously shaky. We find out that they wanted to use the Iron Fist to reach a cave to excavate the bones of a dragon to create the ‘substance’ – a supernatural life-giving elixir that will artificially prolong their lives. Madame Gao cursorily reveals that this excavation will weaken the foundations of the city causing destruction, but that’s a side-effect that will happen at some point in the future. It’s such a disappointing and unsatisfying reveal – The Hand is more concerned with preserving its immortality than actually bringing New York to its knees. Wasn’t that what this show was meant to be about? I don't know anymore.
To counter this The Defenders actual plan, which really comes from Coleen – is to demolish this a high-rise building in the middle of New York City. That’s right their plan is to commit – as one character rightly describes it – an act of domestic terrorism that could potentially hurt civilians. Why not try to stop them from excavating the undead dragon’s bones that would eventually weaken the foundations of New York City? (Again, I can't believe I'm writing that sentence about Marvel's street-level heroes.)
Unfortunately, the action can’t atone for underlying plot no longer making a lot of sense either. Once Luke, Jess, and Daredevil get to the bottom of the elevator shaft what ensues is a relentlessly dull succession of fights. There’s a bizarre moment where Luke hatches a plan that Jess won’t like, but seemingly it just involves him and Daredevil hiding for a bit and then jumping out to beat on some goons. It's a bit weird.
Nothing comes close to Daredevil taking on Iron Fist or the big boardroom fight at Midland Circle earlier in the season. Down in the cave the camera pans around and around in search of excitement, but all it finds is its super-powered heroes effortlessly beating up anonymous henchmen in a cave encircled by the ribs of a dead dragon. At one point, hip-hop starts playing for no discernible reason, yet the editing remains so flat that it’s use seems so bizarre.
Since the plot seems to have long ago ended, there’s heavy repetition in what actually occurs. They fight Gao, again, and the other Fingers of The Hand, again. Eventually, this segues into a showdown between Daredevil and Elektra that lasts interminably. It’s better than the other fights – these characters have a much deeper bond – but ultimately it comes too soon after the conclusion of Daredevil Season 2 that this can’t help but feel like a rehash of those scenes. The only difference: here they’re reaching for new ways to express the same sentiments, and it all becomes a bit strained – close to a parody of itself. I really like Cox and Yung’s interplay and how they portray those characters – as I did in that show – but I’ve just seen that exact thing done very recently, and in a much better way.
There’s also a tonne of incidental stuff that’s ill-thought out and doesn’t work. There’s a scene with Trish and Karen back at the Harlem police station which at this point feels so token in nature; they're freely walking around the station and looking at sensitive case files. It just doesn't make sense. This is the finale episode, and they've barely interacted. I can only assume it's there to make you think things feel more connected than they have actually been. Another small but revealing detail: at one point Luke explains what a "remote detonator" is to the rest of the team, saying, “It’s a time bomb. Once you hit go, you’ve got a matter of minutes.” That’s not what a remote detonator is. But for me that detail is symptomatic of the finale as a whole – it feels hastily thrown together and poorly thought out.
But one of my biggest problems with the finale is how it all feels entirely without consequence. This was pitched as the culmination of years of TV, countless episodes and hours spent watching and learning about these characters, but what they ended up facing was an ill-defined threat that they couldn't competently face. And now, at its conclusion, not a lot has changed. Missy’s lost an arm, admittedly, and Luke and Jess seem a bit closer than before, but most of the characters are largely returned to a place where they can easily begin their respective forthcoming seasons. Even Matt is put back into play by the very end.
There's no better illustration of how little consequence there is than the fact they literally blow up a building in the middle of New York City, right in front of the NYPD, and face no consequences. I don’t care how good Foggy’s legal firm is – they’re not that good.
The Verdict
The conclusion to The Defenders is a genuine disappointment. After some strong recent episodes, the season concludes with a confusing and dull finale that seems to forget what was meant to distinguish these heroes in the first place.
These heroes were meant to defend our street corners, but instead they’re fighting an organisation that is destroying New York as a side-effect, and their plan is literally to blow-up a building in the middle of the city.
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