- "You look like Danny Rand. Danny Rand is dead. Maybe the truth is somewhere in between."
- ―Joy Meachum to Danny Rand[src]
Snow Gives Way is the first episode of the first season of the Netflix exclusive television series Iron Fist.
Synopsis
After being declared dead 15 years earlier, Danny Rand returns to New York City. But his welcome is a far cry from what he'd hoped.
Plot
Just after returning to the city, Danny Rand, tries to meet Rand Enterprises co-founder Harold Meachum but is told by his childhood friends Ward and Joy Meachum, who fail to recognize him that their father has been dead for 12 years after succumbing to cancer. Because Danny Rand and his family has been recorded as dead for 15 years, they do not believe what Danny is saying. They have him thrown out warning him to never come back.
Danny has frequent flashbacks to the plane crash and memories of his parents.
Not willing to give up, Danny tries going to his old home. He breaks in through the balcony only to find out that though not much has changed, the place is now owned by Joy. He remembers a moment in the past where the three friends are playing and Ward bullies Danny and wrongly blames him to his parents Wendell and Heather Rand. He silences a barking dog with meditation and locks the door and leaves as soon as he sees Joy returning.
With no place to go, Danny finds a place in the park to spend the night where he befriends a homeless man named Big Al. The next day morning, he encounters Joy before leaving for her office and tries to make her believe him but fails and she figures out he broke in and locked up the dog. Seeing her scared, Danny tries to leave and just as a car is about to hit him, he flips into the air to avoid it.
Later, when meditating in the park his attention is drawn towards an Asian woman, Colleen Wing, putting up posters for Martial Arts classes. While trying to ask her if he can find a job at the same place he shows his fluency in Mandarin and Japanese, but she outright dismisses his plea.
Joy shares her experience and doubts about Danny with Ward who reminds her that he is either a lunatic or a fake who is trying to stop their company from expanding as the ruling 51% shares are named to Danny Rand.
Later that night, Danny tries to confront Ward at a parking lot by forcefully getting into the driver's seat and taking off. When Ward asks what he wants Danny demands to know what happened in the past, to which Ward only states the plane crash happened over the Himalayas and neither the plane nor bodies were ever found. Ward dismisses Danny's claim of who he is because he can not show any proof, DNA or fingerprint, of his true identity. After disarming Ward of a gun he attempts to threaten him with, Danny tells stories about his bullying years ago, Ward panics and claims them to be lies. Danny becomes enraged, nearly driving the car off the roof of the building, before leaving.
Big Al brings Danny food and they have a conversation about the purpose in life. Danny then goes to the dojo of Martial Arts run by Colleen and explains to her that he is skilled, trained at K'un-Lun and requests an opportunity to present them in a duel. Colleen dismisses him again, and he leaves only to be confronted by a group of armed men trying to kill him. In a fight and run chase, Danny defeats the three members and realizes that the attacker is Shannon, Head of Security of Rand Enterprises, who claims to have been sent by Ward. Contemplating jumping in to help, Colleen Wing sees the entire fight.
Ward, upon learning of Shannon's failure, calls for a meeting and goes to a secretly locked place where Harold is still alive and is operating the company from the shadows. Harold warns that the situation with Danny needs to be taken care of because if he is the true Danny Rand, it would bring many complicated questions and situations for them. Ward keeps silent about the fact that he met Danny and realized he wasn't a fake. Kyle is Harold's assistant who is said to be loyal and knows most of their operations.
Danny comes back to the park to call it a night but finds Big Al overdosed and prays for his soul. He observes an eagle's tattoo on his arm.
The next day, Danny sneaks into RE and waits in Joy's room for her to come. Upon arriving, she thinks of giving Danny a chance and asks him to tell his version and offers him a drink. While remembering his story, Danny realizes that the drink was drugged and falls unconscious, having glimpses of Joy and Ward, his parents, a few monks, and then wakes up to see a doctor and a nurse. He sees that he has been tied down in a hospital bed and is being given regular doses of anesthetic drugs and falls asleep again.
Cast
Main Cast:
- Finn Jones as Danny Rand/Iron Fist
- Jessica Henwick as Colleen Wing
- Tom Pelphrey as Ward Meachum
- Jessica Stroup as Joy Meachum
- David Wenham as Harold Meachum
Guest Stars:
- David Furr as Wendell Rand
- Victoria Haynes as Heather Rand
- Toby Nichols as Young Danny Rand
- Ilan Eskenazi as Teen Ward Meachum
- Aimee Laurence as Young Joy Meachum
- Esau Pritchett as Shannon
- Craig Walker as Big Al
- Barrett Doss as Megan
- Alex Wyse as Kyle
- Steve Greenstein as Peanut Vendor
- MaameYaa Boafo as Female Receptionist
- James Albert Hutchinson III as First Rand Security Guard
- Adam Feingold as Joe the Orderly
- Zakiya Young as Nurse Smith
- Frank Modica as Orderly (uncredited)
- Ludovic Coutaud as Wall Street Businessman (uncredited)
Appearances
Locations
- New York City, New York
- Himalayas (flashback)
- Palermo, Italy (photo)
- The Hamptons, New York (mentioned)
- Florida (mentioned)
- China (mentioned)
- K'un-Lun (mentioned)
Events
- Attack on Danny Rand
- Air Crash in the Himalayas (flashback)
Items
To be added
Vehicles
To be added
Organizations
Mentioned
Music
| Song title | Artist | Location(s) |
|---|---|---|
| So Fresh, So Clean | Outkast |
|
| Oblique Streak | The Headchopperz |
|
| Krystal Karrington (Demo) | Camp Lo |
|
| Heat of the Moment | Killah Priest |
|
| New Digs | Trevor Morris |
|
| Bad Tea | Trevor Morris |
|
| We Got You, Danny | Trevor Morris |
|
Trivia
- Danny asks Colleen if she had ever thought of teaching kung fu at her dojo. Marvel developed the Iron Fist storyline after the success of the television show "Kung Fu."
