Fun
Frisky
Nostalgic
Intense
Adventurous
Choked Up
Curious
Romantic
Weird
Marvel’s the Defenders ain’t like most other streaming shows. Unlike other Netflix originals, The Defenders is a spinoff of four other shows and the culmination of five seasons of plot. Since Daredevil’s launch in the spring of 2015, Marvel’s Netflix contingent has grown to include a hard-living private eye, the hero of Harlem, and a living weapon from a mystical city. And one can’t forget all their buds–their eye-rolling, sai-wielding, vengeance-hungry, justice-seeking, sword-slinging buds. Marvel’s crammed a decade’s worth of superhero continuity into 65 episodes of four different shows, and it’s all coming together in The Defenders.
But if that sounds like a lot to keep up with, that’s because it is a lot to keep up with. Even people fluent in the Marvel Cinematic Universe might not remember every little detail from every Netflix show. To get you ready for where the action picks up in episode one, scene one of The Defenders, we’ve gone ahead and singled out and answered the most FA of all the possible Qs. If you need a refresher course on Matt and Karen’s relationship, or forgot what Jessica Jones was up to when we last saw her years ago, or maybe skipped a season or two of one of these shows, here is your spoiler-filled recap.
Where are all the bad guys?
The heroes of Hell’s Kitchen and Harlem have separately gone up against more than a few foes, but it’s the mysterious Alexandra (Sigourney Weaver) that finally brings them together. The Defenders has a huge cast of heroes and their buds, but the bad guys seem to be M.I.A. Here’s where we last saw Netflix’s big bads.
A few of them are dead. Jessica Jones snapped Kilgrave’s (David Tennant) neck, Stick (Scott Glenn) decapitated Hand leader Nobu (Peter Shinkoda), and Mariah Dillard (Alfre Woodard) pummeled Cornell Stokes (Mahershala Ali) to death in a fit of rage. And Iron Fist antagonist Harold Meachum (David Wenham) was shot down by his son and cremated to prevent resurrection. Speaking of Mariah Dillard, she’s still operating in Harlem alongside Shades (Theo Rossi), except now she’s ditched her political career and taken over the Harlem’s Paradise nightclub, fully embracing her criminal roots.
Wilson Fisk (a.k.a. the Kingpin, a.k.a. the main threat in Daredevil Season One) is currently imprisoned on Ryker’s Island, where he’s living large as the king of the inmates. He’s killing the hours by coming up with ways to kill Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson (and he also has a hunch about Daredevil’s secret identity). Luke Cage’s half brother Willis “Diamondback” Stryker (Erik LaRay Harvey) is also in custody, framed for Cornell Stokes’ death. But that’s not the end for Diamondback; when last we saw Stryker, he was getting recruited by the prison doctor that originally gave Cage his super powers.
The ancient criminal organization known as the Hand is still thriving despite run-ins with Daredevil and Iron Fist (there’s more on the Hand below). Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho), a prominent leader in the Hand, was last seen sipping tea in New York City after being freed from a prison in Bakuto’s (Ramon Rodriguez) rival Hand compound.
Where are all the good guys?
For a foursome that are about to team up to defend the defenseless, these heroes are pretty scattered. Jess (Krysten Ritter) is hanging out in Hell’s Kitchen, weighing her options as a private eye and/or superhero. Luke’s (Mike Colter) down in Georgia, finishing out his sentence in Seagate Prison. Iron Fist (Finn Jones) traveled to the Himalayas but failed to return to the mystical land of K’un-Lun. Daredevil’s (Charlie Cox) the character with the most unanswered questions; when we last saw him in DD Season Two, his law firm had split apart and he’d just come out as a vigilante to Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll).
Who are the Hand?
The Hand are an ancient organization first introduced in Season One of Daredevil. There we meet them as a shadow group bent on unleashing “the Black Sky” upon the city. Daredevil foes Nobu and Madame Gao are identified as leaders within the organization and Matt Murdock’s surly mentor Stick reveals that his organization, the Chaste, are dedicated to defeating the Hand.
In Season Two of Daredevil, we learn that Elektra (Elodie Yung)is indeed the Black Sky, a living weapon capable of inflicting great harm. After she dies in battle fighting the Hand, her body is recovered and placed in a mystical sarcophagus designed to bring her back from the dead.
The Hand are also the primary antagonists in Season One of Marvel’s Iron Fist. Madame Gao re-emerges as the puppet-master behind Harold Meachum’s actions, which included aiding her in the heroin trade and organizing the murders of Danny Rand’s parents. Eventually we discover that Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick) is a member of a branch of the Hand run by Bakuto, a man desperate to control the latest incarnation of the Immortal Iron Fist, a figure destined to always stand as the Hand’s mortal enemy. Danny flirts with the offer, but turns on Bakuto and his friend Davos kills him. Or so we think…the series ends with the Hand retrieving Bakuto’s corpse…
Is Jessica Jones a superhero yet?
Depends on what you mean, but yes? Sure? Kind of?
Back in Episode Five of Marvel’s Jessica Jones, “AKA The Sandwich Saved Me,” a pre-Kilgrave Jessica reluctantly attempted to become a real hero but her first splashy crime-fighting spree put her straight into the path of her abuser.
At the end of Marvel’s Jessica Jones, it becomes pretty clear that Jones isn’t just superpowered, but capable of heroics. However, when cops threaten to arrest Jessica for killing Kilgrave, her lawyer Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss) threatens to twist the truth into a number of more reasonable scenarios — all of which cover up Jessica’s tracks. So, Jessica sort of is a hero, but she doesn’t have the notoriety of Luke Cage or the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.
Are Daredevil and Karen Page a thing?
Maybe? Daredevil’s Season Two finale, the last time we saw both Matt Murdock and Karen Page, was pretty open-ended. Still, these two went through some bad times leading up to that moment.
Page initially entered Murdock’s life as a client, and then she became Nelson & Murdock’s legal secretary. Things took a turn for the steamy in Season Two, after Murdock and Page embarked on a rainy nighttime stroll. The two kissed. Of course this being Daredevil, ninjas came along and ruined their happiness. As soon as Murdock got home from his innocent date with Page, he found his college ex Elektra in his apartment. Matt told no one about Elektra’s return, not Foggy (who witnessed the havoc she wrought in college) or Karen (his new GF who didn’t even know about his life as Daredevil).
Things went from tense to yikes when Karen found Elektra in Matt’s bed, with Matt by her side. Karen peaced out and went back to having a strictly professional relationship with Matt, when she wasn’t helping the Punisher with his vendetta. Fast forward a bit to Christmas time, and Karen–now working as a reporter for the New York Bulletin–met up with Matt at the old law office at his request. There, Matt finally did the damn thing: he told Karen that he’s Daredevil, pulling out his horned helmet for proof.
And that’s it. We don’t know how Karen took that news, if it suddenly cleared everything up for her or what. All we know is that these two got off to a very rough romantic start.
Are Nelson and Murdock donezo?
Pretty much! Lawyer bros Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Matt Murdock had a bathroom fight to end all bathroom fights, and not a single punch was thrown. Daredevil Season Two saw Murdock get all wrapped up in Elektra drama, as he kept missing court dates and planning sessions to beat up criminals with his ex-turned-assassin. All this blew up in Foggy’s face when Elektra used information she gleamed from Murdock to muck with their law firm. When Foggy found out Matt had been keeping secrets again? DEFCON donezo.
Fed up, Foggy left his firm and took a gig at the massive Hogarth, Chao and Benowitz (you know, the firm that Jessica Jones freelances for). Foggy’s still best buds with Karen Page, but that chapter in his life has closed.
Where is the Punisher?
In addition to ninja action and more of Matt Murdock’s bad decisions, Season Two of Daredevil gave viewers an all-new Punisher (played by Jon Bernthal). Over the course of 13 episodes, we saw Frank Castle evolve (or is “devolve” more accurate?) into the skull-wearing, guns-toting, ruthless mercenary readers love and criminals fear. Frank last popped up in action during Daredevil’s final showdown with Hand commander Nobu; the Punisher picked off a few ninjas from an adjacent rooftop, sniper style, and then disappeared.
After that, Castle returned to his old home and burned down the suburban shrine to his dead family. The Punisher stalked away from the home with a CD labeled “Micro” in one hand and a massive gatling gun in the other. Unless Marvel’s keeping it as a last minute surprise, which is 100% a possibility, the Punisher isn’t gonna appear in The Defenders. His solo Netflix series is scheduled to arrive sometime later this year, although a release date has not been announced.
Did Luke and Claire ever get coffee?
A recurring theme in Marvel’s Luke Cage is that “coffee” is a euphemism for sexy sex times. Throughout the series, Luke and Claire (Rosario Dawson) flirt that they want to grab coffee some time. In the last episode, they seem on the verge of finally hooking up – Luke even makes a wince-inducing comment about Cuban coffee being “particularly robust” — but then the Feds come to take escaped convict Carl Lucas (aka Luke Cage) back to jail.
Luke and Claire are still waiting on that “coffee.”
What is K'un-Lun?
K’un-Lin is a mystical city located in a different dimension. You can get there via the Himalayas in China once every fifteen years. That’s how a young Danny Rand managed to get there after his family was killed in a place crash (orchestrated by Harold Meachum with the help of Madame Gao and the Hand).
K’un-Lun is also a place of considerable knowledge. Danny was trained in advanced martial arts during his time there. He also went through the trial there to become the Immortal Iron Fist, the protector of K’un-Lun.
Iron Fist’s Season One finale saw Danny and Colleen travel to the portal to K’un-Lun in the Himalayas, only to find a trail of blood and the bodies of fallen Hand ninjas leading to… nowhere. K’un-lun was gone.
How dead are Elektra and Bakuto?
Turns out, probably not very dead.
Elektra died during a battle with Hand leader Nobu in the Daredevil Season Two finale. We saw her final moments and later visited her grave, but that doesn’t mean anything when the Hand’s involved. The final shot of Season Two saw Elektra’s body recovered by the Hand and placed in an ancient-looking stone casket. We already know from the Defenders teasers that this was a resurrection ceremony, one that’s brought Elektra back as a killing machine.
Bakuto’s more up in the air. The cool and confident leader of a (comparatively) pacifist branch of the Hand, Bakuto fell during a battle with his ex-student Colleen Wing. She hesitated when it came to killing him, though, and Wing wanted Bakuto to become the first leader of the Hand to face his crimes. Davos, Iron Fist’s buddy form K’un-Lun, didn’t agree, and quickly finished the job by stabbing Bakuto through the heart. Bakuto’s body then disappeared from Central Park, leading Colleen to assume that some branch of the Hand probably nabbed him when the heroes weren’t looking. Whether or not Bakuto’s on deck for a resurrection remains unclear, but his body is currently M.I.A.
