Danny receives a challenge from The Hand, while Colleen and Claire must make a difficult choice concerning the Hand's former chemist, and Joy worries about her brother.
- Adaptation Species Change: Alessa, a.k.a. The Bride of Nine Spiders, seems to be a regular human unlike her comic book counterpart.
- Always a Bigger Fish: Even after defeating four of the Hand's best assassins, the frail-looking Madame Gao knocks the Iron Fist effortlessly across the room.
- Always Save the Girl: Even when poisoned and cut-up by previous opponents, and even when given the chance to choose between destroying a member of the Hand, Danny refuses to leave Sabina behind.
- Assassin Outclassin'/Carnival of Killers: Danny's challenge from The Hand consists of him facing off against four deadly assassins.
- Avengers Assemble: A villain version as the four Hand assassins are summoned for the duel.
- Badass Boast: Danny gets in a good one against Scythe.Scythe: Care to choose a weapon?
Danny: I am a weapon. - Bittersweet Ending: Danny rescues Sabina, but at the cost of withdrawing from the match. Plus, the Hand seems to have recaptured their chemist.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Claire says "Sweet Christmas" while she and Colleen are chasing down the Hand operatives at the hospital.
- Call-Back:
- Claire returns to the same hospital she was fired from after the Hand's first attack. This time, instead of attacking it, the Hand has already infiltrated it.
- Claire mutters "Sweet Christmas", showing she hasn't completely forgotten about Luke Cage (2016).
- Wayne Olson, the crisis manager for Rand Enterprises, says that the video of Danny talking to that woman has more YouTube views than that incredible green guy.
- Cool Car: Danny uses his newly-acquired inheritance to buy a shiny new Aston Martin.Ward: Monastery-boy drives an Aston Martin?
Danny: I had the fastest donkey cart in K'un L'un too. - The Bus Came Back: Shirley's back to give Claire shit... and to take care of a patient off the books. Reluctantly.
- Dead Guy on Display: The Hand cut off the head of King, the same Mook Madame Gao executed in the previous episode, and left it for Danny to find with an invitation to a Duel to the Death. Ward has a Freak Out on seeing the severed head, and thanks to Going Cold Turkey soon goes From Bad to Worse.
- Decapitation Presentation: Danny and Ward find the severed head of King, the Mook Danny fought in the previous episode, skewered on a pole in the back of a truck.
- Drugs Are Bad: Ward's drug problem has gotten out of control, to the point of breaking his own hand to try and get muscle relaxers.
- Due to the Dead: On discovering King's severed head, Danny offers a prayer for the Worthy Opponent he fought the previous night.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Continuing this theme, the Hand now sends a pair of Slav brothers against Danny.
- Foreshadowing: How strange that the Hand and the monks of K'un Lun both use the same system of ritual challenges...
- From Dress to Dressing: Danny tears off a shirtsleeve to bind a knife wound.
- Functional Addict: Inverted. Ward is off his pills because he threw them away in the previous episode, and he is much less functional as a result.
- Hearing Voices: Danny sees a hallucination of his former master talking to him, and answers back to the confusion of Claire and Sabina.
- Improvised Weapon
- After he's finished singing karaoke, Scythe strangles the last man alive from his massacre with the microphone cord.
- Claire uses a fire extinguisher to knock out a Hand kidnapper.
- Lovely Angels: Claire and Colleen taking down the Hand kidnappers at the hospital.
- Never Bring a Knife to a Fist Fight: Scythe offers Danny his choice of weapon, but he refuses and is still able to beat him.
- Not So Stoic: Madame Gao shows surprise for the first time when Danny uses the Iron Fist to destroy Scythe's weapon during their duel.
- One-Hit Kill: Similar to what she did to Matt, Gao deals with Danny with one mere gesture.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Ward, normally composed and dickish, is absent-minded and frantic for the majority of the episode due to his increasing drug problems.
- Palm Bloodletting: Grigori and Andrei do this and use their blood to mark the boundaries of their ring prior to their fight with Danny.
- The Reveal: Madame Gao is from K'un L'un like so many had guessed, and she also knew at least one other Iron Fist. As well as Danny's father.
- Sadistic Choice: Danny can either forfeit the tournament and allow Gao's operation to proceed, or strike the finishing blow against Scythe and let Gao kill the chemist's daughter.Danny: That's dishonorable!
Gao: [scoffs] What do I care for honor? - Sibling Team: Grigori and Andrei fight together as a team.
- Shout-Out: Scythe sings karaoke to Take On Me while murdering people.
- That Man Is Dead: Several people suggest that by becoming Iron Fist, our hero is no longer Danny Rand, but by leaving K'un Lun unprotected, he is no longer the Iron Fist either.
- Unexpected Character: There was little to indicate either Scythe or the Bride of Nine Spiders would appear except the sign on her office door with B-09-S hinting her appearance.
- The Vamp: The second assassin that Danny fights, the Bride of Nine Spiders. She tries to distract Danny with her sexuality while sticking him with poisoned needles.
- Villains Never Lie: Averted. Madame Gao is unashamed in her decision to lie and cheat to get one over on Danny, even mocking Danny for caring about his honor. She does, however, let the girl go when Danny withdraws from the fight.
- Villain Takes an Interest: Madame Gao is "entertained" by how Danny acts, as he is nothing like the other Iron Fists.
- You Fight Like a Cow: All the assassins keep taunting Danny to varying degrees. By the time he's on the last one, he even says that the childish insults are getting tiring.Danny: It's like you all trained on the same playground.
Scythe: [chuckles] - Your Princess Is in Another Castle!: Claire and Colleen stop the Hand kidnappers, only to find the ambulance they're using is empty, as Radovan has been taken out of the hospital elsewhere.
