Breaking Down The Biggest Moments Of 'The Defenders'

With a shorter run than most Marvel Netflix series, The Defenders is still jam-packed with a lot of great and surprising moments. Here are some of the biggest moments from the show and what had us excited during our binge. While you are at it, do not miss out on our reviews of the show, you can find the review of the first episode right here.

A quick spoiler warning before you continue. If you haven’t seen The Defenders yet then continue at your own risk. 

1) The Defenders Finally Come Together

It finally happened. The four individual shows have been building up to this moment and we finally get to see the Defenders come together. Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Iron Fist and Luke Cage have come together to fight the villainous Hand and end their plans once and for all. The first two episodes take a slower approach by having each character follow their own storyline. Cage finally gets out of prison, Jessica is on a case, Matt is trying to resist his urge to fight an Danny is chasing the Hand across the world. Each story slowly starts to unravel a plot that brings them all together.

Marvel’s The Defenders

If there is anything that could be defined as a staple of the Marvel Netflix shows, it would be hallway fights. The first time that they all come together happens in exactly that. Luke shields Danny from gunfire, Danny uses his fist to destroy the sword of Elektra, Jessica is taking goons out one by one and Matt tries to hide his identity with Jessica’s scarf. There are many great moments seeing them finally work side-by-side against the Hand’s goons. It gets even better by the fact that we get a sequence of them sitting at a Chinese restaurant, taking a breather after the fight and discussing their next action. What makes the Defenders so unique is that they aren’t a team that then fully forms, but just a bunch of individuals learning to work together and it was well worth the wait.

2) Misty Knight Loses Her Arm

It seems the event of Misty Knight damaging her arm in Luke Cage was building up to this crossover. In a skirmish with the resurrected Bakuto, Knight tries to protect Claire from sharing the same fate as Count Dooku did in Revenge of the Sith. In her attempt, she ends up losing her arm. After being brought to a hospital once everything calmed down, Colleen Wing reveals that they will be able to help her out in some way. Comic fans will instantly know what this means for the character.

Her gaining her famous arm might also have some other implications. The character shared a lot of scenes with Colleen Wing, who she established an investigation agency called Knightwing Restorations, Ltd in the comics. They have become well-known as the Daughters of the Dragon, which could potentially be a spin-off show for Netflix at some point. Having all characters finally interact with each other in The Defenders, we may hopefully see more crossovers in the coming seasons. It would be a waste not to build upon Wing and Knight’s chemistry.

3) A Dragon Graveyard Below New York City

In a surprising twist, the mini-series tackled a lot more mystical elements outside of the evil organization, the Hand. One of their major goals was to uncover one of NYC’s biggest secrets, which K’un L’un had sealed off long ago. The only one capable of unlocking its secrets was the Iron Fist, which Danny accidentally helped with in his own arrogance while fighting Elektra. His actions did reveal something fascinating, there are dragon bones buried deep beneath the city’s foundation.

Comic fans will know about the most famous dragon from Marvel, Shou-Lao the Undying, who was only teased throughout the events of Iron Fist. This is quite an interesting reveal, as it not only highlights the fact that dragons once roamed the earth, but also the Hand’s true end goal. It is safe to assume that dragons have a long lifespan and going by Shou-Lao’s abilities, they are capable of returning from the dead. The show does not reveal why these dragon’s remains were left behind, he Hand most certainly had their eyes on them for a very good reason.

Outside of requiring quite a lot of blood, it seems that the way the Hand was able to survive for so long was due to a special ingredient, dragon bones. They have gone as far as to level cities to get their hands on the material, which was what would have happened to New York City if the Defenders did not intervene. Hopefully, this is a sign that we will finally get to witness Shou-Lao in all his glory in the second season of Iron Fist. This mini-series did build up a lot of questions that could be explored, as Danny tries to uncover more about the mysteries surrounding K’un-L’un, the Chaste and even the Hand’s origins.

4) Elektra Takes Over as The Main Villain

We have spent a lot of time building up Alexandra as the big bad of the season. Casting a big-name actress like Sigourney Weaver had many people excited. Everything hinted at her being the head of the Hand and potentially the embodiment of the Beast. At the end of the sixth episode, however, the showrunner Marco Ramirez had kept quite a large secret. The second season of Daredevil has spent its time establishing Elektra as the Black Sky, the Hand’s ultimate weapon. They used their last remaining resources to bring her back from the dead as an empty vessel, but she slowly started regaining her memories. After Alexandra had lost her patience with the other fingers of the Hand, she was suddenly stabbed in the back by her perfect weapon.

This is quite similar to the twist we saw with Cottonmouth in Luke Cage. It fits well into the story, as we saw Elektra regain her independence. Moreover, Alexandra was losing her position in the Hand as time was passing by, especially with her own body falling apart. In a way, it was almost to be expected given the hints that were dropped across the episodes. Sadly, it was a bit underwhelming as we never got much of a revelation what made her such a demonic presence.

One major issue is the lack of the Beast. A demonic presence that was an essential aspect of the Hand’s own mythology in the comics that somehow is completely absent. Resurrections were always a part of the organizations past, but that was closely tied to the demon. Most people assumed that Weaver might be playing this character that is hiding in a human body, but even if that would be the case, we may never know. The Hand is done for now, but maybe they will return at some point in the future for a potential Shadowland arc.

5) Daredevil is Born Again

Last but not least, the show ended on a rather interesting reveal. Spending a major part of the story seeing Matt Murdock face Elektra and accept his death, it is revealed he somehow survived. It is a bit of a cliché for superhero properties and TV shows in general, but this is something that has been a recurring element in Daredevil’s storylines. Elektra’s entire story arc from The Defenders revolved around her return from the dead. Still, the ending had another important reveal, we might get to finally meet Murdock’s mother, as a nun shouts out the name “Sister Maggie”.

Maggie Murdock plays an important role in the comic storyline Born Again that ran from Daredevil issue #227 to 231 back in 1986. It was quite famous for being the series that truly pushed Matt to his limits, as the Kingin was slowly destroying everything around him and pushing him towards insanity. This storyline was already teased back in Daredevil‘s second season when he met Fisk in prison. He promised to take away everything he held dear, as he was the one to put him in jail and threaten his beloved wife. Even though he is not aware of Murdock being Daredevil, it most likely seems that there is a grim future ahead for Matt, Karen, and Foggy.

What are your thoughts on The Defenders? What were the biggest moments in your opinion?