Recap: The Iron Fist Creates a New Challenge for the War Dogs in Third Episode of "Eyes of Wakanda"

Marvel’s Eyes of Wakanda has already introduced two of Wakanda’s War Dogs from two different points in history. Now, we get to meet a third in the penultimate episode. However, it’s another character, with an even deeper connection to Marvel lore that steals the show in this installment.

The episode opens in China in 1400 AD. We see a blizzard hitting a beautiful mountaintop city. Inside one of the buildings, we see a man sneak out of bed away from a woman, who apparently remains asleep. The man, whose name we learn is Basha, sneaks into a temple and attempts to steal a piece of vibranium from a dragon statue. It appears Basha is this episode’s War Dog. When he fails to remove the vibranium, he decides to try and steal the statue instead.

Making his escape, two guards see the statue under his coat when the wind blows it. Basha scrambles to escape the charging guards in a comedic chase. This episode has a very different tone from the previous two. Basha escapes and reaches his technologically advanced Wakandan aircraft.

On his way home, he contacts Captain Ebo of the War Dogs, who admits they thought he was dead. Ebo tells Basha that the city was protected by a great power and they assumed the dragon curse got him. Basha assures him he is fine and that his mission went off without any complications.

Basha returns to Wakanda where he is greeted by Ebo, who still feels like he is not being given the whole story. Basha shrugs him off again. Ebo also scolds him for taking the whole statue and not just the vibranium. They go together to meet with High Councilman Rakim to discuss the mission.

Rakim expresses regret that Basha stole the whole statue and dismisses Ebo from the conversation. Meanwhile, another War Dog inspects Basha’s ship and finds an abnormality. When she inspects it, she is ambushed by someone or something and pulled into the ship.

In a room full of vibranium artifacts, Basha inspects the Lion’s mask from the first episode as Rakim continues to scold him. They’re interrupted by a call from someone informing Basha that there was an issue with his ship and the inspector is not responding. Basha runs off to investigate the situation.

Ebo also makes his way to Basha’s ship but he runs into a mysterious person on the way. Marvel fans will recognize this person’s iconic mask as that of the Iron Fist. The Iron Fist asks for Basha and, after some convincing, Ebo agrees to take him to him. Instead though, he leads the Iron Fist into the cafeteria, which is crowded with War Dogs and yells that there is an intruder. The Iron Fist kicks Ebo out of the room and turns to find all of the War Dogs looking at them. As expected a fight ensues and the Iron Fist makes short work of all of the Wakandan warriors and escapes.

Ebo and Basha run into each other and Ebo scolds him some more over bringing a curse to Wakanda. They start to talk together before they see a woman explaining what happened to Rakim. They decide to work together to find the intruder themselves so they can keep themselves out of trouble.

Ebo triggers an alarm in the arsenal to draw Rakim’s guards there as a distraction. Meanwhile, the Iron Fist searches for the statue. Instead, Basha finds them and they have a brief fight before the Iron Fist’s mask comes off. She is revealed to be Jorani, the woman Basha left in bed back in China. A flashback shows us that Jorani found Basha after he crashed on the mountain in the blizzard. She rescued him and nursed him back to health before he snuck off with the statue. We also see that she was not actually asleep when he snuck off and instead she put on her mask and followed him.

Jorani tells him she was there to get the statue he stole. He argues it was stolen from them, because of the vibranium, and tells her his people won’t let her leave alive. He also lets it slip where the artifact gallery is and she runs off to get the statue. Basha follows and they have the second best fight involving trains in Wakandan history.

Jorani reaches the artifact gallery and blasts her way in using her powers. The Iron Fist is a title given to the most skilled warrior of K’un-Lun, a mythical lost city. They earn the title and their powers by battling and defeating a mythical dragon. On top of being one of the most skilled martial artists in the world, the Iron Fist is granted a mythical energy that can be used in many ways. Though, it’s most typically used for punching.

Basha finds Jorani in the gallery and confronts her again. The two fight again and this time Basha briefly gets the upper hand using a vibranium weapon to bind her. However, Jorani’s fist glows and she breaks free after explaining to him that she is the Iron Fist. She again goes for the statue but they are both interrupted by Ebo. Basha asks him to stand down. While they argue, Jorani reaches for the statue. Basha and Ebo protest as she charges her fist and then gently removes the vibranium tongue from the statue. She gives it to Basha and tells him all he had to do was tell her the truth and she would have helped him in the first place, which draws frustration from Ebo.

Basha apologizes to both Jorani and Ebo, to their surprise. They’re interrupted by Rakim who asks them what has happened in the gallery. Basha, after hiding Jorani and hitting Ebo to sell that he had been in a fight, lies to Rakim that it was all a training exercise devised by Ebo. He says Ebo was the one in the mask and he took on all of the War Dogs himself. The lie works and Rakim promotes Ebo before leaving. Basha lets Jorani out of the next room and she is not happy. She snatches her mask back from Basha and Ebo offers to sneak them back to his ship to get Jorani home. They sneak off as the episode comes to a close.

This was a fun episode for a couple of reasons. First, it was nice to get a comedic tone introduced to the series. Basha was a great new character who brings a different energy from the War Dogs we’ve met previously. And of course, it was a lot of fun to see an Iron Fist in action. We got some more incredible fight sequences in this episode.

Marvel’s Eyes of Wakanda is streaming now on Disney+.