Recap: Marvel's "Ironheart" Takes Some Surprising Turns in Its Third Episode
Riri Williams is dealing with a couple of big issues after the first couple of episodes of Marvel’s Ironheart. First, she is coming to terms with the fact that she accidentally created an AI based on her deceased best friend. Also, she has become skeptical of her new boss and his mysterious cloak. That all adds up to a pot ready to boil over as we get into the third episode of this new series on Disney+.
The third episode opens with the crew celebrating their recent victory by throwing cash into the air. The celebration gets interrupted though when Clown emerges from Parker’s room wearing his hood. The team warns that Parker would kill her but she continues to strut in the hood until she realizes it is hot. Riri expresses interest in analyzing the cloak before John slams Clown’s head into a table and takes it from her. He screams at the team to not touch the hood. Riri confronts him and things get heated before Parker steps in and calms things down.
Slug starts to walk the team through their next job, explaining that their target is a company called Heirlum and its CEO Hunter Mason. They explain that the facility has security designed to detect any metals, meaning they’ll have to go in without metal. Parker tells the team to go out and enjoy their newfound wealth before coming back for the next job.
Riri pulls Parker aside to talk to him about the ethics of what they’re doing. Parker blurs the lines between him and her, as well as good and bad. He justifies what they’re doing, and in the process he says he’s nobody without the hood. Riri asks about how the hood works and he tells her it’s magic, a concept Riri rejects.
Back home, Riri gives Xavier some expensive new headphones as a gift. He seems less than thrilled and gets Riri to step outside with him. He asks about her job and her new money before explaining that his old headphones were actually Natalie’s and he’s attached to them. He asks again about her job and what she’s getting into, but she assures him everything is fine.
Ronnie answers a knock at the door and sees Joe standing outside her apartment. He asks for Riri and she comes to the door and lies that they work together. She steps outside to speak to Joe in private and ask about the blueprints he’s holding. Joe explains that since her last visit, he has had a bunch of ideas for biotech that he wants her to help him with. Riri shrugs him off but Joe takes her advice and demands respect by blackmailing her, saying he would tell her mother how they really know each other. Riri gives in and agrees to work with him.
Riri begins working on the suit before Natalie startles her. The AI again brings up the problem of her working with Parker, a criminal they don’t understand. Natalie asks to be treated as a friend and partner instead of an AI and overcomes Riri’s objections by saying she has taken control of the suit until she gives in. It is not a good day for Riri.
The next morning, Riri and Natalie go out for some fun. They talk about some old times and Riri briefly slips up and refers to the AI as the real Natalie. The AI admits she has some gaps in her memories but also accepts that would be the case if she were really alive too. Natalie says she wants to go to one more place and they visit Gary’s garage. When they get inside, Riri has flashbacks to the night Natalie and Gary died and begins to have a panic attack. Natalie calms her down, which prompts Riri to ask how she did it, saying the real Natalie was the only one who could ever do that. It appears this AI is more like the real thing than she thinks.
Riri gets home to find police at her door. They explain that Stuart, the guy whose job she took, was found dead. They’re asking her about him because she was the last one to call her. She lies that she met him on a job interview but that she never got in touch with him again and the police leave.
Riri panics, thinking Parker and the crew killed Stuart and they could kill her. Natalie tries to calm her down and they start to come up with a plan. Riri says she needs to get a piece of the hood to analyze it and realizes Joe’s synthetic skin material could help her conceal a laser cutter into Heirlum where she could cut off a piece of Parker’s hood while he’s distracted.
John meets with Parker to discuss the Heirlum job and tells him they need to call it off because he can’t find a weakness for them to exploit. Parker pushes back and asks for John to trust him. Eventually John gives in and the job is still on.
Riri arrives at Joe’s house and helps him with a botched install of some biotech in his arm. While she’s doing that, she asks about his biomesh skin prototype and says she could upgrade it to make it cloak from x-rays and metal detectors. Joe argues this could all be traced back to him and what she’s trying to use it for something illegal.
Riri looks for peroxide in Joe’s kitchen and instead finds a bag of a powder before Joe asks her to “please put dad back." Riri panics and drops the bag and as Joe cleans up the mess, she sees it is labeled “Obadiah S." Joe eventually admits his real name is Ezekiel Stane, the son of Obadiah Stane, former COO of Stark Industries and the guy who tried to kill Tony Stark in Iron Man. In the comics, Ezekiel eventually takes up his father’s mantle as the Iron Monger, but Joe seems to be fighting to keep himself from doing exactly that.
Riri pulls back on her push to use his tech and goes back to helping Joe, or I suppose Zeke, with his arm. He asks her again why she built the suit and she admits Gary was a big fan of Stark. After explaining how Gary was killed, Zeke tells her she at least had a good example while he had an “Iron Monger," again playing to the comic book villain name of his father. Eventually, Zeke gives Riri the biomesh skin but makes her promise it won’t blow back on him.
The crew gets ready for the job by dropping all of their metal into a bag. Riri holds back, hiding the laser cutter under Zeke’s biomesh. Riri flies over the Heirlum facility and Slug shuts down cameras and lights. Roz and Jeri take out security guards while Parker and the rest of the team make their way in. Riri’s suit stays at a watch tower, with Natalie at the controls, while Riri sneaks her way into the facility to where Parker is meeting Mason.
Parker makes himself visible to Mason and it becomes immediately clear the two have an existing relationship. Mason is much less willing to sign Parker’s contract than Zarate was and he offers him a check instead. Meanwhile, Riri sneaks up on Parker to snag a piece of the hood. Eventually, she slips up and her laser cutter sets off the metal detectors, sending the whole facility into lockdown, trapping the crew in greenhouses that are quickly losing oxygen.
Parker takes matters into his own hands and becomes invisible again before killing Mason. Riri loses sight of him before she can get a piece of the hood, but after his struggle with Mason, she finds a piece of the hood on the ground and grabs it. John heads off after Parker while Natalie heads to the greenhouses. Security investigates what’s happening with Mason before they are attacked by Parker.
While trying to make her way out, Riri bumps into John, who sees she is holding a piece of the hood and throws her to the ground. The two fight after John admits to killing Stuart while Parker saves some of the crew from a greenhouse and Natalie, masquerading as Riri in the suit, saves the rest. Eventually, John and Riri stop fighting because they realize they are suffocating in the greenhouse. Before they do though, Natalie arrives and saves Riri, leaving John behind to die.
Back home, Riri panics over the thought that she effectively killed John. Things get even worse when Natalie points out that she dropped the biomesh skin from Zeke, which would of course lead the authorities back to him. Meanwhile, Parker steps into his room, screaming and throwing his hood. He screams, apparently at no one, that he trusted them. We can infer from the character’s comics history that he is speaking to a demon of some sort. Eventually, Parker is shown visions of John suffocating and Riri’s iron suit casts a shadow over him. It seems the demon is pitting Parker against Riri. The episode comes to a close with Riri having another panic attack.
This episode gave us so much. We finally really got to see the Hood in action and we got the reveal of Ezekiel Stane. Plus, things are really boiling over for Riri now as she may have just ruined her new friend’s life and created a very dangerous new enemy. This show just keeps getting better and the stage is set for some very exciting action. And, we have a mysterious demon pulling the strings. Are we really going down this road again?
The first three episodes of Marvel’s Ironheart are now streaming on Disney+.