REVIEW: Ironheart – Season 1, Episode 5, “Life’s a Glitch”

Television Reviews

“Karma’s a Glitch” has the most action in an Ironheart episode so far, so I suppose it’s the best one on that level. The action isn’t very good or believable, although at least Riri finally gets to act like the smart person everyone insists she is for a few seconds. The rest of the second-to-last episode is a snooze, full of dull character work and the most boring building-an-Iron-Man-suit scene in any Marvel production, plus more of the usual problems with this show: insulting and diminishing existing and cool parts of the MCU, twisted morality, and Riri Williams being obnoxious and unlikable even as the writers attempt to humanize her. But this one does try to tie it together with a coherent theme, which doesn’t quite work.

As Riri tries to figure out the source of Parker Robbins’ magical powers, the Hood sends his henchmen after her with orders to kill. Ezekiel Stane is conflicted about his intentions for Riri. NATALIE is desperate to form a connection with Riri. White Castle gets a huge product placement set piece.

In a better show, the opening scene of “Karma’s a Glitch” would have been touching; even in Ironheart, it almost is. NATALIE once again controls Riri’s Iron Man suit and sits on a building kicking its legs – which is totally not supposed to remind anyone of Deadpool – as she watches old videos of herself with Riri… and by that, I mean the one from the opening scene of the show’s first episode because they didn’t want to shoot another one. I like the idea behind this: NATALIE is trying to be more like Natalie, to forge a connection with Riri, and, ultimately, to be human. It’s a tried and true trope, but it’s a good one, and it gets to the heart of what makes us who we are. It’s undermined a bit by that awful scene it recreates where Riri smugly tells the camera how she’s going to be better than Tony Stark, Hank Pym, Steve Jobs, and Bill Gates combined, but it’s the best they’ve got, I suppose. Unfortunately, this makes NATALIE and the suit sitting ducks for Slug, who uses a big magnet to ensnare the suit and drive away with it.

***SPOILERS***

That means Riri is vulnerable, which serves the Hood’s purposes because his underlings are hunting her down, and they find her at White Castle talking to Zelma. Riri is on her own and without the Iron Man suit, so she’s got to face the two super-tough lesbian strong-arm thugs on her own, and predictably, she does much better than she should. When the pair walk in, they slam a guy into his table to demonstrate their inexplicable strength, then go after Riri when the White Castle clears. But unlike the man who looks twice her size even just sitting down, Riri is able to deflect hits from her attackers and even knock them around a little. It’s goofy, but at least it leads to a halfway decent moment: Riri uses her protective watch to lure the pair into a trap, activating the defense mechanism and trapping the pair in a bubble encasement like the one her mother was stuck in during the last episode. Finally, Riri is demonstrating that she’s smart rather than relying on others to tell us how smart she is. Then, Clown comes after her, and the moment is undone; Riri is hiding in the kitchen (she didn’t hide from the two super-strong street fighters, but she’s cowering from a skinny half-pint that doesn’t look any bigger than her), and when Clown gets close, she throws a knife across the floor to make Clown think she’s somewhere else so she can run. Except… Riri doesn’t throw the knife; she sends it skidding across the floor so Clown knows exactly where she is. But it’s fine because Riri crafts a makeshift rocket launcher out of something or other and fires it at Clown, knocking her into a table and in the path of her own grenade – which only knocks her out. See? It didn’t take long for the dumb to return.

Outside the White Castle, Riri is attacked by Slug and his van, but fret not, for NATALIE escapes with the Iron Man suit just in time to allow Riri to smash the van. (I have to admit, when she gives an airborne Slug the middle finger, I laughed.) When Slug runs away, Ezekiel shows up with some vague and undefined electrical powers, and shockingly (heh), he kicks Riri’s ass. Again, Ezekiel is responsible for the most satisfying scene of the episode, taking apart Riri’s armor piece by piece, even ripping out the spine in a legitimately cool shot. But Ezekiel stops short of killing her, telling Riri to leave Chicago as fast as she can while he makes the Hood think she’s dead. One of Ironheart’s dilemmas is that it has two characters who are even halfway interesting, and neither of them is Riri Williams. Ezekiel was betrayed, extorted, lied to, and left to rot in jail by this entitled little creep; while his turn to darkness feels too quick, he has every reason to hate her and want to kill her. Yet, he stops himself, knowing that he’s about to cross a line he swore he never would and become his evil father. That’s good stuff – or, I should say, potentially good stuff since “Karma’s a Glitch” does nothing with this potentially intriguing character arc – and it feels like Ezekiel would have made a better protagonist than Riri. He went to jail because of her, while she’s only alive because of him; which one seems more heroic to you?

And, as with Riri, “Life’s a Glitch” immediately undermines Ezekiel’s mercy by turning him into a complete idiot. When he and the team return to the Hood, Ezekiel presents him with Riri’s Iron Man mask, claiming to have killed her. When the Hood asks for details, Ezekiel – another supposedly very smart person – turns into a stuttering mess, trying to dance around the topic and saying stupid things like, “I just, you know, did; nothing more to it than that.” You’d think he’d have anticipated that the Hood would want to know what happened and made up something. “I used my new powers to fry her suit and fried her at the same time.” How hard is that? Luckily, Clown saw him let Riri go and covers for him instead of ratting him out, and despite how obviously suspicious Ezekiel is acting, the Hood buys it because everyone in this show is a moron. At any rate, Clown covers for Ezekiel because Riri told her that the Hood killed Rampage, and she confronts him over it, which leads to an insurrection among the troops and the Hood firing them all. Once again, we’re met with the awful morality of Ironheart. The Hood’s diverse group of diverse henchmen who are diverse are only bad guys when they’re trying to kill Riri; when they’re robbing people, extorting businesses, killing security guards, and burning down cheap food for poor people, they’re stunning and brave heroes, and Riri, manifestation of all things perfect that she is, got them all back on the right track. The Hood is bad, but those who gleefully did his bidding are the good guys, and they’ll never pay for what they’ve done.

As for the patron saint of eye-rolls, Riri spends “Life’s a Glitch” trying to figure out how to fight whatever mystical entity is behind the Hood. Before the good-bad-good guys attack White Castle, she speculates that it could be Dormammu, who was last seen being forced to bargain with Doctor Strange. Remember that awesome scene from a good movie that featured a cool new villain? Well, this is modern Marvel, and they can’t let anything remain cool anymore, so Riri insults and diminishes Dormammu, calling him “Dormoomoo” and scoffing at the idea of otherworldly entities like him. We get it, Riri; you’re better than everyone and everything, from genius billionaire playboy philanthropists whose technology you copy to godlike beings who can destroy entire worlds. But Riri eventually decides to take the mystical threat semi-seriously and combine magic with a new suit she will build. Again, there’s a good idea lurking in this mess; “Life’s a Glitch” also has Riri confronting her hangups about her family and friends and her obsession with the suit. Losing her stepfather and Natalie has made her desperate to protect her mother, and that’s why she’s so driven to make the suit perfect, which is a nice thought – and entirely derivative of Tony Stark’s character arc – but it’s also at odds with every scene about the armor that preceded it, during which her wanting to protect anyone was never even hinted at. But I guess the writers decided they had to do something to make her look slightly human, so here we are. Riri also comes to terms with her pain over losing her loved ones and suddenly decides NATALIE is worth keeping around. (What a sport!) But when the new suit – which Riri builds using her stepfather’s old car – is done, Zelma infuses it with magic while warning that magic always comes with a price, and the price is NATALIE, who is deleted in the process. Just as she is accepted, she’s gone, and Riri loses her friend all over again.

The theme in “Life’s a Glitch” is the desire to be in control and how it can lead to destruction (which is better than “I can steal if I want money.”) Riri is only able to build her new suit when she understands that she can’t control her past, that she has to embrace the pain of her losses so she can remember the happier memories, which is symbolized in her taking apart the car to make the new Iron Man suit. It’s clunky as hell – until now, Riri never seemed like she wanted to forget her past – but at least they’re attempting to say something. And the suit is kind of an issue; in order to protect her family, Riri has to give up the desire to protect her family – or, in more practical terms, to build a new suit, Riri has to stop wanting to build a suit. I love talking about themes in art, but when the plot and characters don’t hold together, the themes suffer, and this is a prime example of that. The Hood and Ezekiel are supposed to be mirrors of this; Ezekiel is trying to be in control of his destiny, but he finds that he’s under some thrall, and the Hood can use him as a puppet, which he does when Ezekiel tries to leave Chicago instead of working for the Hood full-time. And the Hood returns to the mansion he tried to rob with John and uses Ezekiel to take out the guards, then confronts the estate’s owner… his father, who abandoned him as a child. The Hood wants to regain control by taking back what he lost, but again, we never saw any shades of this in previous episodes. Why go after the other rich people?  Maybe they’re the price he has to pay to his master (I think we all know who that is; hint: not Dormammu) for the magic and the shot at revenge. But none of this fits; why is this only coming up now? How would relinquishing control help Ezekiel? Wouldn’t that have meant killing Riri in the first place? Does Ezekiel have to choose to be evil? And if Riri brings NATALIE back, which I suspect she will, isn’t she ignoring this lesson and refusing to let go again? This is why it feels like a last-ditch effort to make Ironheart seem better than it is. It fails.

Let us know what you thought of “Life’s a Glitch” in the comments!

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