Ironheart Episodic Coverage: “Take Me Home”

“Take Me Home” Is A Great Way To Start A Series

Ironheart’s first episode, “Take Me Home,” is one of the best opening Marvel episodes I can recall in terms of engagement. You get basically everything you need to attach to the story and get excited to see where it goes. Unlike Daredevil: Born Again, the plot is starting right away, no slightly non-sequitur hook required. There’s superhero-type stuff happening from the jump.

“Take Me Home” is also, in a good way, very blatant about what the plot of the season will be. It’s established all the moving parts it needs for a full storyline—though I do expect there to be twists somewhere along the line. Riri has a very defined goal: she wants to make the best suit she can. Why? Despite her admitting it’s partially for glory, it’s probably because she—in classic superhero fashion—lost people close to her, and the suits she talks about in one of the first scenes would’ve possibly saved at least one of them.

The Focused Writing Makes Riri Instantly Engaging

I do, however, wonder about having the main character fully willing to do crimes to achieve that goal. It’s a relevant plotline often ignored that super-tech takes a lot of cash, but Riri isn’t presented as an anti-hero, or having extremely selfish motivations, so why do we not see any other options or attempts? Not to mention, this arrangement, even accounting for this being a fictional story, is a bad deal. The Hood didn’t sugarcoat things or add on one of the justifications you’d expect in a heist narrative, like they’re stealing from other criminals or something. He puts Riri in a position where—as far as we know—she might actually die from gas, then, when she doesn’t die, offers her a ton of money to commit a broad swath of crimes with no promises of almost anything.

But I get why they did this setup: because it’s an interesting dynamic for a superhero show with lots of options. The Hood is a magic-user, the main villain, and the heist leader. The eventual battle will be more personal. And, to add to the tension as that comes down the pipe, there are several countdowns happening at the same time as them doing dangerous heists. The tattoo is clearly special and takes multiple steps. There are three heists to do before something happens. And Riri needs a certain amount of money to complete her project, and she’ll likely get money with each heist. Much like how Agatha All Along got to continuously get more complex while also having a snappy, episodic pace, I suspect Ironheart will manage the same.

A Single Episode Introduces Several Fun Plotlines

But this isn’t even all the plotlines we get. There’s also a solid storyline about trauma to give everything more depth. Dominique Throne does an amazing job as Riri, portraying deep emotional pain over losing people. That mix-tape moment is one of the more intense—and well-acted—panic attacks I’ve seen on television. And, unlike some superhero shows, we actually get to grapple with it in a more unique way via that last-minute revival. I was unsure why “Take Me Home” had fixated on her making an A.I. for so long, but it’s clear now how it makes the suit—creating it, upgrading it, maintaining it—even more important to the story.

The only issue—that I haven’t already mentioned—with this episode is a common one for openers of series. Though “Take Me Home” is arguably worse about it than many. And that’s how it handles one crucial piece of exposition. We get so many separate dialogue scenes and flashbacks to tell us that these two people died, and it’s also implied enough that we didn’t need to be told directly. We’ve seen a superhero show with a tragic backstory. Trust the audience to get it. So many other plot details are either efficiently presented or woven into the story that it feels all the more strange how redundant the reminders are.

But, hopefully, we’re passed that now. That’s my hope, anyway. If “Take Me Home” had to be a little clunky to make sure that the rest of the season flies along, so be it. Now, hopefully, the series can jump into the first adventure, and we can see more interesting takes on lateral problem solving from Riri and some fun CGI suits.

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