Episode Review: Ironheart Episode 3 - "We in Danger, Girl"

Welcome back to the blog readers. Ironheart (2025) has not really been doing much to totally capture my attention over its first two episodes, but there are things in it (particularly the performance of Dominique Thorne) that are compelling me to keep going and watch on. Now that we are at the halfway point of this miniseries, would this episode, titled "We in Danger, Girl," written by Francesca and Jacqueline J. Gaines, and directed by Sam Bailey, be the lynchpin in me beginning to like this series? Stick around to find out.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.

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Like I said in the introductory paragraph, I have been waiting for that proverbial spark to give me something to really sinch my claws into. Last episode, it looked like we could be getting something good going into this midseason finale, and I have been waiting with bated breath to see if I would finally get hooked. Truth be told, I actually was this time around. Dominique Thorne and Anthony Ramos killed it in the performances and the story is actually getting good.

If there is one that that HAS been consistent with this show over its first three episodes, it has to be the performance of Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams. I truthfully did not know who she was before Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022), but she has been killing it so far in this show. This episode gives us her finest and most layered performance yet. And nothing screams that more than the scene in which Riri has a panic attack. As someone who has had them before, I know what goes into those, and Thorne killed it in that scene. But overall, there is guilt, there is anger, there is sadness and there is a well-layered performance that will stick with me for a while.

Now I want to talk about the performance of Anthony Ramos as Parker Robbins / the Hood. He has been in A Star Is Born (2018) and Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) in small roles, but I really took notice of him in Hamilton (2020). Being in In the Heights (2021), Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) and Twisters (2024) has really raised his stock and become one of the more bankable actors in Hollywood. This show is no different because he has completely leveled up as the villain. His performance as Robbins in this episode was possibly the best I have seen from him so far. There are levels to his performance from rage to anger and guilt over a major story beat I will talk about later, but he has stepped up to the table in a big way here. I cannot wait to see what else he has in store for us.

Now we should definitely talk about this story because it is definitely one that will affect the future of the MCU. We start with Parker's gang celebrating the success of their heist in last episode with wads of cash, but Clown becomes the buzzkill when she comes in with Parker's hood and boasts about hacking the safe the hood is contained in. John violently confronts her and Parker convinces him to back off. He talks about their next heist to ease the tension. Riri requests a private audience with Parker and talks to him about not wanting to be a bad person with the activities they are doing. He reminds her that she is hanging around criminals but she still refuses to admit she is doing things wrong. She asks what the hood is made of and he refuses to answer, rebuking that he was nothing without it and now he is unstoppable with it. He tells her to blow off some steam and spend her money frivolously.

When she gets home, she meets Xavier and reveals she bought him a new pair of headphones but he is hesitant to accept them because his current ones remind him of his late sister Natalie. He leaves and Joe knocks on her door, startling her mother. The two claim they met each other at work and Joe tries to convince Riri to help him do things to make a batter world. Riri is confused and will not help but he blackmails her into helping him by threatening to reveal to her mother how they actually know each other. She relents and accepts. When she gets back in her room, N.A.T.A.L.I.E. also blackmails her into hanging out with it with a threat of locking the suit. The two hang out the next day by going to a park and later to Gary's auto shop. Being here triggers a panic attack in Riri but N.A.T.A.L.I.E. is able to calm her down.

When she returns home, she sees the police looking for her. They inform her that Stuart was killed and Riri was the last person he was in contact with. She claims they connected at a job interview and exchanged numbers, and she called him with no answer. When she returns to her room, she and N.A.T.A.L.I.E. deduce it was Parker that killed Stuart and Riri wants answers on the hood. N.A.T.A.L.I.E. reminds her that using her suit for the heist is impossible due to high-level security features. She recognizes one of Joe's projects is a bio-mesh skin material, so she makes it a priority to see him. He asks her to help him fix her arm after one of his projects went awry and she learns his father was Obadiah Stane, Iron Man's first villain, and his real name is Ezekiel. He admits he wanted to be something different than what his father was and that his father's death was covered up by S.H.I.E.L.D. after he attacked Tony, and she finally tells him the reason she built the suit is because Gary was a massive Iron Man fan and reveals his death to her.

Parker's crew goes over the details of the heist and Slug emphasizes that they cannot rely on metal objects. Their target is HEIRLUM CEO Hunter Mason and they want to do the same to him that they did to the CEO of TNNL. John previously attempted to get Parker to cancel the job since he could not find anything incriminating on Mason but Parker insisted they carry it out. The mission begins without a hitch and Riri tells N.A.T.A.L.I.E. to pilot the suit so she can find a vantage point to cut a piece of Parker's hood. John joins the suit atop the watchtower as Parker tries to get Hunter to sign the contract that would get them on HEIRLUM's payroll. Mason refuses to play ball, leading to Parker shooting him dead. Meanwhile, Riri made it underneath the platform and she uses her hidden laser to cut a piece of Parker's hood but her overuse of it leads to the alarm being raised. While the rest of the gang is trapped in greenhouses that are filling up with carbon monoxide. Riri tells N.A.T.A.L.I.E. to save the remainder of the crew but in her escape runs into a suspicious John. When he sees the piece of the hood, he begins to attack her but the suit picks her up and leaves him to die.

Parker asks Riri to do a scan of the compound but she confirms that John is deceased. Riri flies back to her house and has a panic attack over what she has witnessed before N.A.T.A.L.I.E. notices the bio-mesh is not on Riri anymore. She continues to panic as she previously promised Ezekiel that nothing would blow back on him. Meanwhile, Parker is screaming out for someone who is not there but he sees a vision of John being killed by Riri in her suit as he asks "Why are you showing me this?"

Ironheart finally puts the pieces of a solid show together with solid characters and a solid plotline that will change the course of the MCU: technology and magic. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.