Disney+’s ‘Ironheart’ continues the story of teen prodigy Riri Williams, following her stint at Wakanda in ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,‘ where she makes use of her genius to create a vibranium detector. Back home, she begins many new pursuits, only to be met with a new host of challenges. Navigating a world without Tony Stark, riddled with fear and uncertainty, the protagonist aims to use her unique skillset to bring hope and relief to the world. Upon finding herself stuck between a rock and a hard place, she decides to bend the rules, carving out a new path for herself. To that end, the first three episodes of the show, ‘Take Me Home,’ ‘Will the Real Natalie Please Stand Up,’ and ‘We in Danger, Girl,’ lay the building blocks for the newest chapter in Riri’s life. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Riri is Forced to Start From Scratch
The show begins with a flashback to Riri recording a video with her best friend, Natalie, where she promises to surpass many well-known geniuses such as Hank Pym and Tony Stark. In the present day, Riri navigates through her complicated student life at MIT. Lacking the funds required to complete her magnum opus, an iron suit that promises to revolutionize first-response and emergency units, she resorts to selling assignments to other students, risking being caught for enabling plagiarism. However, her experimental work comes with its share of troubles; her suit ignites unexpectedly, causing damage to the lab and injuring her professor. All these red strikes culminate in Dean Choi rejecting Riri’s request for a one-year extension to her grant. Instead, she is expelled from the college.
Refusing to give up on her research, Riri gears up with her iron suit prototype and takes off from the facility. She activates the in-suit AI system, TRVOR, and tasks it with flying her home to Chicago. However, TRVOR stops functioning short of its destination following its deactivation by MIT. Riri’s system freezes up, forcing her to crash land in the middle of Bronzeville. Managing to retrieve the scraps that fell from her suit, she walks her way back home. Upon entering, she overhears her mother’s conversation with her friends, discussing the changes in her daughter’s behavior. The discussion brings up Natalie and Riri’s stepfather, Gary, who died five years ago. This results in a trauma that the young protagonist is still recovering from, hoping to escape hard decisions.
An Enigmatic Band of Thieves Becomes Riri’s Sole Hope
Relief comes in the form of her childhood friend Xavier, who is also Natalie’s older brother. The two head out to Gary’s old shop, where a mural now remains in memory of the two lives that are gone. Riri then hits the local junkyard to hunt for the parts and funds required to continue work on her suit. Here, she meets John, a member of the thieving crew led by Parker Robbins, also called Hood. Earlier in the show, their home invasion goes sour when their tech head, Stuart, accidentally triggers an alarm. After escaping the police, the crew meets with their leader, who privately decides that Stuart must be replaced. Being a tech prodigy, Riri is a perfect fit, and John invites her to Desperito’s Pizza Place to meet the boss and consider working with them.
At Desperito’s, Riri is asked to head to the second floor; however, trouble strikes when the elevator locks in position, revealing a three-minute timer tied to a device that releases a poisonous gas. Tasked with breaking out within the time limit for her interview, the protagonist goes for an ingenious solution. She discards the tools provided to her and instead reconfigures the elevator’s wiring, making it ascend again. After prying the door open, she makes it to the team, who praise her for beating Stuart’s record, cementing his removal from the team. When Riri initially hesitates in signing up for the job, citing their mysterious and criminal activities, Parker tempts her with a box full of cash, convincing her that a straight-laced life will forever inhibit her genius, making this job the best fit for advancing towards her bigger goals.
Riri’s Groundbreaking AI Takes an Unexpected Form
While Riri begins integrating into the group, a mystery lurks around Parker, particularly the strange scars on his back. He seems to be on the verge of collapse as John tattoos deeper into his back. Back home, the protagonist realizes that her suit is her greatest asset in this line of work, and for it to work perfectly, she needs to create a better AI. She attempts to pull an all-nighter to recreate Wakanda’s Griot, this time connecting it directly to her brain, hoping that this would push it to surpass existing AI models. However, she wakes up the next morning to a surprise: before her stands Natalie. She quickly realizes that this is the corporeal form of her AI, which has somehow molded its personality after her dead friend.
Christening itself N.A.T.A.L.I.E., the AI model completely overturns the existing nature of events. An alarmed Riri desperately tries to shut it down and correct her mistakes. However, after an extended conversation with her creation, Riri is forced to confront the truth and, after stuffing the AI back in the suit, heads out for her first team meeting at Desperito’s. Here, the rest of the crew is introduced. While Parker is the leader, Slug is the most wanted hacker. They are joined by Clown, the pyrotechnician, and the violent Blood siblings. John serves as the HR manager, filling in all the gaps the team might leave behind. With the team all reformed, their first target is revealed to be TNNL, a company creating massive underground roadways at the cost of local communities. Parker seeks to break into their system on the day of its demonstration and dismantle it.
Riri’s Rush to Perfect Her Suit Lands Her a New Ally
Tasked with using her suit to insert the virus-carrying pendrive into TNNL’s systems, Riri urgently tries to repair her suit but realizes that she is missing some crucial parts. After wading through the black market with the help of Natalie, she finds Joe McGillicuddy, seemingly the go-to for all biomechanical devices and instruments, and heads out alone, locking her AI to the laptop. Upon reaching his house, she finds him to be unexpectedly timid and afraid, forcing him to hand over the materials. Joe reveals that he keeps his things in an off-the-map secret hideout that he needs to drive to, and the journey continues. Meanwhile, Natalie manages to break free and enters into the projector that Riri’s mother, a painter, is using. The sight shocks her before the AI calms her down and explains the situation.
Following this, the scene returns to Joe and Riri in the car as they finally reach an abandoned silo, which hides a retinal scan-protected vault containing every piece of bionic technology that Joe has collected over the years. The protagonist stands in awe of the sheer scope of his inventory, inquiring why he keeps them in the first place. Joe explains that his father, an engineer, believed in the power of technology and that he wishes for a day when innovation will not find itself primarily related to weapons-oriented technology. He continues on to elaborate on the potential his collection has for the medical industry while Riri collects the parts she needs, particularly the magnetic repulsion field, revealing that her suit is solar and wind-powered. At the same time, she encourages Joe to be braver and more assertive in life.
The Crew Attempts To Take Down an Underground Transit System
With everything in place, the crew begins its operation, beginning with Josh and the Blood siblings rampaging through TNNL’s control center, enabling Slug to hack into the system. Meanwhile, Clown blows a hole through the road to reach directly into the tunnels, making way for Riri’s grand entrance. Things continue according to plan until Natalie rushes into the suit’s interface, scaring Riri out of control and resulting in the drive falling out of her hands. With the entire plan jeopardized, the protagonist, with the help of her AI, improvises a different method of dismantling TNNL’s cars, succeeding at the last minute. With the entire roadway down, Parker finally reveals himself. It turns out that he has been sitting alongside TNNL’s CEO Sheila Zarate, with his Hood granting him the ability to go invisible.
After taking away all of Sheila’s options, Parker presents his deal, making him and his crew the anonymous co-owners of the company in return for its continued existence. Sheila accepts without argument, leading to Riri’s first victory as a crewmate. However, things quickly turn awry when she is discovered by a police officer who points a gun at her and Natalie, prompting the latter to freeze up. After escaping, she is paid handsomely along with the rest, prompting a celebration. As their string of successes continues, the crew grows closer, with Riri learning about their retirement plans before reiterating her desire to maximize her iron suit’s potential.
The Mystery Surrounding Parker Sparks a Bold Plan
Over time, a number of mysteries pile up, the biggest of them being Parker’s Hood. After returning from her panicked state, Riri’s AI assistant warns her about the strange energy radiating from the Hood, one that demands an analysis. Their suspicions are strengthened following an altercation between John and Clown over touching Parker’s enigmatic source of power. Upon enquiring, Riri is told that it runs on magic, but she quickly discards that idea. Meanwhile, she finds herself at the receiving end of Joe’s renewed assertiveness. He demands that her make his blueprint of ideas and concepts a reality, threatening to reveal the truth to her mother if she refuses. Deciding to meet him the next day, she juggles her crowded schedule and tasks Natalie with upgrading her suit.
However, the clever AI refuses, exclaiming that it is tired of being treated like a genie and wishes to spend a day hanging out with Riri. Its request is granted as the two spend the following day retracing their favorite places growing up, reminiscing about memories. Eventually, they find their way back to Gary’s shop, which has been closed since the fateful incident. Upon venturing inside again, the protagonist’s mind goes back to the scenes of death and despair, immediately triggering a panic attack. Natalie pacifies Riri in the same manner as the real Natalie did, earning the protagonist’s trust. The two then discuss their next assignment, breaking into Heirlum BioTech’s facility, which has a security system that doesn’t allow any foreign metals to enter the premises. Elsewhere, John and Parker contemplate calling off the mission, but ultimately choose to go with it.
Back home, Riri is hit with a wave of fear and unrest upon learning that Stuart, her predecessor, has been killed. Attempting to complete her mission and investigate Parker in one go, Riri decides to take Joe’s help again, hoping to find a device to mask her suit’s presence. Upon arriving at his house, Riri discovers a bag containing the remains of Joe’s father, labeled Obidiah S. Joe is revealed to be Ezekiel Stane, the son of Tony Stark’s former business partner, who had a descent into villainy that resulted in his death. Following this, the two engage in a heart-to-heart conversation, with Ezekiel declaring that he will never be like his father and Riri revealing that she made the suit as a healing mechanism following the death of Gary, who was a huge Tony Stark fan. Riri then takes his bio-skin device, but not before making it untraceable.
The Heirlum Heist Doesn’t Go as Planned
Parker’s crew reunites to break into Heirlum, with Riri hiding her communication device and a laser under her bio-mesh. When the operation begins, everyone embarks on their usual tasks, except the protagonist, who gives control of the suit to her AI assistant and instead heads underwater, using a secret passageway to enter the main atrium. Here, she finds Parker in a confrontation with Heirlum’s CEO, Hunter, who refuses to negotiate. Riri waits for the right opportunity to enact her plan: tearing away a piece of Parker’s Hood. She nearly succeeds but ends up triggering the anti-metal alarm, prompting the facility to shut down. The greenhouses begin to spew excess amounts of carbon dioxide, and everyone trapped inside, including the rest of the crewmates, faces imminent death.
Parker uses his invisibility to kill Hunter and neutralize many of the guards, with the dangling piece of his Hood coming out in the process. Riri manages to extract it and then dashes for the exit. However, she comes face to face with John, who is confused about finding her outside of the suit. His suspicion gives way to anger when he discovers the piece of Parker’s Hood in her hand, prompting him to attack her. Riri confronts him with the death of Stuart, which he neither confirms nor denies, instead calling her a loose end. The two engage in a struggle as the oxygen level around them decreases rapidly. In the end, Natalie comes to Riri’s rescue, helping her suit up and fly to safety, leaving John to suffocate.
The rest of the crew, already rescued by Natalie, makes its way to the boat, where Parker quickly realizes that his cousin is missing. He requests Riri to sweep through the building once again, following which she confirms his death. Unable to do anything, the crew heads back. While the protagonist suffers another panic attack, having caused the loss of one’s life, Parker, in a fit of rage, tosses away his Hood, lamenting in front of the supernatural entity that is presumed to be the cause of his physical and mental anguish. The entity responds by creating a vision of John’s final moments, which breaks Parker further. However, right after this, the shadow of Riri’s iron suit looms in the background, eventually consuming the entire frame. It suggests that Parker is now aware of her connection to John’s death and demands answers.
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