Men hit each other. Danny practices blocking the Fitzsimmons Shift while the coach shouts at him. Bruce and Johnny make little head-ducking motions as they watch, which I find more entertaining than the men hitting each other. Danny learns how to block the move, but the coach says he needs to be better at it. Cue the montage.
Music plays. Men hit each other. The coach coaches. Johnny stares. Sometimes he nods. Does anyone else feel like this plot could have used another complication or a subplot or something? Time passes. Finally, the coach says that Danny's good to go, and advises him to "think happy thoughts about killing the bastard." Danny's all grinning and cheerful. Johnny still looks fretful, so Danny stretches his hand out and invites Johnny to "take a look." The coach discourages Danny from tempting fate, but Danny does another fake punch to Johnny's jaw. Johnny reels back, reacting to the punches he sees in his vision. Danny's still toast. Bruce helps Johnny recover. Johnny says, "I'm sorry, man. Nothing's changed." Danny screams, "You're lying!" and rushes at Johnny, but the coach holds him back and then hustles him out of the gym. Bummer.
Commercials. What's up with the crazy blue dress Kirstie Alley wears in the latest Pier 1 ad? I know she's not a petite li'l starlet, but do they have to dress her like she's in The Age of Innocence? Or maybe she wants to dress like that because of her being insane. ["If you're talking about that blue taffeta affair, I think it makes her look like a Puritan drag queen." -- Wing Chun]
When we return, men are hitting each other. But it's a different set of men. Tibbs knocks his sparring partner down and shouts, "Get up, bitch!" at him. I think they've already made Danny pretty unsympathetic, so Tibbs has to be a complete asshole or else we'll wonder why Johnny cares if this guy gets killed. We pan down from Tibbs being a jerk to see Jimmy D. on the phone. Jimmy D. is promising to reward someone for their help. He hangs up and calls Tibbs over. Jimmy D. says that, according to his mole in the Avila camp, "Our friend Mr. Smith is sleeping with the enemy." Oooh, there's intrigue. I started coming up with all kinds of theories at this point, like maybe Helena wanted Danny to lose so he'd quit boxing, or the coach was a bad guy. But who the mole is doesn't turn out to matter at all. Tibbs is worried that Johnny's vision is true, and asks, "What if I really kill this dude?" Jimmy D. snickers, and after a second when it seems that maybe Tibbs is slightly sympathetic, he reveals that he's just worried about going to jail. Again. Jimmy D. reassures him that it'll be fine, and Tibbs goes back to hitting people. There was nothing in this scene that mattered at all to the story.













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