Ironheart has wrapped up after two weeks on Disney+, but there's plenty to discuss in the show's final three episodes. In the fourth instalment, for example, Ezekiel Stane is imprisoned after the police find the piece of tech Riri Williams left at the site of The Hood's last heist.
The Hood, who figures out that Riri was behind Cousin John's death (thanks to some sinister, demonic whispers), breaks Stane out and funds his bionic surgery, transforming Iron Monger's son into a living weapon.
Ezekiel, who doesn't don a costume, easily defeats Ironheart, but he's not all bad and allows her to escape. Later, he tells Parker Robbins that he successfully killed his former friend.
Talking of The Hood, it's revealed that the businesses he was targeting were all parts of ArtWorks, the company owned by his father (who cruelly kicked him out when he was a boy, in the wake of his mother's death). His plan this whole time has been to take back everything that he feels rightfully belongs to him, and he successfully forces his dad to sign it all over.
While this is happening, Riri finds an ally in Zelma Stanton, a young witch who once trained at Kamar-Taj. She does some digging and concludes that Parker's Hood hails from the Dark Dimension and belongs to Dormammu. The markings on him match those on Doctor Strange villain Kaecellius, and with some help from her friends, Riri builds a new suit powered by energy from the Dark Dimension; it's part-magic, part-science.
Unfortunately, there's a cost, and that's Riri's beloved AI, N.A.T.A.L.I.E., who disintegrates into nothingness.
As Parker's condition worsens, we revisit the night he and John attempted to rob his father. Running from the cops, he encountered a mysterious man wearing the Hood. He offers him refuge, and we see that the character is played by Sacha Baron Cohen. He speaks with an American accent and asks Parker what he wants before offering him the means to get it: the Hood.
In the present, Parker demands to see him, and now speaking with an English accent, this mysterious villain says that if Parker can hold on to what he's already given him, he'll get even more.
Poor Ezekiel has fallen fully under The Hood's control as he's hacked Stane's bionics, but a swift kick to the nuts from Riri—the only place he doesn't have bionics—frees him as the trauma leads to a hard reset. Ezekiel points out to Riri that they're not done because he has millions of dollars worth of tech in him, but nowhere to put his anger.
Ironheart confronts The Hood, who, in the course of their battle, becomes fully demonic. She tricks him with a hologram and takes the Hood, leaving Parker in immeasurable pain.
Leaving, she's confronted by Cohen's character, who scoffs when she suggests he's Dormammu. No, he's Mephisto, and offers to give Riri what she wants in exchange for "nothing you'll miss." She shakes his hand (a glimpse of his true, red-skinned form can be seen in a reflection), and in the final scene, a fraught Riri is reunited with Natalie...however, it's not her AI. The real Natalie has been resurrected, and as they hug, we see some familiar scars on the hero's arm.
The insinuation is that Riri has sold her soul to the devil, but what isn't clear is what this means. Are those scars meant as a telltale sign that she no longer has a soul, or is she destined to become increasingly more demonic as The Hood did before her?
It's hard to say, but Ironheart may have fallen under the villain's control. Then again, The Hood certainly didn't; Mephisto instead seems satisfied with taking a soul in exchange for giving someone what they want. In Parker's case, he just became more monstrous the more he used that demonic artefact, but that's not necessarily where Riri's story is going.
Either way, she's fully entrenched in the supernatural corner of the MCU now, making her future uncertain. As for Mephisto, seeing as he likes making deals, it surely won't be too long before he makes one that Johnny Blaze, a.k.a. Ghost Rider, similarly can't refuse.
All episodes of Ironheart are currently streaming on Disney+.