Impasse

Impasse is the fourth episode of the first season of NBC's Iron Man. It premiered on October 17, 2011. It was directed by Dean White and written by David H. Goodman & Robert Hull. It was also the fourth episode of Iron Man overall.

Synopsis
Tony continues to work out of the bottom level of Stark Industries but Rhodey wants to relocate in fear someone will find them. Pepper and Happy come to an impasse. Olivia gets visited by a mysterious man from her father's past.

Plot
Tony and Rhodey continue to work together in the bottom level of Stark Industries, literally right under Pepper, Happy, Olivia, and Stane. Tony is fine taking the risk, due to no one having visited the underground for years. However, Rhodey is not so sure and is worried about someone discovering their operation. Tony upgrades his suit to feature the voice of Rhodey guiding him from their base. Iron Man fights off criminals on the streets, though gets distracted by Rhodey voicing his opinion on switching bases. Iron Man is nearly unmasked before he slams the criminal onto the ground for the NYPD to catch. Tony returns to the base and Rhodey sees Tony without a shirt on, with the Arc Reactor still in his chest from eight months ago. Rhodey asks Tony why he has it, but he refuses to answer.

Pepper and Happy continue to live under the former's roof, though Happy tries to get her to agree to move out into a newer, more updated place. Pepper once again refuses, saying she only wants to be with him. However, Happy secretly looks through open houses to show to Pepper. At the Stark Mansion, Olivia returns to her room from school but learns from Jarvis that a man wanting to see her is waiting in her room. Olivia cautiously enters her room and finds Anton Vanko standing in her room. Anton introduces himself as a man from her father's past.

Rhodey tries to find new places around the city to hide out in but Tony continuously tries to convince him the underground level is perfectly fine. Tony goes home and meets Anton, who Olivia has bonded with. Tony asks to speak with Anton in private and it is revealed the two have known each other. Tony tells Anton to get out of Olivia's life to protect her. Anton agrees to do so after having a friendly catching up session with Tony. Pepper discovers what Happy has been doing and forces him to move out of her house if he can't accept living in her house. Happy begs her to forgive him but she kicks him out.

Rhodey attends Christine's funeral, where he discovers a large, empty graveyard building in the very back and secluded area of the graveyard. He tells Tony about it, who agrees to at least check it out. However, Tony fails to show up due to fighting crime, upseting Rhodey. Anton continues to meet with Olivia, telling her about his and her father's adventures. Olivia lies to Tony, saying Anton went home after their talk. Happy gives Pepper a big apology and buys her an entire day's worth of meals and food. Pepper accepts his apology and invites him back in, on the exception that he quits looking for new places. Rhodey demands to know everything Tony did in Arabia. Tony reveals that he was not kept as a prisoner the entire time, like he had told everybody.

Starring

 * Rupert Friend as Tony Stark/Iron Man
 * Kate McKinnon as Pepper Potts
 * Edi Gathegi as James Rhodes
 * Sarah Hyland as Olivia Stark
 * Maxwell Caulfield as Edwin Jarvis
 * Dave Legeno as Obadiah Stane (credit only)

Guest Starring

 * Kenneth Branagh as Anton Vanko
 * Jason Ritter as Happy Hogan

Trivia

 * This episode takes place on October 17 and 18.
 * This episode achieved 11.20 million U.S. live viewers.
 * The episode received mixed reviews. It scored 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, a 49 out of 100 on Metacritic, and an 6.8/10 on IGN.
 * This episode is rated TV-14 for D-L-S.
 * This is the first episode of the series to not feature flashbacks of any kind.
 * It is also one of the only six episodes of the season to not feature flashbacks.