The divide between hero and villain is possibly the most vital relationship in superhero media as its often the things that hated enemies have in common that prove to be far more telling than the things that set them apart. It’s held the interest and attention of fans for decades, be it the fact that Thor and Loki shared a childhood, or the trick that Smallville used by making Clark Kent and Lex Luthor buddies before they eventually became hated enemies. However, in the latest episode of Netflix’s Daredevil, we get some massive insight about the shared demons that seems to drive both Matthew Murdock, consistently bruised vigilante at law and Wilson Fisk, the hulking criminal mastermind that can flick between sensitive, hopeful romantic and bestial murderer at a moment’s notice.
While Hell’s Kitchen burns, it’s time for these two adversarys to finally acknowledge their nemesis and size each other up properly for the first time.
While he watched from the window of a fancy restaurant, Wilson Fisk’s big plan for Hell’s Kitchen kicked in with a bang as numerous explosions rocked the neighbourhood leaving many dead of injured and in the ensuing chaos we see how it affects the various white hats caught in the vicinity. Foggy and Karen are at the apartment of a client of their law firm and help the wounded, terrified old lady to hospital where nurse Claire Temple works to deal with the rush of hurt civilians that has come pouring in from all over the place. Elsewhere, reporter Ben Urich, seemingly rejuvenated by the fact that he has some real news to report, heckles local police blissfully unaware that the detectives he’s talking to are corrupt as Hell and are currently seeking to fill out direct orders from the Kingpin of crime himself.
And what exactly are those orders? To seek out and kill Vladimir Ranskahov in order to fully erase the Russian mobsters who once was part of Fisk’s criminal inner circle in order to protect Wilson’s interests. However, after figuring out that Vladimir is his best shot at getting some desperately needed intell on his enemy, Matt Murdock in his full vigilante splendor was trying to snag the Russian only to get caught in the explosion with his quarry. Matt’s only shaken, but Vlad is seriously wounded and after Murdock gets the mobster to safety, he has an awkward call to make in order to get medical advice from Claire – a woman that the Ranskahovs once had tortured. After getting the tips he needs and halting Vladimir’s bleeding with a rather original use of a road flare, Matt soon finds out how high the deck stacked against him really is.
Not only has Fisk turned the police (both corrupt and straight) onto him in order to finish of the Russian and got Vlad believing that Murdock was responsible for the beheading of his brother, but as the night wears on Matt discovers that Fisk is about to pin a whole lot more crap on him too. But what is driving Fisk to do what he’s doing and how does it eerily mirror Murdock’s own reasons for doing what he does?
After the last episode, I kind of hinted that the people behind Daredevil might want to ramp things up a bit as we’re quite a ways in to the season and the main hero and main villain haven’t even conversed yet; however, in the aftermath of a series of explosions that’s torn through the streets of Hell’s Kitchen, the season decides to deliver just that. While the supporting cast are nicely waylaid dealing with the ramifications of the conflagration, the path is cleared to watch both antagonist and protagonist try to think on their feet while a vital, puzzle piece is in the wind. However, before we focus our attention on the rising beef that’s building between Daredevil and the Kingpin, let’s pick up with those innocents on the firing line. Firstly, dogged reporter Ben Urich eagerly finds himself on the front lines of the disaster, blowing away the cobwebs on his instincts as he proves to be a major annoyance to detectives Blake and Hoffman (the two cops we know are deeply corrupt) as they try to establish a manhunt for the wounded Vladimir. Elsewhere, both Foggy, Karen and Claire all converge on the hospital which is kind of neat considering that these two groups of people are so closely connected by the actions of Matt Murdock and yet have not clue that each other even exists. It’s a good way to keep such important characters in the mix while keeping them far away from the main story and even though Murdock will have to face them sooner or later, he has his own gauntlet to run.
For lack of a better example, all the moments that sees Matt try to keep a badly wounded Vladimir safe from the corrupt police with orders to shoot to kill, has almost a Die Hard kind of feel as the vigilante has to dig in against superior and well armed numbers while taking refuge within a crumbling abandoned building.
To complicate matters more, Vladimir still believes that it’s the black masked vigilante who is responsible for removing his brother’s head from his shoulders and even though this crime fighter is busting his ass to keep him safe and alive, the Russian mobster is positively itching to attack his saviour at a moments notice. Adding to the tension is the fact that not every cop on Matt and Vladimir’s trail us actually on the payroll of the Kingpin, which leaves our hero in something of a moral bind when it comes to how hard he can brawl his way out of the deep shit that he’s in. However, as Murdock’s ordeal goes on, we see him finally realise the true scale of the mountain he’s trying to climb as it seems that he’s wandered exactly into the kind of mire that Wilson was hoping he would and by the end of it, the blind vigilante finds himself almost totally outmanoeuvred by his adversary. Yes, he manages to convince Vladimir that he’s not a decapitating psycho and even finally convinces the mobster to give him a vital lead that will aid him on his quest; but his payment for his perseverance is that he finds that Fisk not inly has framed him for everything, he even has ordered a sniper to open fire on the cops being harassed by Urich and promptly gets our hero blamed for that too.
It’s the greatest failure Matt’s had to weather so far and even though his Catholic born talent of taking a beating and moving on will no doubt kick in after a streaming slice of humble pie, the biggest kick in the ribs comes from a conversation both he and his opposite number gave on a radio where Fisk shows some of his more shocking cards. It turns out that the whole reason Fisk is doing what he’s doing is disturbingly similar to what compels Murdock to pull on his black sweat pants and pound the face of a dirt bag into the pavement. You see, Wilson genuinely believes that that the carnage he has wrought is justified in ultimately making the city into a better place and now we realise that both our hero and our villain are two men obsessed with bettering Hell’s Kitchen by perpetuating acts of brutal violence.
Humbled and laid low by his harrowing experience, Matt may be on the ropes, but it also means that we get a taunt, action heavy episode that moves the relationship between our two enemies into the realms of the deeply personal. Expect the season to take something of a breath after such revelations (at the very least, Matt’s probably going to have some grovelling to do with Karen and Foggy and asking Claire for advice to save the man who tried to murder her will probably come back to burn him even further), but while the flames die down in Hell’s Kitchen, the rivalry between Daredevil and Kingpin has never been hotter.
🌟🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 
One comment