While we’ve been seeing Matt Murdock’s crime fighting persona getting his ass handed to him for a fair few episodes, it seems that his opposite number, Wilson Fisk, isn’t exactly having a grand old time of it either. That’s right, after a wealth of installments that saw a string of flashbacks lay out Matt’s past, it’s finally time to crawl into the bald head of the Kingpin to see what makes this malevolent mastermind tick while he struggles to keep the respect if his partners in crime.
In the past, Marvel has been accused of offering up single serving, one dimentional villains that provide no other service than to simply be a pain in the hero’s ass, however, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin has proved thus far to be one of the more layered examples of MCU villainy who is capable of much more than just being able to take a man’s head off with a car door in a blind rage.
So now that the curtain is being drawn back of Daredevil’s big bad, can the show continue to add further layers to the big guy’s already ample frame?
It seems that blind Hell’s Kitchen vigilantes who also double up as lawyers by day are just not having a good time of it at the moment. Over the past couple of nights, Matt Murdock has been racking up one “L” after another as every attempt he’s made to gain ground on his nemesis has ended in frustration and flames. Framed by the Kingpin for domestic terrorism and the murder of police officers and outwitted and manipulated by his old mentor, Stick, Matt’s starting to feel the pinch, but a new avenue opens up once he discovers that Karen, Foggy and reporter Ben Ulrich have joined forces in order to take Fisk down via a more legal route.
Meanwhile, Fisk is starting to feel the pressure himself after the death of the secret Japanese weapon known as Black Sky at the uncompromising Stick means that Wilson is in the bad books of fellow conspiritor, Nobu. Also pissed at him is money man Leyland Owlsley who, after a recent close encounter with the man in the black mask, is very vocal about his lack of faith in the Kingpin, but while this isn’t great news, Wilson strives to keep the faith of his most intimidating partner, the deeply unsettling Madame Gao.
During all of this, we witness flashbacks of the triggering point in Wilson’s youth as he lives in the shadow of an abusive father.
However, while it seems that the wolves are finally closing in on the Kingpin, inspiration comes from the most unlikely of sources – Vanessa.
With yet yet more disappointment and frustration looming on the horizon, can Matt stop his growing anger about Fisk’s latest win override his number one rule about killing, or will he eventually be pushed to cross the line to end all lines.
As Matt has had a series of flashbacks dedicated to his formative years that’s taken in everything from losing his eyesight, to losing his father, to losing his mentor (Matt’s had a lot of losses), I guess the showrunners figured it was only fair to give one to Wilson too. It’s a smart play as to do so only doubles down on the troubling similarities and telling contradictions the two enemies seem to share, but while daddy issues are hardly rare in the MCU, Fisk may have ones to beat them all – possibly with a hammer.
However, while the story of a young, overweight Wilson trying to live up to a father utterly unable to blame himself for his own shortcomings may feel a little basic at first, it proves to be extraordinary telling in what drives the crime lord and im not just talking about the ingenious reveal of what the painting Rabbit In A Snow Storm truly means to him. While his heavy handed patriarch is a man desperate to be seen and recognised by his peers, Wilson has been doing everything he can to remain in the shadows, craving anonimity the way his father demanded plaudits, however both are afflicted with the same explosive rage which eventually leads the son to take a hammer to the father. However, while the tyrannical Bill Fisk unleashed his frustration upon those weaker than him (teenage bullies, his wife), Fisk tries to cling onto his volcanic temper to the best of his abilities – but at the end of the day, the climax of the episode ironically sees him avoid the problems springing up around him by finally achieving what his father could not: to step into the public eye and be counted as a man of the people.
While this is an astoundingly tough pill to swallow for Matt, especially considering that his crimefighting identity is currently being dragged through the press and labeled The Devil Of Hell’s Kitchen, it’s just the latest chess move by the Kingpin that turns the screws on those who wish to bring him down. With his illegal, vigilante attempts to try and get anyone to give him info getting clipped at every turn, to reluctantly join forces with his friends to attempt to nail their target via the reporting of Brn Ulrich is scuppered before it can even get to print could possibly be the cruelest blow yet.
The neatest thing about the episode, however, is how it manages to almost create a mirror image of the people who surround and support Matt and gives Fisk his own, twisted version to call his own. Obviously the various scowls of Nobu and the endless snark of Owlsley doesn’t count and the less said about the creepy Gao the better, but when it seems like Fisk is about to hit a wall, his friend/consigliere Wesley pulls a very un-villainy move and brings in Vanessa to help soothe the man before his barely contained anger explodes again. It’s a surprising act of kindness from a man who frequently organises murders and other such chilling happenstances on the orders of his boss, but while we see a new side of Wesley, we see another side of Vanessa who now seems all-in with being the girlfriend of a master criminal and it’s her idea for Fisk to finally step into the light and masquerade as the selfless entrepreneur he truly believes he actually is.
Elsewhere, away from the rousing comparisons betwixt our hero and villain, the episode delivers some more, classic, Daredevil iconography as we finally get a meeting between Murdock and Ben Ulrich who I guess you could call the Commissioner Gordon to Daredevil’s Batman (in the comics at least). And aside from that, we also get the first appearance of one Melvin Potter, a childlike but hulking beast of a man who in the comics would take to strapping buzzsaws on into his wrists and calling himself the Gladiator. However here he’s been reinvented into a Bondian quartermaster who’s been supplying Kingpin with his stab proof, John Wick style suits. While the show hasn’t been leaning too hard on pulling the easter egg trigger (or not that I noticed, anyway) I couldn’t help but notice a few things in the background such as a pair of prosthetic legs that belong to Stilt Man, one of Daredevil’s more laughable members of his rogues gallery.
As we’re now comfortably past the halfway point for the season, it’s been impressive to see how the show has been gradually adding to matters in a way that’s kept the tension ticking from episode to episode, especially seeing as Matt’s been getting his ass handed to him for the most of it – but while the pressure mounts for our beleaguered hero, it’s Shadows In The Glass treatment of the villains that wins through here.
Sorry horn head; Kingpin’s pipped you to the post once again.
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