It had to happen sooner or later. After ten episodes of brutality, lies and fallout, Daredevil has finally released an episode that has gone off the boil.
I mean, it makes sense when you consider the pace of the entire season – after all not every show can (or should) keep up a ferocious, non-stop, aggressive push every episode, but with its latest plot twist, the show may have just revealed that thirteen episodes may have been around three too many.
Maybe streaming has made all lazy when it comes to the art of releasing a series, as the act of releasing an entire series on the same day means that a show no longer has to work to hold your attention over a period of months. However, while I was never a fan of 22 episode shows either (so much filler), The Path Of The Rightous leads me to believe that thirteen might be too much as well.
Still healing from the brutal attack from both Nobu and the Kingpin and still stinging from the verbal beating he took from a hurt Foggy who has discovered his secret, vigilante night job, Matt Murdock continues to get patched up by Claire Temple. While she laments that what she and Matt had will probably go nowhere (having a boyfriend that gets you beaten by the Russian mob will do that to you, I guess), she admits that she’s moving on in an attempt to put this world of superheroes and crime behind her. While we should tell her that she shouldn’t bother as she’s due to pop up in other Netflix Marvel shows, Matt realises that he’d better sort his shit out and get back out there, if only yo answer the panicked messages from Karen Page.
Menwhile, it seems that the Kingpin’s switch to public life has finally caught up to him, but while we were expecting an exposé by Ben Ulrich to drag some of his dirtier secrets into the light, it’s actually the poisoning of a scattering of guests at a fundraiser that managed to finally score a major hit on Wilson Fisk when his beloved Vanessa end up being one of the people succumbing to the mystery toxin. Who could have done this; could it be one of Fisk’s playmates, concerned that his recent actions have put them all at risk, or is it a new player who also has the inside track on all the terrible things Fisk has done.
However, after pleading with Matt to tell her why Foggy and he have fallen out, it’s Karen who is going to affect the most damage to the Kingpin and it has nothing to do with what she’s found out from his sickly old mother. After getting a heads up that someone has been snooping around the old folks hole where mama Fisk is living, Wesley snaps into action for himself, tracking down Karen and holding her at gunpoint. But when a quirk of fate deals an especially impressive switcheroo, Karen ends up with blood on her hands and Kingpin is down one consigliere.
Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it?
You may disagree my my stance, but I truly feel that the random poisoning of Vanessa may be one random plot point too far when the show was cruising nicely towards whatever climax it’s intending to offer up. If it was put in place to allow a chink in Kingpin’s armor to be revealed, then I’d argue that it was unnecessary as a version of Fisk that’s still perceived as untouchable would create more tension for Matt and if it was thrown in to simply put the screws to all involved, then I’m rather confused as to why. Is it to throw doubt on Owlsley or Gao – pardon me for saying so, but if you thought either of these two characters where eminently trustworthy, then you probably haven’t been watching the show too closely.
If I’m making sound if ive suddenly turned on the show, a can assure you that the acting, cinematography and brutal tone are all still in evidence, but it’s the first time in the show’s run that I’ve felt that an episode was spinning its wheels in order to give the writers an entire instalment in order to get their ducks in order and important stuff does manage to occur; but it feels like maybe some of the show that came before could have been streamlined to introduce it sooner.
While the show creates unnecessary questions about Vanessa’s poisoning, we have yet another female member of the cast getting kidnapped (in Karen’s case, I guess you can argue this is her second time after getting framed for murder and nearly killed in her apartment), but this time the script pulls a switch when in a stroke of luck, a grand standing Wesley accidently allows his victim to be the upper hand and cut off his rather Agent Smith-esque speech about hating the city by emptying an entire clip into his chest. It’s a shock moment, it now makes Page and actual murderer and it will certainly take a lot more wind out of Fisk’s sails as the invisible wolves around him start to close in. There’s a satisfying sense of pay off about it, especially after what happened to sweet old Mrs Cardenas a few episodes back and it ties in nicely with the shows themes about not taking things too far lest you become as bad as your enemy – but i have to wonder again, do we actually want such a potentially weakened Fisk for the finale?
However, while Fisk sees his influence finally starting to wane, Murdock may finally be getting his mojo back after calling in on Kingpin’s quartermaster, Melvin Potter. After the obligatory brawl, Matt finds that Melvin not only has the emotional intelligence of an innocent child, he’s being coerced into making Fisk’s super tough suits lest a loved one of his named Betsy is harmed. The fight is fun, if slightly needless, but at the very least, we get a massive easter egg to Melvin’s comic book origins when the infantile giant starts slinging bandsaw blades around in a nod to his “Gladiator” persona. But again, it feels like Matt is being offered a clumsy olive branch by the writers who may have realised that they’ve brought their hero so low for so long, they’re having to fast track his accention by hamstringing Fisk and giving Murdock access to some of Kingpin’s toys.
Still, if it gets Matt into a red costume sooner rather than later, I guess I’m going to have to be cool with it, but it’s a shame that the writers couldn’t move the pieces around a little neater.
I get that with what they’re doing with Fisk means that they’re ensuring that he’s as well rounded a character as their protagonist and they’ve certainly succeeded in avoiding making D’Onofrio’s truly fascinating heavy as one dimentional as some of the other bad guys in the MCU, but you can’t blame me for wanting the big bad of Marvel’s street level world to be at full strength when he and Daredevil butt heads for the inevitable rematch. But maybe I’m the one in the wrong. Maybe offering up Fisk as a cornered animal might provide that extra amount of drama that the series has been so good at providing so far and I’ll just have to wait for matters to resolve themselves on their own.
I might not be Catholic, but it’s good to have faith.
🌟🌟🌟
We Have Issues 
One comment