After a dumpster full of twists, a gutter full of turns and more acts of savage violence you can wave a billy club at, Daredevil finally swings into the final episode of its first season with purpose, drive and a fair amount of style. It’s been an eye opening ride thus far and while that connection to the MCU remained, at large, more tenuous than a liquorice zip line, the show ultimately benefited from keeping the antics of Iron Man, Cap and Thor at arms length.
However, just because we made it to the finale, it doesn’t mean there isn’t still a whole lot of work to do – after all there’s a funeral, a reconciliation, a reckoning and a long awaited wardrobe change to squeeze in, not to mention another one of those thrillingly brutal brawls that the show has excelled in.
But when it’s all said and done, it all comes down to settling one of the most fascinating grudges in all of comicdom and it’s one that’s never had the chance before to truly be allowed to grow to the scale of a Batman V The Joker or a Spider-Man V The Green Goblin.
It’s Daredevil V Kingpin folks, and you’d best get your ticket (or Netflix/Disney+ subscription) early – it’s going to be a doozy.
We open with Ben Ulrich’s funeral after he had the life choked out of him by a vengful Wilson Fisk and after teary apologies and humbled respects are paid, it’s time to make the Kingpin pay for his crimes once and for all. However, with virtually all of his former conclave either dead or missing, Fisk doesn’t have too many places left to turn and matters get even more heated when he discovers that last conspiritor standing, Leyland Owlsley, was co-responsible for having his beloved Vanessa poisoned to get Wilson back on track. However, after disposing of the traitor by hurling him down the nearest elevator shaft, Wilson learns that Leyland has a rather important witness in the form of the corrupt Detective Hoffman stashed away that can bring everything down about the Kingpin’s ears. While the order is given to smoke out this potential informant and take him out, Fisk starts making plans to leave the city with Vanessa just in case shit goes bad, but after Matt discovers the existence of Hoffman, the race is on to get to him first.
Meanwhile, Foggy returns to make nice with his former friend and has brought a rather special surprise with him – it seems that his ex, Marci, works for the law firm that represents Fisk and has been skipping copies of shifty documents over to Nelson to build a case. Between this and the safe collection of Hoffman, Murdock and co. finally has enough to bring the Kingpin and all the people he pays off to justice once and for all.
Well… not quite. After getting busted out of police custody by paid for mercenaries, it seems like Fisk may get to flee with Vanessa after all, but with a brand new vigilante suit courtesy of Melvin Potter to try out, Matt sets out to take down the Kingpin for good with a renewed, devil may care attitude.
Say goodbye to the Devil Of Hell’s Kitchen, say hello to Daredevil.
Sometimes all you want from a superhero show is a good, old fashioned battle between good and evil. It’s not an especially nuanced way to finish things off and in the realms of the comic book adaptation, it’s been positively done to death, but on the other hand, watching a hero triumph over a villain is almost a primal human need that’s existed since we could tell stories. While that may sound a bit melodramatic, Daredevil has certainly teased its own climactic showdown for twelve whole episodes and the final battle proves to be every bit as cathartic as you’d hoped.
It’s not a perfect finale, by any means. A lot of plot points are hastily tied up while others are left to twist in the wind to presumably be addressed at a later date. Foggy and Matt’s resolution is more than welcome, but kind of happens just because; nothing yet is made of Karen’s guilt of murdering Wesley; Vanessa seems to have gotten over her poisoning as if it was the flu; Bob Gunton’s Owlsley takes an early shower after revealing his treachery to Fisk at the worst possible moment and Ben Urich’s funeral is mostly taken care of in the precredits opening (however, full marks for the use of Jimmy Cliff’s Many Rivers To Cross). However, while a lot of these plot points are rushed through to get every one into their correct positions, everything is still moving in the right direction to get to the place we’d all be hoping to be the moment the first episode started. Two men waging a battle for the soul of Hell’s Kitchen by brutalising each other in a filthy alley.
If we’re being bluntly honest, we’ve never truly had a proper Daredevil/Kingpin smackdown before as the final brawl between Ben Affleck and Michael Clarke Duncan in 2003’s Daredevil was too rushed to carry the necessary weight required for such a grudge match, but with the heft of an entire season behind them, Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio almost have an overabundance of momentum to take them into that final stretch. It also helps that Murdock has now ditched his black pyjamas in favour of a spanking new battle suit that hues closer to Daredevil’s more classic look and while maybe it isn’t as well put together as, say Captain America’s or Thor’s costumes in Avengers: Age Of Ultron (where’s the double D on the chest, guys?), it acts as a powerful story telling tool much in the same way the juggling of uniforms in the likes of Captain America: The First Avenger, Batman Begins and Spider-Man: Homecoming helped define where the character was emotionally thanks to a snazzy wardrobe change.
And then they fight and even though it lacks the technical prowess of that already legendary hallway fight in episode 2 or the viciousness of the Nobu slice-a-thon in episode 9, it more than makes up for it for the stakes involved. With the chips squarely down and any pleasantries we’ll and truly discarded, we get the Kingpin at his most enraged, soaking up roundhouse kicks like they’re love taps and hurling Daredevil around like a rag doll in red threads. In retaliation, Murdock gives as good as it gets, delivering MMA style superman punches and providing an impressive offence with his tricked out billy clubs and when he finally triumphs against his long-time foe, there’s a real sense of triumph and achievement as he hands a bruised, bloodied and beaten Fisk over to honest cops for some long overdue jail time.
It’s interesting that this version of Daredevil opts to omit the types of CGI acrobatics usually used by his MCU peers (his final leap into the unknown is decidedly old school) and there’s an argument that it looks slightly low rent compared to, say, the final, digital shots of The Amazing Spider-Man, but this version of Daredevil is committed to a more stripped back, grittier look and is all the better for it.
There was a feeling that after his 2003 outing, Daredevil was getting a noticable lack of love compared to his Marvel stable mates, but under the guiding eye of Drew Goddard, the Man Without Fear finally getting the attention he deserves – or in other words, the devil finally has gotten his due.
Now if we could just get some Elektra and Bullseye action, that would be magnificent.
There was a feeling that after his 2003 outing, Daredevil was getting a noticable lack of love compared to his Marvel stable mates, but under the guiding eye of Drew Goddard, the Man Without Fear finally getting the attention he deserves – or in other words, the devil finally has gotten his due.
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