Oh Daredevil is so back, baby.
To be fair, it never truly went away, but after a shift in focus that was truly engrossing but rarely Elektra-fying (sorry about that), the season finally pulled its socks up and finally started furiously upping the stakes in the last episode which not only brought both the A and B plots back into focus after around three episodes of running on the spot (yet another compelling argument that the Netflix shows are around three episodes too long), but a whole load of left over questions from the first season were suddenly added with Scott Glen’s Stick resurfacing to fill us in on those tricky red ninjas and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Kingpin returning in order to exchange death stares with the Punisher while we squeal with excitement.
But wait, there’s more. As the secret war that’s been raging between the villainous Hand and the slightly-less-ruthless-but-somehow-still-heroic Chaste finally starts yo take centre stage, one more face from Daredevil’s past decides to make a return in order to set us up for the second half of the season – an especially crispy one we previously thought was dead. Just another day in the awful life of Matt Murdock, I guess.
With so many plot points to pick up all of a sudden, I guess when have to start somewhere, so where better place to begin is either Frank Castle who has started his prison term with being marched in to have an audience with the incarcerated Wilson Fisk who hopes to make his stay in the pokey more profitable by taking over the joint. To do that, he makes the man known as the Punisher a deal and tasks him with killing Dutton, the man who currently holds all the power at Ryker’s Island, but while Castle is initially adamant that he won’t do the bidding of a convicted crime boss, the fact that Fisk tells him that Dutton was involved in the firefight that killed his family means that he can’t help but agree.
Meanwhile, after watching a supposedly reformed Elektra slash the throat of a teenage killer ninja without a second thought, Matt has some serious walking back to do on a lot of his previous decisions but it seems to be too late for both Nelson & Murdock and his relationship with Karen. However, while Karen’s feelings for Matt have stalled, her pursuit of the Castle case turns up something else that’s been covered up that might suggest that the gang shootout that killed the Punisher’s family might have actually been a sting operation which suggests some pretty heavy ramifications. However, after a double cross from the Kingpin leads to Castle pulping both Dutton and a sizable number of his crew, Fisk admits that he was wrong and instead arranges for Frank to escape to let him slaughter more of the city’s criminal element to prepare for his return.
Speaking of returns, while Matt is out in his Daredevil guise trying to getva read on the Hand, he finds a place dubbed the Farm where human blood is being pumped into some, ornate coffin/chamber – but that’s not the most fucked up thing. After being jumped by another ninja, his attacker reveals himself to be Daredevil’s old enemy, Nobu; but Nobu went up in flames, didn’t he?
The aggressive ramping up of this season of Daredevil continues unabated as the show continues to ladle on yet more impactful happenings that progressively continue to make Matt Murdock’s life a living hell. However, the big news is Vincent D’Onofrio has returned to the show to once again embody the intimidating bulk of Wilson Fisk and even though this will obviously be a limited run, Daredevil’s most persistent enemy isn’t just here for a couple of scenes. For a start, we get the mouthwatering prospect of watching D’Onofrio and Bernthal verbally (and physically) face off for out entertainment. Not only does witnessing the Kingpin and the Punisher share a scene give you waves of geek powered euphoria that we got when the rest of the MCU started hanging out in The Avengers, but both actors make it all worth it by trying to agressively out-growl each other the second their scenes starts. But the episode also takes the fascinating time to detail how Fisk is slowly rebuilding his influence by buying loyalty from certain inmates to build a new empire from scratch. Also, asan added bonus, much like Clancy Brown cameoing last episode, we also get William Forsythe turning up as Dutton which adds to the whole gravelly voiced character actor thing this season is bringing.
However, the whole thing is ultimately topped off with chef’s kiss of a fight scene that might actually stand as Daredevil’s most gruesome brawl to date as far fetched as that may seem. Thought that the claret spraying face off between Daredevil and Nobu last season was the show’s last word in gruesome battles to the death then you’d better buckle up because this bout of brutality manages to rack up favourably to The Raid movies as Frank stabs, slices and gores his attackers to death while staining his white prison threads with his adversary’s insides. It is nothing short of spectacular.
Speaking of Nobu, it seems like the season has finally settled on an overarching villain by bringing back one of Kingpin’s conspiritors who we last saw going up in flames and while his appearance at the end of the episode, it certainly lends credence to Stick’s claims that the Hand has cracked immortality with their weird, blood draining, Clive Barker-esque device that Daredevil finds in the ominously named Farm. Considering that the season has essentially gone nine whole episodes without a traditional big bad beyond the temporary distractions of the Punisher, Elektra and Wilson Fisk, it hasn’t entirely been a successful move and the fact that we’re double dipping a villain who has already been vanquished once before feels a tad underwhelming, but as the show now seems to be cramming in as much stuff into the closing half of the season, it’s a relief that business has fully picked up.
Is it perfect? Not entirely. There’s a sneaking suspicion that a fair amount of what we’re watching is “doing an Iron Man 2” and is setting up other things down the line. Karen’s continuing search for the truth is veering more into Punisher solo territory and with The Defenders team up on the horizon, I’m going to be annoyed if the whole Hand thing here just ends up being an elaborate set up to another show that hasn’t been made yet.
Still, I can’t complain that season 2 is now straining to virtually overload each episode with as many stock Daredevil characters as it possibly can. Is it particularly elegant? Um, not really; Frank Castle’s escape may have been facilitated by the Kingpin, but it still feels awfully convenient and Elektra now seems to be being pushed aside the way the Punisher was during episode’s five to seven. However, the show is now throwing everything it’s got at the screen with such enthusiasm, it’s impossible not to get caught up in the momentum.
Look, we get ninjas, Kingpin, Nobu getting a rematch with Daredevil and the glorious sight of the Punisher knifing prisoners into mulch and if that can’t convince you that the show is doing everything it can to kick some ass, then sweety, you must be blind.
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