Deconstructing Defenders: Daredevil: Season 2: Episodes 3 & 4

Season 2: Episode 3: “New York’s Finest”

While Season 2 in total is no where near as effective as season 1, this episode is among the best in the entire Defenders run. Frank has Matt chained to a water tower on a roof, and they talk about heroism, murder, Matt says Franks name like seven million time, “Frank, you don’t have to Frank! FRANK DON’T!” And then, after getting out, Matt takes part in The Hallway Fight 2.0.

But that basic summary really doesn’t do the conversation justice, especially not when you take fandom into consideration. There’s an ongoing conversation in fandom circles, only magnified by a certain director on the other side of the fence, about whether Superheroes should kill. And here’s that conversation, in detail, by two characters basically on opposite sides of the spectrum. Daredevil doesn’t kill, and beats him self up mentally and spiritually when he thinks about the pain he inflicts. The Punisher kills first, asks questions later, or, for the most part not at all.

“You’re one bad day away from being me,” is such a chillingly true statement, and I love it so much.

The other part of this episode is Foggy following Claire around asking her to help him find Matt and her basically being like, “I like Matt, but he’s a pain in my ass, so I’m cutting a running,” which, I can’t blame her for, but also CLAIRE! DON’T GO!

Karen decides that justice can only be served by Karen Page being nosy, so she does that and finds an x-ray of Frank Castle’s skull, with a bullet lodged in it.

Season 2: Episode 4: “Penny And Dime”

This episode is not as good as the last one, but it’s still really good, and has that epic shot of Daredevil standing in the rain on top of a church, which is pretty damn great. It also, unfortunately has the stupid, Karen and Matt rain kiss which is just. UGHHHHHH.

Anyway, Matt manages to corner Frank and Frank tells the amazing story of coming home from war to find his daughter in school. It’s heartbreaking and beautiful and awesome and I love everything about the scene, from Matt, sitting on the ground beside him, to the explanation of “one batch, two batch, penny and dime,” to now Sergeant Brett Mahoney apprehending The Punisher. YAY!

Matt, Foggy and Karen celebrate with beers and shots, and then Matt and Karen make out in the rain, but their chaste happy joy is short lived, as Matt gets home and Electra is sitting in his apartment, ready to throw things at him.

Other Stuff

• Jon Beranthal can deliver a speech. That is all
• Rosario Dawson is the best. That is also all.
• I’m mean about Karen’s snooping, but it is actually well done, I just hate the relationship between Matt and Karen and wish that it didn’t happen. And her finding Frank’s house is really a cool moment.
• Matt trying to get his priest to forgive him for shit that’s not his fault is both very sad and hilarious.
• The Irish mobsters kill Frank’s dog, because apparently these men have not seen John Wick. Which is a shame because killing an unstoppable killers dog. Also, because John Wick is a great movie.
• Guys! ELECTRA’S HERE!!!!

Deconstructing Defenders: Daredevil: Season 2: Episodes 1 & 2

Guys! It’s time for Daredevil Season 2! AKA The Punisher is THE BEST! (Also Elektra!)

Season 2: Episode 1: “Bang”

The premiere of season 2 is the first indication that this isn’t the same show that it was the season before. Everything’s just a little bit bigger and slicker and then there’s The Punisher. Who we don’t technically know is The Punisher yet, and we definitely don’t know is Frank Castle.

Anyway, we open with Daredevil stopping a mugging that leads him to a church. It’s bigger and more kinetic than anything we saw before, and we see Matt’s upgraded suit. Which I think is great, but I’m also a fan of the original suit, so apparently I am wrong.

Anyway, after her gets the bad guy, we see Matt and Foggy on their way to work, joking and laughing, talking about Foggy’s date the previous night, they get to the office and Nelson and Murdock is overrun with clients, none of whom can pay of course.

Karen’s busy managing the office and when the three of them go out for drinks that night, the sexual tension between her and Matt explodes. Foggy is not thrilled, but whatever. (I am also not thrilled. Mostly because I think pushing Matt and Karen together was super de super lazy)

The scene where The Punisher takes out an Irish crime family is so incredibly intense. It’s also hilarious in a weird way, and brilliantly staged. It’s so clear that the team is revelling in this new brand of violence, and the first chase between Daredevil and Punisher is exceptional and Matt getting shot in the head, the titular “bang” is even better. (These first three weeks are going to be fun!)

Season 2: Episode 2: “Dogs To A Gunfight”

Foggy and Karen are consistently my favorite not Claire parts of Daredevil, so it really shouldn’t be a surprise that I actually really like this episode a lot. It’s basically the two of them maneuvering to get their client into witness protection so that The Punisher won’t get him. It’s pretty cool stuff.

Of course, there’s also Foggy dealing with the fact that Matt got SHOT IN THE GODDAMN HEAD and is still insisting that being Daredevil is necessary. The scene where Matt loses his hearing is so beautifully done and amazingly terrifying, I really enjoyed watching it again. Well, enjoyed is the wrong word, “was impressed by,” is probably better.

And that I really do love the fact that the fights between Matt and Frank, who we still don’t know is Frank, takes place sort of off screen and weirdly framed. It’s how most people see them, on the periphery of the real world.

Other Stuff

• I must remember that there is not much Claire in this season. While everything is not as good when there’s less Claire, I understand the reasoning, she was off in Harlem filming a way better show.
• The scene where Frank beats the crap out the guy selling child porn is so cathartic. We don’t even see the beating, but knowing it’s there is awesome.
• I’d forgotten that the first few episodes take place during a heatwave. Such a great way to show tensions building.
• Hey! That’s the same DA that threatened Jessica Jones.
• Officer Brett Mahoney considers Foggy his friend now. Aw. Foggy also gets beat up by some bikers. He’s having a bit of a day.
• Karen confronting Matt is great too. Look, I’m just saying that Karen is too good for him. Also he’s too good for her. I’m saying that this pairing is stupid and I don’t read their chemistry as romantic. Also Team Claire!

Deconstucting Defenders: Daredevil Season 1: Episodes 11 & 12

We’re nearing the end of Season 1, and I’m very glad that I made this decision, even if I sometimes sort of forget to watch  the show. Anyway, let’s talk about this week’s episodes!

Episode 11: “The Path of The Righteous”

So Karen kills a guy. I feel like this is an action that doesn’t really get enough consequence. I mean, it’s not even like she kills a random ninja or a henchman or something. She kills Wesley, who’s Fisk’s right hand man and only friend, and she shoots him the face. Maybe they’ll finally address it on The Punisher, but it really doesn’t get adequate follow in the following two episodes or in season 2 that I can remember.

Anyway, other things happen in this episode, like Foggy sleeps with stupid ex Marcy. (Ew) and Matt and Claire have a talk about their what could have been. (SHIP IT SO HARD I HURT INSIDE) and Matt talks to his priest about the nature of The Devil some more, and Fisk weeps at Vanessa’s bedside and Owlsley makes it about himself and Ben gives Karen some advice and oh yeah, Karen kills Wesley.

Oh, also Matt meets Milton, who’s the suit making guy, and asks him to make him a suit that’s a symbol, of some kind. And my heart skipped a beat, because guys, I really love the Daredevil suit.

Anyway, on to that thing where KAREN KILLS WESLEY!!!! It’s a really, really good scene. The acting is probably the best that Deborah Ann Wohl does in the whole series.

Episode 12: “The Ones We Leave Behind”

The death of Ben Urich is something that I’m not sure the show ever will recover from. Losing him as a grounding character loses a lot, and while it’s an understandable story beat, and even a really good mirror to the death of Wesley in the previous episode (both deaths are deeply personal, neither calculated and leave gaping holes on each team.) And while Ben’s final sacrifice for the truth is a noble one, it still feels like a weird and unecessary loose end. Not to mention, this is basically the last time that Karen deals with the fact that she shot a guy.

Fisk meanwhile is scrambling without Wesley and with Vanessa in the hospital and with needing to get his mother to safety. This is exactly how Matt wants him, discombobulated and all, but it’s also a dangerous position to put everyone else in. Matt manages to set fire to Madame Gao’s heroin operation and Owlsley reveals that the cause of Vanessa’s poisoning is himself and Gao together.

Overall, while there’s plenty of emotion in this episode, there isn’t much plot. These episodes both move key parts into place for the finale, but nothing much else goes on. *shrug*

Other Stuff

• Foggy’s reunion with Bitchy Ex

Deconstructing Defenders: Daredevil: Season 1: Episodes 9 & 10

Episode 9: “Speak Of The Devil”

“There is a gulf between inaction and murder, Matthew.”

Matt’s relationship with his priest is one of my favorite elements of this show and one of the only times I’ve seen that brand of relationship presented with any level of realism. And the fact that it’s in a super hero show about a ninja lawyer is, not great. Anyway, the story that he tells when Matt asks him about the devil is one of my favorite speeches in this show, which does in fact, have many great speeches.

The episode is framed though, with the big fight between Matt and Nobu who are pitted against one another by Fisk, in a hope to take them both out. That’s all well and good and the fight is epic, ending with Matt setting Nobu on fire, but the real reason that this whole thing resonates, is that Fisk killed Mrs. Cardenas to get to Matt. It’s so feelsy and awful.

This leads to a confrontation between Fisk and Matt and it’s as brutal a fight as any we’ve seen so far.

This all leads to the emotional core of the episode where, Karen and Foggy get super drunk and Foggy banging on Matt’s door in a drunken haze and finding him all beat up and leading to the episode that I am not emotionally ready to watch..but I will. For the sake of blogging!

Episode 10: “Nelson V. Murdock”

There is no relationship in the entire MCU that I love the way that I love Foggy and Matt’s. Not Steve and Bucky, not Pepper and Tony, not even Trish and Jessica, who are the only ones who come even close to this one. Every moment between Charlie Cox and Elden Hensen is electric. Their friendship feels so real and lived in and perfect and this episode, with Foggy interrogating Matt about being Daredevil, and flashes back to the early days of their friendship, all of it matters in such a deep way to this story. Foggy’s inability to understand why Matt does what he does, and Matt’s inability to explain it are intrinsically linked. And the performances are insanely good.

The final scene between the two is so heartbreaking and so real and so well, perfect, that I can’t really describe it and it eclipses the rest of the episode for me. Seriously, until this rewatch I forgot that this is also the episode where Owlsley poisons Vanessa, and Karen and Ben find Fisk’s mother. (I hate Karen SO MUCH in that scene. Like so much. She’s basically psychologically torturing that poor woman and Ben.) But those small things really don’t mean as much in the grand scheme of things, as that scene where young Matt and Foggy sit on the steps at Columbia, talking about their upcoming graduation and their future.

And it’s absolutely nothing compared to Matt’s revelation that the first bad guy he chased down was a father sexually abusing his daughter, who’s screams he could no longer ignore. It’s such a brutal, horrifying revelation, it’s what finally breaks Foggy. I know these two make up, but their relationship never recovers from this conversation, not fully, and it’s just, such good writing and really amazing.

Other Stuff:

• Matt’s super smoothie skills get a work out when he goes to Vanessa’s gallery to get a better feel for who Fisk is. I love the flirting. He’s sooo good at it.
• “Speak Of The Devil” is probably the second most Catholic hour of secularly made television I’ve ever watched. The most Catholic is “Take This Sabbath Day,” the West Wing episode where Bartlett calls his priest to discuss whether he should commute a death sentence. It is also very good, and you should watch it.
• I really feel the need to reiterate how much I hate hate HATE Karen’s behavior in “Nelson V. Murdock.” It’s really horrifying and boundary crossing and awful. I mean, I get that she wants the truth, but why keep Ben in the dark? Why go about it in such a horribly manipulative manner? It’s just awful. 
• In one of the flashbacks, Foggy mentions “That Greek Girl” to Matt. I started giggling, because it’s Elektra, and she’s amazing.

Deconstructing Defenders: Daredevil: Season 1 Episodes 7 & 8

Seriously, when I talk about how Daredevil season 1 might be my favorite season of any TV show ever, it’s these two episodes that I point to most.

Episode 7: “Stick”

In this episode we learn more about Matt’s training as a blind ninja at the hands of Stick, a mysterious blind ninja who wants to enlist him into a war that he gives no description of. Stick came to Matt at the behest of the nun’s who were raising him, and immediately began to train him in the ways of The Blind Ninja when he was little.

Unfortunately after an incident with a craft project, Stick realized that Matt wasn’t going to be a good soldier because of his emotions, or something and abandoned him. Now it’s 20 years later and Matt’s pissed as hell when Stick shows up again. Stick is hunting down a black sky, which in this case is a little kid that Nobu is bringing in. Nobu also gets hinted at in his “immortal ninja-ness.”

Anyway, Matt agrees to help Stick as long as no one gets killed, which of course, Stick agrees to, except for you know the whole killing a child thing, which Matt then severs ties with him for. Black Sky and Stick’s war are going to come back big in season 2, and I assume in Iron Fist and The Defenders, but you know, I’ve been wrong plenty of times before.

The Karen and Foggy half of the episode focuses on them finding the guys who broke up Mrs. Cardenas apartment and Foggy joining up with Ben and Karen’s quest to find out the truth about Union Allied. While Matt’s quest to expose Fisk, and this story eventually do dovetail quite nicely, and I actually love all of Stick stuff, I do see that this starts the problem with season 2. Daredevil wants to be a serious crime drama, and in many ways, succeeds at that, the problem is that a serious crime drama can’t coexist with a show about a mystical war between good ninjas and evil ninjas. Both shows are great! But it causes tonal whiplash, and makes the whole thing feel a good deal sloppier than it needs to.

Episode 8: “Shadows In the Glass”

This episode is so good that it gives me chills to even think about it. Wilson Fisk’s back story is crazy well executed. The first thing we see is Fisk waking up to the view of “Rabbit In A Snowstorm” and he begins his day, with clock like precision he eats, gets dressed and looks in the mirror, to see rather than the large behemoth of a man that we see, he sees a young boy covered in blood. It’s so shocking and so good.

The flashbacks hinge on Fisk’s father, who was monstrously abusive to his son and wife. Wilson snaps one day while his father beats his mother and beats his father’s brains in with a hammer. This moment of ultra violence is shot not as a triumph or a horror, but as a simple fact. Vanessa comforts Wilson about this actions, he was child, and she decides to stand by him, as he goes public with his crusade to “save” Hell’s Kitchen.

Meanwhile, Matt learns about Foggy and Karen and Ben’s plan. He yells at them about how dangerous it is, but they don’t back down. He puts on the mask and talks to Ben about Fisk, and Ben agrees to write about him, but it’s too late, Fisk has managed to beat them to the punch so to speak.

Other Stuff

• I don’t have much here, but I am glad these two episodes lined up with each other. Both expose the pasts and critical moments for Matt and Fisk, which helps the two sides of a coin narrative and the cycle of violence theme. If Stick had stuck with Matt, he’d have become a soldier of The Chaste rather than a rogue agent of chaos, curb a bit of the violence that he feeds into, but a lot of people would suffer for that loss. Fisk has also chosen to control his violence in a system, but that violence cannot be contained, it explodes.

Deconstructing Defenders: Daredevil Season 1 Episodes 5 & 6

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving, if you were celebrating! I assume that you’re watching

Episode 5: “World On Fire” 

I remember calling this, “the shipping episode” as it’s divided pretty clearly into a Matt and Claire section, a Foggy and Karen section and a Fisk and Vanessa section. It is, also, however one of those kind of weak filler episodes that all of these shows have. It’s about moving the pieces to get to the next spot, which is naratively necessary, but not always super compelling.

After her kidnapping, Claire and Matt talk about his powers, his “world on fire” vision, she tells him she thinks he’s skirting too close to the edge of darkness, which mostly just pisses him off, but she’s probably right. Matt asks her to stay with him until he settles things with The Russians and Fisk, she agrees but is not thrilled about it.

Meanwhile, Matt and Foggy take on the case of Mrs. Cardenas, a woman who’s being pushed out of her apartment building. Matt goes to Officer Brett Mahoney (YAY!) and asks for information on the landlord, while Foggy and Karen go to the big old fancy law firm that the guys decided not to work with and Foggy dismantles his ex girlfriend. Karen and Foggy are then adorable, fixing up the apartment and eating food together, and they’re perfect, the end.

Fisk and Wesley tell Vladimir that it was the man in the mask that killed Anatoly, which sets him down a path, but also, they wind up blowing him up while Fisk and Vanessa have dinner, and he strikes a new deal with Owlsley, Nobu and Madame Gao. Matt beats up some people to get more information about Fisk, but doesn’t really get much of anything.

Like I said, pieces moving.

Episode 6: “Condemned” 

“We’re not so different, you and I,” the villain says to the hero. It’s a little bit of a cliche, but when you’re doing the groundwork to set up an epic rivalry, having a protagonist and antagonist who mirror one another isn’t the worst thing you can do, and this episode actually executes the trope pretty well, when, after Fisk has half of Hell’s Kitchen blown up, Matt takes Vladimir to a warehouse and fixes him up, trying to get more information on Fisk.

In the end the hero and the villain wind up talking over a walkie-talkie, Fisk trying to stall in order to get enough false evidence together to make the explosions look like they’re Matt’s fault. It’s a wonderfully well done scene, just, you know, a little hacky. Meanwhile, Ben URICH (I said Carson last week because I’m an insane person? Who knows…) is trying to figure out what’s actually happening, Foggy is in the hospital and Karen is freaking out because they can’t reach Matt.

Claire is also freaking out because her kind of boyfriend is trying to save the life of the man who kidnapped and beat her, and also that whole explosion thing. But it is nice for Matt to have someone to talk to.

Other Things

• Matt’s super smell comes into play here, he explains that he can smell copper in the air when Claire’s stitches open up. Also he explains his “world on fire” super vision, and it’s really cool, and actually one of my favorite scenes in the show.
• Foggy and Karen FOREVA!!!! I’m still a little mad at the show for pushing her and Matt together, because they’re amazing.I mean, I get it, but it still sucks.
• Vanessa brings a gun to her date with Fisk, because she is a stone cold badass.
• I know there’s a lot less Claire from here on out, and I’m braced for it, but it’s still a bummer.

 

Deconstructing Defenders: Daredevil Season 1: Episodes 3 & 4

Who’s ready for week two of Daredevil and I am no less enthused about this television show than I was before. It’s just really, really good.

Episode 3: “Rabbit In A Snowstorm”

The final scene of this episode, where Wilson and Vanessa meet, is probably my favorite scene in all of The MCU. Truly. I remember being completely blown away by from the moment I saw it at NYCC in 2014, but watching it again, knowing how everything plays out, it’s still absurdly powerful and Vincent D’Onofrio is so good.

Anyway, there are other things that happen in this episode. Turk sells a gun to one of Fisk’s henchmen, and it backfires. (Oh, Turk, so inept.) The guy then winds up beating his mark to death with a bowling ball and Matt and Foggy wind up defending him, they’re recruited by Wesley.

Before that, Matt has another conversation with his priest, who is trying to build a rapport with him. Matt is hesitant. This is tough but I love this relationship so much. Also, confidentiality is a big theme of this episode, but so is the way the world works and is changing.

Which brings us to the wonderful Ben Carson! I was overjoyed to see him. We get his whole deal, he’s an old school reporter, who’s editor, Ellison won’t let do his thing. Also, he’s dying of cancer and Karen meets him in a diner to talk about her problem.

Karen’s problem at the moment is that she’s been offered a deal to never talk about what happened to her again. It’s a lot of money, but she’s not sure that she wants to do it. She goes to see Danny’s widow and she tells her to take the money. She does but she’s still heading to meet up with Ben.

Foggy and Matt defend the murderer and get him off. Then Matt beats the snot out of him and gets Fisk’s name and that begins a whole new chapter of awesome.

Episode 4: “In the Blood”

That flashback to Anatoly and Sergei in prison is terrifying, particularly the bone shiv, but OMG, it’s just so brutal and it’s not even the most violent moment in this episode.

My favorite moment in this episode? Well, it’s not a moment, it’s more like a whole scene of shirtless Matt getting patched up by Claire and them flirting. The chemistry between these two is crazy crazy palpable. Like, insane. I love it so much. And they care so much about each other. He explains that he can tell when people are lying. And of course, when she’s nabbed by the Russians he goes after her. Which leads to another favorite moment (I have a lot of favorites this time around.) When Matt is rescuing Claire from the russians and she just starts laughing maniacally. Like, it’s so good, just amazing.

Foggy is barely in this episode, but he’s annoyed that they have no money or office equipment. Luckily, KAREN TO THE RESCUE.

Karen and Ben are meeting and he explains that everyone else who knows about Union Allied is now dead. Karen decides to track down the paper trail on the physical elements of the company, which leads her to an auction of office equipment, which she buys for Nelson & Murdock. Foggy is pleased and it is adorable. Also, Ben decides to help Karen tell her story, even though she’s not supposed to talk about what happened at all. But you know it’s Karen.

That brings me to my absolute favorite plot line in this episode. Wilson and Vanessa’s first date. I love this relationship. I love these scenes, I love Vanessa as a character, I love the way he is with her. I especially love that he smashes Anatoly’s head in a car door for embarrassing him in front of her.

Other Things

• When Ben mentions Karen’s past I wrote in big capital letters PORN. I am glad they’ve decided to just drop that detail of Karen’s life in favor of “investigator girl”
• Matt’s got no new powers this week, but he explains the lie detector to Claire, and while he and Foggy are in court, he hears Wesley’s watch and ID’s him.
• Joker and Harley wish that they were Wilson and Vanessa. I’m just saying.
• I love Claire. I love her so much. I want a show that’s just her being the best. Can we get that?
• OK, I’m definitely giving “the cycle of violence” the win for theme. At least for season 1. Season 2 is definitely still “ninja fights” until I can officially revisit it.

Deconstructing Defenders: Daredevil Season 1: Episodes 1 & 2

Hey everyone! It’s time for a new rewatch project. (You  missed it these past few weeks, admit it!) The timing may feel weird for this. It kind of IS! But I realized that two episodes a week (finales get their own post) gives me a full six month of posts. AND finishes up a second watching of Iron Fist in July of 2017. (still going to binge when it hits in March!) If The Defenders winds up with an October drop date, like Luke Cage, or a November like Jessica Jones (either is likely) it gives me a few months to organize my thoughts, rewatch episodes that I think link well together, or just full on binge again!

The other thing that is I need some inspiration right now, and I think this will do it. These are stories about standing up for the people around you against those who would exploit and disregard them. Granted, the heroes do it with super powered punching, but the principle of the thing.

Anyway, we’ll see how this goes.

I really was trying to wait until it would line up exactly.

Also it might move to Wednesday when West World Ends. Who knows! We’re flying by the seat of our pants here.

We start with Daredevil Season 1 today. If you’re interested in my first reaction to this season of television, you can read it here, SPOILER ALERT, it might be my favorite season of anything ever. (I love it a lot). This is the first time I’m revisiting, so, deep breath, here we go.

Daredevil: Season 1: Episode 1: Into The Ring

About ten seconds into Daredevil there are two things we know about Matt Murdock, he was in a tragic accident with some chemicals, and it happened because he was saving an old man from that same crash. We know immediately that Matt Murdock is a hero. The little boy rubbing his eyes as his lights go out forever is not the defining thing about that moment. It’s such a small thing but it’s so perfect and so defining.

I also love the kinetic feel of this scene. The confusion that Jack Murdock feels looking for is son is so palpable in this moment. It’s so good.

We’re ten seconds in and I’m already gushing. This project is going to go well.

When we next see Matthew Murdock, he’s grown up, sitting in a confessional and impossibly dreamy. This confessional scene means a lot to me, but I’ve outlined that before. It’s also pretty good writing. Matt clocks his own faith, his family history, his fear of his anger and his difficulty accepting the violence of his life choices. He’s so afraid of the anger, of “the devil in the Murdock boys.”

We then get the first of so many brutal, brilliant amazing fight scenes. But all I could focus on was how good that costume looks. I love the Daredevil suit, but the black mask and outfit are really, really effective. But I also forgot that this is the first place we see Turk, which is weird, because he’s terrifying here, forcing three women into a shipping container, and he’s basically comic relief in Luke Cage. 

I love these opening credits. They’re so Catholic, man. I heard a lot of people teasing about the dripping liquid because they didn’t understand the candle wax imagery. But it’s so good.

The next scene is where we meet Foggy, and my notes express my excitement at this development quite succintly. Also Matt is shirtless in this scenes. All of this equals, I had some trouble focusing. Then Foggy bribes Officer Brett Mahoney, who is my favorite, non Claire recurring character. So, we’re barely ten minutes into this and we’ve gotten a lot of what I really, really love about this show. Matt and Foggy tour their office, and Matt flirts with their realtor, they talk about “The Incident,” which is still a term that I love.

The hard cut to Karen standing in a pool of blood with that knife, just as Matt insists they’ll only take innocent clients is so imossibly perfect. This is just such DAMN GOOD TELEVISION. Anyway, her arrest, Brett calling Foggy and Matt, and their swift move to represent her all happens so seemlessly. And seeing the three of them together makes me so happy. The heart of this show is their relationship. We also get one of my favorite Daredevil tricks here, the human lie detector thing, where he listens to heartbeats.

After this we meet Wesley and I didn’t realize how much I missed him in season 2 until this scene where he threatens the prison guard who then tries to kill Karen. And let’s talk about that scene, which is so brutal and so violent, in a way that the fight scenes aren’t because there’s no aesthetically cool choreography here. Just a large man, going after an unarmed, scared young woman, and it’s brutal and terrifying.

I also kind of forgot that the whole Daredevil story starts because Karen noticed the company she worked for moving money around in a shady manner. It seems so, small, compared to what it becomes and it’s kind of genius. Anyway, Matt takes the terrified Karen back to his apartment and there’s a very tense scene where he tries to get more information out of her, that I really love because, I noticed there is no music which is always eerie, until Matt realizes that Karen’s lying and her heartbeat races.

The big meeting between all of the bad guys makes me giggle, mostly because of Nobu, who is not yet an immortal ninja man, and because both Owlsley and Wesley are deeply missed on this show as midlevel bad guys.

When Karen sneaks out of her apartment and is attacked, it’s shot like a horror movie and that’s pretty cool, but that she doesn’t know that Matt is The Devil of Hell’s kitchen (a name he doesn’t yet have) is just a huge jump in superhero credulity. I don’t mind, it’s just tough.

Matt’s passed out flashback to his childhood is chilling and wonderful. I really love John Patrick Hayden as Jack Murdock, he brings this brilliant vulnerability to the character, and it’s well done. Matt coming back to life as his father says, “come on Matty, back to work,” is so inspiring, and this fight is so good.

When Foggy and Matt and Karen regroup after Karen is cleared, and she gives them a caserole, is the scene is what made me fall in love with the show back at Comic Con 2014, so I have a deep affection for it, but I also just love the friendship between these three characters, but the actual finale of the episode, a montage of Hell’s Kitchen mayhem, while Matt beat’s the crap out of a heavy bag at Fogwell’s gym is a masterpiece. And as that little boy gets dragged away from his father, and Daredevil hears it, diving into action, I was overwhelmed with excitement to watch this series again.

Daredevil: Season 1: Episode 2: Cut Man

Back when Luke Cage premiered, I made an off the cuff statement on a friend’s facebook status that Luke Cage is about blackness, Jessica Jones is about rape, and Daredevil is about ninja fights. Obviously, that’s a simplification of all three series, and I’m gonna try this time around to hone in on another theme, and I want to say it’s about the cycle of violence. But also DAMN those ninja fights.

Obviously this episode ends with the most infamous of them all, dubbed “The Hallway Fight,” where Matt fights off like ten guys in a hallway to retrieve a kidnapped child. It’s an exceptional bit of stunt work and thrillingly shot. It’s been written about ad nausiem and it’s no less impressive watching it again.

But that isn’t all that goes on in this episode. Most importantly to the Defenders universe, we meet Claire Temple. Fucking Boss Ass Nurse Lady, Claire Temple. She’s the best. Just the absolute best. Her taking Matt in, fixing him up and helping him torture that Russian is easily the most pivotal moment in Daredevil season 1, and probably in the Defenders (Luke and Jessica would be very dead, if Claire hadn’t decided giving medical help to superheroes was her calling.).

This episode also features Jack Murdock’s death. His decision to not throw a fight, to bet on himself to give Matt a safety net and every small detail of this story, from Matt learning to read in brielle, to Jack calling someone (Matt’s mom Maggie? We’re two seasons in and we haven’t heard from her) to Matt’s role stitching Jack up, which to me creates this connection between helping with injuries and an act of love. There’s something there, or maybe it’s just that Rosario Dawson could have chemistry with an actual door.

The final bit of this episode is Foggy and Karen getting drunk which is so adorable, I can barely stand it. Also, Karen is wearing a very pretty flowered dress.

This episode is exceptionally emotional and wonderful.

Other Stuff:

• Matt’s powers that we know of: Can hear heartbeats, super smell, super hearing, ability to constantly have 5 o’clock shadow, looking good in a suit and pectoral muscles.
• I wrote a lot of notes about how hot he is. Charlie Cox is a deeply attractive man.
• What America needs right now is a Foggy Nelson to get it drunk and make it smile. I’d volunteer but I’m not as beffuddingly charming as Foggy.
• Here are some notes that I wrote down about Claire: “Claire as known Matt for five seconds and is already done with his shit,” “Claire’s hood in the torture scene is creepy,” “Claire keeps Matt human.”
• Architect Nobu is not as interesting as immortal Ninja Nobu
• Wesley is great.