*Spoilers Ahead*
The entirety of this episode of Daredevil could have been nothing but static and as long as that final fight scene was there it still would have been a B+ episode. Thankfully, the show manages to keep us compelled for the full runtime. But man, that fight scene.
The episode immediately hooks you in with a random kid running across Daredevil as he bleeds out in a dumpster. He’s saved from certain death by Claire Temple, the woman who will become Night Nurse, and much of the episode focuses on her coming into the fold. It’s a smart choice to introduce an ally for Daredevil early, there’s only so many story possibilities you can have that feature Daredevil tackling the criminal underworld on his own. Rosario Dawson plays Temple as a strong and assertive woman who easily shows herself to be an able partner in crime, or rather, crime-busting, with Daredevil.
We never get to see the ambush that Matt tells Claire he fell into when attempting to save a boy who was kidnapped by Russians. The only real action we see, until the end, occurs when one of the Russians comes knocking on Claire’s door in search of Daredevil. Claire manages to turn him away and as he heads down a flight of stairs Matt manages to pinpoint exactly when to drop a fire extinguisher on his head to knock him out. This, along with other actions, like smelling the cologne of the Russian from three floors down, freak out Claire, as they should. But they also intrigue her enough to not outright kick this man out of her apartment, she can sense that he is doing good.
With the Russian captured we get a brutal scene where Daredevil tortures the man for the whereabouts of the kid. I’m not a fan of Daredevil using torture but the show seems like it might be trying to make a point of how thin the line is between Daredevil and the people he fights. It’s also possible to read this as Matt’s desperate quest to reunite a kid with his father. Especially when you look to the flashbacks, which detail the events that led to the death of Matt’s dad, Jack.
I managed to be both a little wrong and a little right about how much of Creel vs Murdock we’d see again. It turns out that the match directly leads to Jack’s downfall, as he is suppose to throw the match and decides to try and win it to prove to Matt that his father is no loser. We don’t see any of the match itself, which is a bit disappointing but expected. Jack’s reasoning feels human and real, a man who wants to make his son proud, who does something equally brave and stupid and doesn’t quite grasp the consequences until it is too late. I will, however, criticize the scene of Matt finding his dead dad as a little too coincidental since he apparently hears a gunshot and immediately knows it’s his dad. Still, it doesn’t stop the emotions from pouring out as young Matt weeps over the corpse of his father.
Meanwhile, in the present day, Foggy decides to take Karen’s mind off her recent traumatic experiences by getting drunk with her. It’s a fun little filler story that is clearly there to establish the dynamic between these two and give them something to do when Matt is absent but it doesn’t take up a huge chunk of time so it’s fair game.
Then, we get to that fight scene. One long shot all in a hallway and Daredevil fights a literal gang of baddies to free this kid. The scene sets the pace by withholding the action from us at first, only letting us hear what is going on in one room. We only get to witness the fight when Matt throws a criminal through the door of the room. The most impressive bits of the fight are the parts when things get sloppy, when it’s clear that this is anything but a breeze for our hero. It makes not only the fighting seem real but it makes our hero seem human. It makes us question, just for a second, if he’s really going to make it through this fight. The entire episode hinges on this scene and it delivers in ways I could not have imagined.
All in all, this episode manages to lay some nice thematic work for what we can expect in the coming episodes and delivers one of the best fight scenes I’ve ever seen. If this is an indication of where this show plans on going, we’re in good hands.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- Drew Goddard wrote this episode and the pilot before leaving production to work on the, now in limbo, Sinister Six film. We’ll see how new showrunner, Steven S. DeKnight, handles picking up with where Goddard left off.
- I get the feeling they might be setting up a love triangle between Matt, Foggy, and Karen. I really hope that isn’t what ends up happening.
- “I’m not just doing this for the boy. I’m doing this because I enjoy it.”
- “The thing about red, you can’t tell how much you’re bleeding.”
If you’d like to give me feedback or just chat about Daredevil you can email me at theSuperAlbino@gmail.com or hit me up on Twitter @JesseSwanson