“Stick” seems to be the closest thing we’ll get to an origin story on Daredevil. In a way, I kind of hope we don’t learn much more about Matt Murdock’s past. The episode might have not moved the main story forward that much, but sometimes you have to look backward to look forward. Understanding the past will better prepare you for the future. And if you can’t enjoy Scott Glenn as a blind swordsman, well, then, you’re some kind of monster and there’s nothing I can do for you.
We first meet the titular Stick (Glenn) in Japan, where he’s interrogating someone about some sort of weapon called Black Sky. The man tells Stick that Black Sky is headed for New York, so we all know what that means. “Your family would be better off without you,” Stick says, and cuts the man’s head off. Guys, that’s a hell of an opening, and right away it lays the foundation for the fundamental, philosophical difference between Stick and Matt Murdock. Matt refuses to kill – keep in mind that Semyon, whom Matt told “I’m hurting you because I enjoy it,” ended up in a coma and not a bodybag – but Stick will decapitate a dude out of adherence to some outdated code of honor. Glenn plays Stick very much like a ronin, a samurai without a master, and speaks incessantly about a “war,” which seems to be ever-changing.
When Stick makes it New York – confronting Matt after he’s been tasered by Leland Owlsley – the tension is apparent immediately. Stick took Matt in when he was young, and began training him. There’s a wonderful scene in a park where Stick is teaching the young Matt to better utilize his other four senses (Glenn and Skylar Gaertner, as young Matt, have great chemistry).
Their falling out comes when they go to the docks to stop Nobu and his men from acquiring Black Sky, which turns out to be not a weapon at all but a little boy. Black Sky is a MacGuffin in the purest sense of the word; nothing is said of his capabilities, other than Stick’s dire warning that he is a weapon that “you do not want in your world.” Regardless, it gets him and Daredevil to the docks, where DD demands one things of his former mentor: no killing. Of course, at this point it’s just a countdown to Stick trying to kill someone, but it’s fun getting there. Their infiltration of the docks is thrilling and tense, and for the first time all season Daredevil gets to use the billy clubs that are his trademark weapon in the comics. It’s not until Stick fires an arrow at Black Sky does Daredevil realize he’s been used.
It gets worse: back at this apartment, Matt confronts Stick about trying to kill Black Sky, only to be informed that Stick shot him with an arrow after Matt left the docks. I guess we’ll never know what Black Sky was meant for, which is kind of a tease, but if nothing else it puts Matt and Stick at opposite ends of the spectrum: a guy who won’t kill even though he knows what someone did versus a guy who will kill a child based on what he thinks he might do. “Stick” ends, as most Daredevil episodes do, with a knockdown-dragout brawl between at least one blind man. Glenn, or his stunt double, handles the action well, and have I mentioned before how amazing Charlie Cox is at the physical aspect of his role? I have? Several times? To the point that it’s getting distracting? Well all right then.
So Stick leaves, but the episode ends with him talking to some shirtless guy with a deep voice who asks him, “When the door is opened, will [Matt] be ready?” Stick replies: “I have no idea.” This is the first inclination that Daredevil has given us that it’s operating on a bigger scale than previously indicated, and it’s a welcome addition to the narrative. I’m sure I could find out the identity of Stick’s master through five seconds on Google, but I’d rather be surprised. And if it means more Scott Glenn on my TV, well that’s just gravy.
A Few Thoughts
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Karen and Ben bring Foggy on board with the investigation. That’s all I got for this. Although I detected a note of actual admiration in Karen’s voice when she said of Foggy, “He just plain kicks ass”
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“Fighting is just the start”
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“I needed a soldier, you wanted a father”
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The fact that Stick kept the bracelet that Matt gave him tells us more about his character than a page-long monologue could
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