Deborah Ann Woll does some great wordless acting in the cold open of this episode of Daredevil. The show is intent on showing the consequences of killing and of violence; it doesn’t take either action lightly. Sometimes you’re Matt Murdock, and your consequences are convalescing on your couch and losing your best friend. Sometimes you’re Karen Page and you start having a breakdown, drinking too much, trying to wash yourself clean, having nightmares about Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio is not someone I’d want surprising me in my apartment). It’s heavy, mature stuff, handled well by director Euros Lyn, which is surprising given that he’s a veteran of Doctor Who and no one in Daredevil runs around spouting cutesy catch phrases and making themselves out to the be the biggest moron in the fucking universe. But I digress.
Vanessa has woken up, and I’m glad she’s not dead, even if I’m a little disconcerted at how quickly she’s turning into Lady Macbeth. She doesn’t want to leave Fisk’s side, and seems to relish the idea of him inflicting suffering on whoever poisoned her. Fisk is on the warpath – the gravelly, soft-spoken warpath – and once again D’Onofrio’s bulk works to his advantage. Fisk fills the frame of whatever scene he’s in, and even if he’s not saying anything you shudder. It’s a spellbinding performance, and it could threaten the balance of a lesser show, but luckily everyone in Daredevil is hitting home runs. It’s also a remarkably human performance; when Fisk is alone with the body of Wesley, he kisses him on the forehead, and I never thought I’d use the word “sweet” to describe anything a supervillain does. It’s hard to call Fisk a supervillain; he’s not the strutting peacock that Michael Clarke Duncan (RIP) played him as. I’m not sure what to call Fisk, and that’s a stunning achievement on Daredevil‘s part.
Daredevil continues attacking Fisk from every angle. In “The Ones We Leave Behind,” he goes after Gao’s heroin operation. He follows one of the workers to the drug factory, which is absolutely not the correct term, and in a weird, unsettling scene, Gao orders the blind workers to swarm him, which they do. The shot is intentionally biblical; Daredevil looks like Christ surrounded by a sea of supplicants and lepers, another nice nod to Matt Murdock’s faith, and, perhaps, his compulsory need to sacrifice himself. DD manages to escape and ends up burning the warehouse down, so strike off another revenue stream for Fisk.
But that might not be that important in the long run. Gao and Leland meet up and confirm what the audience has already guessed: they were the ones behind the poisoning at the gala (to be fair, I thought Leland acted alone, but Gao’s involvement isn’t particularly surprising). Gao is going to her “homeland” – not Japan, somewhere much further, which is nicely mysterious – to regroup, and Leland is none too pleased about it. After the death of Wesley, this show needs Leland alive more than ever; he’s better comic relief than Foggy, he could actually accomplish something, and it’s good to have Bob Gunton’s particular brand of oily bad guy on the screen.
Now I suppose we have to talk about Ben Urich, who at the very least got a nice send-off. His editor Ellison won’t publish Ben’s article on Fisk, and suspends Ben in the process; when Ben asks if Ellison has been paid off by Fisk, the suspension levels up into a full-blown firing. But Ben will land on his feet, and he vows to write the article online (the shots of him getting into his car were nerve-wracking; did anyone else expect it to explode?). He gets a few words and a gulp of Glenlivet in before realizing that Fisk is in his apartment. (The reveal of D’Onofrio sitting on the couch was the closest this show has come to a legitimate jump-scare.)
Fisk says he just wants to talk, and even offers Ben an interview. But we knows where this is going, and so does Ben. The inevitability of it makes it no easier to stomach. Fisk asks if Ben was alone when he went to see Fisk’s mother, and Ben, ever principled, says yes, effectively sparing Karen’s life even as he gives up his own. Fisk strangles him, manhandling him like a rag doll. It’s depressing and bleak, but not because Ben is dead. It’s because Daredevil might be the first Marvel adaptation that makes it seem like the bad guy could actually win.
A Few Thoughts
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Who hides booze like that? Grow up, Karen
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I really need Matt and Foggy to patch things up again. Foggy is spending entirely too much time with Marcy
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It seems like having principles in Daredevil will get you killed (like Ben) or at the very least severely maimed (like Matt). Or you can lose your friend (like Foggy) or end up killing someone else (like Karen). This show is very unsentimental, but not in a brutal, nihilistic, Game of Thrones way. It avoids turning into pulp by virtue of its heavy themes and solid performances. It’s one of a kind, and if you’d told me five years ago that a Daredevil TV show was going to be this addictive, well-done, and affecting, I wouldn’t have believed you
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