Daredevil, Season 1, Episode 13: Daredevil
The finale is... satisfactory, I guess. It's played somewhat straight, which isn't exactly a bad thing. But it's not as epic or as grand as it could've been, we did get the big costume reveal and the big Daredevil vs. Kingpin fight. We get Kingpin being brought down first politically, then after him summoning big explosive things, we get Daredevil beating him down physically. It's satisfying, that's for sure, but I just can't help but think that we could've had more.
The opening scene with Ben Urich's funeral is definitely somber and well-done, and the conversation between Karen and Urich's grieving wife -- who consoles her by saying that Ben Urich never does anything that he doesn't want to do, and noting that Karen is the daughter that Ben never had. A powerful scene, definitely. What isn't quite as powerful is Matt reconciling with Foggy (who is naturally absent from the funeral because reconciliation cannot happen early in the episode) later on, revealing that with Marci Stahl's help, Foggy's managed to dig up a fair bit of legal clues to Fisk's dealings.
Meanwhile, Fisk confronts Owlsley, and despite Owlsley showing that he's genre savvy enough to cook up a deal -- let Owlsley leave with half of Fisk's money, or Hoffman will be released to the feds to spit out all the evidence he has on Fisk. Since Owlsley, y'know, poisoned Vanessa and Fisk is angry of all sorts of things, Fisk murders Owlsley, before ordering a gigantic manhunt for Hoffman. With the legal clues, Matt, Karen and Foggy work out where Owlsley stashed Hoffman, Matt beat up the dirty cops about to execute Hoffman... and after a bit of a legal scene, feds come in and arrest everyone from poor Turk Barrett to the dirty cops to Senator Cherryh to Marci's co-workers to Ben Urich's superior's... secretary. Welp. Urich is wrong about his superior, apparently. But that scene was pretty wonderful as the Kingpin's empire crashes down around him.
Kingpin gets arrested and forcibly taken apart from Vanessa, but he manages to leave behind a plan that involves armoured vehicle and helicopters stopping the armoured transport while he gives this awesome speech twisting the good samaritan parable, kills everyone transporting him and is ready to make his way to a helicopter where Vanessa is waiting... before Daredevil, in his brand-new swanky costume, stops his attempted getaway. They fight in an alley, Daredevil wins.
A pretty solid ending, even if I'm not a big fan of so many obvious things that are just leftover plot points from the previous episode. Stuff like the Kingpin finding out who poisoned Vanessa, stuff like Matt and Foggy's reconciliation... I really think that the Madame Gao stuff could've been moved to an earlier episode, and some of those stuff could've been moved to the previous episode. Owlsley's death, definitely. And I'm not that big of a fan on Hoffman the Walking Plot Device part, where apparently his single testimony is somehow able to get everyone arrested. And Marci reappearing randomly two episodes ago also is a bit odd. I dunno. I just felt that the pacing is a bit off in these later episodes.
I do like the touch of Ben's jackass-looking editor Ellison not being Kingpin's mole, though. I mean, his kid plays Brahms and everything, and he's a jackass, but apparently he's just a jackass and not dirty. And that look on Ellison's face as he sees his secretary being arrested really shows that he probably regretted a fair bit of his unfair treatment of Ben since, y'know, he turned out to be right after all.
I honestly enjoyed this episode quite a fair bit, though, because for all its faults, the episode really played off well, and the reconciliation between Foggy and Matt played off surprisingly quickly yet still quite emotionally charged.
Leland Owlsley has definitely grown on me over the past few episodes, taking over James Wesley's role as Wilson Fisk's second in command. He's definitely a lot less loyal, though, and he dies in a way almost similar to Wesley, believing that he's in control of the situation as he works out a deal that seems to benefit everyone present, only for the other dude to kill him. With Wilson Fisk it's a lot more obvious that he's going to snap out and make good of that promise he made to Vanessa a while back, though, so poor Owlsley gets chucked down an elevator shaft. I half-expected Fisk to actually go along with Owlsley's plan, but alas, it seems like Owlsley won't get to meet his son again.
We did get a big action finale after the lawyer bits on the first half, which is cool. Fisk going from a fumbled proposal to Vanessa to this cold, seething speech about him being the 'ill intent' in the good samaritan parable, to one of the guards in the van with him shooting the other dude...
And then Daredevil, after collecting his new costume from Melvin Potter, shows up in his full Daredevil garb, tonfa-shoots the truck carrying Kingpin, before battling in a brutal, physical beatdown against the Kingpin. That's definitely a great scene. Daredevil's new costume... is miles and miles better than his stupid black bandanna one he's had for the last twelve episodes, that's for sure. I mean, yes, they could've done a lot better, but fuck that, it's not the stupid, lazy all-black civilian clothes with a black bandanna, and I'll take that. We get some really great action sequences from the final fight, and that's great. There's this weird creative choice of having sparks fly off him when Kingpin beats him up with a crowbar, though, and, um, that's just odd considering the more grounded and realistic fight scenes this show has.
Vanessa, meanwhile, gets away scot-free with freaking Francis, who's rewarded for his loyalty to both Wesley and Fisk by becoming Vanessa's bodyguard. It's clear that she doesn't blame Fisk for not making it to the helicopter, and she's definitely holding a candle for Fisk's return and I'm not surprised if she engineers Fisk's breakout from prison next season.
The ending's pretty satisfactory, with the only outstanding plot thread being Karen still hiding the fact that she killed Wesley from everyone involved, and her mysterious past oooh. Matt, Foggy and Karen all are buddies again, Wilson Fisk is in a jail cell (ironically looking at a wall that resembles the Rabbits in a Snowstorm painting, which can't be good for his mental health), Vanessa's escaped... and Daredevil gets his new costume and is dubbed Daredevil, presumably a name that Matt himself chooses and gives to good ol' officer Brett.
And while this is curtains for Fisk's takeover of Hell's Kitchen, we have a lot of hanging threads throughout the season. The Hand. Black Sky. Stick's Chaste organization. Vanessa. Madame Gao. Bullseye. Lots of material for season two, definitely.
It's... not the best episode of this season, of course, and I still think there are a couple of pacing problems throughout this entire season, and the stupid initial costume... but overall I definitely enjoyed Daredevil a lot more than I thought I would, and it's definitely better and more solid of a story than Agent Carter and most of Agents of SHIELD. It also made me actually care for someone I literally didn't give two shits about before watching the show, so good job. I still think it's a fair bit overhyped, but this show does a lot of things right, Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock chief among them. Overall, definitely recommend this series. It doesn't have much in lieu of fun, definitely, but the darker, solid story, character portrayals and definitely Wilson motherfucking Fisk more than makes up for it.
No comments:
Post a Comment