Daredevil S02E10 Review: Matt Meets Wilson

Daredevil, Season 2, Episode 10: The Man In The Box

This season of Daredevil certainly puts more emphasis on the character development arcs as compared to the general plotline of the big Punisher/Hand/Blacksmith three-way war over Hell's Kitchen. Because, well, after the initial Elektra episodes there has always been this sense of uneven pacing hanging over this show's head. The show just barely passes the threshold for being messy, but that's mostly due to the great character work and the amount of interesting things going on on all fronts. This episode is definitely weaker than a lot of prior Daredevil episodes, though, mostly due to the lack of a proper unifying theme throughout the episode that makes it feel like a bunch of scenes just happening all over the place. It's great... it just felt like there really could've been a bunch of smoother editing in this episode, maybe transplant a couple of scenes to other episodes or whatever.

Reyes dies this episode. She finally gives in and requests the aid of Foggy and Karen. Her bitchy veneer has entirely broken down and she looks utterly flustered... but before anyone can do anything she gets gunned down in her office. Foggy gets shot too! And goes off to the hospital. Also dead is the doctor that Karen finally managed to make an ally of. Now the fact that the Punisher is conspicuously off-screen throughout all this really should be a clear indication that despite Fisk springing him loose last episode, it isn't him behind the trigger. Also, the fact that despite Punisher's vaunted precision and credo never to shoot an innocent person, Foggy gets shot anyway. This is revealed later quite quickly with Frank protecting Karen from attackers as well.

So, yeah. Reyes reveals a bit that the Castle family was caught up in a drug sting operation gone south, expanding on what we learned from Dutton last episode. The three gangs (working for the still-unseen Blacksmith) that the Punisher wiped out over the first four episodes ended up freaking out and shooting each other, and Frank's family ended up being collateral. So, um, no super-soldier program using a John Doe or whatever, which was what I thought was going to be the origin story... hey, I know very little about Marvel comics that's not in live-action format, okay? That was a nice bit of development, and Frank's definitely entering a redemption arc and Karen's down for the ride. Now the question is whether it's Wilson Fisk, the Hand or the Blacksmith that's going around framing the Punisher, though I'm pretty sure it's the latter -- dude's been a non-entity and having him be responsible for something in the present day certainly will help to make him relevant. 

Meanwhile, we get a great Matt/Fisk scene, which was unexpected! Of course Matt would follow up on the fact that Wilson Fisk and Frank Castle got sent to the same prison. It's a wonderful prison, and seems to set up for Wilson Fisk breaking out and getting revenge on everyone Matt Murdock loves come season three. Fisk promises to make Matt and Foggy's life hell when (not if) he gets out of prison, basically murdering everyone they love -- an occupational hazard for someone whose name you can search on the phone book. Matt tries to threaten Fisk by threatening to stop Vanessa from ever returning to America, causing Fisk to deliver an awesome physical beatdown onto Matt -- forced to hide his identity as Daredevil -- and Fisk's control over the prison is really shown to be absolute because none of the guards even reacted when Fisk is beating Matt up. It's a great scene, showing how ultimately helpless the blind lawyer civilian is against the Kingpin. It's yet another nail in the coffin of the civilian identity that is Matt Murdock, and the optimism that he brings in that even normal lawyers can make a difference. With all the Elektra, Punisher and Stick speeches going on throughout this season telling Matt Murdock to embrace his true self -- the Daredevil -- it can't be healthy on Matt's psyche.

Meanwhile, the kids from last episode's Hand plot with the horrifying blood-draining ritual thing are brought to Claire's hospital on the down-low. Which naturally coincidentally happens to be the same hospital Foggy was taken to. We get a pretty great scene with Matt and Claire discussing the same Matt-vs-Daredevil-life argument, which again, as much as Claire is a fun character, ended up feeling kinda superfluous. Meanwhile, the tortured kids are carrying like pathogens and have no fingerprints and are basically possessed or brainwashed or something... they're creepy as fuck and I don't think they're just there as something for Daredevil to protect. New Black Skies, maybe? Black Sky, who we saw in season one, was an emancipated kid. Are they making mystical child soldiers or some shit? Meanwhile Hand ninjas are very very slowly climbing up the side of the hospital.

Oh, all throughout this, we have a sub-plot with Karen still playing reporter after being mostly estranged from Matt and with Foggy being hospitalized. It's okay and necessary, I guess, but nowhere that interesting. Also Elektra wants to go off and leave New York, but gets into a deathmatch with a French assassin and kills him after a long fight. And apparently Stick sent the dude. Yeah, they're going for a Chaste Civil War with this aren't they? Oh, and Elektra gets her signature comic weapons -- the twin sai.

This episode probably plays on two themes in general -- Matt being pressured to finally embrace Daredevil full-time, as well as the Punisher being framed for a string of murders he didn't commit, plus a bunch of other sub-plots going on, but the execution of the scenes ended up feeling like a series of well-written yet ultimately disconnected scenes from each other. And considering how closely well-knit previous Daredevil episodes have been, it's a noticeable decline in quality. It really speaks to how well-written this series is in general, though, if this is considered a subpar episode.