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| Image Courtesy www.twitter.com/Daredevil |
Here we are:
the second of the three episodes which can be considered “The Trial of
the Punisher” arc. Before we get
started, we should point out that this is actually an adaptation of a couple
comic book arcs: “The Trial of the
Punisher” (2013—Castle was not defended by Matt Murdock) and “The Trial
of the Century” (“The Trial of White Tiger”) (2002-3 , one which Charlie Cox
himself indicated he was interested in exploring), as well as several other
arcs in which Matt Murdock must defend costumed vigilantes in court. This is a really interesting concept, and
something which I was really hoping that they would explore in Daredevil
season 2. And this is an interesting
arc: the challenges and stresses of the
trial have some powerful effects of Matt and Foggy, and Frank’s response to the
trial is pretty epic in the third episode of the arc. However, I was a little disappointed with how
the trial actually went. But that’s
getting ahead of myself.
The episode begins with the
preparation for the trial, which is clearly going to be extremely
divisive. I like that it opens with the
jurors being asked their preconceived notions about the Punisher, and they are all
in disagreement on whether he was justified in what he was doing. However, both sides do succeed in selecting a
jury panel and Frank Castle is led into the courtroom to begin the trial.
Matt, Foggy, and Karen all must
work together to figure out a defense strategy which could help Frank avoid a
life sentence. However, there is just
about nothing that can really work. The
most obvious solution is an insanity defense, but Karen also suggests that they
bring up the D.N.R. as well as Reyes’ questionable actions in order to get her
kicked off the case. Matt suggests that
P.T.S.D. could be a mitigating factor.
However, when Karen talks to Frank about their defense, he vehemently
rejects the idea of claiming P.T.S.D., calling it an “insult” to people who
actually suffer from it. He does give
them the name of his commanding officer, Col. Ray Schoonover, however, as a
character witness.
Foggy isn’t too happy that Frank
won’t endorse the P.T.S.D. defense (though I can’t exactly blame him for
rejecting it), but he still has a secondary option: focus on the discrepancies in the M.E.’s
report and on the presumed conspiracy within the D.A.’s office to cover up what
happened to Castle and his family. However,
for this strategy to succeed, Matt needs to give the “opening statement of the
year,” and the M.E. needs to crack on the witness stand and corroborate Frank’s
story. Will this happen?
Answer: no, it does not. On either count. Matt’s “extracurricular activities” with
Elektra keep him out late the night before the trial starts, and he arrives too
late to give the opening statement.
Reyes opens by simply accusing Frank of being a serial killer. Foggy then has to deliver the opening
statement off the cuff, and reframes the trial as being not about vigilantes
but rather about the “failure of the justice system.” The justice system ignored the deaths of
Frank Castle’s family and allowed gangs to run wild. All told, this is actually a very good
opening statement for what they are trying to do. And Matt arrives just in time to hear the end
of Foggy’s statement, apologize, and ask to take a crack at the M.E.
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| Image Courtesy www.mcuexchange.com |
That night Matt and Karen prepare
Matt’s cross-examination strategy together in his apartment, and it sounds like
he actually has a good plan, which he can easily do with a little help from his
“human lie detector” ability. This also
gives them an opportunity to talk about vigilantes again. Karen asks Matt if he believes in what
Daredevil does (not knowing that he actually is Daredevil!), and Matt
responds that “I believe in the law.”
Karen does not see a major difference between what Daredevil does and what
Punisher did, because both are taking the law into their own hands. This definitely does not sit well with Matt,
who does not see himself as “taking the law into his own hands” because he is
not deciding matters of life and death.
He asks her to leave.
The next day Matt prepares to
cross-examine M.E. Tepper, who looks extremely anxious and stressed as he
begins his testimony about what happened to the Kitchen Irish. Before Matt can start working him, Tepper
requests to make a statement on the record “about what [he] did.” The judge clears the court before listening to
Tepper’s testimony, in which he admits to falsifying autopsy reports for the
Castle family as well as an additional John Doe. Why is he admitting to all of this? Because a crazy woman attacked him the night
before and ordered him to tell the truth in court. And so because his testimony was coerced, the
judge orders the entire testimony stricken from the record. Naturally Foggy and Matt are both angry and
upset that their strategy failed, and Matt is all the more angry because he
knows exactly who it was that sabotaged their trial: Elektra (of course). When Matt finally comes clean to Foggy about
Elektra, Foggy immediately turns on him for not telling him sooner, for missing
so many strategy meetings, and for torpedoing the one witness who could save
their trial. On the one hand, it is a
little unfair for Foggy to blame Matt for something that he did not do and did
not ask to be done and had very little to do with. On the other hand, it’s hard to be upset with
Foggy for being angry when his partner is hiding things from him and not
balancing his “extracurricular activities” well with his job.
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| Image Courtesy www.mcuexchange.com |
So what exactly were Matt and
Elektra doing during this episode that distracted him so much from the
trial? First Elektra finds the NYU
professor who encoded the ledger, and the two of them “visit” him to get the
ledger decoded. The guy is something of
a “pervy asshole,” so Daredevil doesn’t exactly feel bad about threatening to
throw the guy out of his 30th floor window to “encourage” him to
help them out. He agrees to help them by
decoding the final page of the ledger, and it leads them to a specific train
boxcar. When they find the boxcar, Matt
determines that it is full of something which turns out to be dirt. They are attacked by a group of Yakuza guards
in the rail yard, and they need to fight them off. It’s a decent fight sequence, though not as
technically exciting as the other fight sequences in the series. They take out all the guards and return to
Matt’s apartment, where he stitches up a cut for her. It’s actually interesting to see Matt and
Elektra talking and bonding; it makes them appear more human. It is very late when Matt finally gets to
sleep, and that is why he wakes up late and gets to court late on the opening
day of the trial.
The next night, Elektra is at
Matt’s apartment while he and Karen are discussing their strategy for
cross-examining Tepper—that’s how she knows to visit him. After Karen leaves, Elektra tells Matt that
she found a site controlled by the Japanese which is capable of moving that
amount of dirt. In a callback to last
season, the location is actually one of several which Fisk grabbed up and
cleared out for Nobu. The next evening
after Matt’s trial was ruined, he went to confront her at the dig site, but she
doesn’t think she did anything wrong: “I
was only following your rules. You don’t
get what you want by day, you take it by force at night.” This isn’t how Matt views his actions, of
course, so it doesn’t sit too well with him.
However, Elektra agrees to stay out of the trial from now on and they go
about their business, which involves Matt taking down the Yakuza guards before
they go in to check out the building. Although
there is nothing inside, they quickly discover a gaping chasm in the floor
which is extremely deep, deep enough that when Matt tosses a flashlight down
it, the episode ends before the flashlight even hits the floor.
Like I said at the beginning, I liked
the “Trial of the Punisher” aspect of this episode, though it did not go as I expected. I hoped that we would get to see further
displays of Matt and Foggy’s abilities in the trial, but we really didn’t. Foggy displayed an impressive ability to
think on his feet, but we barely saw Matt in the trial at all. Hopefully they will adapt this type of
storyline again in Daredevi season 3 and we will get to see just what
Matt can do as a lawyer.
I also find the Elektra aspect of
this episode to be interesting, particularly in how she manipulates Matt into
doing things he does not want to do. She
certainly lives up to the promise of being the alluring girlfriend who is
absolutely terrible for him!
What did you think of this
episode? Are you a fan of the idea of
Matt Murdock as a lawyer for superheroes?
Let me know in the comments!
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