 |
| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
At the end of the last
episode of Daredevil, “Speak of the Devil” (1x09), Matt was left bruised
and bloodied from a horrific beating at the hands first of Nobu (who got
deep-fried) and then of Fisk.
Fortunately for our hero, he managed to escape and get to his apartment
before collapsing. However, he had
little opportunity to recover from that physical beating before receiving
another beating in “Nelson v. Murdock” (1x10).
This beating was not physical, but emotional, and in some respects was
probably worse than anything Nobu or Fisk could have done to him. And along the way this gives us some of our
best character development yet from Foggy.
 |
| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
The episode picks up the
morning after the last episode ended, with Matt waking up on his couch after
his fight with Nobu. His face is covered
in cuts and bruises. His suit is
discarded on the floor beside the couch.
He examines himself and finds a number of cuts that have been stitched
closed. He is about to get up when Foggy
calls out from the kitchen, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Or maybe I would. What the hell do I know about Matt
Murdock?” It is obvious that this whole
situation has hurt Foggy on a profound level.
Just how much it hurt him and why is explained through their
conversation about Matt’s powers and vigilantism, interspersed with flashbacks
to various stages in their friendship. I
really enjoyed this episode. Even though
there is virtually no actual fighting, the character development and conflict
more than makes up for it in the way it advances the plot while simultaneously
fleshing out Matt and Foggy’s back story.
We find out through
flashbacks that their friendship goes all the way back to college when they
were roommates. Foggy actually
recognized Matt’s name when he introduced himself, because the two of them are
both from Hell’s Kitchen and Foggy heard about Matt’s accident in the
news. This is also the first time that
Matt deduces Foggy is lying (about why he’s taking Punjabi) and subtly pushes
Foggy into revealing the truth (he’s taking it for a girl). They hit it off right off the bat, and over
the course of the episode we see how close the two are. Foggy never avoids or tiptoes around the
subject of Matt’s blindness, and it is clear from the next flashback that Matt
appreciates this quality in him. This
scene also includes one of the best Easter eggs of the season—a character who
may be coming in season 2—with Foggy’s reference to Matt taking Spanish “to
snuggle up to what’s-her-name, the Greek girl” (an obvious reference to Elektra
Natchios). They also talk about becoming
big lawyers and having their own firm—Matt suggests “Nelson and Murdock.” The third flashback shows Matt and Foggy’s
decision to go into practice themselves, following a case in which they are
interns and their firm (Landman and Zack) protects the interests of Roxxon Oil
Corporation against a man who suffered serious health problems due to Roxxon’s
unsafe practices. Matt is angry that
they aren’t standing up for the “little guy,” and convinces Foggy that if they
are going to make a difference and help people, they need to do it on their
own. Though he is initially reluctant,
Foggy agrees to join Matt in leaving Landman and Zack and opening their own
practice because he trusts Matt.
 |
| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
Given how close the
two of them were, Matt’s failure to tell Foggy about his abilities or his
vigilantism hurts Foggy’s trust in him profoundly. He cannot reconcile Matt running around in a
mask with their legal profession. He is
afraid of the consequences to himself or Karen if Matt were ever caught. He cannot believe that Matt would hide such important
things from him when he thought the two of them were so close they could share
anything. Matt defends himself by
claiming that he hid his activities to protect Foggy from the consequences—an
argument Foggy scoffs at. Matt never
even told his dad about his abilities; the only people he ever told were Stick
(who already knew) and Claire (because he didn’t have much choice after she pulled
him out of the dumpster and saw his face).
However, in the flashbacks it is clear that Matt came close to telling
Foggy on several occasions—and never outright lied to him. When they first met and Foggy said, “You’re
blind,” Matt’s answer was more of a deflection:
“Yeah, so they tell me.” While
talking the night before graduation, Matt nearly divulges that the reason he
can get vertigo worse than others is because his senses are heightened—but he
stops himself just in time. When they
are talking about leaving Landman and Zack, Matt looks close to spilling that
he could hear the man’s heartbeat and knew that he was telling the truth. However, every time Matt is close to telling,
he holds up. My guess is that at some
point he felt comfortable enough to tell Foggy, but by that point he was so
used to the lie that he didn’t feel the need to tell him. That it came out in this way—and that Foggy
no longer trusts anything Matt says—affects him immensely.
I really liked the way
that they handled Matt explaining his abilities to Foggy. The audience didn’t need to hear him explain
it again, so the explanation happens off-camera, and we just hear Foggy’s
disbelief. Matt demonstrates his powers
with another list of ridiculously impossible true statements that he knows
based on his abilities. And when Matt
says he can hear Foggy’s heartbeat and that it helps with knowing if someone is
lying, it drives Foggy away even more because he feels violated: Matt had always been able to tell when he was
lying, and just played along with it. In
the end, Nelson and Murdock is done—both as a friendship and as a law firm
partnership. And Matt is left all but
devastated by the loss, though he really doesn’t make any big show of emotion
when Foggy leaves his apartment.
 |
| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
The theme of fissures
in the team also carried through with Fisk’s plot in this episode. We first see Fisk going to visit Madame Gao
alone. The two of them sit on a bench
while Gao tells him a story from her village of a snake that was trampled while
trying to eat an elephant. This is a
metaphor for Fisk’s conflict with the other members of the group and within
himself between being a savior and an oppressor. She is concerned because Fisk pushed Nobu
into a conflict with the vigilante, setting him up to be killed. If Nobu’s clan discovers Fisk’s role in his
death, they will most likely retaliate.
Simultaneously, she is concerned that he will turn on her next. Fisk assures her that he respects her. However, her second concern is even more
pressing: Fisk has been torn by his
relationship with Vanessa. He is no
longer the man he was when they first met, and it concerns her. She tells him that he needs to choose between
who he used to be and who Vanessa is making him, “or others shall choose for
you.” This evidently spooks him, because
in his next scene he is again trying to convince Owlsley that he is not going
to turn on him next, and that things are going well. He asks Owlsley to talk to Gao and reassure
her, which Owlsley reluctantly agrees to do.
Owlsley is also concerned by the changes in Fisk’s personality since he
met Vanessa—Fisk rebuts him with a mention of his son, Lee, who is evidence
that Owlsley must at some point have loved a woman. The parallel between Matt’s struggle with
Foggy and Fisk’s struggle with (what’s left of) his coconspirators is
interesting. Matt and Foggy have a major
break right away; Fisk’s coconspirators do not overtly sever ties with him, but
that doesn’t mean that the issue has been resolved.
Fisk faces a major
loss at a fundraiser when someone poisons the champagne. Vanessa takes a drink, right before people
all around them start dropping to the floor and foaming at the mouth. Fisk returns to her just in time to catch
her, and immediately whisks her away. In
“Speak of the Devil” (1x09), Matt told Father Lantom that Fisk has someone he
cares about and who cares about him and would mourn him if he were gone. However, I don’t think their relationship was
quite clear to the audience until right now, when we saw Fisk’s reaction to
Vanessa’s poisoning. He is completely
beside himself with fear. As I’ve said
in previous reviews, I do not think this is a character depth we’ve seen from
any other Marvel villains. The closest
might be Ivan Vanko mourning his father in Iron Man 2, but his
relationship with his father wasn’t nearly as well established as Fisk’s
relationship with Vanessa.
 |
| Image Courtesy www.screenrant.com |
The final plot in the
episode was Ben’s struggle to cope with Doris’ Alzheimer’s. It leads him to take time off from the newspaper
and hand all of his material over to Karen to continue the story. However, Karen tricks him into joining her in
visiting a nursing home in Upstate New York, where they meet Fisk’s mother, who
tells them about how Fisk had killed his father. This contradicts the story Fisk has been
telling in the press, of a dead mother and father who abandoned them. Will this be the key to Karen, Ben, Foggy,
and Matt’s efforts to discredit Fisk and stop his plans? We will find out soon!
I really enjoyed this
episode. All of the character
development was incredible, particularly how Foggy’s character evolves after
finding out Matt’s secret. I also liked
seeing and hearing about Matt’s actual first night in the mask: taking out a father who was sexually abusing
his daughter. That story personalized
his vigilantism in a very satisfying way.
What was your favorite
part of this episode? How well do you
think that Daredevil developed all of its characters?
If you want to get an
email whenever I publish a new article, go to the top of the page and enter
your email address in the box labeled “Subscribe to Mostly MCU Reviews” and
click “Submit.”
No comments:
Post a Comment