Netflix Retrospective: Daredevil Season 1 episodes 4-6

In the blood

We have had episodes focused primarily on our protagonist both in and out of his Zorro mask and cheap clothes. This episode primarily focuses on the villains, specifically the Russian mob faction and the Wilson Fisk himself.

Anatoly and Vladimir are brothers who escaped from a Russian prison using the bones of a dead cellmate (this is quite a gruesome episode) whilst Anatoly is more calm in the face of this, Vladimir is full of pride and aggression. So when Wesley approaches them with an offer from the Fisk for help given their recent failures, Vladimir takes offence.

Desperate to find another way they need to find out anything about our hero that they can, and they use bullsh*t science to awaken the guy Daredevil threw off the roof from his coma to find out what they can. Before he dies he mentions the Nurse that helped patch Daredevil up back in episode 2.

Neither Daredevil or Murdock have an awful lot to do in this episode, as most of the time not devoted to the villains is devoted to the Karen/Ben sub-plot. Karen is desperate not to let the people responsible get away with what they’ve done and despite Ben’s discouragement she does not let up on it, and almost gets herself killed in the process (if you’re at an auction and don’t bid on anything, that is immediately suspicious) thankfully Ben arrives to knock some sense into her and advises her to take deal Union Allied had offered so as they don’t suspect.

We also have the story of Wilson Fisk and his attempts to find a relationship with art-house saleswoman Vanessa Marianna. This is an interesting way to introduce the character, showing him not only as a force to be reckoned with (we’ll get to that) but also as a very human character with human wants and desires

The Russian’s plan to get information out of Claire goes south thanks to the intervention of Daredevil. This is not a full on fight scene, it’s shot in a pretty dark environment so we don’t see too much but I think that’s intentional. Daredevil instead takes out his enemies with stealth and brutality. And whilst there is guilt within him about Claire’s abduction (which I’ll admit, if that kid knew where she was her move was handled sloppily) it’s not a focal point of the story.

The aftermath of this is where things get interesting; Anatoly wants to agree to the deal with Fisk in person and interrupts a date between Vanessa and Wilson. This results in really brutal scene where Kingpin beats him to death. We already see what might well be his undoing this early on, which admittedly might be better than introducing something stupid at the last minute

Rating 8.5/10

World on Fire

One advantage a Netflix series has over conventional televised series is that there’s no restrictions on how long a single episode needs to be, there was an earlier episode that was only 42 minutes long, this episode is just shy of 55 minutes long. You would never see this much variation on a standard televised show because of scheduling.

So, what do we get for our 55 minutes. Well with the death of Anatoly, it was only a matter of time before there were consequences. Fortunately for Fisk, he made it seem like Dardevil (OK, I know he’s not referred to by name yet, but I’ll just call him Daredevil for the sake of it) is responsible.

Meanwhile Murdock is tending to Claire after the events of the last episode, and we’re a full 8 minutes in before we get to the opening credits of the series. Fisk calls in the others and actually shows up himself for a change. They begin to take steps to take advantage of their distraction and get rid of them.

Daredevil is trying to track Vladimir down too but soon finds out about the crime he supposedly committed. His captive is taken in by police and killed because he mentioned the name Wilson Fisk, he has men in the police department

Our new case comes in the form Elena Cardenas, a poor tenant of a housing block that her landlord, Armund Tulley wants her to move out of. She’d been threatened within her own home but doesn’t want to leave. Foggy and Karen go to see Tulley’s lawyer, who turns out to be someone Foggy dated briefly.

After that encounter went about as well as you could expect there’s a really fun scene when they visit Elana, they offer to start repairs on the house using what resources they had at their disposal and a few favours. Elana thanks them by setting them up on a date.

We also say Wilson attempting to rebuild his fledgling relationship with Vanessa. I like Vanessa’s character, she’s straight to the point, likes honesty and isn’t entirely stupid, having brought a gun to the second knowing that Wilson is dangerous.

All the while, the pieces draw into place, Vladimir finds out about Fisk’s involvement in his brother’s murder, and calls all his men back, Wilson, through a few payoffs and partners arranges for people to suicide bomb each of the 4 locations simultaneously.  Worse, Daredevil is on the scene of one of the explosions and surrounded by police

This episode never put its focus in one direction but at the same time the inter-tangling nature of the plot threads allows for the pacing of the episode to be nice and brisk. Ben is the only major character not to make an appearance, which is fine since his arc hasn’t really kicked in yet

Rating 9/10

Condemned

Who would think that Daredevil and Vladimir would make such an engaging duo?

Their antics get the bulk of the focus as the amount of amount of influence Fisk has becomes clear, he has contacts in law (both at cop level and within the courts) and in the media, able to summon a media frenzy

With cops both honest and dishonest on the trail it becomes hard to tell which is which. This becomes obvious when an officer Christian corners the duo but is taken down. Despite initially agreeing to tell the other officers to stand down he uses this opportunity to call it in, getting the place surrounded. This ends up costing him his life as a SWAT officer who is on the payroll of Fisk murders him.

Fisk makes first contact with Daredevil and the episode does continue to put to focus the parallels between them.  Then he uses his influences to frame Daredevil for shootings (despite the fact that media footage would’ve shown it if he was carrying a sniper rifle) and the bombings (sure and he somehow wasn’t caught in any of the other 3 locations that were bombed and yet somehow primed explosives to set off simultaneously, it’s just proof that anyone in New York to believe this sh*t, they’d have to be predominantly stupid, thankfully this is Hell’s Kitchen, where there’s no shortage of those sort of people)

The episode centres around Daredevil trying to get Vladimir to talk about Fisk, after quickly convincing him that he was not responsible for the murder and saving his life, twice (which all goes to waste as he dies in the end anyway) the end result is a name, Leland Owlsley a guy who handles the money for Fisk’s operations.

The bulk of the episode draws focus to this however some side-plots are briefly touched upon. Given their injuries thanks to the explosions at the end of the episode Foggy and Karen take Elana to the hospital, where they meet Claire for the first time, if briefly. Foggy also finds himself in need of medical attention as they both worry about where Matt is in all this

It’s another strong episode, full of suspense, although Murdock: there’s a load of wood in this area, use a plank as a lever to open the sewer tunnel and don’t tell me he doesn’t know because he’s blind

Rating 8/10

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Images used in this review are from Marvel's Daredevil and belong to their respective owners. All images in this review are subject to fair use