Netflix Retrospective: Daredevil season 1 episodes 10-13 review

Nelson vs. Murdock

So fallout begins with your attention for this 55 minute episode divided in 4, pretty much equally focused elements.

The first is obvious given what happened at the end of the last episode. The consequences of Foggy finding out that Matt Murdock is the man in the mask. It starts with him finding out about his abilities and calling out Matt on a lot of what he says and what he can do. I wish they wouldn’t push this ‘it’s hard to explain’ stuff though. I’ve not read a Daredevil comic in my life, but I can summarise his power set.

“The chemicals that blinded me enhanced my other senses, I can use these senses to create a mental image of my surroundings” There, I summed it up in one sentence, if you’re a diehard Daredevil fan you might have something to correct but that’s more or less his power-set.

Foggy ends up berating his former friend and at the episode the betrayal becomes too much for him to take and he ends up separating himself from Murdock’s life.

Adding a further impact to this is the flashbacks of the episode which show their college years and how they met. We get only snippets of their actual time, ending with their internship and their eventual quitting of it because an old man gets sued for damages for telling the doctor about a firm’s illegal activities that were harmful to his health.

These scenes show how Foggy and Matt got close and just how strong their bond is, and it does make the breaking of it at the episode feel all the more heartbreaking for the both of them.

The third string of the episode comes from Karen doing something so unbelievably stupid, that two people will die because of them. Hopefully you’ve seen the series and you know who they both are, but that’s a story for another segment.

Ben finds that his wife isn’t getting an extension for a private room at the hospital and wishes to take her home for personal care, as he can’t afford to keep her anywhere else. At the same time he’s offered a job as editor at the newspaper he works at and decides to hand all the evidence on the Fisk case to Karen

She decides to take him to a nursing home where Fisk’s mother is being kept. They find out from her that Wilson is responsible for his father’s death.

Finally we have Fisk himself, and after reaching the highs of episode 9, things begin to fall apart for Mr Fisk here, after seeing to it that the Russian was killed, he’s got others in his organisation nervous. Gao confronts him, warning him that his desire for love is pushing him in two directions and that seems to come true where at a gala he’s hosting people, including Vanessa are poisoned.

It’s the beginning of the final 4 episodes and things are falling into place in well written sequences.

Rating 9/10

The Path of the Righteous

“When it comes down to it, few of us are (afraid to die), it’s living the scares the cr*p out of people”

This episode isn’t focuses on any particularly character. This is a very story driven episode as things begin to fall into place for big finale that’s now only 2 episodes away.  As a story driven episode it lacks a lot of action, there are only 2 action scenes in this near-hour long episode and even then one of them is against a street punk, the other guy gets lucky.

So, with the help of Claire, Matt slowly but surely recovers from his wounds, he goes to confessional again, struggling with his inner feelings of nearly (and by nearly I mean he got his ass handed to him) killing Fisk. Once again our confessional guy reassures him and it’s kinda refreshing, especially when our other happy cast member is busy sleeping with… oh god not her… and generally being closed off

Matt finally gets out there but takes on some advice and things about getting new armour for his suit to protect himself. That’s pretty much what all of the action centres around. He confronts the guy who makes Fisk’s body armour, someone he cares for is being threatened (I think, he’s a bit crazy) so Matt offers to take down Fisk, if he makes him a new suit (big reveal coming soon)

With Vanessa injured she is taken to hospital and Doctors see to her pretty much immediately. Wilson insists that he stay by her side despite Owlsley’s attempts to coax her away. Wesley is far more understanding and tries to deal with all of Fisk’s other problems, including one which we’ll get to in a moment.

Wesley sends Owlsley to try and find out of Gao was responsible for the attack, but he comes back alive so they presume that she was not.

Meanwhile we have Karen, who wants to get the story of Fisk killing his father out into the open, however at every turn people shun her down, claiming that Fisk’s mother could be unreliable and that Fisk himself could put a spin on it (to be fair, it wouldn’t take much, since it’s not untrue that he was protecting his mother)

However news of what she’d done leads into Wesley’s hands and he’s had enough. He kidnaps Karen, puts a gun on the table and tries to convince Karen to convince others that Fisk is who he says he is, threatening to kill everyone she loves if she doesn’t. However Karen takes advantage of a moment of distraction and grabs the gun. He claims that he wouldn’t have put a loaded gun where she could reach it, and it’s soon proven that he shouldn’t of as she shoots him with several shots, killing him.

The climax for this is already in motion. There’s no big threat to the city, just one man trying to save what he can and the other willing to tear it down. The heart of this battle is more emotional and it’s a great thing as we see the beginnings of Fisk’s downfall already.

Rating 9/10

The ones we leave behind

This story has two major focuses, we’re building to both the triumph of the hero but also the downfall of the villain. By focusing on both of these simultaneously we get a very well told story where each of the main characters has depth to them.

All too often we don’t see the weaknesses of the villains until the final episode, we get hinted at his weakness less than a third of the way in which makes his downfall ultimately believable and even tragic, to an extent

We play for both parts here as we see Fisk happy to see Vanessa recovering only to find that his dearest friend Wesley has died. The bulk of his portion of the episode is spent with him working out exactly what had happened

Matt meanwhile is investigating the Chinese triads, their drug-running has been a major source of income for Fisk. What he discovers is Madame Gao creating blind mules for her operations, likely using the same chemicals that blinded him. He manages to torch the place and although Gao escapes, she declares her disinterest in continuing to operate in New York to Owlsley, they had co-operated in the poisoning scheme to bring down Vanessa.

She decides to leave for her homeland (much farther away than China, we’ll see what that amounts to) and we get the final real plots coming from the episode, Ben Urich plays a pretty major role in this episode as his character arc comes to a close, we see him with his wife, he gets fired from his job for accusing his boss of being paid off by Fisk (it’s not him, but there is someone at the paper) incidentally he reveals of his visit to Fisk’s mother and Fisk gets wind of it

Urich decides to start a blog to try and get the truth out there about Fisk killing his father, but Fisk is already waiting for him. They have an honest conversation before Fisk kills him, he is emotional and that is his greatest weakness.

We spend a good chunk of the opening  with Karen, who’s suffering PTSD over her night with Wesley, I don’t think anyone ever finds out that she’s responsible for it but the idea of the murder is haunting to her.

It’s a strong episode, leaving me very excited for the 13^th and final chapter of the series.

Rating 9/10

Daredevil

And so it comes to pass that a man betrayed by his allies and his lust and desire shall fall from the heights that he had previously accustomed. And a death will bring together allies who had previously fallen out, the dominos are lined up it’s time to watch them fall.

The truth about Owlsley’s involvement in the poisoning was outed early in the episode, Fisk did not take it kindly and killed him, despite his attempt to blackmail his way out of it. Fisk was then left with a problem. The officer that had disappeared after killing his partner is at risk of coming into the light once again. Fisk diverts his resources to find them.

The dominos on edge, Matt hears about the events through a cop and sets out after the officer whilst they prepare a legal case back at the law firm. Fisk finds the cop but Matt does too, taking out the men sent to kill him and insisting her turn over all evidence.

This leads to a scene where cops, reporters, lawyers and senators are arrested for co-conspiring with Fisk. Fisk himself is also arrested but not before proposing to Vanessa. And so the dominos begin to fall.

But it’s not over yet, as this episode has lacked in action so far, and you can’t expect one cop to have all the intel on Fisk’s men. Turns out he has someone in the FBI and other men have come for him, shooting out the honest men transporting him

It’s time for Daredevil to dawn his new costume and engage in a brutal one-on-one dual where both show their fighting prowess. Fortunately for the world he gets the upper hand, the news praises the Daredevil that saved their city

For me, I think Fisk created his own downfall, even before he met Vanessa. When you kill someone the loved ones of that person will either fall to despair, or rally behind him. It was you killing Karen’s friend that brought Karen into the mess, that brought Daredevil into the mess, it was killing the Russians that turned your nervous allies to schemes of their own to protect themselves. It was you killing a cop that might talk that resulted in you creating another cop that might talk. It was Ben Urich’s death that got the heroes rallied against you. Fisk’s downfall was set in stone before we even knew who he was.

But that’s my thoughts on this excellent series, sure the costume is goofy but it’s comic book goofy, and he’d have to wear his classic costume eventually.

Rating 9.5/10

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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