Netflix Retrospective: Daredevil season 2 episodes 11-13 - .380/The Dark at the End of the Tunnel/A cold day in Hell's Kitchen

.380

The alarms blare as the ninjas climb the roof and begin cutting their way in through the windows. Claire is about to quarantine the missing kids but they’re soon surrounded. The guards and one of the nurses are killed until Daredevil arrives. Badly outnumbered the kids escape as Daredevil fights them off. Claire tries to join in but is thrown out the window. Daredevil manages to catch her and swing her in as the ninjas escape with the patients.

Daredevil gives chase across the rooftops but loses them after some steam masks their sound. Roll credits… Matt pays Claire a visit and explains all he knows. Claire warns him that he can’t keep the candle burning at both ends, and he’s in way over his head with this, and she’s not wrong. Matt gets a call and says he has to go.

Karen files her report with the police and maintains police protection, I’m surprised any cops volunteered given what happened to the last ones. Matt arrives to talk to Karen and although she does tell him the truth, and surprisingly none of the cops pick it up, she doesn’t want his help. She thinks the setup is the work of the Blacksmith. She sneaks away from police protection later on, finding Frank in a car waiting for her.

Marci goes to visit Foggy in hospital, bringing him some alcohol, a bear and a possible new legal opportunity for him. They were impressed with his legal work, especially the speech at the opening of the trial. Claire examines the body of one of the ninjas, the one she killed when she was fighting back, it has a y-incision, usually done in autopsies, with Claire in trouble for bringing in unsanctioned patients, she he little to fall back on when the director asks it kept quiet to secure funding.

Daredevil meanwhile interrogates Tower, who tells him they were investigating the Blacksmith’s competition, the only major competitor is China Town. Karen and Frank are in a diner discussing possible ways for the Blacksmith to get his product into the city. Frank has worked out Karen’s fondness for Matt and bla bla bla, Frank’s family is dead, we get it!

Ah, and the penny drops, Frank had been using her as bait to lure in her would-be assassins. In Chinatown, Daredevil’s on patrol, following one of the dealers into a clothes warehouse. Daredevil uses the clothes lines as cover to take out the first 2 guards undetected, then fights off the next two before sneaking in their basement, finding none other than Madame Gao, the only interesting thing about the Hand. She agrees to call the rest of her men off so they can talk, let’s be honest, Madame Gao would rather the Blacksmith was gone, it’s good news for the Hand.

So two bozos walk into a diner, but they were too dead to finish their meal or start it… or order it. 1 of them mentions the pier on 41^st street before being shot. Karen is quite naturally horrified of it all so does she run away, like a normal person, NO of course not, she’ll be there for the next one. She calls the police

Daredevil asks about the Blacksmith, Madame Gao tells him they have been eliminating a lot of her crew, she knows the drugs come in by ship, and the shipment would likely be heavily guarded. Meanwhile, Claire is sick of hearing about the coverup and quits her job at the hospital. Congratulations, Claire, you now can’t pay rent or support yourself, but at least your ethics are in tact.

Daredevil waits at the docks until he starts hearing gunshots. Castle’s been taking out the guards and begins bouring petrol that he conveniently has all over the ship. The captain tries to shoot him but to no avail. Out of bullets, he’s at the mercy of the Punisher. He’s not the Blacksmith as Daredevil reveals when he arrives. Time for another fight between them, as the still alive captain calls for re-enforcements. Knowing that the gunfire would likely set the whole ship alight, Frank pushes Daredevil out of the boat

Stick tells the few surviving members of the Chaste to follow a plan, but Elektra kills them both as the get in the car, she’s found him. Daredevil exits the water and sees fires blazing. Karen is also on scene because the police officers are idiots. Foggy is signing his release papers at the hospital and manages to bump into Claire. Meanwhile the kids voluntarily give up their blood now and eww. Matt is trying to catch some sleep but is hearing some cars outside. He goes outside to investigate and it’s the members of the Chaste Elektra killed earlier, they warn Matt of what’s about to happen. Stick is sharpening his sword as Elektra confronts him

This show needs to pick a focus and stick with it, we’re at episode 11, having 2 major running plotlines vying for attention isn’t helping anyone.

Rating 7/10

The Dark at the End of the Tunnel

We open with Elektra training, with Stick being her mentor, he speaks to another member of the Chaste about her performance as she single-handedly takes down 3 member of the Chaste. It’s unfortunate that she almost kills the last one. Stick gives her a talk and they begin to fight

In the Present, the two are fighting again but this time, they’re both out for Blood, Daredevil intervenes but soon the hand interject and it becomes a full on war. They leave, with Stick as captive and not Elektra, which might be confusing given revelations to come but let’s assume naivety. Daredevil and Elektra are now racing to Stick to either rescue or kill him.

The police continue to clear up the mess at the docks. Karen stays although she doesn’t need to. They assure her that Castle is dead and yeah, I believe it, millions wouldn’t. Detective Thompson is summoned to take her home.

Matt is examining some maps when Foggy arrives to clear up some stuff, he tells Matt the electric is paid till the end of the month, with what I can only presume is the money that falls out of the sky when you follow magic leprechauns. He dismisses the idea Matt has about the Hand using subway tunnels since it’d be dangerous and heavily patrolled. Although there is some abandoned tunnels that kept caving in that are quite likely.

Daredevil enters one of them through the sewer system. Karen returns to the Bugle, prepared to give up but is convinced otherwise, because she’s a gullible moron. Lois Lane puts herself in danger to get a good story, Karen Page is not Lois Lane because believe it or not, Daredevil isn’t Superman. Time for another ninja fight. Mid-fight, they trop their blades, hoping to catch him off guard, since he can’t hear their heartbeat, they escape for some reason.

Karen goes to visit, ah, Clancy Brown, Shoonver, you remember him, from Frank’s trial. She asks if he considers Frank a friend, he gives an interesting answer that’s the right mixture of vague and confusing whilst also sweet. Karen tells him that Frank died in the ship explosion, before noticing that one of the people in a photo looked similar to one of the bodies pulled from the river. Shoonver realises she knows and pulls a gun on her. He’s a soldier played by \Clancy Brown, why are you surprised?

Daredevil finds a ladder that felt recently used, he climbs it, entering a secret lair. Stick manages to get a message through to Daredevil, telling him to track their breathing. With that help, he manages to take them out, despite the fact breathing wouldn’t tell you where people’s arms and legs are. Shoonver forces Karen to drive, just as they’re about to pull over, the passenger side is hit by a car.

Daredevil takes out the guards torturing Stick, performing his rescue but he’s soon confronted by Elektra, who’s soon confronted by Nobu, this was a trap for her. Flash back to Elektra training when she’s confronted by the member of the Chaste, who she kills. One of the elders confronts Stick about letting ‘it’ into their ranks, Stick kills him and gets Elektra out of there. It’s revealed here that Elektra is the Black Sky, and the Hand know which makes them kidnapping Stick and not Elektra earlier all the more confusing.

Elektra realises how much sense it all makes as the Hand all bow to her. Flashbacks show that Stick left Elektra with a rich family to adopt, I guess, promising that things will change when she gets older, and he wants that as far off as possible. Daredevil puts his neck up to Elektra’s sword and manages to use it as a distraction that allows all 3 to escape

Karen meanwhile manages to escape the wreck, and guess who was driving the car that ploughed into them. Karen follows a trail into the forest, Shoonver somehow survived and yes, they’re revealing early that this was an assassination based on some military bullsh*t. Frank drags him into a convenient tool shed in the middle of a forest, he shoots him and Karen is left just… they’d just tortured her this season.

Elektra manages to get Stick some distance away. Frank investigates the tool shed and finds a compartment filled with military grade weapons, including a bullet-proof vest and a gun he’s just itching to use. Matt fights his way through but ultimately Nobu stands in his way and we’ve seen this fight go badly twice so of course Daredevil wins easily this time, even if Nobu survives the fight and declares that Daredevil must die.

Well, at the very least we’re left with a singular focus for the last episode, Shoonver being the bad guy was predictable, he’s a military general played by Clancy Brown, of course he’s the villain. The Hand stuff is relatively dull since Nobu was never much of an interesting villain on his own. I also think it’s a little late in the game to tie the Black Sky to Elektra

Rating 6.5/10

A cold day in Hell’s Kitchen

We open with the casket that the kids have been filling with their blood, Nobu is handed a list of 20 targets in New York. Nobu asks the woman to hit all the target. Stick is tied up in Matt’s house, he can’t take chances with him. Stick warns that the Hand will tear the city apart looking for Elektra, and they’d be best off killing her. I kinda agree with Stick, Matt’s got his head way too far up his ass.

Elektra is admiring the traffic I guess as Matt confronts her, trying to console her, but Matt continues to talk like he’s got his head up his ass. Their plan is simple, take down Nobu and extract him undetected, let him rot in a cell to shine a light on the hand. Their only shot is together.

Ah, Hogarth, it’s been a long time since I’ve seen you and not wanted to punch you in the face, thanks for detracting from the main plotline to offer Foggy a job. It’s a pretty fantastic offer too. So Karen’s thinking of writing her piece on the Punisher, but she has writer’s block. Excuse me whilst I try and care. So Daredevil takes Elektra to Melvin, who measures her up for a costume and gives Daredevil a new stick that has various functions I’m not going to list.

Castle returns to his house for the first time since the hit, even sitting at the dining room table for no reason, somehow there’s a newspaper reporting his death on the table, not quite sure how that works. He goes back to the shack and begins spray-painting some gloves. Elektra gives Stick a sandwich when Foggy calls, apparently the Hand have begun roughing up the police searching for intel on Daredevil. Brett’s had his arm broken and his mother threatened, they wanted to know everyone Daredevil had saved, and they have the kidnapped on a bus, including Karen of course, because they haven’t put her through enough this season. One of the hostages was under house arrest but had deactivated his tag, Karen convinces him to turn it back on so the police can track them.

Daredevil’s trying to track them through sound but it having trouble, Elektra helps him tune out some of the distractions. The bus parks up and the hostages are lead into an elevator, and shoved into a room. They hear the police coming and kill them, one of them manages to call for backup, which Matt manages to hear, leading him to their location. Unfortunately, the Hand discover the tag and are about to cut off his leg but Daredevil intervenes.

He evacuates everyone but more Ninjas arrive, Daredevil fights them and Elektra intervenes, breaking up the fight. With the Hand still everywhere, they need to head up to finish this fight but more Hand ninjas are in pursuit. Backup arrives but it’s difficult to get anywhere without drawing the attention of the snipers. The hostages are saved but Elektra and Daredevil are trapped with ninjas coming from every corner. Daredevil promises that if they survive this fight, they’ll live it together and oh my god, that’s just painted that she’s gonna die. This scene goes on for several minutes. We get it, EPIC FORESHADOWING!

But finally, we get back to the action. They fire some arrows but Nobu stops them. Daredevil fights Nobu whilst the hand work to try and take down Elektra. Nobu seems to be losing a lot this series, considering how the first fight ended. Hey, hand ninjas, your leader is being double-teamed, a little backup? Apparently the tables turn, he’s about to stab Matt instead Elektra is stabbed. Oh no, I’m so shocked, 20 minutes left of the episode folks. So she dies, but at least that means the Hand will never get what they want, right? HA!

Oh and Nobu recovers and his ninjas stay completely still until Nobu gives the order for them to finish it off. Thankfully the Punisher conveniently knows what’s going on and decides to help for some reason. Erm… Okay… gotta pretend like this all ties together, even though it doesn’t. Frank stops at Killing Nobu though because he wasn’t also responsible for the death of his kid. Daredevil tosses Nobu off the roof, and we see his body armour now has the classic skull logo. Matt goes to mourn his lost love, but at least he had the victory of defeating Nobu… oh wait, he wakes up from that fall and it’s up to Stick to finish him off.

Elektra is ‘buried’ as Matt and Stick to pay their respects. Foggy and Karen are at the bar, Foggy tells her that whilst they’re not work colleagues, she can still call on him if she needs to. They settle their tab and back to that so interesting plotline of Karen’s writer’s block. I’m just gonna skip what happens here, nothing of major importance. Also, it’s the holiday season now. The punisher is ready to burn his house down but first finds a disk.

Matt returns one last time to his offices and finds Karen waiting, they’d agreed to meet. Matt shows her the mask, telling her firmly that he is Daredevil. Meanwhile, we see that everything is for naught of Elektra’s body is taken from the grave and is to revived by the hand.

SCREW THIS FINALE, the action is boring, the subplots are pointless, the Punisher is all just setup for his inevitable season, and Matt accomplishes nothing. One of the hostages is murdered before he can rescue them, Elektra is dead and the Hand have the Black Sky and it was Stick who killed Nobu, who’s barely the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the hand anyway!

Rating 4.5/10