With two active sub-plots, this episode had a bit of a juggling act to pull off. It does it well, splitting the time about equally between the Castle trial and Elektra's ongoing investigation involving the return of the Yakuza.
This puts Matt in the Peter Parker dilemma where the two halves of his life come into conflict with each other. More often than not, his role as Daredevil wins out, which vexes his co-workers.
I do wonder if having a major falling out with Foggy is going to be a once a season thing. Don't get me wrong, Foggy was right to call Matt out and the confrontation in the bathroom was appropriately intense and dramatic, but the bit might wear thin if the writers keep falling back on it. Then again, maybe this is how they work in the comics, I'll admit I haven't read much of Daredevil, so maybe this is how the relationship operates.
Matt's absence at the office is especially noticeable as they really need his help forming a cohesive defense. Their best bet is insanity, citing PTSD, but Frank won't go along with it as he feels it's an insult to troops who are actually suffering from it. I'm not sure why it never occurred to them to use the death of his family as the inciting incident as opposed to his time serving overseas. Considering what we've heard about how they died, I'm quite certain that it would mess a person up in the head. Really, the only role his time as a Marine would have to play is giving Frank the training to do what he's been doing.
Instead, they focus on a discrepancy between the medical report and Frank's description of the event. It is a worthwhile point, especially given the apparent corruption at play, but Elektra screws it up for them.
Again, it was an odd instance where she tries to help, but doesn't seem to know how to go about it properly. She "convinces" the M.E. to own up to what he did, but the fact that he did it under duress gets his entire testimony thrown out. Suffice it to say, Matt's not too happy, though she's convinced that he should be focusing more on his crime-fighting anyway so she doesn't really seem to feel too bad about it.
Credit though, it was a nice way to have the two arcs overlap, albeit briefly. Even the earlier scene where Elektra pops up right after Matt and Karen have their debate about Frank was a nice touch, but this took it one step further.
Speaking of, that scene played out weird. The debate itself was fine, but I'm not sure why Karen admitting that Frank was getting results was such an awkward bomb. I guess her sudden departure was more of a preventative measure to make sure things didn't get too heated (see argument with Foggy) but it was still bizarre to watch.
While the Yakuza plot gets a fair amount of time devoted to it, not a whole lot of new information is given. Their first lead ends up leading to a trap and their second leads to a big hole. It does give the episode some action beats, and impressive ones to boot, but actual progression was mild at best.
The "black sky" incident was brought up, as was Matt's fight with Nobu, which was a nice touch. I am a little underwhelmed with the Yakuza's ultimate plan, though. I'll give them credit, that was a deep hole, but it doesn't make for the great jaw dropping episode ending reveal that it seemed like they were going for.
At the very least, the relationship between Matt and Elektra has somewhat softened as the two can work together, and as Elektra notes, they make a good team. She may make a Defender yet. Given her mindset, she'll likely be a tenuous member, akin to Huntress on the Justice League, but the show does seem to be showing her as a hero, albeit a sometimes (really) misguided one.
Overall, this episode did a good job of delivering a bit of everything. There were character conflicts, there was some decent courtroom drama, and we got a healthy dose of superhero butt-kicking. It never felt like the episode dragged and, as we move into the season's second half, it seems like things are going to be kicked up a notch.
Click here to join our Patreon campaign
No comments:
Post a Comment