*Spoilers Ahead*
Much like the previous episode, the penultimate edition of Daredevil’s first season focuses on a character who hasn’t been getting a ton of focus. Until now, Ben Urich has been used mainly to give Karen Page a story for the season and to play the world-weary journalist, he’s been slightly more developed than Wesley, which makes his focus here less of a sign to his eventual end.
Still, the sign is there if you’re looking for it. Much of this episode focuses on Urich as he attempts to find a way to reveal what he has uncovered about Wilson Fisk’s past. The main problem I have with his story this week is that it just doesn’t feel interesting. Unlike Wesley’s final hurrah, it doesn’t say much new about Urich and it feels more than a little weird and anachronistic at times, in regards to his views on journalism. In fact, I’m willing to say much of the show’s take on journalism has fallen short and the scene where Urich ends up fired doesn’t do much to improve it. He believes that there is someone inside the paper who is being paid off by Fisk to keep Urich from publishing stories about him. He eventually finds out he was right but by then it is far too late.
Much of this episode finds Wilson Fisk struggling to deal with the death of Wesley. His failure to protect Vanessa and, now, Wesley put Fisk on the warpath and his feelings are only further exasperated when he discovers that Urich met with his mother. I’ve enjoyed the nuanced portrayal of Fisk to this point and Vincent D’Onofrio continues to do excellent work here.
Elsewhere, Karen is struggling to deal with the aftermath of killing Wesley and without Matt or Foggy there to reliably help her through it she turns to alcohol. I was also not a huge fan of this story although I understand what it is attempting. That said, Karen and Matt share a very nice scene at the end that hopefully sets up for better things to come for Karen, who has played the victim almost consistently this whole season.
Speaking of Matt, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen himself is out to take down Madame Gao and her drug operation. This was really the part of the episode that I enjoyed, especially Matt’s midday stroll across the rooftops as he follows a limo taking one of Gao’s blinded drug-pushers to her warehouse.
Gao also gets to showcase her particular skills as once she is cornered by Daredevil, her men taken out and her warehouse on fire, she delivers a single palm strike that sends him flying to the floor. She then makes her exit, Daredevil won this round but I’m sure Gao is bound to show up again.
In fact, she does, as before she leaves for her homeland she has a conversation with Leland Owlsley that reveals that they partnered together to poison Vanessa. While this isn’t a particularly surprising twist I’m interested to see what this means for Owlsley as the finale approaches. My guess, nothing good.
Urich finally meets with his wife and is convinced by her to publish the story himself on a blog. The idea is kind of ridiculous but I’ll let it slide because the scene between the two of them is nice. Urich begins his article before being interrupted by Fisk, who has entered his house. The conversation between the two is very well done and it directly parallels the scene between Wesley and Karen last week. Only this time Fisk is the one with the upperhand as he strangles Urich and leaves his body on the floor.
Urich’s death, while pretty obviously foreshadowed, is still a shock just based on how closely tied he is to the Daredevil comics. There’s been a lot of disappointment over his death and I understand that for numerous reasons but his death is proven necessary by how outright monstrous it makes Fisk look. It’s possible that without this moment Fisk could be seen as a reasonable guy who is taking the wrong route to help his city. Here he is a true villain and using Urich to make that point only makes it sting more.
Fisk has lost one of his own and now he has taken one from the heroes as well. The endgame is ready and the only thing left to do now is bring it on. I have no idea what is going to happen and I can’t wait to find out.
Bits ‘n Pieces
- Apologies for the extreme delay on this and the finale review (which will hopefully be up Tuesday) been quite busy and couldn’t devote the time I wanted to this show.
- Gao is most definitely showing up in the Iron Fist show. She even makes a sly reference to K’un L’un.
- It’s a shame to see Ben Urich go mainly because I’ve loved Vondie Curtis-Hall’s portrayal of him.
- “My head’s fine where it’s at.”
- “I should have just had her shot.”
If you’d like to give me feedback or just chat about Daredevil you can email me at theSuperAlbino@gmail.com or hit me up on Twitter @JesseSwanson