The Defenders: The Defenders

 "It's just a city, They rise. They fall..."

Hmm. I mean, there's nothing wrong with this. It's finale stuff. It does the job. It wraps things up. It's exciting. But... is it me who's feeling perhaps a little underwhelmed?

So Luke, Jessicaand map go down into the bowels of our metaphorical Hell beneath New York. They blow the baddies up. Matt stays behind to try and persuade Elektra to turn good... but she's a baddie precisely because she wants to be with him forever in deatyh and, as she says, "This is what living feels like." It's all very dramatic, but also a bit cliched.

There's so much weight placed on the police captain wanting our heroes arrested, too... but then, at the end, all charges are dropped, no questions asked, part of the cover-up. Oh, there are a few good character moments, I suppose, although not that good. Misty losing her arm is a genuine shock. I have no idea about these nuns who have in some way rescued Matt. But, well, this is a bit of a let down after some good recent episodes.

I'm going to continue blogging all of the formerly Netflix Marvel stuff, fear not. But there's less of a mad rush now, as Daredevil: Born Again won't be rushing upon us on Disney Plusas soon as we thought. Besides, despite Jon Bernthal's impressive performances, I'm not a great fan of the Punisher as a character, and next up is thirteen episodes of him. So I'll be taking a short break and watching a certain animated series in this "slot".Fear not, though. It will be just a short break.

The Defenders: Fish in the Jailhouse

 "Karen, this is my life."

Structurally, this is your typical penultimate episode, maneouvvring everybofy into position for the finale. Matt, Luke and Jessica begin in the police station with tough questiins to anseerr, but by the end they're ar the lair of the Hand, fighting its three remaining fingers. Meanwhile, Elektra tries to persiuade Danny to side with her, abandoning his prior allegiances as she abandoned hers.

But the heart of this episode is about character. It's about trust,and integrity. The integrity of Luke, who puts his city and its millions of people above the risk to his hard-won liberty. The trust placed in him and his friends by Misty, risking her entire career. And the trust of Foggy in Matt, smuggling in his Daredevil suit. The Hand and Elektra are divided, broken. But our gandg are, in the end, united. Even when it comes to Colleen's explosive plan.

Some of these relationships are fascinating. The deep mutual respect between Misty and Luke, and Misty's equally respectful understanding with Claire, perhaps the wisest character. The slow journey undertaken by Karen and Foggy to understand that Matt is Daredevil, and denying that is pointless.

It's all nicely done, and the characterisation is good. The episode is, perhaps, necessarily formulaic, and seeing protagonists in unfair legal trouble is never fun, meaning this episode isn't quite as entertaining as the last couple. But we seem set fair for a finale worth waiting for. Let's hope it lives up to its promise.

The Defenders: Take Shelter

 "You are the dumbest Iron Fist yet!"

This is a fascinating episode. The heroes are not yet fully a team, not least because Matt is hiding the truth about Elektra from them... but it's great to see them interact. But the greater friction is, of course, within the five fingers of the Hand. This is a particularly strong episode. All the pieces are out and the mid-game phase is underway.

Plot-wise, things are pretty simple. The heroes' loved ones are threatened by the Hand, so Misty is persuaded to give them protection. Elektra is the catalyst to everything. Matt is forced to confess her backstory, and insists that some part of the resurrected "Black Sky" remains Elektra- something which the ending seems to prove. Meanwhile, the baddies turn against Alexandra for her going off-piste in resurrecting Elektra. Oh, and Stick beheads Sowande, as you do.

There is so much lore being hinted at. Does Gao blind her acolytes, and does this explain Stick's origins? There are hints that there may be more to K'un Lun than is known to Danny. The Hand has "always" owned New York. Alexandra had a daughter before her pilgrimage to K'un Lun.

Deeper than this, though, is the characterisation. Karen and Stick are pulling Matt in opposite directions. Claire is utterly devoted to Luke, and a wise friend to Colleen. This is very well written and acted. It's nuanced, fascinating television, balancing the action with intrigue and solid characterisation. I'm impressed. The Defenders has been good from the start, but this is more.

The Defenders: The H Word

 "People call me Foggy."

"And you let them?"

It's so good to see so many of these characters for the first time in ages. Danny and Collen I've only just seen, of course, and Darevevil was in She-Hulk, but I've missed the others.

As a first episode, of course, this just establishes where the characters are and develops them a bit. So Luke is freed from prison due to the sterling work of Foggy... and finally gets a room with Claire. About bloody time. Jessica is... drinking lots of bourbon, until she's drawn into a case by sheer stubbornness. Matt lis laying off the old vigilianteeism and realising he's in love with Karen, and the love triangle stuff with Elektra was unwise, despite his real feelings for her. Danny and Collen are back in New York in search of the Hand... the only possible Big Bad.

We meet an intriguing new character played by Sigourney Weaver who is told, in her very first scene, that she hasn't long to live; a fascinating writing choice. And we then find out that Madame Gao, no less, takes orders from her. That's quite a surprise.

For now it's slow, with the heroes not yet meeting. But that's fine; lots of characters to share screen time and be developed. So far I'm very much enjoying this.

Daredevil: A Cold Day in Hell’s Kitchen

 “What if this isn’t the end? What if this is just the beginning?”

This, in the end, is a fairly predictable finale, but it’s so well-crafted and emotionally resonant that that’s ok. It’s not much of a spoiler, given the forty years since Daredevil #181, that Electra dies, so why not have an emotional Matt pledge to be with her, and go with her anywhere, before their final battle against the odds, just to rub in the fact we all know she’s not going to survive?

It’s an all-out battle with Nobu and the Hand, with much of the supporting cast involved as hostages. Even Frank Castle, while taking a lower profile, gets to play his part at the end… while wearing that proper Punisher skull t-shirt. Daredevil finally gets his billy club, too.

It’s a highly satisfying closer, and that’s not even taking into accountthe cameo appearance of Jeri Hogarth from Jessica Jones- will Foggy take that high flying job? Will he appear in other Netflix Marvel shows before the next season of Daredevil? And we get that dramatic moment, right at the end, where Matt finally reveals to Karen that he’s Daredevil.

I’ll wait for the Netflix shows to transfer to Disney Plus, then I’ll carry on with the first season of Luke Cage…

Daredevil: The Dark at the End of the Tunnel

 "Matty, I'm proud of you."

Wow. That's how to do a penultimate episode.

I especially love how there are two parallel narratives, with both Matt and Karen cast very clearly as equally heroic. Karen gets a further sequence, despite her very human exhaustion and despair, of journalistic awesomeness as she interviews the Colonel from Castle's trial... only for the rather brilliant revelation to hit her that he is, in fact, the Blacksmith. Even more of a shock is to see how she's saved by Frank. This whole sequence is full of shocks, yes, but also with superb acting from Deborah Ann Woll, John Bernthal and Clancy Brown who, I should have realised, is not the sort of actor you get in for a bit part.

Then we have the sequences of Elektra's childhood with Stick, the relevance of which hits us towards the end. But first we have Stick Kidnapped and tortured by the Hand, with both Matt and Elektra on their trail, but there's still time for a poignant scene between Matt and Foggy, who can't seem to resurrect their friendship.

There's lots of cool, well-directed action as Matt fights loads of ninjas until we get to the really big revelation... the Hand's big scary weapon, the Black Sky... is Elektra! And we end with a flurry of activity and confused motives leading us into a much-anticipated finale.

If that's not enough, you have to admire the parallel revelation, Black Star and the Blacksmith, and with the long-buried past coming back, gothic-style, to horrify everyone...

Wow. Just wow.

Daredevil: .380

 "Stay away from me..."

The season is in the final stretch and things are speeding up. There's still time for character scenes- Claire once again warns Matt he's in too deep; Karen gets advice on not letting the love she has with Matt slipaway by Frank Castle, of all people, while he simultaneously uses her as bait; and Daredevil agrees with Frank to handle the Blacksmith his way "just this once"- but, as Frank points out, there's no going back from that side of the line.

There's a lot going on. Madame Gao is back. Matt and Frank are simultaneously on the trail of the Blacksmith, their paths converging towards the end, and Frank may or may not end up dead. We see more of this bizarre blood cult. Elektra is after Stick, ostensibly for revenge. 

And yet the real heroes of this episode are women. Claire quits her job rather than being implicit in the kind of cover-up, motivated by a need to please a donor, which makes a powerful argument in favour of America getting an actual health care system. And Karen, despite her obvious trauma, spends the episode reaching for the right thing to do, and doing it in spitre of her fears.

This is an episode filled with incident, but it's the characters that make this series so amazing.

Daredevil: The Man in the Box

 “This is your jungle. This is your blood, like it is mine.”

We're moving close to the end of the season and things are speeding up. An assassin tries to kill a departing Elektra, after flirting with her- and he was sent not by the Hand but by Stick. Frank Castle is on the loose and is seemingly on a killing spree... or is he?

Frank is seemingly assassinating everyone who he believes to have wronged him, starting, in an effectrively shocking scene, as Reyes confesses to being behind the sting gone sour and the cover-up, before being suddenly killed... with Foggy lucky to survive, showing the danger Matt's friends are in. And Karen, pursuing the sory as a reporter again, discovers that there are further targets- the doctor from the trial and herself. She's saved, in a not-entirely-unpredictable twist, by none other than Frank. So who is the killer?

All this is just plot, of course, exciting that it is. What the episode is really about is Matt's increasing isolation, deciding he wands "no more law" and "no more friends", despite Claire rather sensibly telling him that cutting himself off from normal life, justive, human connection and, indeed, sleep, is not exactly an awesome idea. 

We end this splendid episode with the hospital under attack from without by ninjas and from within from those blood-poisoned people Daredevil has just rescued, and both Claire and Foggy in peril. I bet that would never happen in a country with an actual health system...

Daredevil: Seven Minutes in Heaven

 "In prison, there's only room for one Kingpin..."

At this point the series is quite addictive and I'm eagerly waitng for the next episode. Daredevil is amazing right now, and this episode is a roller-coaster of well-directed, superbly acted and astonishingly eventful awesomeness.

Where to start? Matt sadly sees, from Elekra's bloodlust in saving him last episode. He admits he loves her, but dumps her for falling short of his ideals. And then there's the end of Nelson and Murdoch in an extraordinary scene of suppressed yet palpable emotions as Matt and Foggy end their firm and, seemingly, their friendship. He's already lost Karen; Matt now has nothing and no one... except his mission and his unhealthy drive to do what he does, which is pushing everyone away and ruining his life.

Yet Karen is still awesome. Now having no job, by default, she finds respect and purpose in journalism, uncovering the fact that the carousel massacre was instigated by a police agent provocateur... as, in a parallel, Frank discovers the same thing.

Frank's prison experience, seemingly brief, is dominated by what I suspect is a single episode guest appearance by Vincent D'Onofrio as Fisk, that calmly introspective, civilised yet menacing man who dominates every scene in which he appears. To see his adaptations to prison life as he uses Frank Castle to become, well, kingpin is nuanced and fascinating. He never lies to Frank, being quite open about why he's using him. It's an extraordinarily subtle, well-written and superbly acted dynamic.

And then we have O' Hornhead's dsubterranean pursuit of the Hand, and the unexpected things he finds. Yet it's not just the momentous events: it's the characters, the extraordinary sequence where the Punisher, in slow motion, prevails against an army of fellow prisoners... this is as good as it gets. And what on Earth is going on with the Hand?

Daredevil: Guilty as Sin

 "This is who I am."

I think it's probably fair to say that this is an eventful episode. Matt and Karen breaking up and Matt and Elektra ending up together in more ways than one; Matt and Foggy ending up on bad terms; and the trial suddenly ending in disaster as Frank Castle pleads guilty out of the blue.

Oh, and Stick's back. With some semi-mythological exposition about the baddies- the Hand- in which he himself may have a starring role. And Frank, in prison, meets none other than a certain Mr Fisk...

It's a massive change to the status quo, but it works. The characters ring true, from the unddrdog Foggy- more competent than he knows- to the conflicted Matt, the severely damaged Frank and, most of all, the truly amazing Karen. And there are set pieces which showcase superb acting, from Jon Bermnthal's exceptional final speech as the Punisher to a standout guest appearance from Clancy Brown.

Yet the plot is also deeply intricate and engaging, with cool Hand ninjas threatening New York and police corruption seemingly manipulating the trial in ways that seem to be connected with Wilson Fisk. And Matt's realisation that he loves Elektra after all, after nearly seeing her die, is believable.

The season is really shaping up into a coherent whole know, with the Punisher, Elektra, Matt's complex personal life, the Hand and the Kingpin. This episode is an incredible bit of telly.

Daredevil: Semper Fidelis

 "Elektra is not the problem, Matt. You are."

Ouch. This is a hard-hitting episode which hits at the core problems with Matt/DD as her attempts to serve two masters, the law and vigilatism. This is an interesting dichotomy ideologically- as is shown by Matt's awkward response to Karen's question about what he thinks to the activities of "the Devil of Hell's Kitchen.

It's Frank's trial, Reyes is prosecuting, it's David vs Goliath and their chances are slim. So it really doesn't help that Matt is moonlighting with this Yakuza lead and neglecting the case. Foggy is right, when Matt admits it all to him, to feel furious, and that Matt is not reliable. And yes, he's right to accuse Frank of lying, not only to him but to Karen, who has a right to know that he's off doing stuff at night with his ex... especially with all that sexual tension between Daredevil and Elektra, and her confession that she took so long to return because she thought he was too good for her. And her unasked for attempt to help the trial ends up going very wrong indeed.

Karen is really blossoming, and proving to be awesome at research and the legal stuff. Matt suggests she might want to go to law school; I hope she ends up doing someything awesome... but she deserves something better than a man like Matt, who could never share everything and put her first.

There's a lot going on. Then we see the Yakuza are digging that massive hole. What...?

This is gripping telly, a real step up from what was already an impressive programme.

Daredevil: Regrets Only

 "Well, you can't mask that ass. I'd know it anywhere."

This is probably the episode where the season starts to click into place: we have a high profile trial for the Punisher, which is part of a series of complex power games by DA Reyes, while ol' Hornhead and Elekra have their own arc, separate at this point, involving the Yakuza, or whoever these Japanese criminals connected to Roxxon may be. The extended martial arts fight scene before the credits is awesome, as it the use of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' "Date with the Night" as the Yakuza travel through the city on their cool motorbikes.

Matt is not exactly being unfaithful to Karen, with whom he has an increasingly heartwarming relationship: he makes it clear to Elektra that he's taken. Yet he's hiding from her the fact that he's doing stuff with his ex and, much as he makes it clear at the start of the episode that he wants Elektra gone, by the end the two of them are planning another mission for the following night... which, unless I'm very much mistaken, clashes with Matt's date with Karen. Awkward, and rather masterfully plotted.

Meanwhile, Nelson & Murdoch are representing Frank Castle at his upcoming trial as it's the right thing, on balance, to do, even if Reyes is going to absolutely crucify their firm for it. The scene between Frank and Karen, as they discuss his family and build a real connection, is incredible.

As is the season so far. This is a real step up from what was an impressive first season.

Daredevil: Kinbaku

 "German beer. Tastes like piss..."

This is a fascinating change of pace. The Punisher is gone, for now, but not forgotten: Karen is chasing up the mystery of why the circumstances of his family's deaths are being hushed up, possibly because of the DA's political ambitions- and she's gunning for all vigilantes, with Jessica Jones being named as well as Ol' Hornhead. This is big stuff.

But that's not what the episode is about; it's abut Matt, his demons, and his complex relationships with two women who know him very well in very different ways. There's Elektra, rich, spoiled and a fighter, the tempting, sexy bad girl. The girl you want to shag. But then there's Karen. Kind, decent, of modest means, clever without arrogance. The girl you want to marry. A girl you could really feel in love with, as opposed to just wanting her body.

The plot structure deliberately contrasts Elektra, whom we get to know a bit via flashback. Both are perceptive and extremely clever, but Elektra is amoral and her love is scary, with her big romantic gesture being to deliver your father's killer to you so you can kill him. You can't survive that sort of love for too long. The Karens of this world may seem less interesting at first, but we know Karen is far more three dimensional and real than Elektra and her ilk. This is all really good characterisation. It is also, in an episode both written and directed by women, interestingly flipping the genders in the old trope of a woman  being torn between the cliche of the bad boy and the Mr Darcy. Sometimes it happens to us blokes too. 

I was expecting, withn the Punisher seemingly gone, that this episode would disappoint. Far from it. The season continues to dazzle.

Daredevil: Penny and Dime

 No killing."

"Altar boy!"

Yep, this is a superlative bit of telly, just like the last episode. Beautifully acted- Jon Bernthal's monologue as Punisher in the graveyard is extraordinary- and artily directed throughout, it's a triuph of script, theme and characterisation.

It's surprrising in where it takes the arc, though. The Punisher meets his match as a psychopathic Irish godfather from over the ocean (a menacing Tony Curran) shows Frank that he is, after all, mortal, and vulnerable. And so Frank shows his vulnerability in more ways than one, nearly suffering an agonising death in the name of yet another revolution of that stupid cycle of revenge. Unexpectedly, it's Daredevil who saves him and the two of them find a mutual respect, if not agreement. Neatly enough, Daredevil lets Frank's arrest be attributable to the sergeant who blamed him for all this last episode, saying that "Vigilante days are done in this time. "Hah". It is, perhaps, a little too neat for Brett to respond by reassuring him that "You ain't him", but it works.

So, I wonder, is this- complete with Frank's touching backstory- the end of his part of the season, overshadowed by the shock cliffhanger just after we've come to know him a little? I somehow suspect not.

The episode is also, of course, about the touching little budding romance between Karen and Matt, again superbly acted and shot, and a very real and touching thing between characters we like, with Foggy amusingly making it quite clear that he knows exactly what's going on.

But that ending... her?

Daredevil: New York's Finest.

 "You're just one bad day away from being me."

What a piece of television here.

Obviously the focus is the foregrounded debate between Daredevil and the Punisher- handled badly, in my view, by Matt, with his very Catholic focus on redemption and good vs evil. But the debate implicitly extends, too, to Foggy and Karen, the real heroes of this episode, without a hint of violence. 

The debate is, of course, superb, as is Charlie Cox. But Jon Bernthal's performance is simply a revelation. He absolutely owns this episode. Yes, he has a cracker of a part, a superlative script to work with, and, frankly, all the best lines, but this is acting of the very first rank. And the whole thing is, of course, very revealing for both characters. Both grew up Catholic. Both are native New Yorkers in a city inhabited mainly by incomers. And both are, of course, vigilantes. But Frank angrily denounces Matt for his "half-measures", only to be weakly opposed by vague and dogmatic arguments about rehabilitation, which are easily and powerfully batted aside by Frank.

Frank is, of course, wrong. You can't just appoint yourself judge and jury, and executioners are always in the wrong, vigilantes or not. But Matt is entirely wrong about why this is. I don't deny the possibility of redemption; it's just that it's not the reason that Frank is wrong. No; the reason is that Frank is an angry man with a massive arsenal who has acquired the habit of killing. Yes, so far he seems to be killing only the guilty. But what if Frank, an unaccountable lone wolf, gets it wrong and perpetrates a private miscarriage of justice? And what if, short fused killer that he is, he kills an innocent who happens to piss him off or get in the way, as he seems tempted to do with the old veteran? It's only the matter of time.

Justice must be accountable to the people. It belongs in the public sector, always. I suppose the Punisher, in a roundabout way, can be seen as an argument against the private sector involving itself in the justice system. The justice system can be unfair, ineffective, maddening, stupid, choodse your adjective. But the alternative is the abyss of anarchy and the hell of a failed state.

Matt is on stronger ground, I suppose, when he alludes to the never-ending cycle of revenge, which led Aeschylus to explain why we need a justice system some twenty-four centuries ago. It's a pity he never pursues this. But then again, it's appropriate that Matt can't out-argue the Punisher. Because the argument is one against vigilantism, which is wrong anyway. It's brave of Daredevil to lean into this, and shine that harsh glare on its hero.

Because the real heroes of this episode are Foggy, preventing bloodhed in a hospital by words alone. Karen, doing awesome research and playing ten dimensional chess with Blake Tower by sowing doubts about his boss, and most of all Claire, a nurse, the biggest hero in this whole damn episode.

Yep. This is good telly.

Daredevil: Dogs to a Gunfight

 "Maybe we created him...?"

Again, there's so much going on in this gripping and excellent episode. We still see little of the Punisher, lreaving the rumours from terrified Grotto (and an equally terrified Karen, who hints at hiding secret guilt) to shape how we feel about this terrifying ogre figure.His only speaking scene- Jon Bernthal's first- has his buying illicit stuff from a black market shop... and giving the proprietor a beating when he turns out to be selling underage porn.

Yet the morals of this are fully explored. We may feel a brief instinctive good feeling about this paedo, who profits from and indirectly creates such unspeakable suffering, getting a beating. But is this justice? As Aeschylus taught us, long ago, we need justice and not vendettas. With vendettas- as the police sergeant notes- not only the guilty ultimately suffer. And then there' the cycle of revenge. Justice may be imperfect, corrupt, unfair... but it's better than vigilantis,

And yet, this being the case, what of Daredevil...? Here we face the hard questions: the differences between DD and the Punisher are only ones of degree. Daredevil doesn't kill, but he uses violent force unsanctioned by an accountable state. And then there's the question, horrifying to Karen, of the Punisher being a copycat killer.

We see another argument between Matt- covering for him yet again after his shooting- and Foggy re Matt's extra-curricular activities. We are reminded of the firm's dire financial situation. And we see the easy bond between Foggy and Karen and the equally close but more complicated one between Karen and Matt which again hints at possible romantic feelings. Yet we also see Karen beginning to suspect that Matt- and indirectly Foggy- is not telling her something.

We meet the District Attorney, Reyes, a hard bitch who tries to push Foggy around until he starts being awesome. I've never heard of Reyes, but her deputy Blake Tower is a familiar figure from the comics, so I rather suspect she's not long for this world. We shall see.

We end with the tension of Grotto being double crossed and used as bait for the Punisher, as the Punisher and DD fight...

Daredevil: Bang

 "If I take a night off, people get hurt."

I know, it's been a while. I've always intended to carry on with the now long ended Netflix Marvel series, but there's so much good telly to watch and so it's somehow been several years. But now, although unspoiled, I'm led to understand that the Netflix stuff is about to possibly become a little more relevant to future stuff, so here goes. I'll endeavour to make a project of doing all of them, alternated with other stuff, until they're done, with the occasional short break if I happen to do any other Marvel or DC-themed telly, so the blog isn't too comics-heavy.

Essentially, this is s splendid episode. The direction and visuals are superb, with an excellent pre-titles action sequence and particularly excellent and effective lighting throughout. The chemistry between Matt, Karen and Foggy is wonderful, even as it's being gently established that the law firm is in deep financial trouble through being essentially run as a charity by people who are extremely nice, but perhaps not sustainably so. And, of course, our three leads remind us how wonderful they are.

And then there's the arc plot- of what at first seems like a paramilitary organisation massacring all those gangs who are trying to take over from the vacuum left over by the fall of Wilson Fisk. The long bit of clever misdirection with the gathering of the Irish mob, the speech, and the eventual massacre, feels like The Godfather or The Sopranos, with a very pleasing whiff of Scorsese.

And the conclusion, as DD realises these paramilitaries are in fact one man, the man enters the hospital in pursuit of brave Karen and her charge, and DD is shot in the face... ooh, I've missed Daredevil. More please.

Daredevil: Daredevil

"...Or you'd kill him. Which would probably have the same effect on someone as Catholic as you are."

The finale finds time to begin with the funeral of Ben Urich, a good man in a bad world, and it's lovely to see the widowed Doris Urich flat out refusing to blame Karen for his death. It's not lovely for Matt, though; a good man has died, as he see it, because he failed. Fisk has to be stopped now. And so the rest of the episode shows us how the house of cards can fall down very, very quickly.

 It all unravels because of a piece of hubris from an angry Fisk. And that, it seems is a weakness; he angrily kills the traitorous Leland even though said turncoat has an insurance policy in the person of Detective Hoffman. Remember him? That probably wasn't a clever thing to do. Now all Matt has to do is find Hoffman, keep him safe and get him to make a statement to the police.

He and Foggy are making a serious effort to reconcile, but Matt very quickly sets out to find Hoffman and use him to bring Fisk down. And then Fisk falls, very suddenly, to the strains of Nessun Dorma. It's a glorious sequence. And Fisk, heartbreakingly, tries to propose to Vanessa during his arrest but isn't given time. And Matt, Foggy and Karen get to celebrate.

It doesn't last. Fisk is extracted by his underlings and is soon on the run.But Matt has paid a visit to his friend Melvin Potter and we see- after soooo long- the red costume and billy club we've been waiting for. It's not Matt Murdock in a simple black outfit; this is Daredevil. Where has he been?

Daredevil gets his bloody, one-on-one showdown with a desperate Fisk. At last Fisk is finally brought down. We see a bereft Vanessa, a jailbird Fisk, and Daredevil surveys his city from a rooftop. What an episode. What a season. What a programme. After the much-mocked 2003 film at last we have a screen Daredevil to be proud of, with writing and acting of the first rank. Roll on Season Two.

Daredevil: The Ones We Leave Behind

"It's a difficult thing, isn't it, taking a life?"

It's the penultimate episode plus, you know, that title: we can expect some deaths. And it's interesting to see how we're going to advance towards the finale because, frankly, Fisk seems as impregnable as ever at this point. Especially with Matt and Foggy so far apart, and Karen despairing. Not to mention poor Ben Zurich being fired for flying too close to the Sun.

In an episode all about killing we begin with Karen feeling guilt for killing, albeit in self defence. That is an emotion Fisk will never feel about killing those who get between him and his goals, and he's out for revenge for both Vanessa's poisoning and Wesley's slaying. It now becomes just about feasible that they might be able to wrap up the season in one more episode, but it still feels sudden.

And we also have the shock ending; Ben, about to start a blog exposing Fisk for what he is, is killed in cold blood by Fisk himself in what is a superbly written and acted scene. It's an excellent episode as an individual piece of television, as have so many this season, but surely they've left it a bit late to start wrapping up the season now?

Daredevil: The Path of the Righteous

"We're going through a rough patch."

"I found the Nelson and Murdock sign in the trash."

"A very rough patch."

Fisk shows rare vulnerability as he struggles to save the poisoned Vanessa, while both Matt and Foggy spend much of the episode lying to Karen and not saying why they've fallen out. There's a lead- Karen and Ben know that Fisk killed his dad- but the evidence is weak and it's doubtful they can use it. The situation seems to have hit rock bottom.

Meanwhile, Claire gives Matt the idea of body armour. She'll always be there to patch him up, but her heart is closed to him. He's too dangerous. And Matt's priest then mentions, as part of a philosophical conversation, the Devil as a figure to encourage sinners to find the path of righteousness. We can see where these two things are going. And so he visits Melvin Potter (the Gladiator himself!) to commission a certain set of red-hued items. Daredevil is coming.

Fisk angrily swears revenge on Vanessa's poisoners. He's a fascinating villain portrayed brilliantly by Vincent D'Onofrio. Interestingly, he isn't a psychopath. He has morals, of a kind. What he does he does from a genuine love of his city. It's just the means by which he does it that he's damned himself.

We end with Karen captured by the resourceful Wesley going rogue. She is, it seems, in very deep trouble. And yet, she's resourceful. I don't know about the state of New York, but I think English law would certainly acquit her for what she manages to do in shooting him. Go Karen...