"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.
