Daredevil S:02 E:10

Episode Title: The Man in the Box
Originally Aired: March 18th 2016

Matt is being pulled in multiple directions in the latest episode of Netflix and Marvel’s Daredevil. Almost every character he has loved or fought against in the series makes an appearance or at least is mentioned. Frank is on the loose and the city is panicking as they wonder whom his next victim will be.

Will he go after another gang, another guy selling child pornography or will he use the information he learned during his trial to go after the people that faked the medical and police reports. Nobu is back from the dead and behind whatever the Hand is up to involving the five young people. I suspect that after stick killed the black sky child last season that Nobu is trying to create one if not more. I am not an avid Daredevil reader so I do not know if black sky is from the comics or a creation of the show, either way I am excited to find out what is going on with these kids in the final three episodes of the season. The look of these kids is something that would be great for a remake of Children of the Corn.

After denouncing Stick and being rejected by Matt, Elektra is ready to leave New York for good when she is involved in a deadly encounter at a private hanger. Claire is back again and risking her life and that of her staff as they work to save the kids that Matt sent to her hospital to keep them safe for as long as he could. Wilson Fisk is back as well with a face-to-face confrontation with Matt that leaves the lawyer bloodied and frustrated. After all of his work to take down Fisk last season all it seems to have done is delay the inevitable. He may not have the money he used to but through financial means and intimidation, he is gaining power in the prison. His lawyers, the guards and the other prisoners are all afraid of him and his reach if they happen to cross him so the give him whatever he wants when he wants it in a way that keeps his hands clean so his sentence stays as short as possible.

Frank has escaped from prison and may be on a mission of his own choosing or out to repay the Kingpin for directing him  at one of the people responsible for the death of his family and orchestrating his escape. It did not take long for the first victim to fall and it was none other than D.A. Reyes but she was not alone for long as the medical examiner was killed just a few hours later. The method of their deaths are identical to the opening scene this season with the attack on the Irish, a high-powered automatic rifle shot from a distance through a window. The truth of who is behind the killings is left in doubt when Frank pays a visit to Karen at her apartment and the two of them are attacked in the same style. If He did not kill the other two, who is trying to take out his enemies and his friends and to what end. The obvious thought is that the Kingpin is behind it but other than trying to cover his tracks and have the team of Nelson and Murdock murdered for what they did to him what does he have to gain. It would also be a contradiction to the threat towards Matt about how he was going to destroy them personally.

I’m not to surprised that Frank would be following his own agenda instead of doing whatever the Kingpin may have asked him, he may be unhinged but he is his own man with his own code of honor that I don’t believe would allow him to be bullied into something. However, I do believe he would gladly murder a mutual target and that the devious and charismatic Kingpin could mislead him and send Frank after an “innocent” person.

Karen is on a mission to find out where Frank has gone why he is doing what he is doing and whom his next target is. Unable to work with Matt or Foggy she again turns to Ellison and his newspaper resources. She believes that it is not Frank behind the most recent murders because of their impersonal nature and the fact that Reyes’ daughter was threatened, something she believes Frank would never do. The Reyes murder is definitely in his style a target that is in a high security area with many weapons that is too dangerous to attack head on, just like the Irish meeting. It is the death of the medical examiner that really bothers her and makes her doubt Frank’s guilt. She knows that the anger and passion Frank has for righting all the wrongs done to him and his family will not allow him to miss a chance for a more personal kill. If he can, the Punisher will strike from right next to you not from the shadows so you know whom and why. Karen is having her own struggles with Matt after their budding relationship came to an end and she is caught in the middle of Matt and Foggy’s disagreements as well. Earlier in the season I made a prediction that Foggy would leave the firm now it might be possible for all three members of the team to splinter off on their own. Karen could have a job anytime she wanted at the newspaper thanks to Ellison, she could be the investigative journalist that takes Ben’s place after he was unceremoniously killed off last season. The most surprising thing we learn about Karen this season is that after all the guilt she feels after what she did at the end of last season and the anxiety that Frank might punish her for it earlier this season is that she owns a gun. Someone so distraught at taking the life of another person does not seem like the type to own a gun. I believe that she would defend herself and again kill someone in order to protect herself but I do not think it fits her character to have a weapon on hand.

Foggy has been shot, caught in the crossfire when Reyes was killed in her office. After revelations later in the episode, mainly Karen being attacked, it may not have been an accident but he and the rest of the lawyers three may have also been targets in some one stop murder spree. Even after being injured Foggy is still looking out for Matt when he knows he will want justice and maybe a bit of revenge and he worries that Matt is not equipped to handle someone so dangerous and ruthless. Luckily my favorite character will made it out of the office with a through and through gunshot wound on his shoulder and will make a full recovery. I do not know how this incident will affect his resolve to keep Nelson and Murdock going or if it will hasten his exit. Later in the episode at the hospital he will get an idea of what Elektra has gotten Matt involved in, as the hospital is under attack by Hand ninjas. I hope that Matt, Foggy and Claire will be able to make it out of this situation while saving everyone and not sacrificing themselves.

Matt is having a very complicated season. He has struggled with how similar he and the Punisher may or may not be, does he want new love or his ex, and now he is having a crisis of faith. Not his faith in his religion but his faith in the law and the things it is capable of doing. After everything with the punisher goes south, the death of Reyes and Fisk’s seemingly inevitable return to power he is unsure that there is a legal path to protecting his city. He may be in the midst of the bad day that Frank said separated the two. If Matt abandons the law and fully commits to being the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen how long before just beating up the bad guys and sending them to jail for a few months or longer just isn’t good enough and he begins dishing out his own brand of punishment. Will he even have the option or will trying to decide if he should remove himself from the normal world on top of trying to protect everyone on top of trying to stop but not kill anyone prove to be one distraction too many that results in the death of our hero.

The episode itself was well shot with the only odd part coming during the physical altercation between Matt and Fisk I think the camera was in too close so the movement was mostly off screen and jerky. I was also just distracted by the blood on Fisk’s mouth and that grossed me out. This episode had the least action of the season, other than a lot of flying bullets the only action was a very well choreographed fight for Elektra. While it was a beautifully planned fight the execution by the actors and stunt double or the camera angles let the planning down with several knees and few kicks obviously not making contact. The two actors did a good job of selling the hits and making it looking like they were affected by what clearly never touched them. This is the one actor’s only fight so if he was the cause of the less than perfect fight we do not have to worry about what will happen the rest of this season has the fighting should return to the normal excellent level.