Ricky Church reviews the seventh episode of Daredevil season 2…
One aspect that makes Daredevil, both the show and the hero himself, unique is his daytime career as a lawyer pursuing justice for the common person. Half of Daredevil’s first season came off as a legal drama as Nelson & Murdock worked to take Wilson Fisk down through the legal system, bringing in an interesting new angle to the superhero format. This season thankfully hasn’t shied away from the legal aspect of the series and now the ‘trial of the century’ begins as Frank Castle’s fate is set to be determined by a jury of his peers.
Punisher has so far been the standout addition to the series with Jon Bernthal delivering an emotional and badass portrayal of the character. Though he didn’t get quite as much screentime in this episode, he was still great whenever he showed up. I appreciated the fact PTSD came up as a possible legal defense for Frank, but he outright rejected it not because he felt embarrassed at being portrayed as a soldier turned psycho due to war, but because he felt it would be an insult to soldiers actually going through PTSD. It showed a lot of his character and honour that he would not tarnish the reputation of those soldiers, even if it meant his chances of winning his trial would be greatly lowered.
Even though Elektra is on the scene and the season is steadily building towards The Hand, I’m finding myself much more invested in the mystery of Frank’s family. Its been obvious for a while that something regarding his family’s deaths has been hidden, but now we’re discovering just how far that hole goes as his family’s autopsies were tampered with, likely done at DA Reyes’ orders. The way this was played out in the courtroom added a lot of tension as it was revealed, though ultimately cast aside in the trial due to Elektra’s tampering of the witness.
This led to one of the biggest developments for Matt as both sides of his life began to intertwine in terrible ways. He’s burning at both ends of the stick as he works with Foggy and Karen on The Punisher case and then spends the rest of his time with Elektra to disastrous results. Charlie Cox really gave a good performance with Foggy, displaying the character’s panic and inner turmoil on the collision both sides of his life were facing. The sad thing is if he had just been honest with Foggy from the beginning about his activities with Elektra, the damage done to their defense could have been avoided. It’s great to see some of Matt’s faults explored and you can’t help but join Foggy in his anger towards his best friend.
Elodie Yung continued to show off her charisma as Elektra, though this time explored even more of her reckless nature as she sabotaged Matt’s case (though that wasn’t her intent, only that she thought it through poorly). She’s doing well in the role and is a perfect contrast to Matt’s relationship with Karen, one which took a bit of a hit as Karen voiced her support for Frank and his violent methods, again showing the growing divide in Matt’s personal and superhero life.
While Daredevil’s and Elektra’s investigation into the Yakuza is interesting, its playing second fiddle to The Punisher storyline and just does not seem too interesting at the moment, though the discovery of that seemingly bottomless hole and what it means is certainly intriguing.
Ricky Church
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Originally published March 24, 2016. Updated April 15, 2018.
