Martin Carr reviews the twelfth episode of Daredevil season 3…
Fight or flight refers to the basic instinct we all possess for self-preservation. An adrenaline shot administered on reflex where people either stand their ground or flee. In Daredevil terms this breaks down to kicking arse or using lawsuits and men in suits for legal purposes. As the title might suggest this is the last chance anyone is giving the latter before a former tactic kicks back in. Murdock and Nelson have circled the wagons, found safe haven for agent Nadeem and there is a plan in place to ensure Fisk goes back behind bars. Suited, booted and using their trump card like a riot shield these attorneys at law advance while Fisk fortifies his position. A perfect time then for his prized companion Vanessa to make her appearance, both enigmatic, flawlessly demure and somehow unobtainable.
Both Ayelet Zurer and Vincent D’Onofrio play this pairing with understatement and subtlety. Fisk is in awe, floored and besotted by Vanessa’s sense of pre-possession. He is a child desperately trying to please making their dynamic difficult to read. Her distance, detachment and ready critique of all his material wealth gives her more influence over him not less. Poindexter meanwhile impacts on that relationship early on making himself available to her yet open for manipulation. In very few scenes and minimal screen time Vanessa soothes the savage beast whilst beguiling an underling. Glacial, calculating and ultimately more merciless than her unbalanced beau she represents the final puzzle piece which may make Fisk impregnable.
Nadeem meanwhile is busy making amends, mending bridges and preparing himself like a sacrificial lamb for slaughter. He may be the ace which Nelson and Murdock are stacking their chips against, but Jay Ali brings compassion and conscience to a role which is deceptively demanding. Nadeem is symbolic of a system which is broken and corrupted by power and mismanagement. Even holding all the cards it fails to matter as there are always others involved, other loved ones to threaten, other secrets worth manipulating. His faith in the law hangs by a thread, his loyalty to his family all that remains of a once moral man. Ali plays this flawed complexity to perfection without grandstanding or detracting from the action.
Some might say that letting the Matt Murdock’s and Benjamin Poindexter’s of this world loose remain our only option when people in power become puppets. There are people convicted in the world who serve no jail time for taking a life, while others trade in human lives to provide food for their family. These are the ones that laws protect without impunity whilst using tax payer contributions to ensure their safety. That is why within a fictional world of recognisable corruption people like Daredevil exist and such choices can be made. At least in that world there is a chance justice will be done.
Martin Carr
Originally published October 30, 2018. Updated January 8, 2019.
