*Spoilers found within recap*
After the brawl between Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and The Punisher (Jon Bernthal) in the previous episode, Matt was the wrong side of a bullet that ultimately cracked his mask and gave him a nasty head wound. Foggy (Elden Henson) retrieves his friend on a rooftop and gets him home, lecturing him about getting to a hospital. Matt just pops some pills, slugs some water, and says he’ll walk it off.
Or so he thinks. Due to the injury he sustained, Matt finds his sense of hearing ever so strong that it actually works against him, creating a sharp, piercing tone in his eardrum. In a matter of minutes, he cannot hear ANYTHING. He’s knocking against walls like a scared child, and quite frankly, to know he is without vision and possibly hearing is kind of terrifying to watch. Especially knowing how without the use of his ears, Daredevil would be no more.
Meanwhile, Foggy covers for Matt, telling Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) that he’s not feeling well, and the two go on to work the D.A. office to get protection for Grotto (McCaleb Burnett), and using some amazing legal mumbo jumbo, Foggy gets two attorneys to commit.
Focus back to Matt, who is slumped on the ground, nervous as all hell about his condition. Thankfully, he hears a knock on the door, and he follows it up with snapping his fingers, just to double check. Hearing has come back! Terror over! He goes to see who visited him, and its Karen, just to express concerns over her fellow employee (they seem to be trying to get the two together this season). Foggy has mentioned to Karen Matt has a “drinking problem” to throw a blanket over why Murdock is always cut or wounded or something.
Due to everything being okay, Matt travels out (after Karen’s departure) to find out more about his “would be” killer, making time to visit his suit maker to fix the crack is his mask. It seems that Melvin (Matt Gerald), the creator of the Daredevil costume, wants to make him a new one because of this, but Matt refuses to take a day or two off and asks for a quick fix for the time being. Where’s Edna Mode when you need her?
Back to Karen and Foggy’s adventures, all seems according to plan until the attorneys throw a wrench into the plan; they want Grotto to meet with a former associate and wear a wire, trying to get information. Grotto is 100% not for it, but Foggy and Karen plead with him that if he wants protection, he’s got to do it.
The stage is set for Grotto to chat with his buddy, until Karen realizes it was a set up by the other legal team. The new plan is to lure out the Punisher, making Grotto bait. Foggy and Karen try to get him out of the situation, but it’s too late. The Punisher arrives but is intercepted by Daredevil (who has his duds on, nice and fresh), and the two battle it out on the rooftops yet again. The SWAT team tries to shoot down Punisher but can’t seem to get a clear viewpoint among all the confusion.
Matt creates an advantage for himself when Frank is blinded by a bullet riddled water tower, but his upper hand doesn’t last long. As the two trade blows, they crash through a skylight and, at the worst possible time, Daredevil’s hearing loss rears its ugly head. The Punisher capitalizes and the episode ends. UGHHHHH. Thankfully the next episode is just a click away
The fight between Matt and the Punisher here was very similar to the end of “Bang,” so I’m going to have to dock some points there. However, it was still very brutal and engaging to watch. We know these two are going to go toe to toe quite a bit this season, but we need some variety from now on. Just saying.
It was interesting to see Matt’s reaction to hearing loss that was actually causes by something external and scary, compared to Spider-Man 2’s “superhero powers lost due to misunderstanding of life choices.” I’m wondering if this will be a long term side effect or just be used for this episode. I would prefer the former, as it would show Matt how dangerous his job really is and how frail he already is at this point. Still, the brief moments of hearing impairment ultimately mean it’s probably going to be self contained and everything will fine from here on out.
Moving on, this was a very dialogue heavy episode, but still, another quick hour, and offered us a great performance by Elden Henson as Foggy. Murdock’s partner is getting more screen time, and I couldn’t be happier that the underdog is getting his jabs in verbally as Matt is off doing that physically. I would actually like to see him and Karen get the romance angle but I think that’s a long shot.
Grotto’s bait angle did come out of nowhere, and was an interesting plot point for that story to take. It really shows how corrupt the authorities are in Hell’s Kitchen, completely demonstrating the nature of Hell’s Kitchen beyond armed thugs. It’s not friendly, even with legal authorities are involved.
Overall, another solid episode in this season. I’m highly enjoying what I’ve viewed so far and at this rate, Daredevil’s return to Netflix may be a sophomore success.
Rating: 8.5/10
Daredevil Season 2 is currently available on Netflix
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Logan J. Fowler is a senior writer and video game editor on Pop-Break.com. He contributes his thoughts every week for Trailer Tuesday and ABC’s The Goldbergs.” Logan’s “kid at heart” nature has led to his discussion about pop culture that many geeks love to talk about, including superheroes, Super Mario Bros., Pixar, and Muppets, among other things. In addition, one of his first pieces for the site, “Top Ten Comic Book Movies,” was picked as a “Freshly Pressed” piece by WordPress and remains one of the site’s most well-read articles. Many of Logan’s friends have said that he moonlights as Spider-Man but this is so not true. Wait, are those police sirens I’m hearing?! Gotta go! -thwipp-
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