*Spoilers found within recap*
The final scene of the previous episode, “Dogs to a Gunfight”, left Daredevil (Charlie Cox) in a vulnerable state, with the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) taking advantage of the situation. As “New York Finest” begins, we see Daredevil chained to a chimney on a rooftop. Uh oh.
Seems The Punisher has no interest in taking Matt’s mask off, as Matt himself learns while he interrogates his kidnapper. The more questions Daredevil asks, the more the Punisher opens up. He refuses to beat around the bush, however. He tells Matt how the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen is a “half-measure. A coward.” The Punisher declares how gets the job done and those he kills won’t come back to hurt anyone again. Finally, he says the phrase to Matt that is eerily could be true given the right circumstances-“You’re just one bad day from being me.”
A resident of the building comes to see what the noise is on the roof, and the Punisher warns Daredevil that if he makes a peep, it’s not going to be good. An old man questions what the hell is going on (with Matt not in perspective), and The Punisher uses the cover of just wanting to be alone in a quiet place after all his time overseas. The man states his time in war as well, and the two share a moment, swapping their names. When Daredevil tries to break free, Frank brings a gun up behind the door, which the man cannot see. Matt quiets down, and the man allows Frank to roam again.
Matt, now hearing Frank’s name, begins to use it to talk reason. He says that Frank doesn’t have to kill, that he’s crazy, and then even worse, insane. Frank gets fed up and delivers a blow to Daredevil to knock him out.
On the other side of things, Karen (Deborah Ann Woll) and Foggy (Elden Henson) are in trouble all their own. Reyes (Michelle Hurd), one of the district attorneys on the Grotto case, is planning to point blame at Nelson and Murdock in the media as a result of the Grotto (McCaleb Burnett) issue. Speaking of Grotto, Karen gets a call from the former mobster, telling her he’s done with their law firm and that she can go to hell.
Shaking that off, Karen goes on to talk to Reyes’ assistant, who she thinks might be thrown under the bus by Reyes as well and expresses that to him. She wants more on The Punisher and the assistant buckles, handing them over sneakily.
Foggy seeks out help to find Matt, and enlists the help of good old Claire (Rosario Dawson), who doesn’t exactly jump for joy at this. Her knack for helping people that went above the law knocked her professional role down a few pegs, as she mentions in passing a one “big dude, stronger than Matt.” Luke Cage anyone?
Despite her bad state of affairs, Claire searches the hospital database, bringing up no sign of Matt. Where could he be?
Still chained to a rooftop, with a gun duct taped to his hand. This day just keeps getting better and better, huh? The Punisher wants to make Matt the killer he knows he is, and Frank shows that he has Grotto. He tells Matt that he’s gotta shoot Grotto, or Frank will do it, putting the death of a man on Daredevil’s conscience still. Frank and Matt begin to argue about this situation, and as the tension rises, Daredevil uses the gun to shoot the chain that’s been tying him down. Grotto escapes the clutches of Frank, and as Matt lunges at his former kidnapper, The Punisher shoots Grotto right smack dab in the chest. Not coming back from that. Daredevil tries to get Grotto to safety, but Grotto tells him there’s no point, and dies on the rooftop.
The Punisher isn’t concerned with this whole thing and begins to fire down on the street on the biker gang Dogs of Hell. Matt takes the chain that was once tying him up and uses it to knock the weapon from Frank, and then he chokes him out with it. Daredevil has got more problems now, as the bikers are coming to see their attacker.
Daredevil tries to get Frank downstairs as fast as possible but is ambushed. He leaves Frank in an elevator going down, and, chain in hand, begins to tackle each one of the bikers, giving the audience the hallway fight from last season on steroids. Matt whips lights out above the gang to give himself the advantage, then begins to battle biker after biker (in one, long, glorious shot) down a pretty big flight of steps. It’s beyond amazing. Also, Matt should’ve kept that chain in his arsenal. It’s wildly bad ass.
Once the fight is over, Matt discovers that The Punisher is now gone from the elevator.
Shift back focus to Karen, who now has privy to the files of The Punisher. As she flips through them, she notices an X-Ray of a skull. Possibly a nod to the logo of the character, the infamous skull he wears on his chest? In any case, she notices a wound in the upper left region of the X-Ray, like a hole, possibly from a bullet. That’s some pretty important stuff there. Anyway, this is the last image we see before credits roll.
“New York’s Finest” was a spectacular episode, demonstrating the real dynamic between Frank and Matt. There’s not a wasted word of dialogue between the two, and one would wonder if The Punisher’s method is that far off from Daredevil’s. They clearly have the same goals, only one is a bit more permanent.
In addition to that, having a Rosario Dawson appearance, a Luke Cage mention, and a Punisher skull nod pretty much put clarified that this probably is my favorite Daredevil episode. Oh, did I mention the stairway fight was the best thing ever? Holy crap. I can’t get enough of it.
Rating: 9.5/10
Daredevil is currently streaming 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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