No, that title is not a typo or a redundancy. This is the episode where Matt Murdock sheds himself of the cheap black costume and the cheap black costume and officially becomes the man in the red costume, Daredevil. With plans do a full overview of season 1, I plan on talking about this in greater detail in there, but I will say the reveal is great. We see a few scenes of Matt in action as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen for the last time. Seeing these really hammers home that this is more than just a change of threads for the hero.
As the season finale, the best way to describe this episode is the final chapter. Everything comes to a head as Foggy & Murdock, Karen and the police finally crack down on Fisk and corner him. Daredevil meets Fisk and the two finally have a fair one-on-one battle. Even before the encounter, Fisk shows he’s still got his viscous side, murdering Owlsley after finding out he was in on the plot to poison Vanessa. Plus he has a great dramatic moment when he escapes the police in a great monologue that once again shows how terrifyingly he can change on a dime.
The fight between Daredevil and Fisk is spectacular – the first one-on-one encounter between these two had Kingpin wailing on Daredevil after he had a tough battle with someone else. This time, they’re on equal footing, and Fisk is STILL a tough customer for Daredevil. This episode may sound like all action, but there are serious moments, and they still work. There are two scenes with minimal dialogue – the opening scene is Urich’s funeral where the characters’ facial expressions and the somber music. Midway through the episode features an excellent montage where the cops on Fisk’s payroll are busted, set to opera music. Even some of the smaller scenes feel important. We see Foggy and Nelson restore their friendship to align against the bigger enemy. These scenes help build tension as we know action can go down at a moments notice.
The season ends on a bittersweet note. The heroes are triumphant, but must lament their fallen comrades. The final note sees Fisk behind bars but not fully stopped – especially since we’ve already seen what kind of power this man has – and Daredevil monitoring over the city. This is just about what anyone would want from a season finale – Perfectly wrapping up the story of the season while getting the viewer pumped for the next season.
Tune in next time when I give a summary of the season overall.
I really enjoyed this final episode of the first season. It felt like we’d been given enough closure to move on even though there were plenty of stories still be told in the inevitible follow up seasons. Thanks for sharing.
LikeLike