Another great episode by Daredevil as we focus on just a solid night of TV. It had an unbelievable action scene, a great new character and a backstory for Matt and his dad that strikes you right in the heart.
Let's start with the highlight of this episode: that hallway battle. In reference to the Korean classic, Oldboy, Murdock takes on a group of Russian gangsters with the camera filming it in one take. While this is an amazing feat, that proved how great the action in this show is, and even inspired other comic book shows to do the same, what made me even more impressed was how vulnerable yet powerful they made Murdock. While he did get the job done taking out of the thugs, he took a massive beating doing it. During his fight, you can see him leaning against the wall and resting or trying to ignore the pain. That is the greatness of Daredevil as he gets his ass beat but still gets the job done. That helps him be one of the more relatable characters in comics plus the fact that he's fighting on the streets.
Rosario Dawson's Claire Temple made her debut tonight and she was such a breath of fresh air. Claire is a nurse who also knows about the good that Murdock is doing. While she doesn't know exactly who he is, she still believes that what he is doing is right, but still knows that he has his problems. She also proves to be kind of scary, when she tells Murdock how to properly torture a guy even if it freaks her out. There scene on the roof was especially good as Temple came to see Murdock for the person he is, someone trying to help his city, by any means possible. It also showed how good Murdock is at this as he can hear the guy's heartbeat to know if he's lying as well as showing off his enhanced senses as he knew just where to drop the guy from the roof, without killing him.
The flashbacks to Matt's childhood were awesome as well as heartbreaking. We get to see how he and his father had adjusted to his disability. We also get to see the rise and fall of Battlin' Jack. Jack in this series had such a strong force in this show about the struggling boxer father who just wants to provide a good life for his son, so that he doesn't end up like his father. Seeing Matt find his dead dad was truly sad as this great father is now gone from his young, blind son. There was a great reference to Agents of Shield as Carl Creel was the boxer that Jack was supposed to lose to, however, Creel lost, leading to Jack's death. While we never actually see Creel in Daredevil, he does show up in the first two episodes of the second season of Agents of Shield.
The downside to this episode was the story focused on Foggy and Karen. While I did like to see Karen's fear from being in Hell's Kitchen as well as Foggy trying to help her relax, it did take up a lot of the episode and their odd adventure didn't exactly fit with the grit of this episode. I did, however, like the reference to Agents of Shield. As St. Agnes Orphanage is not only where Matt was, but also Skye.
+ Exhilarating final fight scene + Dawson's Temple + Roof scene + Flashbacks + AoS references - Foggy and Karen
Final Score: 9.4/10
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