We”re in the home stretch, guys! This is my final recap for this season of “Daredevil.” If you”re just joining in, you can head over here to read my thoughts on the previous episodes: Part One, Part Two, and Part Three.
With “Daredevil” eschewing the traditional format of television by releasing the entire first season at once, recapping becomes a bit tricky. Binge-watch the entire series in one go and I risk spoiling everything and being stoned in the digital streets. But binge-watch too slowly and I become that person who discovered “Breaking Bad” in the last season.
Luckily “Daredevil” has already been picked up for a second season, so we”ll get to go on this binge journey together again in 2016!
Episode 10 – “Nelson v. Murdock”
#1. Matt Murdock is just as surprised to discover he”s still alive as I am.
#2. Don”t peel off the bandage! What the hell do you think is under there, spiders? Nope! Still just your gaping wound you refuse to let heal.
#3. I feel like “Are you really blind?” is a valid question Foggy, but not the most pressing one.
#4. Great. Now “Drops of Jupiter” is going to be stuck in my head all day.
#5. Foggy is learning to speak Punjabi. I feel like this is relevant to the plot later.
#6. “I think he”s some kind of ninja,” is such a insane sounding yet probable answer.
#7. Don”t be ridiculous Foggy. There”s no room on Daredevil”s costume for a phone.
#8. Gao referred to Nobu in the present tense. I saw that, subtitles.
#9. Ben and his wife”s little ritual of greeting is heartbreaking and adorable.
#10. Much like Timmy Turner, Matt gets everything from “The Internet”
#11. Foggy is taking this like a spouse discovering a secret double life and I”m kind of loving it. This betrayal is complete with Meet-Cute flashbacks! Platonic love is real, y”all.
#12. Just waiting for one of Murdock”s ex-girlfriends” to show up as a villain.
#13. Foggy does a killer Yoda impression.
#14. Converse sneakers have never been so menacing.
#15. Damn Ben, be less terrifying when you emerge from the shadows bearing gifts or you”re gonna end up shot.
#16. Karen”s ham-fisted attempt at nursing home subterfuge somehow fools Ben. I”m half expecting her parents to own it.
#17. Trying to appeal to Leland”s humanity is a bold, but futile move Fisk.
#18. Foggy”s Lawful Goodness is gonna get on my nerves real quick.
#19. Of course the boys had plastic dinosaurs on their intern desks, the dorks.
#20. Really interested in whatever Karen”s backstory is. What river of shit was she swimming in?
#21. Oh good, we”re using the sexual trauma of a little girl to further the protagonist”s journey. This isn”t a trope that”s overused and problematic or anything. **stares into the camera like I”m on “The Office”**
#22. Who is this gorgeous old lady? Whoever she is, I hope I look that elegant when I”m her age.
#23. OH MY GOD, of course it”s Fisk”s mom and not Karen”s grandma. Way to seriously red herring me, writers.
#24. I bet $5 that wine is drugged. Leland and Gao are taking care of it all right. And “it” is Vanessa.
#25. Poor random rich casualties. Their families will cry themselves to sleep on a pile of inheritance money.
#26. Oh no, are the boys are gonna get a divorce!?
Episode 11 – “The Path of Righteous”
#27. This good old-fashioned cartoon violence is interrupted by Vanessa”s imminent death.
#28. Hahaha! Fisk actually pulled out that old rich person stand-by of “DON”T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” No idiot, most poor people don”t know who the secret Kingpin of Hell”s Kitchen is.
#29. A+ to whoever the costume designer is for Karen”s wardrobe. I”ve loved everything she”s worn.
#30. “Daredevil” has the good sense to explain how Karen figured out where Fisk”s mom is.
#31. And I don”t think the “Fisk killed his dad to stop him from abusing his mom” is going to tar the man”s reputation. Even if that”s NOT the real reason he did it.
#32. Foggy”s girl is kind of a player and I love it. More Marci!
#33. Wesley is either playing it super smooth or he is an idiot. Leland is not that good of a liar.
#34. Yay, Claire”s back! And she has a good idea for body armor. Hint, hint.
#35. Boo, Claire”s leaving! But not forever at least.
#36. Ben needs to staring varying his meet-up locations. Someone is gonna notice this dude is having a lot of clandestine rendezvous on the water.
#37. See? Even Ben knows how to spin parental murder into self-defense, Karen.
#38. If Vanessa lives, I don”t think she”s going to take kindly to being sent away. Fisk isn”t used to having people tell him no, but there”s a first time for everything.
#39. Maybe Wesley poisoned everyone? This is worse than playing Clue!
#40. Um, Matt? I hate to point this out but you already ARE bloody and alone.
#41. This is getting a little too Catholic for me. Not appreciating the Catechism flashbacks.
#42. In the end it appears Matt also thinks it”s getting a little too Catholic in here. Can”t worry about Hell when there are bad guy faces to punch.
#43. Fisk, you aren”t supposed to have your cell phone on in the hospital!
#44. Good thing Vanessa didn”t have any remnants of poison on her lips, I guess?
#45. Leland”s cranky exasperation has quickly become one of my favorite things on this show.
#46. Wait, Wesley isn”t his first name? What a twist!
#47. Ain”t it just the luck the senile old lady would happen to remember her strange visitors?
#48. Yoo-Hoo. Official thirst quencher of creepy tailors everywhere!
#49. Dammit Matt, you”re gonna rip open your stitches again.
#50. This fight took a strange turn as Matt empathizes with the minion. Realizing these people are being held hostage to Fisk is the first step to judicious use of face-punching.
#51. We”re FINALLY gonna get the suit? Yes? No? Sigh. No.
#52. Can Foggy and Matt go to bro couples” counseling?
#53. I”m sad Elena died but I”m having a hard time crying over the loss of unsafe tenement housing?
#54. After a tense several seconds of wondering if Karen or Ben is going to get snatched, “Daredevil” opts for the road most traveled and kidnaps the woman.
#55. With Vanessa and Karen down for the count, can Claire remain at large or will the show go for a triple? **aggressively side-eyes the plot**
#56. Oh my God Wesley, stop monologuing.
#57. Is he STILL going? This monologuing instinct must have been building up for weeks, waiting for an outlet.
#58. Karen you wily shit! YES!
#59. YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAS.
#60. I take it all back! Wesley underestimated a woman and it got him smoked. This is the second time Karen has shown fortitude for being a vicious survivor and I need her backstory YESTERDAY.
Episode 12 – “The Ones We Leave Behind”
#61. Karen”s even smart enough to toss the gun into the Hudson…with all the other murder weapons and bodies.
#62. Getting horrifically drunk and taking a shower is the correct response to being kidnapped and emptying a clip into your attacker.
#63. Awww, Foggy assumes everything going on with Karen has to do with him and Matt. Men, am I right?
#64. Awww, Foggy thinks pot is a hard drug.
#65. Karen”s world view just got a whole lot grayer. It”s a brave new world where murder isn”t always wrong.
#66. Matt and Foggy just need to make-out and make-up.
#67. Vanessa has been awake for 20 seconds and she”s already standing up for herself and her choice to be Fisk”s girlfriend. She will not go quietly out of the country.
#68. Fisk/Vanessa are my new relationship goals.
#69. Leland as the voice of reason keeps Fisk from descending straight into a super-villain cliche.
#70. “Shit happens” is my new favorite response to minion death. Bless you Leland.
#71. Wait, so Fisk is funding the gentrification of Hell”s Kitchen with heroin money? May Hell”s Kitchen wouldn”t be such a hole if the denizens weren”t ADDICTED TO HEROIN.
#72. You know, maybe these people should stop parking in dark alleys. I know NYC has parking lots.
#73. Still in love with Marci. More of her next season, please!
#74. Ben takes another dig at Internet Journalism™. He can”t publish with just one source, no matter how much he might want to.
#75. YOU TELL ME KAREN”S DARK SECRET RIGHT NOW!
#76. Foggy makes an impassioned plea that makes me hope Marci joins the scrappy firm next season.
#77. Blurring out everything that isn”t Matt”s intended target is a really neat cinematic trick.
#78. Well, now Matt has to buy another stick. I hope he buys those in bulk.
#79. I”m calling bullshit on the traction on his business loafers.
#80. Aw, the thing Fisk”s mom was waiting for every night was the dessert she used to share with him as a child.
#81. That wound is NEVER going to heal. Can tearing stitches open this many times make it go septic?
#82. “I LEARNED IT FROM WATCHING YOU DAD. I LEARNED IT FROM YOU.”
#83. I”d be interested to know these more drug mules backstory. Did they know what they were signing up for? Tricked? Sold by family to pay Triad debt?
#84. Wait what? How did we go from Murdock being taken down by drug dealer zombies to him fighting Gao in the middle of a fire?
#85. Well, that explains the backstory of the blinded drug mules…who just went back to work after failing to subdue Matt? What? Guys no. Heroin packaging can wait. There is a NINJA in your midst.
#86. Rule number one: Never underestimate mystical old women running crime empires.
#87. I knew Leland was behind that poison.
#88. Sooo…Gao isn”t human then.
#89. Sweet, sweet irony. Ben is gonna have to get off his high horse and down the Internet Journalism™ muck to tell his story.
#90. Ben”s gonna tell his story tonight? That car is about to blow up.
#91. Or he”ll make it home to die. Either way, I don”t see this ending well for Ben.
#92. Oh look, Fisk is in his house. So…yep.
#93. Good job Karen, you got your buddy murdered.
Episode 13 – “Daredevil”
#94. Is…is that the only priest in New York?
#95. Karen, I don”t think the funeral is the time to try and alleviate your guilt by asking for absolution from Ben”s widow.
#96. Which one you cagey newspaper bastards ratted him out? Thing 1 or Thing 2?
#97. Matt, you probably should tell Karen how you plan to protect her because a bunch of pretty words from a blind dude won”t keep Fisk from popping her eyes like grapes.
#98. Ruh-roh. Was Wesley embezzling funds?
#99. Oh. It was Leland. Of course it was. Leland is way smarter than Fisk gave him credit for. Also, balls of steel. Dumb. But brass chutzpah.
#100. RIP Leland. You were too sassy for this world.
#101. Foggy is all “anti-violence” until it suits his purposes of helping get justice for Karen or Ben.
#102. Behold, the greatest bro-ship of our time.
#103. Honest Cop™ might be just genre-savvy enough to survive this show.
#104. As the Scooby gang goes through the files Marci brought over, it occurs to me…where are Karen and Foggy getting enough money to live on? Is Matt”s trust fund financing payroll?
#105. Those dirty cops all rolled natural 20s on those shots. Only explanation.
#106. After Hoffman rats out all the people on Fisk”s payroll, crime spikes 100% because there”s only a half dozen cops and lawyers left.
#107. I am unreasonably happy that Ben”s buddy wasn”t on Fisk”s dime. Should”ve known it was the brunette when they gave her a throwaway line last episode.
#108. So, did they just set up Vanessa as the Big Bad™ next season? I”m okay with this.
#109. The SWAT team made a rookie move by thinking monologuing villains are harmless.
#110. They only had three cop cars guarding the man who had half of NYC in his pocket? Sigh.
#111. At least Fisk understands the importance of confidence. He saunters, not runs.
#112. It took ALL THIRTEEN EPISODES but we finally get the suit. Let”s goooooo!
#113. You know Matt had been perfecting that opening line for weeks.
#114. Not too proud to run now, are you Fisk?
#115. WHY DOES EVERYONE KEEP HITTING MATT IN THE STITCHES? It”s like a damn homing beacon.
#116. Come on Matt, Fisk set you right up to say “It”s a start,” before smashing his face in.
#117. Bye Vanessa. See you next season when you have a grudge and some poison-induced side effect superpowers.