Episode 8 of Daredevil has some big shoes to fill after its predecessor, “Stick,” set the bar as what was probably my favorite episode in the series. I thought that it was extremely exciting to finally be introduced to the man who mentored Matt when he was younger and was immensely satisfied with the numerous Iron Fist connections that were present as well. As the series continues to move towards the conclusion of its first season, the episodes have only begun to get better. While I have no doubt that Episode 8, “Shadows in the Glass,” will be another awesome addition to Season 1, it will need to accomplish a lot to beat out the previous hour.
The episode opens up immediately with Fisk, which gives off the impression this will be a big episode for him. I absolutely loved this opening and witnessing that Fisk has a very routine wake-up. Everything seems to be going pleasantly until he looks into the mirror and sees a young boy covered in blood. It’s clearly Fisk remembering something from his past, and we are looking at him as a child. We are finally receiving a look into the past of the show’s villain.
Fisk grew up in Hell’s Kitchen and had what seems to be an okay upbringing until his father started to be aggressive and abusive to Fisk’s mother. We see that his father is where he inherited his poor temper from, and as if things weren’t bad enough, Fisk ends up killing his own father because he hates how the man treats him and his mother. The amount of depth that Fisk has gotten is great. The show does a fantastic job of making him likable at points.
Matt is definitely beginning to get to Fisk, Leland, and Wesley. They are all getting their suits lined with body armor and growing more worried each day, especially when the Chinese and Japanese are both getting frustrated with the business arrangement. Yet, we witness that Fisk was taught to take what he wants and use force to gain power, so I doubt he is truly worried.
I really enjoyed Matt’s meet up with Ben and think that it was great for him to finally plead his case and cause to someone face to face. Ben knows right from wrong and buys into Matt’s story pretty quickly. I loved watching Ben write the article on Fisk, ready to call him out and expose him to the public because it really did get me excited to see how Fisk would react. Nobody knows who Fisk is, which is how he likes it, so Ben being the vehicle to expose everything would really put pressure on him and possibly get more people to look into what he’s doing.
Right when we believe Ben is finishing up his article, he turns on the television and Fisk has beaten them to it. As if he had inside information, he’s on screen admitting he likes to stay out of the spotlight but loves helping the city. We finally see the man who will have anyone killed that says his name do just that on TV, where everyone can see it. This was definitely a very interesting move, and I wonder where Fisk’s story will go from here.
Matt, Foggy and Karen all mainly had supporting roles in this hour. Matt popped up here and there to help move the story along and give Fisk and the villains something to react to throughout the episode. I thought Matt’s scene with Ben was really great and liked seeing a relationship started between the characters. Ben is a big character in the Marvel Universe, and I’m hoping he will continue to pop up in these Netflix shows and always be the journalistic voice of truth.
As for Foggy and Karen, I think they were in one or two scenes to explain some information about Union Allied. Their quick scene with Matt and trying to keep everything a secret from him was really funny, but otherwise these characters were absent most of the time.
I really really liked this episode and think it was a phenomenal follow-up to “Stick” because it was primarily dedicated to Fisk and his entire background. As I have said many times before, they are writing him with a ton of depth and that’s what makes him such a great character and villain. He’s more complex than just doing bad things, and we are actually getting insight into why he does everything. The scenes of him as a kid were pretty hard to watch, and it’s understandable why he’s such a messed up guy. I’m still looking forward to Matt and Fisk finally fighting because Fisk just seems like an unstable ball of rage that can unleash some brute force on people when needed. There’s only five episodes left, so they are definitely going to meet face to face sometime soon.
Top Moments:
– Bats aren’t blind.
– The compared wake-up scenes of Matt and Fisk were great.
– Cool to see where Fisk got his cuff links from.
[Photo via Netflix]
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