Daredevil: Dogs to a Gunfight

March 18, 2016 1:58 PM - Season 2, Episode 2

As Murdock recovers from an attack, Foggy and Karen fight to protect their new client from both the law and the Kitchen’s newest vigilante.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich (13 comments total)

There's a lot to like and to dislike in this episode. I think it's a mistake ending on virtually the same cliffhanger we got last time, though. It's going to get very rickety very quickly if we keep having last-second twists in which the Punisher manages a last-second win over Matt.

Deborah Ann Woll remains the show's secret weapon; she's sympathetic, manages to suggest both incredible strength and human limits, and carries most of the romantic interplay with Charlie Cox in their scenes together. (This is no slight to Cox; he's being written into situations where his character's got other things going on.) It was nice seeing Melvin Potter again, too, as well as the easter eggs hidden in the background of his workshop.

And in a truly obscure bit of continuity, they've managed to give us a very compressed version of the Punisher's dog, Max, from the 90s comics. I guess this and the execution of the kiddie-porn-dealing pawn shop owner are attempts to humanize him (and maybe prep for his origin story down the line, if they use it?). But Berenthal is too good at playing him as the apotheosis of Travis Bickle's dying dream to make the Punisher into a deuteragonist so far. (That is what the costuming suggests, isn't it?)

It also looks like we're getting Matt's "senses gone haywire" plot from some of the Miller-era comics. And given where that went, and what some of the trailers have shown....
posted by kewb at 6:00 PM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

I second exactly what you said about the cliffhangers.

This one was a little confusing to me (why did Matt lose his hearing temporarily? why didn't Karen clean up the glass for the blind barefoot guy?!?), but I did appreciate how upset Foggy and Karen were getting during that stupid trap, and Karen's bird flipping.
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:06 PM on March 18, 2016

I'm assuming Matt's sensory problems are a result of the shot to the head at the end of the first episode.

Liking Foggy and Karen a lot (and wishing Karen would go for Foggy, not Matt), but not really feeling the Daredevil bits so far. Honestly, making the show be just about Karen and Foggy dealing with the legal issues of the indigent in a world of superheroes would be good in its own right.
posted by nubs at 10:10 PM on March 18, 2016 [1 favorite]

Deborah Ann Woll *sigh*

Why would Matt fight in water? (Waid's recent run: awesome, you know, if you missed it).

(and wishing Karen would go for Foggy, not Matt)
BUT MATT HAS ABS! AAAABS!
(and he's "an alcoholic!" with abs, who falls over a lot. So, he's an alcoholic, who can abstain from liquids, hnit the gym X hours per day, and run a law business. And he has soulful eyes. And abs. Have you noticed them?)

I guess this and the execution of the kiddie-porn-dealing pawn shop owner are attempts to humanize him

They are. And I am kinda sad they cut away.

Where is the violence?

We've seen one blood spit.
Where's my violence?
posted by Mezentian at 4:10 AM on March 19, 2016

I'm kinda shipping Karen/Grotto now, they're awfully cute together.

why didn't Karen clean up the glass for the blind barefoot guy?!?)

Eh, I figure she's been around him long enough to not want to get in the way of his "I can take care of myself" vibe that she'd wouldn't volunteer to do it without his requesting the help first.

Why would Matt fight in water? (Waid's recent run: awesome, you know, if you missed it).

I've only read a couple of graphic novels back in the late 80's, what's the deal with water? (Was the 'rain-vision' thing in the Affleck Daredevil movie-only super-hero-science then?)
posted by oh yeah! at 9:04 AM on March 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yeah, but at the same time he's not exactly looking like he's taking care of himself super well when she's over at the apartment. I wouldn't have been feeling reassured about his safety looking at him that day. Especially since she does suspect something is wrong beyond "blind dude trips on things."

Matt is adorably cute as well + abs, but I don't want to see these two guys fighting over a lady. That would be a sad. Kinda wish the show had picked one or the other. And Foggy's a uh, safer choice under the circumstances because Karen doesn't sound like she'd be too thrilled to find out the truth (not like Foggy was though either).
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:20 AM on March 19, 2016

I kind of hope they explain why this one guy in particular was worth the Punisher shooting up a hospital and taking on a SWAT team for. Or, maybe the MCU Frank Castle doesn't give a crap about collateral damage, but I think that makes the Punisher vs Daredevil psychological battle much less interesting.

I did appreciate the bit of world building they did; the nod to the cop from JJ & the idea that there were other vigilantes now out there in NY.
posted by Jugwine at 11:38 AM on March 19, 2016

I loved Deborah Ann Woll in this - for that scene in Matt's apartment where she mentions people solving their problems with guns, and both Karen's talking about herself but Matt assumes she's talking about Daredevil, flipping the bird, and her obviously just barely keeping her shit together face. But I really don't want her and Matt to get involved with each other before she knows that he's Daredevil. For one thing, I'd need a more compelling reason than just 'abs' for her to get involved with a guy who she knows is keeping secrets from her. For another, I would assume that Matt would know that starting a relationship without divulging that information Would Not End Well.
posted by dinty_moore at 2:31 PM on March 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

Also: Given Daredevil's previous not great handling of race, it makes me a little uncomfortable that two of the main PoC so far are set up to be antagonists. Otherwise, there's clients, a drug dealer... and Foggy's cop friend, pretty much.

When the random grizzled Black cop (not Foggy's friend, the one that was working inside the crime scene) showed up, I seriously up and shouted 'No, don't die!' at the TV screen. Old, grizzled Black men just don't have the best survival rate in the MCU.
posted by dinty_moore at 9:37 PM on March 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

OTOH, I was pretty heartened to see that one of the faces in the line of cops pointing their guns down at the hole in the floor/ceiling was a POC because it gives me hope that the MCU police force is just as diverse as the NYC I know to be, and not just because they're antagonist cops.

Also, put me down as another person who prefers Kroggy (or Fogen) because even though he's a nice guy, he's not a Nice Guy(tm) and not only can attract people of his preferred gender on his own, he can even sway them into being less morally evil just by being him.

As far as the episode as a whole, though it did advance some plots and introduced some other major players (and gave Foggy a way to be awesome against them), I felt that this was a bridge episode to the next one, which is where we get to see our awesome Punching Dudes actually talk to each other.
posted by TrishaLynn at 5:52 AM on March 23, 2016

OTOH, I was pretty heartened to see that one of the faces in the line of cops pointing their guns down at the hole in the floor/ceiling was a POC

What that Mahoney, or someone else?
I wasn't watching for this, but is that unusual?


Incidentally, I want to ask, the cops have 'lapel pins' that took like they say 'DC' with the C backwards.
What am I looking at?
posted by Mezentian at 6:04 AM on March 23, 2016

Finally got around to this episode last night.

I must be grouchy, because I am totally out of patience. If you're going to be a vigilante and spend your nights running around on rooftops, why did you go to law school and start a business with your best friend? Because that seems like a) a big waste of time and money and b) a pretty shit thing to do to someone you care about. Matt is just a big fat jerk with no boundaries or sense of responsibility to the people in his life.

OK. I'm grouchy.
posted by bq at 10:39 AM on May 9, 2016

Deborah Ann Woll is awesome, yes.

Though--and I realize I'm like five months behind on this, so this is old hat by now--we are approaching the point where she either figures our Matt is Daredevil or becomes a laughable, ridiculous character.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:38 AM on August 17, 2016