Daredevil: The Dark at the End of the Tunnel

March 20, 2016 5:33 PM - Season 2, Episode 12

Daredevil goes underground to save an old friend. Karen follows a dangerous lead.

*Flashback-o-rama to 12-year-old Elektra; Nobu reveals that she is Black Sky, the weapon that The Hand has been awaiting.
*Karen goes to interview Colonel Schoonover for her obit-profile on Frank, only to discover that he is the Blacksmith.
*Frank saves Karen from Schoonover, kills him mid-monologue-of-evil, and finds his stash of weaponry.

posted by oh yeah! (16 comments total)

You know, in the first episode that Clancy Brown appeared in, I thought that, while I'm always happy to see him cast, it was a shame to waste him on such a small part of the MCU. Glad as I was to see him reappear, still took me a shamefully long time into the interview scene to realize the twist that was coming. After all that build-up, it felt a bit anti-climactic that the Blacksmith & crew were just ex-military gone bad, and implausible that they'd managed to outmaneuver all the major crime syndicates and law enforcement. Oh well.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:43 PM on March 20, 2016

I was actually thinking, wow, Clancy Brown isn't playing a total cock for once! Silly me.
posted by entropicamericana at 6:20 PM on March 20, 2016 [3 favorites]

For once, my yelling "JUST SHOOT HIM IN THE FACE" at the screen pays off.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 6:42 PM on March 20, 2016 [2 favorites]

I was actually thinking, wow, Clancy Brown isn't playing a total cock for once! Silly me.

Same, although he really pulled off the courtroom scene. I'm also wondering if we'll ever find out what happened in Kandahar. (Aside from, you know, the stuff that happened IRL.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 6:48 PM on March 20, 2016

So, was the implication that Clancy Brown deliberately had Frank's family murderised via the failed sting, because Frank didn't join up to his little drug dealing operation?
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 7:59 PM on March 20, 2016

implausible that they'd managed to outmaneuver all the major crime syndicates and law enforcement

In fairness, the DA's office was a bunch of idiots, headed by a craven, corrupt, grasping opportunist. All the cops keep getting murdered by ninjas or mercenaries; that is, those who weren't super corrupt and got hauled off to jail when Fisk went down. And the local gangs didn't seem to be the sharpest knives in the drawer, either.
posted by His thoughts were red thoughts at 8:02 PM on March 20, 2016

Mini-Elektra was so darned cute. I think Stick was a lot nicer to her than to Matt.

And now she's a weapon. Of course. Does that mean that's why she's a killing machine for funsies?
posted by jenfullmoon at 10:11 PM on March 21, 2016 [1 favorite]

All I could think while watching mini-Electra was that any future live action version of Damian Wayne is going to look like a copycat.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 6:38 AM on March 22, 2016

So, was the implication that Clancy Brown deliberately had Frank's family murderised via the failed sting, because Frank didn't join up to his little drug dealing operation?

That was what I got out of it, yeah.
posted by soundguy99 at 9:23 PM on March 22, 2016

I just laughed so, so very hard when the mix tape started up as Karen started the car. Of all the things I expected The Punisher to be in this show, funny was not one of them.
posted by Archelaus at 12:50 PM on March 23, 2016 [2 favorites]

If only Elektra had had more willingness to take the Black Sky thing and run with it. Sure, Nobu thinks she'll be controllable, but if she'd accepted command of the Hand immediately, presumably she could have put their (questionable) ninja skills to good use. Like: I bet if you get a bunch of TV ninjas and a big bucket, they could run around the bucket in circles to make some nice frozen drinks with those katanas. And obviously it would be quieter than any commercially-available blender because TV ninjas are silent. Send Nobu out to get ice. "No, I want you to buy the ice. Don't just kill the cashier and take it. If you do that, we can't get more ice."

Basically: Elektra needs a five-year-old adviser who can help her use her new cult-leader status for good. Or if not good, then at least for harmless entertainment.
posted by asperity at 11:10 AM on March 24, 2016 [3 favorites]

Whose shed was that at the end? Did he just happen upon an arsenal there? Was that the Blacksmith's shed? Where did all these weapons come from? Is that something that we're supposed to know at this point? It didn't seem like Frank knew what all was back there.
posted by Jugwine at 5:37 PM on March 27, 2016

Was that the Blacksmith's shed?

Yeah, the Blacksmith had a shed out in the woods there which turned out to have a secret armory in it.
posted by mstokes650 at 8:19 PM on March 27, 2016

Pet theory: Schoonover is a loose adaptation of the old Luke Cage villain Gideon Mace.
posted by kewb at 6:34 PM on April 7, 2016

So was Stick's plan from Elektra's childhood to teach her the meaning of love and therefore when the time came she wouldn't take her place as Black Sky?

What was the deal with the Black Sky child in Season 1? Can there be multiple Black Skies at once? Also why was that one imprisoned and this one they bowed down to?
posted by grouse at 8:39 AM on May 28, 2016

Electra should have been like: your new mission is to end malaria.

This show is so uneven, within episodes there are moments that really resonate and moments that are cartoonishly cheesy and lazy.
posted by bq at 11:04 PM on January 15, 2017 [1 favorite]