Daredevil: The Path of the Righteous

May 5, 2015 4:59 AM - Season 1, Episode 11

Still recovering from his injuries, Matt finds Melvin Potter, a mentally unbalanced engineer who has been coerced into working for Fisk, and asks him to make a suit of body armor like the ones he has made for Fisk. While Vanessa is recovering in the hospital, Karen and Ben locate Fisk's mother and learn the truth about his father's death. While at the hospital, Wesley receives a phone call from Fisk's mother and learns that Karen and Ben have tracked her down. He confronts Karen and attempts to blackmail her into not exposing Fisk, threatening to hurt her friends.

In desperation, Karen grabs his gun and shoots him.

posted by He Is Only The Imposter (29 comments total)

Wow! I did not see that coming!
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 4:59 AM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

I wonder who else she's shot?

(She says it's not the first time she's shot anyone, and I can't remember it happening during the series. There is this whole untold backstory to her, that we're getting hints of, and which I don't think is in the comic books.)
posted by Grangousier at 5:26 AM on May 5, 2015

I thought she was bluffing, but that's me making assumptions about her backstory being related/similar to her later stories in the comics. For all I know, she could have shot a man in Reno just to watch him die.
posted by He Is Only The Imposter at 5:30 AM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

With Melvin Potter, Matt has made a promise to keep Betsy safe from Fisk, and I bet he's not going to be able to keep that promise, and all Gladiator breaks loose. They've dropped hints - the drawings on Potter's workbench - so all it's going to take is one event to throw him over the edge and turn him from friend to foe.
posted by Major Matt Mason Dixon at 5:50 AM on May 5, 2015

What feels like 30 episodes agonizing about whether or not it is okay to kill a villain and the moment Karen gets a gun in her hand she caps one of the main baddies.

Maybe it will turn out that this series has a female Punisher.
posted by maxsparber at 6:17 AM on May 5, 2015 [11 favorites]

Maybe it will turn out that this series has a female Punisher.

i keep hitting the subscribe button but nothing shows up
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:20 AM on May 5, 2015 [11 favorites]

I can't think of any method that would have worked, for Karen to extricate herself from a situation that was about to become even more insupportable, that didn't involve killing Wesley. So good for her for doing what it took to get out.

On the other hand: sorry to see Wesley go. He was a good villain. It probably wasn't ever going to happen, but one of the benefits to having a ridiculously sprawling shared universe, of the kind that exists in comics and now in the MCU, is the fun that comes from imagining interesting characters combinations that could potentially be thrown together. With Wesley dead, I'll now never get the scene where Wesley and Phil Coulson sit at a conference table and try to outdo one another at polite, quiet threats.
posted by Ipsifendus at 6:31 AM on May 5, 2015 [27 favorites]

Yeah, Wesley was such a mundane evil that he really added something to Team Bad Guy. In addition to Control/Rage Issues, Ninja Ninja Ninja, The 1%, Crouching Tiger/Hidden Crime Lord, and Two Wild and Crazy Guys, you needed someone who was not as flamboyant but just as threatening as the rest of the gang to sort of hold everything together.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 6:37 AM on May 5, 2015 [9 favorites]

Up until this episode I thought Wesley was going to turn out to be a secret puppet master.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:54 AM on May 5, 2015 [4 favorites]

When, in an earlier episode, they alluded to Karen having a deep, dark secret in her past, I was worried that her secret would be that she was a female character written by Frank Miller. It came as a relief to me when it turns out she's just a murderer.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 9:10 AM on May 5, 2015 [20 favorites]

Up until this episode I thought Wesley was going to turn out to be a secret puppet master.

Yeah, I thought he was Mephisto.

He still could be.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 9:57 AM on May 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

I was a little bothered by the Wesley shooting. When he said, "Do you really think I'd leave a loaded gun on the table," he's right. It really was a very stupid thing to do, and seemed very out of character for someone who had been built up as supremely careful, competent, and patient. He hadn't even restrained Karen, he knew she could move around.

It felt like the show made the character dumb for the sake of the plot, and that includes not mentioning to Fisk or anyone else where he was going or what he was doing before he left.
posted by Sangermaine at 10:37 AM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Wesley underestimated Karen, probably along with audience. Luckily we didn't get shot:
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 10:51 AM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

When, in an earlier episode, they alluded to Karen having a deep, dark secret in her past, I was worried that her secret would be that she was a female character written by Frank Miller. It came as a relief to me when it turns out she's just a murderer.

And she had her top off in the very first episode. She could be a FM character if she got less chatty. Let's just hope she's not a Kevin Smith character.

I was a little bothered by the Wesley shooting. When he said, "Do you really think I'd leave a loaded gun on the table," he's right.

I didn't mind it, though 75% of that was relief at not having the old "character doesn't notice the gun is WAY too light" trope in play. I was willing to buy that Wesley let a combination of theatrics and being a bit distracted by Fisk/Vanessa make him just a hint too sloppy. I was also fine with Karen pulling the trigger; even when Wesley was making her an offer I found it hard to be confident he wasn't going to just kill her anyway. She doesn't know whether he has another weapon or supah ninjuh skilz; leaving him alive is dangerous even in the short term.
posted by phearlez at 11:35 AM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

I liked Wesley, couldn't put my finger on why until I recalled that he's the same calm hyper-competent archetype as Offdensen from Metalapocalypse (spoiler who does come back from presumed death).

That said, I was surpised that Karen shot him, but wholeheartedly approve from both a character angle and a writing angle.

But yeah, fatal out-of-character flaw underestimating Karen/a woman.
posted by porpoise at 12:03 PM on May 5, 2015 [2 favorites]

I really felt with Wesley that part of his problem is that he is unaccustomed to doing violence himself. Fisk will do violence, or he'll get a guard to do it, he never does anything himself and he's not good at it. I think he also underestimated Karen as well.
posted by stoneegg21 at 12:18 PM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

I grew really attached to some of the black hats in this series and really hated to see them disposed of so quickly and easily. Wesley was definitely in this category. His presence will be missed.
posted by sardonyx at 12:25 PM on May 5, 2015

Yes it was a stupid mistake, but someone pointed out to me that at the time of the attended threat, Wesley had probably been awake at least as long as Fisk had been, constantly on duty, constantly trying to manage things while his friend is falling apart, and along with him, his organization. By the time the thing with Karen came up, who wouldn't be wigged out enough to make a stupid mistake?
posted by happyroach at 5:53 PM on May 5, 2015

I think those are good explanations, happyroach, and combined with stroneegg21's of Wesley just not really being adept at this sort of hands-on violence, it's explicable. And, really, we the audience didn't see it coming, either, because she just didn't seem anything like the type of person who would do that -- be willing to or be able to, either one.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:39 PM on May 5, 2015

I was delightfully surprised to see Karen shoot him; she'd previously been something of a wilting damsel so, hey, high-five for rescuing yourself, lady.

I actually liked Wesley better than Fisk, although maybe I'm the only one.
posted by tautological at 8:30 PM on May 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Not at all tautological. As I said, I really came to appreciate some of the villains, and Wesley ranked above Fisk on my list, just a smidge below Owlsley (who had a much easier role--sarcastic smart-ass).
posted by sardonyx at 8:34 PM on May 5, 2015

Also I'm not sure it was "out of character" for Wesley necessarily. He was trying to help his good friend and boss out and handle this himself because Fisk is a little less than stable when it comes to his girlfriend, but he's not really qualified to be the badass that Fisk is. I'm not even clear that he's ever done much that he wasn't explicitly instructed to by his boss--the competence and calculating we see could be all second-hand from Fisk. I mean, he's apparently not even a guy that gets to carry a gun (he has to borrow it), so the little "heavy" act he tried to pull there was definitely not in his wheelhouse and he failed.

I dunno I could be wrong
posted by Hoopo at 3:00 PM on May 6, 2015 [2 favorites]

Major Matt Mason Dixon: "With Melvin Potter, Matt has made a promise to keep Betsy safe from Fisk, and I bet he's not going to be able to keep that promise, and all Gladiator breaks loose."

I know they want to set up a way for Daredevil to get a costume that isn't cobbled together, but it struck me that Potter saying, "Fisk can't know you were here or he'll hurt Betsy!" and Matt saying, "You know what's the best way for me to protect Betsy? Running around in an armoured suit that Fisk might recognize as your handiwork!" is a plan that has a chance of backfiring.
posted by RobotHero at 8:53 AM on May 7, 2015 [5 favorites]

I was delightfully surprised to see Karen shoot him; she'd previously been something of a wilting damsel so, hey, high-five for rescuing yourself, lady.

You know, I really don't see Karen as much of a damsel at all, not even from her first appearance. Yes, she's in distress: she's in jail, accused of murder, and she's in danger. But remember why she's in this in situation. She saw something sketchy going on at her workplace, and decided to look into it. She very reasonably decided to check with another coworker about what was going on, and she was ready to be a whistleblower. That's what put her in danger. Not her relationship to another man, not her convenient status as an innocent woman. Her own actions, driven by her own morality. That's not damsel in distress territory. That's hero territory.

Karen continued to choose to actively pursue being a whistleblower. At every step of the way, she chose. Sometimes it was the wrong choice, sometimes she was thoughtless or reckless, sometimes she stumbled into things way above her pay grade. But Karen chose, and those choices had consequences, and none of that makes her a damsel in distress. It makes her the flawed hero of her own story. Let's not point to Karen's one violent act, an act in defense of her own and her loved ones' lives, and call that the moment she stopped being a damsel in distress. She never was.
posted by yasaman at 1:42 PM on May 8, 2015 [5 favorites]

There is a trope. "The Stupid Girlfriend" - a ditzy dame who does dumb things so the hero has to come save.

Karen takes this trope, and table-flips it, puts it into an arm-bar and makes it tap out while the audience boos.

She is clearly the smartest person in any scene she's in. She makes decisions that are quick, insightful, correct, and gets people dead.

A slow girl would have lied and got paid on the Kingpin's payroll, and then told her friends about it to help them stop it from the inside. She was smarter than that, and it landed her and hers into piles of shit.

There are THREE goddamn people on God's green earth Fisk knows loves him, and she killed one, found another at her most vulnerable, and the third is in a coma.

Meanwhile, Matt realizes he can get So. Much. More. by offering to help rather than threatening to hurt... and also realizes he can win against other people with "special gifts." Making things isn't Mr. Potter's only ability.

While also realizing he doesn't need to kill to chase people back onto the path of the righteous, with a bit of guidance.

And, wow, Wesley. Seldom has scenery been chewed with such precision and grace. An amazing villain! I hope to a god that may not exist that he winds up in a lot more roles.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:02 PM on May 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

Also, this is a wake. Let's talk about Wesley, while pouring rotgut into dirty tumblers at a Hell's Kitchen dive bar.

- The non-platonic love he bestowed onto Fisk, who acknowledged it, appreciated it, relied upon it, but could not return it. Can you imagine the self-sacrifice in bringing Vanessa to Fisk in his hour of deepest need? The nature of the satisfaction Wesley took from it?

- The sneering, snarling contempt he had for his enemies... including the young lawyers he had just hired! And when Madam Gao threatened Fisk, I thought his lip was going to wind up above his eyebrow...

- The respect he had for Karen. There was no sneer, just a dance of words and tone he had hoped to entangle her in. Bared teeth in almost-smiles as he contended with her, sure, but not contempt. He knows a player when he sees one.
posted by Slap*Happy at 8:25 PM on May 8, 2015 [2 favorites]

Yay Karen! She killed the horrible bad guy and she is good and should feel good. I hope they don't have her wallow in feeling misery about that forever; it was absolutely appropriate and necessary. Wesley did indeed make a mistake with the gun, but I took it as evidence of his being an amateur. I was honestly surprised when he asked for the gun in the first place, like does he even know how to load it? He's not the guy for that kind of work, and he paid.

I also love Karen's role calling Foggy and Matt on their shit, demanding the get it together and support the investigation on Fisk. Stupid boys need to stop being stupid.

The Melvin thing seemed nakedly derivative of JF Sebastian in Blade Runner. Kind of annoyed by that. If he starts playing chess with Fisk I may throw something at the screen.
posted by Nelson at 10:26 PM on May 18, 2015

Can I say how disappointed I am that they're giving him a "real" costume? I mean, I know it's been inevitable all along, given the teaser image in the Netflix menu. But I absolutely love the lo-fi aesthetic of his homemade, all-black costume, and hate to see it go.
posted by jbickers at 5:25 AM on July 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

As one who doesn't care about the comics characters, and as someone else said either in the AV Club recap or the comments to one of them, I sincerely hope they skip the part where Potter becomes an antagonist. DD needs a support crew, he's starting to realize he needs help, let's not mess with that by making his support crew go away this early, okay?
posted by TrishaLynn at 6:36 AM on August 2, 2015