I’ve liked Daredevil. I’ve liked it a lot. From its pilot onward, the series has felt like the satisfying process of fitting one puzzle piece after another in realizing the picture of the men we’ve come to know as Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. All along, this first season’s been about the paths they’ve chosen to walk and it should follow that the its season finale should be like slamming that final piece into place – and what a glorious piece of entertainment it is. That Daredevil should echo that familiar feeling of accomplishment that comes with it is only fitting with who are heroes (and villains) really are.
Some Spoilers Follow
As the immediate follow-up to The Ones We Leave Behind, Daredevil carries a certain somberness; its death in the family enough to shock Foggy and Matt back into each another’s orbit. The episode’s funeral opener is provides a thoughtful poignancy to the trials that everyone’s endured, some certainly more than others. Like its beginning, it’s pain that brings our trio back and together with a repaired Karen, Foggy and Matt brainstorm Ben’s vision to topple the Fisk from the inside out. Seeing the three of them around the table for the first time since the pilot is some easy nostalgia for the taking, but it’s Matt’s smile and Foggy’s laughter that sells Karen’s musing that “this is how it should be.” Foggy talking about cured meats and all.
In the same breath, it’s Fisk’s world that’s falling apart at the seams. From Turk to crooked cops to lawyers to Congressman Cherryh, Fisk’s enemies are already under siege from among the ranks. Yes, after what feels like quite a few episodes, our own Leland Owlsley finally ruffles one too many feathers as our unassuming mastermind behind the throne and Fisk returns the favor in kind. Given all the telltale “Owlsey’s soooo guilty” signs, it hardly comes as a surprise, but the fallout’s satisfying to see, even at the cost of a rather unremarkable end to one of the show’s (still?) major comic characters.
Daredevil was all about inner revelations – including Fisk’s. Seeing his house of cards coming tumbling down is nothing short of transformative for the journey we’ve seen him on this season and it undoubtedly adds insult to injury that his fall is so by the book thanks to our lawyers in action. Though fans may gloss over the legal jargon it entails, the Pavarotti-tuned arrest montage is a poetic end to the Fisk empire and, by extension, him and Vanessa via a somberly impromptu proposal. It’s the long ride to the big house that produces the series’ most telling Biblical allegory. It’s rare that the villain of the story come to terms with his role in it and that it should be told with Vincent D’Onofrio’s typical eloquence more powerful still. He’s not helping his city on its feet. He’s beating it and robbing it blind.
Of course, the villain’s only as good as his hero and as you’d expect, it’s this final episode that Daredevil choose to give us our peek at the costume of its namesake in action. Rougher, darker, and a bit more practical than fans might be accustomed to, Netflix’s Daredevil duds look somewhere more along the lines of Christian Bale’s Batman suit than Ben Affleck’s leather jacket-clad Man Without Fear. The suit’s tough vibe fits the series’ tone to a T an while it’s an added edge to Daredevi’s arsenal, it’s refreshingly no win button, red billy clubs or no. I love it – especially if it allows Matt more air-kicking superhero poses.
If clothes make the man, then they also make for a kick-ass fight. As is his talent, Fisk slips right from under the authorities’ noses even under armed guard in a spectacular (and slightly theatrical) shootout of cop v. cop. This is where Matt tells us that “the law meets reality” and in this case, a dark alleyway ripped right out of the comic books as a part of Matt and Fisk’s inevitable – and brutal – rematch. As fans of Spartacus are no doubt aware, show runner Steven S. DeKnight knows how to do high-octane season finales and the flying fisticuffs here are on par with the former. This time, it’s Matt toppling Fisk’s empire, first with the law and then with “his law” in a white-knuckle, four-minute fight made to impress. Matt’s not the bad guy.
By its end, Daredevil does a marvelous job bringing our characters full-circle to where we met them and a terrific tease where we’ll meet them sometime soon. If Team Hell’s Kitchen’s won something, it’s a small battle in a longer war – one with its casualties that no one, not even a blind ninja man, can resurrect. And it’s not without other secrets between them, especially with the blood on Karen’s hands.
Meanwhile, Fisk’s journey is left to its predictable end poignantly staring into the snowstorm that we first met him in. As straightforward as this season’s been, it’s duly frustrating to have an overwhelming amount of loose ends hanging by a thread – Stick, The Hand, “Black Sky,” Madame Gao. But it wouldn’t be a Netflix show if it didn’t leave you starving for more. Daredevil‘s just the cost of getting spoiled on excellence.
Whatever desperately needed answers we get next season, Daredevil’s last-round delivers the knockout punch I could’ve only wished about from so many other series this year. As Netflix continues to build on its path to a Defenders universe with A.K.A. Jessica Jones and an Iron Fist series, I can’t help but wonder how one man can make a difference in a city full of vigilantes. But they don’t call the Big Apple what they do because it’s small. When Daredevil us again next spring, it’ll be ready and waiting in my queue.
All thirteen episodes of Daredevil are available for streaming through Netflix on TV, PC, tablet, mobile, and game consoles. Check back for more on all your favorite shows, games, comics, and animé here at BagoGames.