Daredevil Season 3 Episode 2 review: Please

This article comes from Den of Geek UK.

This Daredevil review contains spoilers.

Daredevil Season 3 Episode 2

One of the good things about truly caring about secondary characters – for example, Wilson Fisk – is that when they’re in danger, you actually feel that danger. Case in point: I had no clue whether Fisk was going to get out of his kidnap attempt unscathed, but I was gripped by the hope that he would. As it turned out, he was fine – but only because of one FBI agent who happened to be an unusually good shot.

It seems fairly clear that we’re witnessing the introduction of Bullseye here, although this is a version of the character who seems unlike anything from the comics. Bullseye first appeared in Daredevil #131 (1976) and was previously portrayed by Colin Farrell in the Daredevil movie, although that version was also extremely unlike the comics version. He’s an iconic villain, though, so I can’t wait to see what they do with him.

Interestingly, if this is Bullseye and these guys really are FBI agents, that’s something the comics Bullseye has never been before. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to guess that Fisk is going to slowly turn the guy who saved his life into the guy he pays to take lives, but I’m looking forward to watching that happen.

Nadeem’s plea to stay close to the Kingpin makes sense for the character as he looks for the big win his career needs, but it’s clear that he’s setting himself up to be exploited. It’s notable that he played up his “rapport” with Fisk even though we know he was just in the right place at the right time. The question is whether he believes that, or whether he’s trying to convince his bosses he’s more valuable than he is.

further reading: Daredevil Season 3 Ending Explained

Seeing Foggy’s family was, for me, a great part of the episode even though it might be easy to dismiss as filler. It seems like we’re going to see Foggy forced to make a fundamental choice at some point as to whether he wants to stick with his own life of high-powered lawyering, or do a duty to his family and come work with them. The tension between those two lives is not unrelated to Matt’s own tension, which is why we shouldn’t immediately dismiss it. These characters are all going through similar things, after all.

Matt’s powers don’t seem to be back at 100%, and his barely-successful fight proves it. That said, I loved him going out investigating, and I’m glad to see that he’s continuing to use the extremely cool casual ninja version of his outfit over the armored-up spandex version. The man without fear doesn’t look particularly fearless when he’s THAT worried about being hit.

further reading: Complete Marvel Comics Reference Guide to Daredevil Season 3

There’s more than a hint of stubbornness to him going back out and using his abilities even when he’s on death’s door, but I’d be lying if I said I didn’t get it. There are some characters in these shows who you can mock for making stupid decisions, but in Matt’s drive has never been logical. By all rights he should be dead, but he’s not, and he sees that as vindication for his methods. It’s hard to argue with the conviction (and after all, even if you tried… he’s a lawyer.)

As episodes go this is quite slow until the end, but between D’Onofrio’s utterly gripping performance as Fisk and Matt’s continued descent into the well there’s absolutely nothing bad about it. It feels like the show’s never been away. 

Keep up with all our Daredevil Season 3 coverage right here.

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