While you can completely see the creative decisions that went into keeping Wilson Fisk mostly off-camera for this series, this episode can’t help but make you wonder whether it was the right choice. Starting with a flashback to Fisk entering prison after his trial, we see how he applies his own superpower – the ability to exercise control – to the point where he’s able to get away with basically anything. In terms of action sequences, Frank’s prison slaughter might be the best yet this series. Daredevil does love its confined spaces action, but when the guy in the centre of the fight isn’t the main character and doesn’t have super powers it feels a lot more like it could go wrong for him at any moment. For me, that’s a key ingredient in making any fight exciting. Outside the prison, we get some good interactions between Foggy and Matt, and the shutdown of Nelson & Murdock is a surprising twist. Maybe they’ll be up and running by the end, maybe not, but this series looked like it was building to the underdogs triumphing, and suddenly in the space of a couple of episodes they’ve imploded instead. And finally, the episode ends with Matt’s investigations taking him to a place where the Hand are collecting people’s blood for some sinister purpose. Well, that’s pretty creepy. As is Nobu’s reappearance, though as soon as Stick mentioned immortality last episode, that seemed like it was a given. Though it does make you wonder how you kill The Hand, if being burned alive won’t do it. I imagine a Highlander-style head collection is how, though I can’t see Matt going through with that… Comic-wise, there’s not a huge amount being drawn on here. The Blacksmith isn’t anyone I’ve heard of from the comics, and I don’t remember The Hand ever collecting blood either. Fisk in prison has happened before. He, Matt and Frank were all incarcerated together during Ed Brubaker’s run, in Daredevil (1998) #82-87, the story collected as “The Devil in Cell Block D”. Definitely worth a read if you like the idea of the Kingpin in jail.
