Daredevil: Into the Ring

Spoilers for the episode

Story:

A woman wakes up covered in blood next to a dead body just as the police storm in while Matt Murdock and Foggy Nelson have just set up their new law practice and are looking for innocent people to defend.

Thoughts:

The show starts with the car accident that caused Matt Murdock to become blind and get super human senses.

He pushed a man out of the way and hazardous chemicals that are probably radioactive (it’s always radiation with super heroes) get in his eyes. His father finds him and he shouts for someone to help while Matt screams about his eyes. The last thing he sees is his father’s face and the sky. It’s an effective scene and they just about manage to keep it form being too over the top.

Then we cut to Matt in confession talking about his dad and grandmother. She used to say the Murdock boys have got the devil in them.

This scene goes on for a bit too long but eventually we get to the point that he’s not seeking penance he wants forgiveness for something he hasn’t done yet. The priest says it doesn’t work that way but really what’s the difference if someone’s going to get away with doing bad stuff anyway.

It’s nighttime and some guys are kidnapping some woman who they’re going to get money for so they’re human traffickers.

Daredevil comes to save them and it’s a really good fight. Daredevil’s costume is ordinary black clothes with the top half of his face covered. It looks like something he’d be able to make himself.

He defeats them and once the women are gone he takes is anger out on one of the guy’s face.

The next Day and Matt is woken up by Foggy on the phone. He’s going to bribe a cop to tell him if there’s any unusual cases so I’m guessing this is going to be their version of the newspaper in supernatural as a plot device.

They’re starting their own law practice so they need an office. The woman trying to sell the office is hilariously awkward around Matt. She talks about the view and offers her hand for him to shake and ends up curtsying.

Foggy and Matt start arguing over which cases they should take. Matt wants to only help the innocent but Foggy’s more practical because they’ve got to actually pay for the building. This scene is a bit forced and feels like a bit of an info dump for the audience.

A woman wakes up next to a body. She’s holding a knife and is covered in blood so she gets arrested when the cops storm in.

The cop from earlier calls Foggy and they go represent her. She’s a bit skeptical of them and it doesn’t get better when they tell her they’ve only been practising law for 7 hours.

It turns out she’s got no money so Foggy doesn’t want to represent her anymore. Matt wants to stay though and help because he thinks she’s innocent. He used his super hearing to listen to her heartbeat so he knows she’s not lying.

In a park a guy on a bench is approached by second guy with a tablet who threatens his daughter if he doesn’t do as he’s told.

Back in the offices and Foggy wants to cut Karen a deal but she’ll see jail time. Matt wants to go to trial because there’s something off about the case. They should have already charged her with the amount of evidence they have. Foggy thinks Matt only wants to help because she’s a beautiful woman and it’s strange that Matt can always tell.

The guy form the bench tries to kill Karen in her cell but she manages to fight him off.

They get Karen out of prison but Matt makes an enemy in the process. You know he’s going to be one of the bad guys because he’s fine with hitting a blind man.

They take her back to the office. She got an email she shouldn’t have opened so she contacted a guy in the legal department but they were both drugged and she woke up to him dead. He had a son and she feels guilty. She can’t get them hurt as well so she tries to leave.

Matt takes her back to his house. She asks him questions about being blind and how he combs his hair. He wants to know why they didn’t kill her when she was drugged. They must want something from her but she says she didn’t keep the pension file.

A lot of bad guys are meeting on a rooftop somewhere. The guy from the bench turns up and the human traffickers report that a man in black took out their guys. The others are skeptical.

It turns out these guys have been profiting from all the super hero damage and taking advantage to build their evil empires.

Back at Matt’s apartment and Karen waits till Matt is asleep to sneaks out and go back to the crime scene. She gets the file and gets attacked but luckily Daredevil turns up to save her.

They both go out the window and the impact with the ground makes Daredevil have a flashback to when he was nine. His father wanted him to study so he didn’t end up like him.

The fight carries on in the rain until daredevil wins. It’s another really good fight showing that Matt is just human and he can get hurt. He’s only got super powered senses.

Karen’s stood watching. And the rain makes the fight look realy dramamtic but all I can think about Is how they are both going to get colds stood out there like that.

Matt’s going to give the evidence to the police but Karen says they can’t be trusted so they’re going to tell everyone by giving it to the news paper.

Then we cut to the guy who threatened the guy from bench who is talking to his boss summing everything up. The guy who tried to kill Karen is dead and they’re going to leave her alone because she knows nothing else but they’re going to keep an eye on the lawyers.

Then we get a montage of all the illegal stuff the guys form the rooftop meeting are doing while Matt’s at the gym working out. It’s effective but it makes me think that he could be out there stopping some of this stuff instead of training.

Then we end with him on a roof (I have a feeling roofs are going to be featured heavily) listening to a little boy being kidnapped.

This is a really good first episode. I’ve never read the Daredevil comics but I’m familiar enough with the character that I know the basics of his origin story and powers. I think if you knew nothing at all about the character you wouldn’t be that lost because this starts right at the beginning. He doesn’t have a proper costume and the villains don’t know who he is.

The fight scenes are the best parts of the episode. Daredevil is competent but still in danger. Guns are a problem for him and he has to be strategic about fighting.

He does have a secret identity though. Neither Foggy nor Karen have found out by the end of the episode so I hope they find out sooner rather than later. I’m not keen on secret identities unless it’s to people the hero doesn’t know. Otherwise it’s just annoying.

Karen turns out to be not as much of a damsel in distress as much as I thought she was going to be. She fights off the officer who tries to kill her and she takes action to try to not get any one else killed. She needs Daredevil to save her at the end but I’m hoping this won’t be a thing that happens all the time. I hope she’s not there just to be saved.

I’m not sure how connected this is to the marvel cinematic universe. They mention other heroes punching people through buildings and the incident but there aren’t many other references. It’s not like Agents of Shield that relied heavily on the connection to the films in it’s first season. Daredevil stands on it’s own.

Next Daredevil: Cut Man

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