Daredevil - S1E3 - Rabbit in a Snowstorm
Previously on Daredevil, ‘Cut Man’
A man’s bone breaks through his flesh before his head is crushed with a bowling ball. That is the level of violence that is showcased in the first few minutes of this episode.
“I want a lawyer.”
Wesley, the mysterious clean-cut consigliere of the even more mysterious figure slowly manipulating the criminal activity in Hell’s Kitchen, drops into Matt and Foggy’s offices bribing them with a generous amount of money if they defend John Healy, a man accused of murder. Despite Matt’s initial reservations with taking Wesley’s case, amid Foggy’s protestations (It’s true. How are they going to pay the bills?), he finally agrees to defend Healy in the hope of getting closer to Wesley’s boss. The Good News: Nelson & Murdoch, Attorneys at Law finally go to court! The Bad News: their client is a cold-blooded killer.
“Some fights will just get you bloody.”
The episode delves deep into the legal drama that often characterizes Daredevil storylines in the comics. There’s jury tampering, bribery, and intimidation. Matt and Foggy do their job, however, and continue to fight for fairness under the law. After Matt delivers an impassioned closing argument about good and evil and justice under the confines of the law, Healy is acquitted. He doesn’t relish his freedom for long however as Matt dons his vigilante threads and confronts him in the streets. Healy puts up a good fight. A brutal fight. But after finally giving up Wilson Fisk’s name he impales himself upon a spike rather than face the wrath of The Kingpin.
The episode comes to a close by finally introducing us to Wilson Fisk himself (Vincent D’Onofrio) standing in an art gallery staring at a seemingly blank canvas, multiple gradations of white in actuality (I’ll never understand modern art sometimes). Soothing lounge music plays in the background, a stark contrast to the brutality of the scene that came before. A neatly dressed woman approaches him, mildly flirting with an anecdote comparing blank pieces of paper to rabbits in a snowstorm. In the final seconds before the credits roll, she asks him how the painting makes him feel to which Fisk responds, “It makes me feel alone.” And in those brief moments we gaze into his face and realize that he’s more human than this mythical image he’s been cultivating of a shadowy mustache-twirling villain masterminding things from behind the scenes.
Side Notes
Quote of the Week: “For the record: this is the first time you ever said I was right. I hate it.”- Foggy
Where the hell is Karen?: She turned down a generous sum attached to an ironclad non-disclosure agreement to ensure that she doesn’t ever spill the beans in Union Allied Construction’s shady dealings.
Which brings us to… Ben Urich (Vondie Curtis-Hall) who makes his MCU debut! The classic Marvel Comics journalist digs deeper into the Union Allied Construction scandal which ultimately leads him to meet Karen. Before their fateful meeting, Urich meets up with one of his old contacts in Hell’s Kitchen’s criminal underbelly. The winds of change are coming because the old mob bosses are packing up. Someone is scaring them away from their home turf and taking over their territory.
