Daredevil episode 3 takes a bit of a break from the superhero stuff to remind us that Matt Murdock and co. are real people with a law practice to run. Please enjoy this episode of Law & Order: MCU.
We start off with some dude in a bowling alley.
No, not THE Dude in a bowling alley. Oh, fine. Close enough.
He asks the wrong guy to share a lane and then conspicuously doesn’t make an effort to get away when said guy’s goons approach. Oh man, he’s in troub—HOLY CRAP he opens a can of whoopass on the goons and then pulls a gun on the main guy, whose parents clearly didn’t teach him to share. OK then. Let’s call our bowling friend Walter for now.
Walter, put the piece away.
Too bad for Walter, the guy who sold him the gun failed in his guarantee that it wouldn’t jam, so Walt has to teach the bad sharer a lesson with his fists and a bowling ball instead.
The cops show up and arrest him, and he says he wants a lawyer.
…We can relate to that.
Karen, Foggy, and Matt all meet up back at the office in varying states of readiness for the day after their ill-advised activities the night before—drinking and partying for Karen and Foggy, and getting beaten senseless while saving the day for Matt. Our friend in the suit from the first episode, who won’t tell anyone his name—not a bit suspicious—shows up at the law office and says his company wants to put Murdock and Nelson on retainer.
By way of explanation as to why they’d be interested in such a small company, he provides a bit of insight into Matt and Foggy’s past as local boys who graduated law school with flying colors and set up their own shop on their home turf despite some pretty great offers they could’ve taken. Those little do-gooders.
He offers them what we can only guess by Foggy’s facial expression is an absurd amount of money
But Matt’s not into it, so suit guy changes tactics to “take a sexist swipe at Karen.” You know, classy business man stuff.
Oh, and he mentions her murder charges—or lack thereof—and Matt is more sure than ever that something’s not right. Classy business man, obviously prepared for this, tells them to check out one of his employer’s cases for themselves to get a better idea of how worth it all the zeroes on their paychecks would be. He gives them a file and tells them where to be to help lawyer someone who turns out to be our friend Walter, the sharing enthusiast.
Foggy questions him—his actual name is John Healy—before Matt joins in, and even Foggy’s slightly malleable moral compass tells him they shouldn’t take the case. He’s gone and realized that maybe there are limits to what he’ll do for $$$$. Character growth!
In an unexpected turn of events, Matt swoops in and says they’ll take it, because his moral compass has been overridden by his freely spinning bullshit-ometer (basically a real power of Daredevil’s) which was set off by suit guy and should theoretically get sorted out in the course of this case.
New York Bulletin journalist Ben Urich, who showed up earlier in the episode as he tried to get inside info on this new crime wave, is having an old school vs. new school “I want to do some real journalism” argument about digging into what’s going on in Hell’s Kitchen with his boss. I guess Netflix couldn’t get Aaron Sorkin to direct the news guy scenes as there’s not a whole lot of walking while talking, but they did throw in a solid dig at bloggers working in their underwear for good measure, so close enough.
(Hey, it’s usually very fancy underwear, I’ll have them know.)
While Matt and Foggy continue to have a disconcerting chat with their less-than-reputable new client who all but admits to being an employee of suit guy and a paid killer, the man in the suit himself is over at the bowling alley’s arcade machine also extolling the virtues of sharing.
“I got next.”
and grabbing Healy’s gun from where he stashed it underneath the machine.
“Hi kids! Stay in school!”
Matt and Foggy finally come to an understanding on taking Healy’s “self defense” case.
The brosecution rests, your honor.
And plan their next move while Karen disappears to work on her own legal troubles. She’s in hot water for breaking an NDA with Union Allied over the information she leaked to the press in episode 1. The now-dissolved company’s lawyers are offering her a bunch of money and protection from any legal action in exchange for her silence on their actions going forward, and she’s significantly more hesitant about all those zeroes than some of our other heroes.
Our journalist friend stops by a hospital to deal with his… wife’s? medical care insurance coverage issues—the same hospital Claire Temple works at, it seems, judging by an administrator saying her best nurse is out. I wonder why.
Claire Temple: Best Nurse.
Matt and Foggy are working some long hours on this case, and Matt lays down the law—har har—on Karen taking long lunches while they’ve got so much work to do. Although, I kind of suspect Matt’s concerned that there’s something going on with her and isn’t just trying to be a dick.
And hey! There’s Foggy doing some actual lawyering in a courtroom! Matt’s pleased with his performance, but distracted by jurors’ heartbeats and suit guy’s watch, which he can hear because he’s Daredevil. You do remember that he’s also a superhero, right? I just wanted to make sure you didn’t forget amid all the legal intrigue.
The juror with the telltale heart meets some guy in an alley who’s clearly blackmailing her for her decision in the case, and when she leaves, Daredevil busts in to remind us all this is a superhero show—with his fists. And some Batman voice. At the thug’s expense.
“Was the super hearing thing too subtle? I HAVE POWERS btw.”
He… convinces the guy to get the juror dismissed and leave her alone forever by being generally terrifying. Then, he convinces the jurors to acquit his client on self defense charges by being generally terrific.
Suit guy and Leland Owlsly argue over why they didn’t just murder Healy like they tend to do to everyone else who bothers them in order to give suit guy an excuse to explain it to the audience/preemptively head off Internet arguments about it.
“Maybe so I can get Murdock more deeply involved in the plot. DUH LELAND. Amateur.”
Matt and Foggy successfully get Healy cleared of charges in the courtroom, but he has not been cleared in the COURT OF DAREDEVIL, who proceeds to beat the name of suit guy’s employer out of Healy. He does this in the totally safe manner of jabbing a shard of glass into the guy’s neck until he talks, because as previously established with fire extinguishers and throwing people off buildings, he does not GAF.
Healy finally gives up Fisk’s name as suit guy’s hermit employer shortly before, er, disposing of himself out of fear for what his punishment will be.
[headimpale.gif not found… because yuck.]
Probably kind of a good thing for Murdock that Healy’s not around to tell the tale, because a 2 for 2 involvement of Daredevil with Matt Murdock’s legal cases miiiiiight raise some eyebrows. Seriously, quit punching where you eat, Matt.
Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk himself is appreciating some art and getting flirty (for Fisk, anyway) with a gallery employee when the episode leaves us with its reveal of the series’ big bad.
“Are you sure it’s a white rabbit? I see a ghost. Lololol.” -paraphrasing.
Keep reading for episode 4, “In the Blood.”
Published: Apr 22, 2015 03:28 pm