Daredevil Recaps: “Into the Ring” and “Cut Man”
Marvel: The Studio Without Fear.
Oh, that “Bam”? I guess we’ll say that was Daredevil landing in a dumpster after getting his ass handed to him by the guys who kidnapped the kid, because that’s where we find him at the beginning of episode 2, “Cut Man.”
No, not that Cutman.
Here. That’s better. Sorry about that.
He’s rescued by Claire Temple, a nurse who happens to live nearby.
She also happens to be Rosario Dawson.
She tries to treat him and starts calling 911, but he stops her and tells her not to take him to the hospital. He tries to leave but winds up… less than successful.
While Matt’s conked out on the floor, we get a flashback of young Matt (when he could still see), watching his dad lose a boxing match. He comes home and Matt patches him up with some stitches (THE PARALLELS), and the elder Murdock reveals he still made a good amount of money despite losing the fight—this first hint that he throws matches for money.
Back in the prestigious law offices of Nelson and Murdock, Karen doesn’t want to go home for some reason Foggy seems to somehow not immediately get. (Gee, I wonder if all the blood, fighting, and murder has anything to do with it?) Foggy convinces her that if she doesn’t want to go home, they should just bar hop all night, which they proceed to do so after some awkward can’t-tell-if-flirting by Foggy. To be fair, he did just admit he’s awkward.
In Claire’s apartment, they’ve gotten Matt onto the couch, and she critiques his costume and assesses his wounds—including that she’s noticed he’s blind. She’s trying to help him, and he’s predictably secretive despite clearly requiring that help. He won’t even tell her his name when she says hers.
Srsly?
Still, she’s remarkably willing not to call an ambulance or the cops, so Matt’s curious as to why.
But first, more flashbacks! This one shows Matt in the hospital directly after his accident.
In the present, his lung is collapsing, and Claire has to let the air out of his chest to stop it. He’s in pretty nasty shape with broken ribs, a stab wound and other cuts, and who knows what else. Claire’s concerned he might die, and that’d be pretty hard for her to explain.
Matt explains that the child kidnapped at the end of episode 1 was the Russian human trafficking gang baiting him, and he walked right into it. He wasn’t able to save the kid, and he barely made it out alive. He tells her about his vigilante activities, but they’re interrupted when he can hear and smell someone who’s going door to door in the building looking for him.
But before they can deal with that, more flashbacks! Matt’s dad trains boxing at his gym—the same one adult Matt works out at—as Matt learns Braille on the sidelines. Some thugs ask Jack to throw a fight for some money, and he resists at first, but they convince him it’s the only way to provide for Matt. They don’t know it, but Matt can hear them from across the room.
Future Matt isn’t putting up with any crap. He manages to get up and grabs a knife from the kitchen to defend himself and Claire from the goon, but Claire convinces him to let her answer the door and talk to him. He says he’s a cop and shows a badge, and she tells him she didn’t see anything. Matt’s not fooled, and he launches a well-timed sneak attack to get some information out of the guy.
YOLO.
Elsewhere, Foggy and Karen are living it up at a bar the best they can with their lack of cash. Karen finally lets Foggy in on the not-at-all-obvious reason she doesn’t want to go home. She’s understandably shaken, but he manages to comfort her with some kind words—and lots of alcohol.
Claire and Matt get the goon up to the roof, hoist him up on some rope, and do some more chatting while they wait for him to come around. She explains she’s heard about his handiwork through people he’s rescued—and ones he’s beaten senseless—and that’s why she was willing to help him so far, but she’s concerned about the not-cop.
That segues into another flashback where Matt surreptitiously convinces his father not to be intimidated into throwing his upcoming fight. Matt’s dad changes his mind and shifts his bets around to be on himself to win and gives instructions for the money to go into an account for Matt. Then he calls someone else and says Matt’s going to need her.
In the present, Foggy and Karen drunk dial Matt the manual way to join their festivities.
AKA drunkely knocking and shouting his door.
But he’s nowhere to be found.
The goon wakes up, and Matt… interrogates him to find out where the kid is with his lie detecting abilities and some good old-fashioned Batmanning.
“Swear to me! I mean, where is he!?”
He gives up the information, and Matt finally leaves Claire to go save the kid despite his injuries.
In one more flashback, Jack Murdock wins his fight against the thugs’ wishes and seals his fate. Matt is waiting for him to come home when he hears a gunshot, and he goes outside to find his father has been killed.
In the present, the kidnapped child screams for his father in a building full of thugs. Daredevil shows up, and all Hell breaks loose. Seriously. A brutal fight scene erupts which takes place mostly in a tiny hallway where Matt beats the snot out of henchmen—repeatedly. It’s all in one, brutally long shot where they keep getting up and coming back for more, and Matt keeps taking them down. This goes on for several minutes, really puts on display the brutality of what it takes to beat someone unconscious in a way a lot of superhero shows won’t, and ends with more trademark DGAF.
Then he rescues the kid, and all is right with the world. For no more than two seconds, I’m sure, but that’s the end of the episode.
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