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Saturday, 14 November 2015

Review - 'Daredevil', S01E05 - 'World On Fire'

Matt may know Wilson Fisk's name, now, but it is also becoming very clear that he has also attracted the attention of the secretive crime-lord - with Fisk even going as far as to attempt to frame the masked vigilant for his own murder of Anatoly at the end of the previous episode. With Fisk deciding that the time might be right to cut the reckless and increasingly violent Russians out of his future plans, entirely, it obviously makes sense to him to try to set his enemies against each other. For his part, while Matt has still been unable to uncover any concrete information about his mysterious adversary, he is able to get a better idea about exactly how far Fisk's influence spreads. Thanks to his unnaturally enhanced senses, Matt happens to identify two corrupt police-officers on Fisk's pay-roll when he overhears them discussing the murder of a suspect.

Of course, police corruption isn't Matt's only concern, at the moment - as Vladimir is now entirely convinced that the masked vigilante is the one responsible for his brother's death. And, on top of that, Matt also finds himself caught in the middle when Fisk decides that the time is right to move against the Russians.

Karen and Foggy, meanwhile, once more find themselves in a mostly unrelated side-plot intended to lighten the mood when they find themselves working to help tenant being victimised by a sleazy land-lord. It all starts simply enough - but, it's not long until they find themselves volunteering to take care of some of the repairs needed around their elderly client's apartment, themselves. Then, they find themselves on their first official 'date' when their client prepares a meal for them in gratitude for their efforts. Of course, this all comes to a sudden end as the two separate plot-threads begin to merge, and Karen and Foggy find themselves caught up in the large-scale violence of Fisk's attack on the Russians.

The fifth episode of Daredevil felt quite a bit like a transitional episode for the season as a whole - and, as such, probably counts as the weakest episode of the season, so far. It simply becomes increasingly apparent, as we move toward the episode's end, that very little is going to be resolved, here - and that, instead, everything that we see is simply intended to set the pieces in place for the next episode.

There are still high-lights to be found in this episode, of course. The odd parallel that was previously hinted at between Matt and Wilson Fisk receives a much stronger focus, here, with the revelation that Fisk, too, genuinely seems to believe that what he is doing is for the best. Like Matt, Fisk is seemingly entirely devoted to the goal of saving Hell's Kitchen - unlike Matt, though, there are no limits on how far he is willing to go to do what he believes is right. There are, also, more great moments for Fisk on his second date with Vanessa, where his attempts to be honest with her about who he is, and what he does, further establishes him as a genuinely complex and rounded figure.

This is also, perhaps, the most overt display of Matt's particular gifts that we have seen, so far - with his ability to focus on a single, distant, conversation in a crowded police-station, and his ability to smell the blood of an open wound both working well to give the audience a clear idea of exactly what Matt Murdock is capable of. We even get out first, brief, glimpse of how the world actually looks to Matt, as he processes the information given by all of his other sense - a chaotic display which, quite literally, comes to resemble a 'world on fire'.