With a title like “Aftermath” it’s pretty clear what to expect going into the latest episode of Daredevil. However, that interest in the fallout from a previous episode doesn’t make it a rote continuation of plot as is so often the case.
1. Doing it Right
“The Devil You Know” and “Aftermath” are similar to the pairing of “Please” and “No Good Deed” in that their connections in narrative time is so close that the pairings become viewed, implicitly, as duology. This perspective wasn’t a good look for “No Good Deed” as it highlighted the habit of these Netflix Originals of falling into 24 style writing traps of moving the plot forward without pushing the emotional narrative. The pairing of “The Devil You Know” and “Aftermath” is an example of doing that kind of close plotting right. “Aftermath” is derived from the events of “The Devil You Know” but it isn’t a strict continuation of them, it functions as an episode by itself with a motif binding things together. It tells a different emotional story compared to the last one.
If there is one slight let down of this episode, it’s that director Toa Fraser didn’t get to do more. He is an all around solid action television hand and dramatist, but his films like The Dead Lands show what he can do with more room.
2. In the Aftermath
Episode scribe Sarah Streicher takes the title of the episode literally and structures the episode around a series of debrief conversations. This is literally the case when Nadeem questions Foggy and Karen.
Matt-Maggie: Maggie has been a, sarcastic, rock for Matt. In the aftermath of Bullseye’s attack on the Bulletin both of them shoulder some of the blame. Their conversation shows how far Matt has come from his ornery attitude at the start of the season.
Matt-Himself: The Devil on his shoulder is back and it isn’t letting him off the hook.
Karen-Mitchell Ellison: Daredevil is starting to run into the identity paradox on the show as this privileged information gets Karen possibly fired. Geoffrey Cantor brings some good raw anger as his character tries to assert some sort of control in the wake of his staff being brutally attacked.
Foggy-Marci: Man this scene goes places. It starts off solid as Foggy, exhausted, comes home before turning into manic episode of love making. The aftermath of which is so weirdly non-sexual, after a scene away we cut back to them, and other than Marci buttoning her shirt up there is no signs of anything. There is no Aftermath. Foggy’s mania continues into the creation of a Big Floor of Crazy™ and the promise of what Fisk is doing.
Nadeem-Fisk: Their tête-à-tête becomes a bit of a thriller as the show plays up audience knowledge of Fisk’s secret room and Nadeem’s entrance in the background. The framing of their conversation, with the extreme closeup of Fisk’s face, negotiates the inherent power dynamics displayed by their staging. Fisk is sitting, Nadeem is standing tall. Yet their framing places them on roughly the same level with. This show and Jay Ali continue to walk a fine line between giving Nadeem reason to push for Fisk and still have him be a good guy who isn’t cartoonishly corrupt.
These scenes help to keep the episode moving forward and show multiple reactions to the event. Matt and Karen are taking things in similar fashions but represent it differently. Nadeem is getting suspicious and so on. This format allowed this episode to be its own thing With the amount of pairings in this episode, I can’t imagine an episode like it really working in prior seasons. The cast has more freedom of movement and interaction besides going through the Matt Nexus.
3. Calling Home
Despite being around from the start audiences don’t really know that much about Karen Paige. With this being a riff on “Born Again” I’m hesitant to see how the show chooses to integrate (or not) certain elements of Karen’s comic past. The show has brought up the death of her brother, and with an upcoming episode entitled “Karen,” that will surely be when the secret origin of Karen Paige is revealed. Hopefully they change some stuff from the comics.
Continued belowUntil then, our biggest clue is Karen’s call home in the aftermath of the attack. You could argue it follows the debrief formula but it is rather short in comparison. There isn’t much to talk about before her Dad makes a not so veiled dig at her. Man, her Dad is not a good dude. Karen and Matt are one somewhat mirrored paths after the Bulletin attack, but unlike Matt she is not afforded the chance to go home and remake herself.
4. Fisk Triumphant and He has a Dungeon Panic Room
“Aftermath” starts off in typical Daredevil by perusing through a main characters living quarters. It is different this time since it’s Fisk going to “bed” after a meeting with his lawyer. Being the end of day you might expect it to be a mirror to the start, the beginnings functioned as sequences of making it stands to reason going to bed would function as sort of demaking. With Wilson Fisk that theory doesn’t hold true, instead it reinforces the performance he is giving (to the FBI and for his ideal ego) as it highlights the accoutrements that make him Kingpin. As he makes his way through his apartment sized closet, Fisk stops to notice himself in the mirror and gaze upon his ideal self. He lovingly grazes his fingers across his white suit jackets. All of these things are molding him into the ideal man he sees in the mirror but will never able to obtain.
The sequence also answers a question I’m surprised they bothered with, how did Kingpin get on the computer and torment Matt back in “Blindsided.” He’s gone full super villain with his own secret layer and assistant! In our current surveillance state the ability to gaze without knowledge is the ultimate power, and Kingpin with his five screens seems to have all of it.
5. Lying Makes You a Hero?
Superhero shows due to the bifurcated identities involved have lots of lying in them. Which inevitably leads to anger like the kind expressed by Ellison. Agent Nadeem doesn’t have a mask to fall back on, he’s an institutional good guy, which is why he sucks at lying. Something his wife calls him out on privately and barely five minutes after promising to not lie to her anymore he proceeds to lie to her. It’s a white lie, but still in an episode that doesn’t have many humorous beats the irony comes through quite strong.
