Daredevil reaches the penultimate episode as they take one last shot at bringing down Fisk the right way. Meanwhile, someone returns to Wilson’s life and he finds a new James Wesley.
1. Because I took the Bait, on Agent Nadeem
When Jay Ali first showed up as Agent Nadeem, I didn’t expect his character to be treated or go the way it went. OK, maybe not fully, since I was pretty sure he was going to get killed eventually and that finally happened in the finale of this episode. Normally his type of character, a down on his luck FBI agent in need of money would be easy fodder to flipping and aiding Fisk. And he did, but the writers and Jay Ali never let the character fall into stock character status. He was eager, and got played, but they made sure you understood the why of his actions. He just wanted his son to see him as something more than an average federal agent, and provide for his family.
They never fully let the character off the hook. His wife pretty much rejects him, not really for the gun battle but the lying that made that shootout possible. He still would’ve gone to jail, because not saying anything about the various major crimes he witnessed is just as bad as being coerced into abetting them. Superhero shows always have a messed up moral compass since they have to reinforce the righteousness of the lead hero. Letting Nadeem keep his moral compass mostly intact was a nice, effective, call. Of course with him dead and the Grand Jury compromised, pretty certain Matt is just going to go kill Fisk now because he has no other choice.
For a show that is generally tilted towards melodrama, but always a bit too reserved as it stretched toward “prestige,” Ali’s breakdown as Matt grills him with hard simple questions was phenomenal.
2. Vanessa is Back and she wants In
In last week’s post, and to a degree throughout this seasons recap, it’s been made clear that Wilson Fisk doesn’t really love (or understand) people. What he likes are things, accoutrements, that signify good things about him. In spite of his failure to fully appreciate their deeper meaning. His actions aren’t that far off from the Collector. Vanessa comes back this episode, the ghostly personification of love now returns in the flesh and he cannot control her in this way. As she walks through their apartment she is constantly framed in between things, caged in by them. While she is displayed along with his other things, Ayelet Zurer does an excellent job showing her growing frustration with the arrangement, she is back but she is still apart from the man she loves.
Relationships in TV, film, media in general are a funny thing, I rarely find them effectively done. It isn’t a matter of the two subjects lack a chemistry together, it’s that chemistry is often used as justification for that coupling. Jason Momoa and Amber Heard have a real good dynamic in Aquaman, and the film dose nothing to justify their big romantic kiss in the end. To make a relationship like this work, or any type of relationship, you need to show why these two people would want to be together. Daredevil did that when they first introduced Elektra, she saw Matt for who he really was in a way Karen Paige couldn’t (the show than proceeded to chop that relationship and Elektra’s character into bits but it was effective at the start.) Showrunner Erik Oleson and episode scribe Sam Ernst do the same thing for Vanessa and Wilson in “One Last Shot,” and I’ll be darned if it isn’t effective. Vanessa gives Wilson the same speech he gave Dex, about seeing his true self and accepting him for it. That is a weird feeling, Wilson Fisk is a monster and yet you get why/how that relationship works and if not like, respect, it to a degree.
Seeing someone for who they are and being with them are too different things. Vanessa wants in on the life. Obviously, she has seen The Godfather and knows what happens when you cut Kay out of the picture. That is a decision that may cost Wilson everything, it disrupts the orderly path he’s been on.
Continued below3. Stepping off the Path
With only one episode left, “One Last Shot” gives a trio of characters some very similar stuff to work through as they consider the choices that led them to this place.
As Agent Nadeem and Matt are ferried to the court house, the FBI agent wants to understand how this vigilante-lawyer does it. Agent Nadeem broke bad for three weeks, and it ruined his life. Matt has been doing this for years and he seems to have it all. Of course this sequence is highly ironic since Matt just barely ever had “it” together. The scene is a fun riff on the overall superhero trope of explaining how they do it, because as season 2, The Defenders, and this season have shown, the life dose nothing but destroy you. Cox is excellent in the scene, though his eyes are obscured by his glasses, his overall body language tells the story of a guy who fully understands how little he has had “it” of late. On why his friends are still around, his sheepish reply that it was them (Foggy and Karen) not him in the end that made it work, made this seasonal arc work. In the end Matt learned his lesson that keeping people out and away is a bad thing.
Something Agent Nadeem fully learns as his wife all but disowns him in the name of their son. His lies aren’t all that far removed from the kind Matt told in season 1 and 2, or any of these shows.
Wilson also steps off the path by letting Vanessa in on his criminal actions. I’m not a lawyer, but she’s definitely an accessory now. For Wilson stepping off this path must surely lead to his doom, his entire operation is built on fear and people doing the things exactly as planned. One little failure and everything is starting to come apart, the seams already stretched during “Reunion” at the church.
4. The New James Wesley, or Won’t Somebody Rid me of this turbulent Painting Owner.
In 1170 A.D. Henry II wondered allowed about a meddlesome priest, and four knights went and did his indirect bidding and murdered Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury. We never see Wilson wonder allowed if someone could rid him of that meddlesome painting owner, Esther Falb. Instead it looks like Dex, in his bid to become James Wesley 2.0, took it upon himself. Taking the initiative isn’t how Fisk’s organization works, and while this action likely won’t have major consequences in bringing them down, it is another sign of how all it takes is one small misstep to bring things down. The consequences in this case are Vanessa noticing the small bloodstain on the frame and feeling further isolated from her partner.
5. Wilson Finally Gets to Make that Omelet
It’s the little things and Wilson finally got to make his omelet. The process wasn’t the glossy food porn montage it was normally shown in, but getting to make that omelet was further proof that he had achieved his goal.
