Resurrected, Daredevil begins to take a real good look at itself as everyone is wonder who they are, and if what they are doing is worthwhile.
“Please” was directed by Lukas Ettlin and written by Jim Dunn
1. Who Am I and What Am I Meant to Be
After pulling off a resurrection, the next obvious question to ask is, “who am I?” A question of identity that is filtered through the recurring theme this episode, “What am I meant to do?” These are fundamental character questions that form the spine of entire television series. “Please” as a singular episode isn’t capable of providing answers, but it makes for an effective theme to bind the episode together.
These are questions at the center of Matt Murdoch, or should I just start calling him Daredevil now? Season 2 burned down his life as blind lawyer Matt Murdoch, but now unable to fully be the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen, he is incapable of seeing all of the gifts he still has (a law degree.) Of course, as a character, he has always been blind in that way and given to excess. The episode and Charlie Cox’s performance walk a fine line between playing these moments as an unearned whiny pity party and having an element of emotional truth too it.
The scenes with Father Lantom in the past and present help keep things balanced. Daredevil has never really shied away from the fact that Matt is an asshole with anger issues, as seen in the Young Matt scene. In the present sequence, a partial montage of past and present, as Matt explains to Father Lantom all the pain he heard, the feeling of loss comes through. Matt is putting on a nihilistic posture, but there is a feeling of loss that he is unable to be their avenging devil. Of course he is still an excellent lawyer, and could easily help people that way, but being Daredevil is what made him special and fundamentally who he is.
2. Meet the Nelsons
With the lack of Matt to bind Foggy and Karen together, the show has to develop them as more functional characters. The best thing to happen to Karen Page in this show was her getting the job at the paper, logic of her getting Ben Urich’s office aside, in season 2. It gave her a reason to be outside of a cloying love interest to support the main character. Theoretically that’s happened to Foggy as well, with him working for Hogarth & Associates and appearing on the other shows. In actuality those appearances, while ably done, turned him into more of a function as character. Which is why getting to meet the Nelsons was such a nice humanizing moment for Foggy as a character. We get to meet his working class family, that he has economically left in the dust. It makes his identity crisis more pronounced and dramatically earned now that we see where he came from.
One of the things immediately clear in season 3 is how it acts like a more functional TV series. We get scenes that aren’t all about moody Matt or Fisk, the show is confidant enough to spend time with supporting characters outside of their traditional roles and have those moments feed into whatever overall motif that binds the episode together. Getting to see Karen work a story is nice, of course it tips her off that Matt is still alive, but it allows us to see more of Karen on her own outside of the context of Matt.
3. Action with Purpose
Two episodes in is perhaps a little early to talk about the action being improved over previous seasons, we still haven’t gotten to the requisite hallway fight yet. However, the way action has been treated thus far marks an important, but subtle, shift that comes through in the Albanian Ambush sequence that closes out the episode. It is an action sequence that serves a purpose beyond the aesthetics of cool. The Albanian Ambush is about making one thing clear: Wilson Fisk is not safe and introduce a new character.
Calling the Albanian Ambush an action sequence is perhaps a slight misnomer considering the overall lack of action we see. After waking up from the crash, Wilson Fisk and the camera are locked in the car. Functionally it’s the reverse of the attack on Nick Fury from Winter Solider, where that sequence was all about Nick Fury super spy having gadgets to get away, this one is all about the lack of escape options. By locking the camera on the perspective of Wilson Fisk it makes the feeling of tension and claustrophobia more visceral as we only get glimpses of the gun battle taking place. Vincent D’Onofrio plays the sequence well with a look of freight on his face, but always looking for away to find advantage. As the Albanians begin to saw open his door he moves over to the sparks and seems to try and get the sparks to somehow break through his bindings. There isn’t a moment of true despair, but the staging allows for you to imagine that moment coming in the next couple of seconds.
Continued belowMatt’s run in at the dry cleaners follows a similar tight track. The Choreography is less stylish, he might not be doing flips anymore, but it tells us about where Matt is: functional and in need of some help. In an earlier season it would’ve been the kind of sequence that looked cool because an emphasized the punishment endured.
4. Hitting the Bullseye
There was a consistent low smattering of gunshots early on, but as the sequence continues one of them becomes more pronounced. Measured, with the odd clanging sound of metal on metal, ricocheting off one another. Enter F.B.I. Agent Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter aka Bullseye, played by Wilson Bethel; or if you’re my Dad you keep calling him “That Deadshot Guy.” Normally this is where the camera would cut to the outside and capture the future Bullseye doing that thing he does in spectacular fashion. We don’t get that here, we’re still trapped with Fisk, and the sequence is better for it. There is a greater sense of awe that is created by only partially seeing Bullseye get 360 no scopes (or whatever the new rage is in those BattleRoyale games) on everyone. The camera voyeuristically follows Poindexter the best it can through the windows of the car. It reduces is action down to their deadly, still spectacular, results.
The Ambush sequence had two goals, show Wilson Fisk in legitimate peril and introduce a well-known third party to the mix. It achieved both of those goals, because the staging and overall sequence was about telling a story within the scene not just being a cool action sequence.
5. You come at the king, you best not miss
Omar’s motto comes to mind when considering the episodes prologue sequence. Put aside the high likelihood that it was all part of Wilson Fisk’s master plan because he plays 3D chess. Look at Vincent D’Onofrio, he might not be in Magnificent Seven shape, but, really, a shank that size is going to do meaningful damage to him?! His attacker didn’t even have proper shanking technique. He came at the King and missed. It says something about the level of violence portrayed on the show where a violent character choosing not to smash a person’s head in with a blunt object is a real sign of restraint.
