Unexpectedly reunited with her “uncle” Wilson Fisk, Maya Lopez was given the choice of reconciling with him on the fourth episode of Marvel and Disney+’s Echo. As fate would have it, her visions also led her to reunite with another estranged family member while she considered his offer.
1. Bad Adults Setting Bad Examples
Unlike the previous episodes, we open with a flashback to Maya’s own childhood in 2008, when the Kingpin was picking her up from school, only to see her being bullied by an ableist ice cream man. Fisk takes the man into an alley and brutally beats him, without even explaining why, unaware Maya has followed him, and developed a thirst for violence as a result. We then move forward to 2021, when we see Fisk have his ASL interpreter murdered after the completion of Maya’s training, to prevent her possibly squealing, reminding us of just how complicit and evil our heroine was. All in all, it’s compellingly dark stuff, although it is noticeable that all of this is placed here instead of the first episode, further indicating this show was heavily reedited after filming.
2. An Eye for an Eye (Psych)
Back in the present, Fisk’s men grab Maya outside her home, and we’re initially — and frighteningly — led to believe they’re going to cut out her eye in revenge for his head injury, only for it to turn out they’re forcing on an augmented reality contact lens, that translates Fisk’s speech into ASL. This plot device, which allows Vincent D’Onofrio to continue to rely on his voice while performing opposite Alaqua Cox, is pointed out later in the episode by Maya as being an example of Wilson’s hypocrisy, of him wanting to reconcile with her so badly despite being uninterested in learning ASL. (Don’t forget, Fisk can speak Mandarin and Japanese.) I think the fact he didn’t tell her what he was doing also reflects how he doesn’t really love her: I think he wanted her to feel afraid, to discipline her, before pulling the forgiveness card.
3. Fraught Reunion #2
The middle of this episode revolves around Maya finally reuniting with her grandmother Chula, and uncovering the secret of her ancestral powers after her visions become too overwhelming. We get a protracted flashback to the difficult circumstances of the birth of Maya’s mother, Taloa (Katarina Ziervogel), whom we learn had the ability to heal. I thought it was a little odd Chula apparently wasn’t expecting her granddaughter, given they seemed to share the same vision before Maya fell unconscious, but the end result is still a touching sequence, anchored by Cox and Tantoo Cardinal’s beautiful performances. Chula admits she abandoned Maya to the Kingpin because she reminded her too much of Taloa, and Maya’s so angry, you can’t help but wonder if she’ll fall back into Kingpin’s arms.
4. Fraught Reunion #3
Turns out that’s anything but the case, with Maya packing heat as she enters Fisk’s room at the casino. But Fisk is more than happy to indulge her desire to finish him off once and for all, a reverse psychology gambit that works, as Maya, who learns here that he killed his father, realizes it would just cement her as his heir. I imagine there was some truth to Fisk’s words though: he’s been Kingpin for at least a decade, and just before his six-month coma, he’d taken an explosive to the chest courtesy of li’l Kate Bishop, so I’d say he’s a little exhausted. More importantly, I think Fisk has always lived with the self-loathing of being “the ill intent,” instead of the Good Samaritan he always hoped to be, and knows on some level he deserves to be killed.
5. Recasting the Hammer
As a million fans have pointed out already, the hammer Fisk shows Maya is not actually the same type as the one he used to kill his father as a child. (D’Onofrio has responded, “I love that [you]’re paying attention.”) It was hilarious realizing this, given how much emphasis Marvel has placed on continuity, but totally understandable that they might not have been able to obtain the same prop. It does raise the question: did Fisk and his mother really manage to conceal the murder weapon after all these years, or does he just have a surprising flair for the dramatic? Did he take the hammer from a storage room in his apartment, or order an underling to buy one? Do rich people even engage in DIY? Answers on a postcard please.
