Episode 8: “Guilty as Sin”
Stick! Oh, how I’ve missed every crack and crevice on Scott Glenn’s face. This is the episode we find out what the trailer’s spoiled – it’s not the Yakuza but the Hand, the sworn enemies of the Chaste, which is Stick’s crew. The war between them is the same one brewing in Hell’s Kitchen, the same he ominously referred to in his titular episode last year. And Elektra, it turns out, is at the center of it as a student of Stick’s, a fact hilariously unknown to Matt until right now. I applaud the show for fully committing to the mythological nature of the conflict.
Clancy Brown is another stellar character actor to show up as Frank’s former CO in the Marines called on to be a character witness at Frank’s trial. Even better, it’s another chance to utterly humiliate the hate-sink of a DA. It might have all been worth it though because Woll’s scenes with Bernthal are great, drawing different sides of either character. Meanwhile, the Matt-is-a-jerkoff tour continues, as his dual identities set fire to his relationships with Foggy and Karen. In a way, the courtroom scene where Matt delivers his closing statement and is immediately upstaged by Frank’s declaration of insanity is a microcosm of this season so far.
I spoke of the show’s aptitude teases last episode, and they pull the ultimate one here! Castle’s trial-ending tantrum was engineered by none other than Wilson Fisk! Vincent D’Onofrio is back, baby!
