5. EP13: “A Cold Day in Hell’s Kitchen”
An imperfect episode with great moments, a microcosm of the show: impressive but flawed. Why showrunners feel they must save comic-defining features like Daredevil’s billy-club or Punisher’s skull symbol for finale is depressingly arbitrary. The Hand are cool visually but their motives are either too vague or make no sense. Either way, the only one they bothered to name – Peter Shinkoda’s Nobu – was such a cipher he was plot function rather a character. So when he kills Elektra (a powerful moment even in the terrible movie), it feels largely incidental. And the show wastes no time showing that it won’t last so what emotional impact there was is drained.
This all is the negative stuff, I realize but it speaks to the strength of what works that it feels like a balance. Carrie-Anne Moss’s cameo is sweetly surprising. Foggy and Karen seem like self-actualized characters finally. The Matt/Elektra heart-to-heart is well-done by both Charlie Cox and Elodie Yung and Punisher pulling a Han Solo for Daredevil was a fist-pump moment. While not technically renewed, it seems obvious there will be a season 3 and when that comes, it may payoff or clarify some of the issues I mentioned.
