"Daredevil" Recap: "Shadows in the Glass"

Written by Scotty

One of the things I love about making new friends is being given a little bit of insight to where they are from.  Sometimes when meeting the family, you get a great idea of who your new friend will be in the following years, but for me, it is seeing where they grew up.  A person’s childhood house has more character than you can imagine.  You know that saying, ‘if walls could talk?’ it does hold a ton of meaning when you are actually able to understand what they are telling you. 

As Matt Murdock is trying to recover from the battle with his old teacher, he is still trying to find out more about what is happening behind the curtain of Hell’s Kitchen.  Knowing that Wilson Fisk is behind whatever the master plan is, Matt has to find a way to bring the powerhouse into the public eye.  While Foggy and Karen are having their own issues, trying to tie together the loose pieces of Union Allied, Matt gets sucked into the intrigue and starts feeding a bit of his own research to the team.  Knowing more than his friends do about what is happening around the city, he is able to give them a little push in the right direction.

Wilson Fisk is having more problems than the man in the back mask as his business relationships are falling apart.  After gang leader Nobu’s cargo was compromised at the docks, the triad wants to renegotiate his deal with him.  Fisk does not want to back down from any of the threats that are being thrown towards him, but needs help to regain control over the situation.  With help from his longtime friend James Wesley, Fisk will be back to his old self in no time, but when his mind starts to wander, all of his fears go away.  Needing to break his friend out of the funk he is in, Wesley brings Fisk a visitor that might be able to change the man’s mind about what is happening and how to deal with it.  

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Matt Murdock has taken back to the streets and wants to get answers as soon as possible. With everyone in the city thinking that he is a cop killer and set off all of the bombs that eliminated the Russian mob, he will have to tread lightly.  Hearing that one of the officers that was shot is going to be ok, Murdock decides to visit the hospital and be the one who the crooked cop talks to.  But to his surprise, the officer's partner shows up and finishes the job that no one else could do.  Subduing the cop, Murdock is talks to the now dying officer and gets more valuable information about Fisk and the operation that has been hidden from the public.  Finding Ben Urich, Murdock relies the information to the old reporter with hopes it will bring the most powerful man in Hell’s Kitchen out and let the people see who he really is.  But Wilson Fisk has a different idea and takes matters into his own hands.

Now on to what this episode was really focusing on.  This was a Wilson Fisk episode with no doubt.  Looking back at the man’s past in the city with a loving mother and abusive father.  Thinking that he was learning how to be a man from his pop, Bill Fisk, Wilson found out how to survive and get people to leave you alone.  Bill had his boy learn what it means to be a man and not let anyone take advantage of him, no matter what.  Beating the heck out of a neighborhood boy, Wilson knows he has the power to protect himself, but when his father started to beat his wife once again, Wilson has had enough and decides to stop it the way his father taught him.  Telling this story to his girlfriend Vanessa, Wilson does not ask for forgiveness, just understanding of what he is trying to do with his old city.  With so many people finding his hidden fortress, Wilson knows that he will have to be seen by the public before someone else places his head a pedestal. 

Although this was a slow episode, it did not lack in story, much less emotions.  Watching the terrors that Fisk has to go through on an everyday basis, it makes him more human that he would care to be. I am ok with this, but I will admit that the flashbacks are getting a little old these days and that is something that killed my love for another show.  Really though I do like getting to know your villain and why he is who he is.  Although the information will not be shared with Murdock or anyone else that will be able to use it against him, I am sure the Fisk wishes that none of it ever happened in the first place.  The pages just keep opening and you learn something new every show.  I don’t want it to end, I really wish it was an ongoing show with a ton of episodes, but alas, it will do so shortly and I will have to find something new to get caught up in.

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