"Daredevil" Recap: "Stick"

Written by Scotty

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

There are always people we look up to when growing up and in a roundabout way, they help us become the person we are today.  It does not matter if they were good people or bad, their influence puts an impression on our mind of who we should or should not be.  Hoping to be the person we want to be when growing up, we are forced to look back and make sure we are following the actions of those before us, so we can learn and be the best that we can.  Even with this being said, there are plenty of things that we can continue to learn about being our own individual person, rather than blending in with the mobs that roam the streets.

Foggy is fed up with what is happening to his city.  After the town exploded, Foggy wants to take a shot at the man in black and give him a piece of his mind.  Although Karen does not agree with this, she has to back her friend, as she still does not know who the man is, or what he is fighting for.  Matt is forced to remain quiet about the situation and just tell his legal mates to stay calm and let the police figure out what needs to be done, but he has to find a way to clear his name in the meantime.  Foggy is left on his own for the night as Karen has something that she needs to do and Matt needs to go clear his head from his recent breakup, so Foggy finds his own path.

Karen goes and meets with Ben Urich again with all of the information that she has found on her former employer.  Not being able to put all of the pieces together since the company has been broken up into several different pieces now, she will have to look harder.  Visiting Ms. Cardenas again, Karen hopes to get more information from her client about who the men were that tore her apartment up and find something the connects them to Union Allied.  With small clues, Karen is confident that she will be able to get the information to Urich and have some sort of story put together, but the heathens in Hell’s Kitchen are not resting as they put Karen in a tough place and her only hope of escape falls on Foggy once again.

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Matt is also looking for information, but his target is higher up the totem pole in the form of Leland Owlsley.  With the information he was able to get from the Russians, Owlsley controls all of the money for Fisk and knows everything that is happening in the Kitchen.  Before Matt is able to get what he wants from the old man, he hears an old sound that reminds him of the past.  Stick, his old mentor is back in town and Matt needs to find out why.  Wanting to help his old teacher out, Matt is recruited to go down to the docks and stop a shipment from reaching the Kitchen.  But Stick is not very forthcoming with what his mission really is and the old man fights by his own rules and he is prepared to leave a trail of bodies if anyone gets in his way.

Now the brunt of this episode takes place in the past as young Matt Murdock is in an orphanage fighting to stay sane with his new power set.  Stick does not let the young man take a breath and makes sure that he understands how unwilling the world is to accept him.  Training the boy, Stick is ready to take it to the next level, but Matt is still missing his father and needs one back in his life.  Thinking that Stick is the man for the job, Matt is ashamed to find out that he is not and with his mentor moving on for some twenty years, Matt is faced with the decision of what to do when he comes back.  Wanting to trust the old man, Matt knows that there is a more sinister side to him, especially when Stick asks how many people he has killed while protecting the city.  Not willing to take his form of protecting the city to the next step, Matt and Stick have a showdown that defies the ages as they are both at the top of their games.

Just another piece of the origin story for Matt Murdock as you get to see where he has learned all of his fantastic fighting moves.  Stick is a relentless character that will stop at nothing to get the job done and continues to talk about the upcoming war that the two will have to face.  I like that there is no remorse between the two men when they meet again, even though Matt seems upset.  With both men wanting to protect the city from whatever is coming next, Matt is not willing to hand over the job to his bloodthirsty mentor.  Foggy once again surprises everyone with his ability to protect the innocent as well, at least Karen.  I cannot wait to see what comes up next as Fisk has to be getting fed up with everyone coming after him, along with his streets not being any safer from the man in black.  

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