"Daredevil" Recap: "Kinbaku"

​Written by Scotty

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

The weather is not the only thing heating up in Hell’s Kitchen after Matt and Karen share a very special moment together.  But things cool down quickly when Matt is visited by an old friend, Elektra Natchios. Elektra is the woman he remembers her being, yet wants no part of her new offer. Finding out that she put money into the Nelson and Murdock account, Matt wants to see why she really wants him to be involved at all.  Finding a rooftop to eavesdrop from, Matt listens as Elektra plays the victim, but also hears everything that happens when the computer servers in the office go offline.  Elektra has the know how to take down the people holding her money, but for some reason, she wants Matt back.

With the Punisher in police custody, Nelson and Murdock should be thriving, yet their clients are quickly starting to dwindle.  With a quick visit from the Assistant District Attorney, Foggy has to decline his help to get Reyes’ choke hold off of the office. Foggy will not do anything that is illegal for any reason, even if it is to save his job, so he calls his old friend Marci for a drink. Knowing that he wants something else other than her pleasant company, Marci tells her old friend what she knows about the District Attorney and her plans to make a run for the Mayor’s office.  With the Punisher in chains, her next target will be the vigilante known as the Devil and with those two behind bars and the streets being run by the police once again, there will be nothing to hold her back.

Karen is having a difficult time with what the stories in the newspapers are holding back about the Punisher.  Knowing that he had a family and seeing his past accomplishments from when he was a Marine, the lack of any reporting of this is pointing to a cover-up. Checking with the paper's editor, Ellison, Karen is surprised to see that they did their research, yet none of these facts show up in their databases. Checking the old archives, paper by paper, the week that Frank Castle was put in the hospital, there is no mention of a shooting or anything about a family being slain. But this search doesn't end up being a complete waste of time, since Ellison remembers a story he tried to run around the same time about a mob shootout and when seeing the picture of the carousel in the paper and matching it with the one in Castle’s family photo, Karen is able to put the pieces together that Castle’s family was killed in the crossfire.

Most of this episode however took place in the past, showing how the relationship between Matt and Elektra came to be.  Being a young law student, Matt had a cute appeal to the rich Elektra but she needed something a little more dangerous.  Finding out what made the young man tick, Elektra keeps him on his toes and makes sure he will do what she wants him to do to keep her happy. Breaking into places becomes a thrill for them both as they confess their love for each other, but on one fateful night, Matt breaks into the wrong house. When the old crime boss Roscoe Sweeney arrives home to see two young kids in his house, he is beside himself, but Elektra has the skills and training to handle the situation. Tying up the man who put the hit on her boyfriend’s father, Elektra believes that Matt has it in himself to kill the old gangster out of revenge.  Matt is unable to and after beating the heck out of the old man, chooses to call the police instead.  But when he looks up, the young love of his life is gone and his life will have to start again.

Good backstory episode, I was starting to wonder when Elektra would make an appearance in the show. Seeing how she and Matt became an item in their youth and now with her wanting him back, it is easy to see where the disconnect was. Although Matt will never have her back, he has to worry about being charming for Karen on their first date and when it ends up going well, he needs to peel himself back just a little bit before he gets in too deep. I loved Karen’s drive in this episode, she is determined to find out why things are being left out of the reports surrounding the Punisher and her persistence pays off when she finds what she is looking for.  There is something going on behind the scenes that nobody knows about yet and whatever it is, it has to do with Frank Castle, The Punisher. 

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