Netflix’s newest original series, “Daredevil” debuted April 10, with all 13 episodes of the Marvel Comic adaptation’s first season available on the streaming service. Ed Carroll will review each episode here on Monkeys Fighting Robots without fear and let you know if the latest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe meets the lofty standards of its predecessors. There are more Daredevil review links at the bottom of the post.
Daredevil’s 12th episode, “The Ones We Leave Behind,” continued the show’s run of excellent television, as we saw Karen cope with the consequences of killing Wesley last episode and Daredevil effectively eliminating Gao and her heroin from the equation.
There were a few other developments, but I’ve really come around on Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page. Her performance featured nightmares and binge drinking, yes, but the fear was definitely believable. She’s also consistently been calling both Matt and Foggy out on their crap. It really sucked to have this fight extended through another episode, but at least this time both Matt and Foggy made some progress into finding dirt on Fisk. At least Foggy doesn’t think Daredevil is a terrorist anymore.
Foggy made an interesting play, giving Marci some information on her employer’s relationship with Fisk, in an attempt to have her reclaim her soul. It was a bit of a reach that Foggy would think giving Marci sensitive material, but it makes more sense considering those scenes where we saw Foggy hooking up with her in previous episodes.
As for Matt, we didn’t get the actual Daredevil suit yet (guess that’s in the finale), but we got to see more of Gao’s creepy heroin factory, and the people who had apparently chosen to be blind. Gao also appeared to pull her operations out of Hell’s Kitchen, so assuming we don’t see her next episode, she’s still in play for a return in a potential season two. 
That said, this felt really anti-climatic, as the heroin facility was surprisingly under guarded. Murdock is in a pretty bad state, physically for sure, but probably mentally, too, so they probably couldn’t throw too much at him at this point.Also, it looks like Matt might be ready to let Karen in on his secret, too, and maybe that will bring Foggy back into the fold to get the gang together again.
Fisk had an up-and-down episode, with Vanessa woke up (yay!) and spoke to Wilson … and she refused to leave and demanded to stay by his side, as well as expect that Fisk will make whoever poisoned her pay. I’m just happy to see the power couple alive and back in action. We viewers got confirmation that, yes, Leland was working with Gao to poison Vanessa and not Fisk, because they felt she was a distraction. Fisk is still unaware of this, but he did find out about Wesley’s death and later saw his body. Also, Fisk beating the crap out of Frankie was disturbing, but it did once again show how ruthless Fisk can be (and how he often can’t control his anger).
Bloggin’ Ben Ulrich really got a chance to shine, as he tried to get his editor to approve the article he wrote about Fisk’s mother. Ben (correctly) called out his editor for being on Fisk’s payroll, but a visit to his wife changed his thinking about blogs a little. It was a really nice moment for his wife to convince him to keep going and to keep telling the truth. Which made what followed so absolutely heartbreaking to watch.
I’m so sad I’ll never get to embrace Ben Ulrich, blogger. I seriously would watch a series based off that alone. But once the camera panned out to reveal Fisk was sitting in the shadows of Ben’s living room, the grim gloom became obvious.
Ben and Fisk’s conversation, pre-strangulation, was pretty revealing to viewers, both in terms of confirming that yes, Ben’s editor was on Fisk’s payroll, but also what Fisk doesn’t know about the investigation: namely, of Karen’s involvement in Wesley’s death. This could provide Nelson & Murdock, Attorneys at Law some much-needed breathing room to dig up more dirt (or at least not be immediately killed by Fisk), and for Matt’s body armored symbol to be ready. It’s gonna be exciting when Daredevil finally gives us, well, Daredevil.
But losing Ben sucks, and Vondie Curtis-Hall had a good, updated spin on the character, who has long been involved in both Daredevil and Spider-Man comics. Ben often provided the level-headed reason that Murdock, Foggy and Karen usually needed. Curtis-Hall and Woll in particular seemed to work really well together, and some of Karen’s best scenes have been with Ulrich. But I suppose Murdock needed to take one more gut-punch before the finale, and given Ulrich was a journalist and likely to be a persistent thorn in Fisk’s side, it made sense that he would be the one killed off, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it.
One episode to go. Can’t wait for the costume reveal.
Watching Daredevil on Netflix, too? Leave a comment and let us know what you think and feel free to tweet Ed -@EdTheRevelator
You can find his review of episode one here.
Click here for his review of episode two.
Read his thoughts on the jaw-dropping episode three here.
Ed’s review of the fourth episode is here.
Click here for Ed’s review of the explosive fifth episode.
Episode six was dripping with suspense, Ed’s review is here.
A familiar face from the comics debuted in episode seven, read Ed’s thoughts here.
Ed’s thoughts on episode eight are right here.
Ed thought episode nine was another standout, his thoughts are here.
Ed leaned how to turn on subtitles just in time for his review of episode 10 here.
Episode 11 helped prepare characters for the finale, Ed’s review is here.
