Daredevil - 'Kinbaku' and 'Regrets Only'

"I'll be honest, this isn't my ideal date."

Much of the episode 'Kinbaku' takes place in flashbacks to Matt's relationship with Elektra, a rich girl he met while in college. She was wild, impulsive and passionate, bringing the tight-wound Matt out of himself, and she kidnapped his father's killer and encouraged Matt to murder the man in cold blood. For shiggles.

In the present day, Nelson & Murdock struggles with a dying caseload, but Elektra offers a princely sum for helping her in negotiations with Roxxon's Japanese division. while she claims to need a lawyer, it quickly becomes apparent that actually she is setting herself up for a brawl with the company's majority Yakuza shareholders. When Matt goes to confront her for trying to drag her into her business, he hears gunfire from below them and she dumps his Daredevil costume on the table.

It's time to dress up right."

We open 'Regrets Only' therefore with a Yakuza fight which, while technically excellent lacks a lot of the intense brutality which has been the hallmark of the series' truly great action scenes. Given her knowledge of his identity, Matt agrees to work with Elektra once, on the condition that no-one is killed; at least by them.

Meanwhile, Karen persuades Matt to persuade Foggy to take a new defence client: Frank Castle. The public defender assigned to him is deep in DA Reyes' pocket and Reyes is looking for a complete whitewash and a change of venue to see the Punisher executed across state lines and secure her political future as an anti-vigilante crusader. Slutty Blonde Lawyer admits to Foggy that Reyes is already gunning for one Jennifer Jones and plans to go after the Devil of Hell's Kitchen once the Punisher is dealt with. Karen is determined to see that he gets real justice and is represented as the tragic figure he is and not as an unmitigated psychopath.

The series continues to grind at my parental emotional
vulnerabilities.

While largely only willing to talk to Karen, after a long and heart-wrenching spell of reminiscence, Frank is persuaded to take a deal which will assure a single life sentence with a possibility of parole, only for him to flip on them at the arraignment, plead not guilty and swear that Reyes will 'burn with me', hinting that she might have been involved directly with covering up the facts surrounding his family's death (in a crossfire between the three gangs he was targeting,) concealing his military career and head wound, and putting a DNR order on him when he was hospitalised. Reyes moves heaven and earth to speed the trial forward, and Castle agrees, apparently eager for his day in court.

Elsewhere, Matt is playing superspies and... Man, this stuff is weird. It's taking the series outside its comfort zone, and not entirely successfully. Matt helps Elektra steal a keycard so that they can break into an office and locate a secret vault which I almost expected to contain Malcolm Merlin's Black Arrow costume. Elektra is clearly intent on being a bad influence on Matt, but I worry that the character is Yokoing the show.

In the aftermath of their theft of a ledger, the boss hints that he might not actually be Yakuza, so I wonder if they are actually the Hand or if Elektra is currently with the Hand and the 'Yakuza' are associated with their enemies. I guess we'll find out. For now, however, I find Elektra to be a far less compelling addition to the show than Frank Castle and we still don't really have a proper villain for the season.