Daredevil '.380', 'The Dark at the End of the Tunnel' and 'A Cold Day in Hell's Kitchen'

What does it say that SBL now looks like Foggy's absolute BFF?

As we hit the final stretch, all hell breaks loose, so I'm not sure if I'm going to keep this all in order.

Ninjas attack the hospital, not to kill the donor kids but to 'rescue' them, murdering two security guards and a nurse to do it. In the aftermath, Claire discovers that the ninja she pushed out of a window had already been autopsied once and then quits rather than take part in the administration cover up. Foggy gets a visit from Slutty Blonde Lawyer, who has been so reasonable this season that I feel I ought to use her name (Marci Stahl), and who makes an offer to float his name, as people have been impressed by his handling of the Castle case, even if ultimately they lost.

Yes, she's back from 'further than China'.

Karen lies about the Punisher's presence at the latest shooting and is put in protective custody, which she ditches to meet up with Castle. He takes her to a diner where they talk, until he tells her to get everyone under cover as someone is going to try to kill him. He takes out the shooters and tortures them for information on the Blacksmith before finishing them. Meanwhile, Daredevil gets the same info from Madame Gao, the Blacksmith's last real rival.

Frank hits the Blacksmith's heroine shipment and corners what appears to be the boss, but Daredevil appears and tells him that the man is lying. Then a contingent of heavily armed shooters pop up and open fire, blowing up the ship Frank has rigged, killing all of the shooters and apparently Castle in one Kaiser Soze of a blast. Disconsolate, Karen isn't sure what to do with her story, but her editor advises her to find the new story: The real Frank Castle.

Once more, Clancy Brown.

To find out who that is, she visits Castle's former CO, Colonel Schoonover. He tells her about the camaraderie of soldiers and about Frank's knack for impressions, but the heartwarming stuff is somewhat spoiled when Karen spots a photograph of the Colonel's unit and recognises one of the shooters from the docks. She tries to get away, but Schoonover is not fooled and holds a gun on her. He gets her to drive out into the woods, but the car is t-boned by a pick-up after Karen receives a nod from the not-as-dead-as-you-might-think Frank Castle in the form of an overly-loud in-car cassette soundtrack.

Three's a crowd.

Elsewhere, Elektra takes out Stick's followers and Matt is only just able to stop her from killing Stick. They are then attacked by ninjas who kidnap Stick. Matt goes after him, following advice from Foggy in a slightly awkward non-reconciliation scene to look for disused subway tunnels. The ninjas stop using weapons so that Daredevil can't track them, but Stick tells him to use their infrequent breaths. When Elektra shows up to kill Stick, however, it becomes clear that the Hand were after her all along, as she is the Black Sky (or a Black Sky; I'm really unclear on this, especially as apparently the Hand serves the Black Sky instead of seeking to control them.)

They bust out after Matt persuades Elektra that no-one gets to dictate her destiny, and Nobu orders the death of Daredevil.

Carrie-Anne Moss visits for a patented Daredevil 'talk across a table', which
is rapidly becoming the series' version of the West Wing's walk and talk.

Foggy gets a job with Hogarth, Chao and Benowitz (Jessica Jones' sometime employers) with a possible partnership in the future.

Karen sees Frank execute Schoonover in the latter's cabin in the woods, which turns out to contain a secret arsenal. Karen runs back to the city, where she is kidnapped by the Hand along with nineteen other people who were saved by Daredevil. One, the ex-marine from earlier this season, is murdered for speaking out, and the others taken to a disused building, but Karen persuades tragicomic repeat offender Turk Barrett (the small time gun seller who is regularly roughed up by Daredevil*) to activate his lo-jack.

Love triangles are the Devil's work.

The police arrive and fall into a standoff, but Daredevil frees the hostages, armed with his new billy club (which is so Batman it's basically magic) and Elektra shows up to help, also kitted out by Melvin. They fight just so many ninja, and also Nobu. Ultimately, Elektra takes a death blow meant for Matt and considers it a triumph, taking the Black Sky away from the Hand. Daredevil fights Nobu as the other ninjas are picked off by the Punisher and ultimately throws him off the roof to his death.

Not that the fall kills Nobu, but Stick is waiting there to cut his head off.

So peaceful. Not going to last.

We wrap up with Frank blowing up his house and walking off, having decorated a set of body armour with the image of his own skull. Stick and Matt bury Elektra, and the Hand dig her up and put her in the coffin that they feed blood to. Foggy closes the tab at Josie's. Karen delivers a piece on heroism for the paper, to the effect that the rest of the world can fuck off: New Yorkers are heroes just for daring to leave their apartment to buy coffee (okay, actually it's written to New Yorkers, and especially Hell's Kitcheners, telling them to be proud of their cesspool of a neighbourhood and doesn't put anyone else down.) I suspect it would have been more moving if it hadn't been so reminiscent of a Denis Leary monologue.

"For identification purposes, I am not in a love triangle."

Matt meets up with Karen at the defunct offices of Nelson & Murdock and tells her he is Daredevil, which would have been more touching if he hadn't just got through telling Elektra that she makes him feel more alive than anything else in the world. I hate love triangles; they always sell someone short. It is however an interesting parallel with the finale of last season, which closed on Matt truly becoming the Daredevil. Here, although he says, 'I'm Daredevil', he's actually exposing Matt Murdock to Karen's unveiled scrutiny.

So, that's season 2 of Daredevil, and volume three of the MCU 'street' division. It wasn't as strong a series as the first, with the Hand in particular a weaker antagonist than Wilson Fisk because they were too mysterious, and because their origins were frankly too distant and hazy to be relevant. Both Matt and Elektra basically poo-pooed most of the legends of the Hand from start to finish, because they basically have no place in this street-level universe. Also, what's up with that hole?

My guess: They were looking for Reva Connors' flash drive and got carried away.

And then we have a Luke Cage teaser, complete with gratuitous rap. It's good to know they're not defining that character by race.

* Apparently Barrett is appearing in Luke Cage, so I'm guessing his move to Harlem isn't going to work out as well as he hopes.