Daredevil - 'Semper Fidelis' and 'Guilty as Sin'

"It feels like something's missing."

As Frank Castle's day in court approaches, the defence team is struggling. While the women of New York City seem to love him, the men want to burn him alive*, making jury selection problematic. Matt's frequent absences to service the mystery client anger Foggy (the one who didn't want to take the case) and worry Karen, especially as Castle refuses to attempt a positive defence on grounds of PTSD or insanity** and it's hard to argue against the colossal weight of evidence that he did, you know, shoot a lot of people. Foggy is also doubtful of his ability to lead a trial, seeing Matt as the front man in court despite Karen's encouragement.

"Swear to m... Wait, that's the other guy."

In Daredevil mode, Matt is drawn further into the Yakuza investigation. Roughing up a creepy racist linguistics professor to reveal the secrets of the code he developed for the ledger, they learn that there is a shipment of something coming in by train, and set out to intercept it. What they find, however, is a box car full of sand and a truck load of Yakuza with machine guns, and after a late night of scar-comparison and first aid, Matt is late for the trial in the morning, leaving Foggy to deliver a tour de force opening statement to the effect that this court is out of order.

The last hope for the defence is to prove Reyes corruption sufficiently to force a mistrial and buy time. Unfortunately, Elektra apparently feels bad for cutting into Matt's prep time and intimidates the key witness, invalidating his testimony. Matt's double life is falling apart, that happiness he caught a glimpse of dropping away into a big, dark hole.

"Well, this feels symbolic."

And then he and Elektra find an actual hole, because it turns out that what the 'Yakuza' have been up to is digging a two-story pit under Hell's Kitchen; as you do.

As we move into 'Guilty as Sin', Matt and Elektra are attacked by ninjas whom Daredevil can't 'see', because they make no sound, not even a heartbeat. Elektra tells him to focus on their weapons, but they still get whupped until suddenly Stick drops in and kills all the ninjas. Together with references to former Yakuza boss Nobu and the Black Sky child, Stick links this all back to teasers in Season 1, and when he assures Matt that the gut-stabbed 'Ellie' has had worse, Matt realises that Elektra works for Stick, and has done since before they met.

And like that, Elektra clicks into place, her weak spoiled rich girl backstory revealed as at least a partial fabrication, her willingness to kill explained, and her own attraction to Matt made real instead of a part of her thrill-seeking persona. It's not as powerful as the Punisher's big moment, but then what is, but kudos for turning that one around.

Clancy Brown, ladies and gents.

Meanwhile, the trial is going - relatively - swimmingly. Frank's former CO describes what a God-awesome, stand-up guy Frank is; the kind who'd slaughter thirty Mujahadin to get his peeps home (I'm actually not sure how this helped, but apparently it did,) and a psychologist describes how Frank has been knocked into a state of permanent fight or flight, unable to react to anything except with sudden emotionality. With a manslaughter defence on the table, Foggy decides that Castle has to take the stand and that Matt has to lead the questioning.

Stick explains that this is all part of 'the War', and describes the history of a struggle between a vast criminal army called the Hand and the utterly ruthless but generally well-intentioned Chaste. Elektra was his student and she was supposed to bring Matt back over to them, but instead he made her soft. He encourages her to leave with him, but instead she opts to stay with Matt, the only person who thinks that she might be good. Basically in a fit of pique, Stick shows Karen straight through to the bedroom where Elektra is recuperating and then stomps off to 'get the band back together'.

"Well, that could have gone better."

Matt's questioning of Castle somehow turns into a bravura closing statement accusing the DA of corruption and the police of being overworked in the wake of the Wilson Fisk (remember him?) debacle and drawing applause from the (in-court) audience. Unfortunately, Castle chooses that moment to launch into a rant about how he's sane as anything and would totally do it all again and he's guilty so nyuh, leading to him being dragged out of court and the case for the defence collapsing. Matt thinks he was got at, but Foggy accuses him of provoking Castle and launches into a tirade worthy of 'Nelson vs. Murdock' when he learns that Matt has been moonlighting with Elektra, the woman who almost screwed his career before it began. "Stop pretending these things just happen to you," he demands, and Matt has indeed been acting as if he has no choices for a while; as if he is at the mercy of fate instead of its agent.

Then a ninja attacks. Matt defeats him, but backs off when he realises it's just a kid, only for Elektra to step in and highlight her reform into Matt's school of non-lethal vigilantism by slitting the boy's throat while he's down.

And in prison, Frank is escorted to see the man who persuaded him to sabotage his own trial.

Yay!

'Semper Fidelis' and 'Guilty as Sin' are not short on action, but they are very much the trial episodes, and this has proven divisive, with some finding the courtroom scenes too slow and dull by comparison, and others remarking that not enough was made of the process. It does feel as if the trial of the Punisher could have been a season all to itself, but they make a decent job of it here, even if I am convinced that the courtroom protocol was all over the place. The sudden ending was a bit disorienting, but brings in Fisk, which is all to the good.

'Guilty as Sin' kind of brought home what my problem with Elektra was, and it's actually not Elektra; it's Matt. It's Matt lying to his partners, to his best friend and his girlfriend, over her that makes me dislike her. Speaking of Foggy, it's interesting to see once again that the series is playing up the idea that while Matt is the hero, Foggy is the better man, and speaking of Karen, the moments between that dead-end couple were precious; every time they got into that whole thing of Matt saying that murder is wrong and Karen saying vigilantes are bad and each looking like they'd taken a gut punch I wanted to hug them both. Karen's parting shot - "This city does need heroes; but you're not one of them." - was both heartbreaking and yet another clear piece of evidence for the fact that you should tell your loved ones if you're a superhero.

I hope we don't lose Karen when she leaves what's left of Nelson and Murdock, but I can't see it would be much fun for her to stay at a firm where she's had a non-starter almost relationship with both partners.

* Seriously, the montage has a straight gender split.
** As a former law student, I especially liked that they referenced M'Naghten.