Daredevil: Season 2, Episode 8 – “Guilty As Sin”

It seems like with each passing episode, Daredevil’s splintering into two distinct stories that have little to do with one another. At the heart of this season are Foggy (Elder Henson), Karen (Deborah Ann Woll), and Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal), fighting against the corruption of the district attorney’s office, as well as fighting for truth, justice, and forgiveness. On the other hand, Matt (Charlie Cox) and Elektra (Elodie Yung) are off gallivanting on their own, battling ninjas and reveling in violence. For being the show’s titular hero, Matt’s quickly losing both my interest and my sympathies; it actually feels like he’s being relegated to some weird subplot while Frank captures the viewers’ hearts.

This isolation might be purposeful, attempting to emphasize how Elektra is bringing Matt into her world of shadows and secrecy, and pulling himt away from his friends and his humanity. Either way, it’s still difficult to watch the complicated and compelling hero we loved from last season fall apart, becoming unlikeable and, dare I say, a little bit boring.

We pick up where we left off last episode, but before we can learn anything about the giant hole in the ground, Matt and Elektra are attacked by another band of faceless ninjas (is the marginalization of Asians in this show ever going to improve?). In the midst of all the fighting, Matt commands Elektra to not kill anyone, allowing a ninja to slash her belly with a poisoned blade. Good one, Matt. Looks like this is another tick in the pro column for the Punisher’s methods.

Matt’s extreme adherence to his no-killing policy really comes into question when self-defense is involved, and certainly, a lot of the fighting that happens with his enemies are done out of self-defense. Like Karen said earlier, there is merit to the argument that it may be necessary to kill someone to prevent that person from killing others, and self-defense definitely falls into that category. Daredevil and the Punisher are two sides of the extreme on the vigilante scale of justice, one irrationally clinging to saving the lives of criminals, and the other killing criminals without any kind of reservation. Hopefully, Daredevil will be able to find the balance between the two by season’s end.

Matt’s former mentor, Stick (Scott Glenn), shows up to not only save Elektra and Matt in the nick of time, but also shed light on the ninjas they’ve been battling. In between sips of tea, Stick trades barbs with Matt while alluding to the ominous war he keeps saying is happening. Matt can’t help but bristle at Stick’s self-righteousness, calling him a “sick old fighter dying to hit people”, and accusing him of making up stories in order to justify his behavior. Matt’s one to talk, though, and I think reacquainting with Elektra is doing nothing but bringing out that darker side in Matt’s alter-ego — the one that enjoys the fight and the violence as much as the justice.

Despite Matt’s accusations, Stick really does have a reason for being in Hell’s Kitchen, and finally reveals to his protégé his life’s purpose through some heavy-handed exposition. Apparently, since the ancient times, there has been a war going on between a group called The Hand (the evil ninjas) and Stick’s gang, called The Chaste. These two rival gangs have been fighting for years over the secret of immortality, and all the while The Hand has been amassing mysterious weapons like “Black Sky”.

This is all well and good, and even a little bit intriguing, but again, it doesn’t seem like it should have anything to do with Daredevil. This show has always been about protecting the people of Hell’s Kitchen, the ones who are often overlooked by the big superheroes and who have to deal with day-to-day corruption and crime. A secret, mystical war between two East Asian gangs is so far removed from what Daredevil should be paying attention to that it’s hard to really care about the outcome. Stick does allude to the fact that the Hand has “plans” for Hell’s Kitchen, but right now this subplot feels like it belongs on another show.

Stick’s not done with revealing secrets, though. The final blow is his admission that he trained Elektra and gave her a mission: to bring Matt back into the fold. Matt’s devastated that he was nothing more than a target to her, but Elektra confesses that she genuinely fell in love with him. Judging by Matt’s palpable fear earlier when Elektra was poisoned, he obviously feels the same way about her. Out of love, Matt tells her to leave Stick and join his side, believing in her ability to change and shed her assassin ways. In a touching moment, Elektra repeats this belief to Stick, telling him to leave because she is choosing the only person in the world who believes she is good.

Of course, just as everything seems calm and at peace between Matt and Elektra, they’re attacked by a ninja who had been following them throughout the episode. Matt quickly stops fighting once he realizes the ninja is just a young boy, but doesn’t succeed in stopping Elektra from mercilessly slicing his throat. Matt’s horrified as Elektra nervously asks him if he still wants her, blood splattered on her shirt, breathless from the thrill of the fight. Perhaps this is Elektra’s biggest secret: that she’s a killer, irredeemable and psychotic.

Matt isn’t the only one upset at Elektra. When Karen goes to Matt for help in questioning Frank, she walks in on a bizarre scene consisting of an old man eating an apple and an injured woman lying in Matt’s bed. She’s obviously both shocked and hurt, and while to some it may appear that Karen believes he’s cheating on her, I think her feelings go beyond that. She knew he’d been keeping secrets from her from the very beginning, and for a while it seemed like they were both okay with acknowledging the lies and stepping around them. But after seeing Matt’s lies exposed for the first time, all the while knowing that Matt has repeatedly blown off their case and let Foggy and Karen down, Karen’s had enough.

The knife twists even deeper when, on the day Matt finally shows up to court, Frank confesses to the crimes and is found guilty. We know losing the case isn’t Matt’s fault, but both Foggy and Karen can’t help but blame him for his failure to commit to the case, and to them. “This city really needs heroes,” Karen spits at him on the courtroom steps, “but you are not one of them.”

Other Thoughts:

It’s a joy to see Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), and I’m excited to see what he’s got cooked up his sleeves for Frank.

How satisfying was it to see Reyes (Michelle Hurd) crumble while questioning Colonel Schoonover (Clancy Brown)?

It may be that Karen feels all the more betrayed by Matt for not helping with the case because she identifies with Frank so much. She knows he’s not a monster, and needs to feel vindicated that she is not a monster, either.

Perhaps Matt was just simply trying to comfort Elektra when he said he wasn’t sorry for losing the case because he had her, but I wanted to kick him in the nuts. Way to stick by your real friends, Matt.