The centerpiece of the episode was the conversation between Matt and Fisk. What I took pleasant notice of is how civil it was. I thought that was a very interesting choice that they both treated each other kindly and civilly, even though neither trusts the other. That is a far cry from how other franchises would have handled that, and the adultness of it impressed me.

Adultness that DOESN'T impress me are the f-bombs. Not loving that aspect of the show.

I am really mad about Foggy. I had a hard time enjoying the rest of the episode. 2 1/2 stars.

Man, those cops are dirty. Honestly, the fact that they tried to kill him makes Matt's job THAT much easier. Seriously. The Daredevil secret COULD be compromised, but Matt had nothing before that (including proof they were gonna kill the witness) and now, well, shit.

I love that when the aide talks to Fisk about Vanessa, Fisk gently asks for some leeway there. He's operating a bit differently now, isn't he? He grins when the commissioner says all that horrible stuff to him after the funeral. But when you start to feel bad for the Commish because, oh, it looks like Kingpin is threatening his family, he's not threatening a hit on them. He's threatening to expose his illegitimate kid, which is a tactic of politicians, not crime bosses. Also that sandwich sucked. Good note. The important thing to take from the encounter.

Him going to therapy with Vanessa also raised my eyebrows. I will never like or trust Wilson Fisk. But something has changed. Better or worse, I can't say (although knowing this franchise it's for the worse). But it's nice the guy doesn't have the hair-trigger he used to. I find him more interesting now.

The first episode back sucked butt because they killed Foggy, but this was excellent. 5 stars.

But this episode at least suggests that even AFTER a fair trial and the correct verdict, the Punisher is too much of a partisan to dig into this specific case, and lazily takes Fisk's word for it. Fisk! I acknowledge it's interesting he's trying to distance himself from organized crime, but it's ridiculous Frank Castle believes White Tiger deserves to die more than Kingpin does.

I am not looking forward to Frank's pathetic excuses in the coming weeks. I loathe that character with every fiber of my being, and this show has value by saying what a fuck-up that asshole actually is.

Producer note regarding Hector's actor: Usually when people go on trial for murder, their lawyer has them shave beforehand so they look less threatening. The "Hollywood stubble" works in press interviews, but not the witness stand. And while we're going there it's ridiculous Matt Murdock himself goes into court with it every day. While we're going there.

The episode's ending made me angry. But unlike Foggy's death, I was angry for the right reasons. I swear, if they soften Frank's culpability here, I will lose my shit. The character sucks and this episode proves it. 3 1/2 stars.

Update: Theories abound that Frank Castle didn't pull the trigger and is being framed by the cops wearing the skull neck tattoos. That actually sound plausible, which is why I hate comic book shit with a passion. God forbid they take an unpopular stand with fandom.

Confirmed that he wasn't the actual person who killed White Tiger. But instead of it being a person trying to frame him, it's suggested it's a "fan" taking after him. If you ask me, that doesn't remotely let Frank off the hook. In fact, it makes him culpable.

I feel with Fisk's many foolish and brash actions as mayor, the show is trying to make a critique of Trump, but the problem is Fisk wasn't that vulgar and gross on the original series. If they'd devolved Fisk to make a political point, the truth is he wasn't always that.

That Fiddle Faddle shit annoyed me because you KNOW it was product placement. That shit is pure television and why I hate the medium.

Didn't care for this week. 2 1/2 stars.

If you are inclined to talk shit about the episode for essentially having zip to do with the larger Fisk or Daredevil arcs I want to suggest perhaps you don't really understand how TV is SUPPOSED to work. Because all of the previous Marvel shit? NOT how TV is supposed to work. TV is not a six hour movie divided into six one hour parts. ACTUAL television, that Marvel seems now interested in breaking into (if their newfound discoveries of both showrunners and Series Bibles holds) involves cases of the week. The fact that current television stubbornly refuses to do this is not simply because television is amazing and doesn't like dicking us around anymore. Far from it. Television is as terrible as ever, and if anything dicks us around more today than it ever has. It's because modern television is on this weird kick to pretend to be anything other than television, which strikes me as a weird goal for ANY show in the medium to strive for, much less damn near all of them. But this weird belief among expensive genre shows on streaming hasn't remotely improved television's quality. This specific episode was pretty damn great. What that mindset has done is make viewers spoiled and unable to appreciate smaller-scale stories, even when they are amazing. Which means MANY viewers will not understand how and why this episode is great. Because it's structured like great television instead of epic mini-movie making. Many viewers don't understand the former is the thing they should want, and the latter the thing that tends to make shit worse.

I mean, that's why there were 2 episodes this week, right? Disney+ got nervous about this one, and thought its "lack of momentum" would make viewers unhappy. Instead of actually appreciating they were watching the best episode so far. What pisses me off is I don't even know if Disney was wrong. They would have been ten or fifteen years ago. But fans have become a lot more demanding and spoiled in the meantime. It strikes me as a legit fear now. I would have loved that to stand on its own for one week. But Disney didn't trust the viewers to appreciate it. And I can't say their distrust is misplaced.

The hostage negotiator Kim seems to have a wry sense of humor and the least believable thing in the episode is this card would ever be stuck for a joke.

I'm annoyed that once they're alone the crooks pull off their masks. Because that is done for the AUDIENCE'S benefit, not their own. Shit like that is why even great television sucks deep down. By definition, television simply refuses to stop sucking.

I love that the lead crook is smart enough to say he's not letting Matt go because he pities him. It's because he doesn't LIKE him, and senses he's trouble! What do you know? He right! But I've never seen that specific moment in a fictional hostage scenario previously, and I'm thinking we probably should have before this.

This was television. As a rule, I HATE television. But television, as awful as it is, can sometimes be great, which is why I watch it to begin with. This was great television. 5 stars.

I laughed at Fisk suggesting because a serial killer was discovered by sanitation workers instead of the cops, a reassessment of protocols might be necessary. That bit cracked me up.

Heather's whole torpid thing about masks at the beginning is why I actually hate superhero shit, and why I refuse to take it seriously. And I feel sorry for anyone who does.

Jack Duquesne, the smarmy French guy with the mustache from Hawkeye? Weird Marvel synergy, but okay.

Not loving Muse, but I'm not supposed to, so at least that's working as intended. 3 1/2 stars.

The thing about Fisk holding up the mask is a cool message to the audience. Because it's lame, isn't it? Fisk sucks at politics, and none of his political power moves feel either genuine, or as if he is remotely confident in them. I get Donald Trump vibes from that. Big time. Holding up the mask was an act of overt weakness in a man desperately trying to project strength. It's interesting for that reason.

I never for one second doubted Vanessa was gonna doublecross that guy. Kingpin's bored reaction to his execution was designed to be humorous, but truthfully, I think it actually says he doesn't quite appreciate Vanessa enough, even though he's pretending he does. He doesn't quite get that woman could easily destroy him if she had half a mind to.

The Muse resolution was all right, but I dunno. It felt kind of predictable. I guess I can't really cry foul over the most likely suspect being the actual culprit, but I don't have to praise that fact either. It IS a murder mystery, after all. Also, if the viewer was unsure at ALL, the recap plastering Bastian's unremarkable earlier scene in our faces told me immediately it was him. This is the specific reason recaps should be avoided at ALL costs on all TV shows. They will spoil shit just by telling the viewer what they should have caught last time. It's a HUGE problem for television.

The tension of the rescue at the end was botched. They had Daredevil figure out she was the target too soon. Now I don't feel like he showed up in the nick of time. I'm screaming at my TV, "You're late!"

Matt is right that Cherry's outrage is selective and only applied because he knows the truth. I don't know if he'll fully come around this season, but him shutting Matt out over this is patently ludicrous, so they'll probably at least work together, even if it turns out reluctantly on Cherry's end.

Good episode. 4 stars.

My favorite thing is my favorite thing because it's subtext. It's never made explicit. But people paying attention will get it. And I LOVE shit like that.

The truth is Matt is being all kinds of ass during the episode. I think him claiming Fisk sought out Heather to get to him doesn't fit the timeline. Yes, it's a crazy coincidence, but that's all comic book shit is. But from slamming Poindexter's face in the table, to just being the worst, most inattentive boyfriend ever, Matt Murdock is every bit the jerk cretin that made me hate the asshole in season 2 of his old show.

And here's the genius subtext. Before Matt slams Poindexter's face into the table in his assiest way, Poindexter says a good man will defend his most hated enemy. See how beautiful and symmetrical that ending is now? And the fact that the episode doesn't do a specific callback to that to help people in the audience who missed the connection is why it's great. You either get it or you don't. I got it. And it's great.

Creepy things always happen when Wilson and Vanessa dance.

Jack is the Swordsman? We thought so, but that instantly wants to make me see him in costume.

I had no clue B.B, knew Fisk killed Ben, but I'm delighted that's actually been her whole deal this entire time. Something tells me her and the Commish aren't going to compare notes after all however. The looks he was getting tell me he's in deep shit.

Vanessa killing Foggy actually makes more sense than Fisk doing it, but it raises questions why he put Poindexter in Gen Pop to begin with.

The whole thing with Adam was getting kind of pathetic not just for Adam, but for Wilson. Vanessa sort of put them BOTH out of their misery.

Very few negative notes this week. 4 1/2 stars.

This review won't be long. It's a solid episode but I'll just make 2 or 3 observations before calling it a night.

It is a DAMN shame Frank Castle is so crazy. He is definitely the best fighter on the show, and I believe if his intentions were better the heroes would be unstoppable. I am unsurprised he's unimpressed with his fanboys, but that's about the only nice thing I can currently say about him.

The second thing I want to note is that Heather Glenn sucks at her job of diagnosing and helping dangerous people. Once she took Wilson's job offer she crossed the line from politically stupid to being completely incompetent in her chosen profession. Has anybody pointed out that Fisk smooshed Gallo's head AFTER being in her care for several months? Because when the smoke clears, she needs to lose her license for that. Maybe she wouldn't need to if she hadn't accepted the job offer. But this just means she shouldn't be helping people with their mental health problems. She sucks at her job.

The hell of it is when the show returns it's gonna be even MORE political, and it will have real fodder for that instead of speculative fodder. And that's pretty much why I haven't remotely enjoyed the show. I hated the Netflix stuff too, but even though I did, it never depressed me for personal reasons before. I'm kind of spent and done with this review. 3 stars.