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.