Daredevil 2x08 Review: Hostile Witness

“Guilty as Sin”
Written by Whit Anderson
Directed by Michael Uppendahl
 
The Story
Matt and Elektra get attacked by random ninjas shortly after Matt figures out how freaking deep the pit is. Somehow, these guys can mask the sounds of their bodily functions like breathing and heartbeats. Matt tries to stop Elektra from delivering a killing blow, which in turn gets her stabbed pretty badly. But then Stick shows up to bail them out. And he’s definitely okay with killing dudes. Elektra is dying from the poison on the sword that stabbed her. Stick knows how to make a cure with mostly common kitchen ingredients, and though it’s very traumatic and painful, it does work. While she recovers, Matt and Stick argue about methods and Stick informs him that Elektra has been his student for a long time. Then he finds out from her that they met because he was her mission. She was supposed to get him to kill and lure him back to Stick to be part of the war against the Hand. This is a very serious war that’s happening right in NYC against an evil faction that possibly gained immortality? Or the leaders did, at least. The trial goes from bad to worse. Nelson & Murdock might have been able to salvage it, but someone got to Frank and convinced him to throw it, so Matt’s questioning of him begins with Matt giving a speech about how vigilantes are necessary and ends with Frank screaming about how he’ll kill every member of every gang in the city. Karen and Foggy both blame Matt and kind of ditch him. Matt and Elektra get attacked by another ninja in his apartment. He gets shot by a probably poisoned arrow, and she slits the dude’s throat, even though he looks like a teenager. Matt is horrified, because he was just insisting to Stick that Elektra isn’t evil, and Elektra was very grateful for his belief in her. Frank gets dragged to prison, then led to a gym area, where Wilson Fisk is on the bench press.
 
Things I Liked

• Stick chopped off a dude’s hand in his first scene of the season again!
• Stick’s monotone commentary
• Arrow catch!
• I just realized I love Matt’s kitchen
• Matt’s reaction to Stick drinking the tea he thought he was urgently making for Elektra
• “I...may have actually told him to stay home today. He wasn’t supposed to actually do it!”
• The colonel holding back the detail that he was the C.O. in the mission Frank got his medal for until Reyes asked a very foolish question
• Stick’s crotchety storytelling style
• Stick blithely saying bye to Karen after she leaves, having walked in on...whatever that was with the strange woman in Matt’s bed
• I could...maybe ship repentant Elektra with Matt
• The way the lighting on Elektra’s face after she slit that dudes’ throat made her look super demonic
• FISK

 
Things I Didn’t

• Random ninjas
• Random ninjas who can control the noise their hearts make? I mean, I can understand breath control, but it is well established that Matt can hear heartbeats. This is ridiculous.
• Matt’s kinda scary speech about “heroes”
• Electra slitting that dude’s throat right after ditching Stick because Matt believes she can be good. You can’t just stick with someone who has faith in you and call yourself good; you have to work at being worthy of that faith.

 
The Characters
Matt has seriously lost sight of what’s important. Lawyers do not give pro-vigilantism speeches. I know Frank would’ve thrown the trial even if Matt had been as awesome as he was with his closing statements in S1, but that definitely wasn’t his best lawyering. It’s very bad that he’s screwed up with Foggy and Karen so badly that they’re ready to sever ties with him, because now he’s going to feel like he actually does have nothing better to do than spend time with Elektra and her war, which is only going to sink him deeper.
 
Foggy trusted Matt to do a good job questioning Frank. He even defended him to Karen about it. And then Matt blew it (though, again, not entirely his fault). It’s yet another way Matt has betrayed Foggy’s trust. He’s neglected his work duties, he’s lied by omission, and he’s failed to come through even when he did try to do his part in the case. I think Foggy is a Hufflepuff. Matt is systematically going through the list of ways to get a Hufflepuff to dump you as a friend. However, Foggy should have realized that Matt is too close to this trial. He would've been okay giving the opening remarks or examining literally any other witness, but this is the case that will set the precedent for how the law deals with vigilantes. Matt should not have been the one questioning Frank himself, because the outcome will affect him far more than anyone else.
 
I love that Frank can’t just brush off that he killed that kid’s dad. He cares about families. He didn’t think about the men he killed as being men who might have families or other good things in their lives, he only saw the evil.
 
Aaaaand Elektra is back to annoying me. I was intrigued for a bit while she was so grateful to Matt for believing in her and willing to choose him over Stick, but so far she’s making no effort to actually deserve Matt’s good opinion. That kid was not a present threat. Matt had him subdued. If Matt’s life were still in danger, killing the kid would’ve been a more justifiable thing to do, but Matt was trying to question him! What the heck? Is she seriously that bloodthirsty?
 
Overall Rating
4/5