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Friday, April 17, 2015

Stream-And-Run: Daredevil "The Ones We Leave Behind"


            Episode 12...

            We open with yet another montage of Karen crying and being miserable, as she's dealing with the fallout of killing Wesley at the end of the episode previous... It's a choice that sets the ball rolling as we push on towards the conclusion, but one I fear that comes at the expense of character. Karen Page has been through the ringer ever since Frank Miller made her a junkie in his epic Born Again, so it's not out of line for her to be somewhat "on the edge," but having her shoot Wesley point blank just sort of came out of nowhere - a shock death for shock's sake... of which we get another at the end of this ep, as Ben Urich gets the axe from Wilson Fisk himself. Call it the Game of Thrones effect - killing off major characters with no compunction is all the rage now, but there comes a point when the effect becomes just that: an effect, without the proper storytelling to back it up. I guess it's fitting that we bid Urich farewell, as the classic newspaper reporter that he represents just doesn't exist anymore (the character eternally frozen, as with the whole of superhero-dom, in the Golden/Silver age from which he sprung), but his death here feels half-realized. There was still a lot of mileage for this character to cover, and killing him off in a vain attempt to up the stakes dramatically feels cheap. I can only hope the show uses these needless plot points to bring it all to a satisfying end for the series, as the quality has dropped pretty sharply in these last few episodes.

            Side-note: we get a little more insight into the mysterious Madame Gao, as she informs us that she'll be returning to her homeland, a place "much further" than China. If I were to place a bet, I would say that's K'un Lun, the mystical place from which Danny Rand will get his powers in the Iron Fist series Netflix and Marvel currently have in development.


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