‘Marvel’s Daredevil’ season 1, episode 4 review: Why Wilson Fisk may be the best villain on TV
Last time on “Marvel’s Daredevil” we saw Matt and Foggy in court working on a case for James Wesley. While they don’t know the full extent of how evil he or his employer is, Matt now has his name (Wilson Fisk) and is ready to take the next step into finding him and stopping him from hurting the people of the city as well as Karen. Speaking of Karen we saw her turn her nose up at a buyout from what was United Allied and go straight to the media to make sure everyone knows the truth. How much trouble is this going to get her in?
Matt is still seeing Claire for his injuries and the chemistry between them is still undeniable. He has been busy as Daredevil weakening the Russians operations and Fisk is coming down hard on them for it. Two of the Russian brothers (Anatoly and Vladimir) decide that it’s time to take down Daredevil so they can carry on business without issue (Fisk wants to take over their business since they are coming up short all the time thanks to Matt). The man that Daredevil left unconscious tells them what he knows about the man in the mask and the woman who helped him. They find Claire and kidnap her, but after a helpful tip from the neighbor, Matt’s able to narrow down where she is and save her deepening their connection.
We got a bit of a deeper look at Wilson Fisk: He’s a complicated man who seems to have a very lonely, sad feel to him. While he is the man in charge and is working with many different mobs, he also comes across as painfully sad, lonely and lost when we seem him return to the art gallery where he bought his sad sack painting. He asks out the curator, Vanessa, for dinner and she accepts. After the brother’s had their butts handed to them by Daredevil, they show up at Fisk’s dinner date with Vanessa to say that they will accept his offer to help with their business, but he hustles Vanessa out of the restaurant and leaves Wesley to deal with them. After the scene at the restaurant, Vanessa doesn’t know if she wants to see Wilson again and he’s left to deal with his loneliness only this time he is also angry. Fisk beats one of the brothers to death with a car door for ruining his date with Vanessa and sends his body to the other brother as a declaration of war.
After meeting with Ben (the reporter), Karen finds herself in the same position she started in – with no one willing to help her go up against United Allied and expose them. He said there isn’t enough to go on, it’s too dangerous as people are turning up dead and he’s done some digging into her past and she’s not a credible witness (we hope to learn more about that as the show goes on). After some thought, Ben decides to meet with Karen again and he tells her that she should sign the agreement to throw them off her scent and then they will work together to expose them.
It’s rare that you get episodes of any superhero show that give you such a deep look at the main villain. Fisk is a scary man, there’s no doubt about that, but this other side to him is one that we haven’t seen before in a villain. There’s something so sad about him that it almost makes us have some empathy for him and that’s a rare thing to feel for someone so cruel. Episode grade: A-