[90/100] I bought it, and I didn’t. There is a moment, late in the episode, when it all comes together. Through great feats, Matt safely shepherded Ray to safety. Through great persuasion, Foggy convinced the DA to hear Ray’s testimony and throw the book at Fisk. Through great courage, Karen stands before the public and tells the truth about Kingpin and his henchmen. The three of them work together for the first time in a long time, and by god, it works. Their combined powers are unstoppable. The system that each has worked within and without has, with the right help and cajoling, the capability to bring down the corrupt and powerful. Until it doesn’t. The moment where one of the grand jurors repeats the others’ addresses is a gut punch. It took such a monumental effort, so much bravery from so many people who put their lives and careers and reputations on the line in order to bring one wicked man to justice. And with one more threat and intimidation against another innocent person, he’s able to make it all evaporate yet again. There is something so disheartening (and cynically, true to life) about watching good people go to such lengths, only for someone with an abundance of wealth and a lack of scruples to escape the consequences. That has been the theme of this season -- so many decent individuals giving their all to bring Fisk down, only to find that he’s inevitably one step ahead. This is the peak of that, and if anything justifies trying to take him out by any means necessary, it’s his ability to evade even this incredible effort to finally bring him to account, in lethal fashion. Only, maybe that person will be Poindexter. Look, this is pure speculation on my part, but it’s hard to read Kingpin taking Dex off of the mission to kill Karen as anything but an echo of Dex’s childhood baseball coach taking him off the mound. Poindexter is still doing everything in his power to get back into his surrogate father’s good graces, up to and including murdering the poor Holocaust survivor who held onto Fisk’s favorite painting. But unbeknownst to Dex, Kingpin didn’t want that, and it seems only a matter of time until one wrong word, one kick of the dog later, and the monster that Fisk has unleashed turns against him. For now, though, Bullseye remains a loyal soldier, albeit one who’s insinuating himself into Kingpin’s life with a familiarity Fisk is unlikely to abide, especially with Vanessa back. Her return to the fold is superb. I’m always intrigued by stories where a character gets the thing they want, only to discover that it’s not what they expected, for good or for ill. The irony of Poindexter overdoing his attempts to earn Kingpin’s approval again is that Fisk himself is doing the same thing with Vanessa. His intentions are good, but all of his pampering, all of his manicuring, makes her feel like just another piece of art to be displayed within another golden cage. There’s a distance between them, one that can't be crossed with lovingly-made omelets or the chance to arrange artwork. Instead, it requires letting Vanessa in, and I like that twist. It makes sense that being on the run for so long would leave her feeling at a remove from everything. Her desire to be Fisk’s partner, in every sense of the word, adds an intriguing dimension to both their relationship, and to the masterminds behind Kingpin’s murderous schemes. There was a faint hope, that the love of a good woman might change Fisk for the better. Instead, her arrival only reinforces his craven, calculating bent. It’s that sort of ruthlessness that allows him to defeat our heroes despite them pulling so many strings. Karen goes back to her editor and convinces him there's a story here bigger than any one newspaper. Fozzy puts his candidacy up as a bargaining chip to get the DA to listen to Ray’s story. Matt shows his merit not just as a superhero, but as an advocate, putting Agent Nadeem through his paces so that when it’s time to spill his guts to the DA, and to the grand jury, they understand why he did what he did in a way that preserves his credibility. Oh yeah, and he also saves him from a wild shootout. Look, this is still an action show, and I actually really liked Daredevil finding ways to navigate the traffic-packed corridor and get the drop on their attackers/ Most Defenders-verse fights are pretty simple “punch and kick and occasionally shoot at the bad guy” routines. But here, the rescue is trickier, requiring Matt to use his senses to anticipate whether the shooters are, direct Ray to shoot blindly, and sneak their way through cover and escape routes. There’s more cleverness and strategy here than in the usual dust-up, which I appreciate. It also makes it all the more heartbreaking when all the plans fall to ruin. This effort took so much from so many. Everybody from Matt, Karen, and Foggy, to the DA, Officer Mahoney, and even Officer Mahoney’s mom to pull off. So many people went out on a limb, and Kingpin’s fixer was still able to intimidate a group of poor, regular individuals to send it all to ruin, and lean on the press to do his bidding to boot. This one hurts. But it hurts no one more than Ray who, if not for Karen, might be my favorite character in *Daredevil*. He is a decent man caught up in something indecent, trying to support and protect his family. He strives to do what’s right, and when he can't, he does whatever it takes to keep his wife and son safe. He admits his mistakes and is willing to pay for them, if it means taking down the organization and its leader who have caused so much pain for so many. Ray’s willingness to work with Matt, his admission to the DA, his acceptance of his sentence, his courage to get to the courthouse and tell his story, are all tremendous acts of character. And that's what I think of when I think of him -- character. Someone who has every reason to make the easy choice, instead makes the hard choice, in the name of the greater good. That's the kind of moral fortitude that's rare, on television and in real life, and you feel for him every step of the way. Especially at the end. When Matt pushes Ray on why he did what he did, he admits that it has a lot to do with pride. He wanted his wife and son to think well of him, to respect him. And in the process, he scared and hurt them. It is heartrending to listen to him tell his child not to believe those things in the press, or to record his last words to his bride. But that too is the noble choice, a willingness to sacrifice himself because it’s the only way that his family can no longer be used as bargaining leverage for Fisk’s empire. It is poetic, then, that Poindexter is the one who does it. He represents Ray’s mirror image, the FBI Agent who went willingly because he wanted Kingpin’s approbation, rather than Ray who was suckered in by Fisk in a bid to earn his real family’s esteem. And it’s poetic that it happens in the grounds of his backyard pool, the symbol of his aspirations to provide more and better for his family. But mostly, it’s just sad: sad that another good person is gone, sad that all our heroes’ grand plans and meaningful sacrifices came to nothing, sad that whatever fragile optimism Matt and Karen began to harbor again is shattered in an instant. To paraphrase Captain Picard (by way of writer David Kemper), sometimes you can do everything right and still lose. That is not weakness, that is life. But that knowledge doesn’t always make the loss easier, especially when it comes at the hands of a bastard who pulls every craven string at his disposal, to where he can do everything wrong and still win. ----- (As an aside, one of my favorite parts of the MCU is the fact that it is an interconnected storytelling universe, with crossovers and the like. But it occurs to me that it’s a problem for a show like *Daredevil*. Because the creative team probably can't get Jon Bernthal for a casual cameo or integrate Punisher into the story without stealing the spotlight from Daredevil again. But it’s also hard to believe that Punisher would hear the news about Karen being under threat and spring into action to obliterate Fisk or Bullseye or whomever to keep her safe without worrying about Matt’s dilemma about taking a life. It’s not hard for me to suspend disbelief, but it does undermine what we saw in *Punisher* s1 a bit. Maybe we’ll get a solid explanation that follows on him disconnecting from everyone at the end of that season, to where he was unaware of what was happening with Karen and Kingpin all this time.)

Not the law. Not Matt Murdock. Not Daredevil. Vanessa will put down Fisk.

That shooting scene definitely stood out!