[89/100] The structure of “The Devil You Know” is superb. The episode juxtaposes Karen on one hand, and Dex on the other, both struggling with developments in their life that have left them unmoored. And it juxtaposes the two men asking for their help, Matt and Fisk respectively, and the different methods each uses when seeking the help of a possible ally. The differences could hardly be clearer. Fisk is so perfectly, painfully manipulative in all of this. His perusal of Pondiexter’s file identified all the right pressure points for the troubled agent. With his ploy last week, Kingpin rips away Julie, the relationship that, however ephemeral and creepy, gave Dex hope and purpose. He leaks stories to the press, tarnishing Poindexter’s reputation and pushing his anger. He knows the ensuing investigation will result in Poindexter’s superiors relieving him of duty, robbing him of the structure and routine that keeps him sane. Fisk does everything he can to crack the guy open so that he’s vulnerable and, more to the point, malleable. So when Dex is angry, when he’s suicidal, when he’s at his lowest point and searching for the “north star” that Dr. Mercer told him to find, Fisk positions himself to be just that. Playing on Dex’s abandonment issues, Fisk frames himself as a likeminded soul, one who can uniquely understand Dex as someone with a similarly troubled childhood -- and most importantly, one who won’t abandon him. Kingpin knows how to expertly unravel Poindexter, tugging at the loose threads he knows are the most fragile. And he uses the man for his own dark purposes. Both the psychological manipulation from Fisk and the human weapon he forges with his craven machinations are terrifying. And then there’s Karen and Daredevil. That is not a primrose path either! Karen is understandably curt with Matt, who bursts through her window, asks for a favor, and never so much as apologizes for abandoning her and Foggy without a word when she was worried sick about him. Matt’s method is much simpler, more straightforward -- he directly asks Karen for help. He’s not manipulative, at least not in the same way as Fisk, but rather direct to the point of being clinical about their shared effort to take down Kingpin. Karen’s understandably on the fence about whether to help him track down Fisk’s accomplice: the one who shanked him at the prison and helped kickstart this scheme. Matt has not been the best friend or the best ally. She’s not wrong to be mistrustful, or stung, or not want to walk down this dark road with him. Foggy reasons that it’s still worth helping him, because he wants to be a good friend even if Matt hasn’t been the best friend to him. And Sister Maggie speaks of not shutting people out when they’re asking for help, lest they retreat into themselves and shut down in ways everyone regrets. There’s a sense that the same kind of abandonment that haunts Dex could creep up on Matt if his friends don't set aside their ill-feelings to help him. The truth is that I kinda disagree with that! I understand that Matt is going through some things right now, but he’s been callous toward Foggy and Karen. He ignored them, stole Foggy’s wallet and implicated him in the events of his prison run, and shows up out of the blue to seek Karen’s help with all the tact of an umbrella stand. I don’t know that it’s Karen’s responsibility to put herself at risk, to do more for him than she’s already done, when he’s been a real prick to his friends. There’s something to be said about swallowing your pride for people you care about, and about taking the right steps for the greater good. But between the lies and the unexcused absences, I don’t know if Matt has earned the right to ask for that kind of help. And yet, as much as he paints himself as a lone, dark avenger, he still cares about his friends. In the end, he is reflexively willing to turn himself into the FBI to clear Fogy and Karen. His choice shows that despite his nihilistic brooding routine, he’s not without his ties to other people, and is willing to sacrifice his freedom and security to preserve theirs. His dynamic with Karen is still not great, (nor Foggy for that matter, despite the winning gesture of a new wallet), but his decency and undeniable care for them remains on display. So everything’s set for the perfect collision. Karen finds Felix Manning, who’s more sympathetic than you’d think. Daredevil protects her from his family’s attacks. And together, they (forcefully!) prompt him to make a statement at the Bulletin about what really went down. Foggy acts as Matt’s liaison to Ray and the FBI. And Ray and his team make their way to the Bulletin to apprehend both Felix and Matt. And then, Dex rolls in with a new getup. It’s cool on multiple levels. For one thing, it represents the apex of Fisk’s scheming, the way he manages to use Dex to take out a loose end, antagonize the civilians working to bring him down, and tarnish Daredevil’s good name in one fell swoop. You truly get the sense of Kingpin as a mastermind here. For another, it’s just flippin’ cool to see a doppelganger fight like this. Matt vs. Dex in a Daredevil costume isn’t *exactly* Matt fighting himself, but it is the devil of hell’s kitchen fighting a grim, funhouse mirror image of the hero he strives to be, instead laying eyes on the bleak future that awaits him if he severs all ties to others and wallows in his misery. Beyond the thematic resonance of it all, it’s just a cool fight. Once again, the production team is judicious in its cuts, allowing us to see well-matched combat between the two men that makes it feel immediate and intense. The way Dex not only uses projectiles, but bounces them off of walls and ceilings in a way that plays with Matt’s senses gives him enough of an advantage to cast him as a legitimate threat. And the way director Stephen Surjik shoots the scenes where he stalks Matt through the Bulletin offices frames him as a slasher villain, with the real Daredevil seeming lucky to escape with his life. So in a moment of hope, one where our main trio feel on the brink of reuniting, where one man might give a statement that could send Fisk back to prison, where Matt has a chance to clear his and his friends’ name, where Ray and his superiors are questioning whether Fisk might be playing them -- one grisly attack from Dex-as-Daredevil rends it all asunder. Now, Matt is wounded and on the run again. Now Karen is traumatized by another death she feels responsible for. Now Foggy is connected to another man the FBI thinks is a criminal. Now Ray is convinced that Daredevil is a killer who needs to be brought down. And now, Dex has his new north star and purpose, and it’s reverted him to a man of blood. “The Devil You Know” spins him up with Fisk just as it spins up Karen with Matt. It sets them on a collision course on the cusp of setting things right. And it lets the villains of our piece, however monstrous or pitiable, get the better of the exchange, leaving our heroes reeling. At the halfway mark of an increasingly impressive season, that's a hell of a place to leave things.

so insane i forgot to breathe