'Daredevil' Recap Episode 201: 'Bang'

Much of the appeal of Daredevil's first season was that it did not feel like a typical superhero story. Instead, it was more of a brutal, hard-R crime drama that happened to be based on a comic book, the Marvel Cinematic Universe's equivalent of a modern Batman movie. But sadly, the show began to fall back on genre tropes towards the end of season 1, so the biggest question going into "Bang" was: Would the series be able to course correct, returning to the grounded tone of its early episodes?

The short answer is, for the most part, yes, although the premiere episode is not without its rough patches. The cold open is essentially a waste of time, an unimpressive setpiece in which Daredevil takes out a few random criminals that have nothing to do with the plot. Guys in masks race through the streets of Hell's Kitchen, the cops are unable to catch them, but thankfully our vigilante protagonist intervenes! The criminals take a hostage inside a church - thank goodness they went into a place where the show could partake in a heavy-handed metaphor - and lo and behold, Daredevil appears. Pan up from the crime scene as our superhero friend looks down from a rooftop and the music swells.

How many lame genre tropes can be packed into one scene? We've got an opening that depicts a standalone adventure in order to ease audiences in. We've got the city's tights-wearing guardian saving a police officer who was near death. We've got the superhero being strategically placed off screen for several minutes so that he can get a triumphant reveal, and we've got the same-old shot of a dude in costume standing on a roof surveying the city. Haven't we seen this same thing millions of times before? Is this what the entire episode is going to be like?

Thankfully, it's all uphill from there, and this turns out to be a fine debut after all. We reunite with Matt, Foggy and Karen, whose law firm has received an influx of clients after they became famous for taking down Fisk. Despite that, they find themselves broke, not to mention struggling to stay cool in 100 degree weather. Meanwhile, we drop in on a meeting of Irish mobsters, who will seemingly be the second season's villains. After Fisk was taken care of, various criminal organizations have been fighting amongst themselves to snatch up the territory, including these clearly evil folks. Oh, great. So after Vincent D'Onofrio delivered an unbelievable, nuanced performance in the first season, these are going to be our new antagonists? Some generic mobsters?

Nope! In a sequence reminiscent of classic Quentin Tarantino, a few minutes are spent watching this meeting unfold, only for every single person in the room to be suddenly shot and killed. Now that's how you subvert expectations and get this show back on track.

Well, not every man in the room was killed. There's one survivor, Grotto, who comes to Nelson and Murdock seeking protection from whatever maniacs just murdered his 15 coworkers. He doesn't think they were killed by a rival family, though. Considering what a massacre this was, he thinks it was more like an army; in fact, we later find out that they were hit with bullets that could punch through a polyethylene fiber vest. Whoever is making up this army, they have enough training and firepower to do more damage to Hell's Kitchen than Wilson Fisk could ever dream of.

It turns out, Grotto was right to be scared, but he was wrong about the army. It was actually just one man: Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher. There have been several similar cases around the city, with various criminal organizations being slaughtered by an unknown force. Another recent hit was the Mexican cartel, and Matt finds several of the victims hanging from meat hooks. This, along with an amazingly gross shot going through the hole in a man's chest, is a stark reminder of how damn nasty this series can get.

We come face to face with the Punisher in the episode's final moments, as Frank casually strolls through a hospital with a shotgun at his side, coming straight for Grotto in hopes of finishing the job. He doesn't kill indiscriminately, though; it's clear right away that the Punisher is a vigilante, not a cold-blooded murderer, simply knocking out a security guard (and casually throwing his gun in the trash) rather than blasting him away. That said, Frank doesn't seem overly concerned with shooting in the direction of Karen, an unarmed civilian, so let's not get carried away with praising his moral character.

Just as the Punisher is about to blow Grotto's brains out, Daredevil intervenes and the two go at it. For the first major fight of the season, this one is okay, but it's not nearly a visceral as the hallway brawl from season 1. That was one of the few fights in action history which realistically addressed how exhausted and overwhelmed the hero would be, and every single punch made an impact on the audience. Here, the battle is photographed in a series of closeups, the two men punch each other over and over, and that's about it. Serviceable, but unlike that hallway scene, not something we remember after the credits roll.

What we do remember, though, is the Punisher suddenly shooting Matt right in the face. Obviously he'll survive, but it's interesting that this is the first time we've seen Frank kill (or attempt to kill) someone who was not a career criminal. Is it that he'll murder anyone if it's in self defense? Or did he intend for Matt to survive, and this was more of a warning shot?

All in all, after a rocky beginning, "Bang" gets Daredevil's second season off to a fine start. Although it occasionally gets bogged down with silly superhero cliches that don't fit this grounded universe at all - like the tired trope of a janitor who doesn't notice what's happening because he's listening to music - the slow introduction of The Punisher is masterfully done. If new showrunners Douglas Petrie and Marco Ramirez are able to write Frank Castle as a complex character in the same vein as Wilson Fisk, and are able to maintain a realistic tone throughout, this could end up being an excellent sophomore season.