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Daredevil Recap And Review – S01E03 – Rabbit In A Snowstorm

By Steve Lam

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The third episode of Daredevil, titled Rabbit in a Snowstorm, pulls back a bit on the number of high-flying fight scenes and stunts.  Does it hurt the show?  Not in any way!  The writing is so superb on this series that even boring courtroom speeches are delivered with tension and thrills.  The writers really know what they’re doing here as every character — even minor ones — are rendered as people who have lives outside of a current scene.  Nothing is a throwaway here.

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I had to watch two episodes tonight in order to write this review (I know, poor me) because I only watched the pilot when it premiered.  Christina had the honor of writing the recap for the second episode.  And her feelings and reactions to the show were spot on with my sentiments — just excellent action and high drama.  After watching Rabbit in a Snowstorm, I can say that the awesomeness of the pilot was not a fluke.  Every action-oriented drama on television should be modeled after Daredevil.

A Daring Recap

We open the morning after Cut Man where a mild-mannered man (we’ll call him that for now) enters a bowling alley at closing time and really wants to play a game.  He tries to squeeze one in with a mob boss, but is told to get lost.  The scene turns ugly when the mild-mannered man transforms into assassin-mode and pulls out a gun.  We flashback to 36 hours earlier and see him getting that same gun from Turk Barrett (one of the traffickers from Into the Ring).  Back in the present, the mild-mannered man (should we even continue calling him mild-mannered?) overpowers the mob boss and his bodyguards.  He then takes a bowling ball and brutally crushes the mob bosses head.  After hiding the gun in a pinball machine, he calmly gives himself up to the police and asks for a lawyer.

Matt has a discussion with the priest he first made a confession to in Into the Ring.  The priest is well-aware of Matt’s nighttime activities, and tries to use offers of caffeinated beverages to make him stay and talk.  Matt avoids this and awkwardly leaves with the excuse being having to get to work.

At the docks, investigative reporter Ben Urich speaks with a mob boss about Daredevil.  The mob boss denies that it’s the activity of anyone he knows.  When pressed further, the mob boss seems concerned and talks about retiring to Florida.

At Nelson and Murdock, Wesley pays the team a visit.  He pretends to work for a company named Confederated Global Investments and doesn’t give his name.  Wesley offers them a large sum of money as a retainer.  Unlike the financially concerned Foggy, Matt doesn’t want to take it because he finds the whole thing to be suspicious.  As Wesley becomes offended, he makes comments about them helping Karen — who was a suspected murderer at one point.  Because of Matt’s continuing concerns, Wesley give him a case to review: the mild-mannered man’s murder case.  Matt tails Wesley as he leaves and calibrates his senses to identify the unique ticking sound of Wesley’s watch.

Foggy arrives at the police station and starts to interview the mild-mannered man whose name is John Healy.  As the meeting proceeds, Foggy finds Healy’s interactions to be unsettling to the point of not wanting to take the case.  However, Matt enters and agrees to represent Healy, with the intention of learning more about who Wesley is and why he wanted to employ him and Foggy.

Ben’s editor pays him a visit and wants him to drop his investigation piece on Daredevil.  Ben wants to continue with his reporting and not work on fluff pieces.  The editor is adamant and forces Ben to take the less attractive assignment.

Wesley goes to the bowling alley and casually retrieves the gun hidden by Healy at the beginning of the episode.

Karen visits a law firm representing Union Allied where she’s offered money to stop her whistleblowing activities.  Karen is forced with a decision to either sign a document or risk legal action from her former employer.

At the hospital, Ben is able to sweet talk his way into buying more stay time for his ill wife.  He later visits his sleeping wife and spends some time with her.

In court, as Foggy makes a speech, Matt listens intently to the heartbeats of each jury member.  He finally focuses on a woman who seems particularly tense.

That night, Daredevil discovers that the woman is being blackmailed so that her vote can be swayed.  The blackmailer threatened to make public the woman’s past as a pornographic actress.  Daredevil forces the blackmailer to have the woman drop out of jury duty.  The next day, the woman is excused from court.  And Matt proceeds to make his closing arguments, which turn out to be compelling.

Karen pays Danny’s wife, who’s moving, a visit and tells her that she didn’t take the money from Union Allied.  Karen thinks the two of them can stand up against the company’s corruption.  But to Karen’s dismay, Danny’s wife had already given up the fight — she signed the papers and took the settlement.  Karen ends up going to Ben’s office because of his original article on Union Allied.  She offers to give him more information.

On the final day in court, the trial ends in a hung jury.  Matt is disappointed knowing that he helped a murderer go free.  That night, Healy prepares to leave town, but Daredevil pays him a visit.  The two fight with almost equal ability, but Daredevil is able to get the upper hand and forces Healy to tell him who’s behind everything.  Healy gives the name “Wilson Fisk.”  Fearing for what Fisk will do to him for revealing his name, Healy commits suicide by brutally impaling his own head on a sharp piece of metal fencing.

At an art gallery, the curator, Vanessa Marianna, approaches a large man interested in a painting titled “Rabbit in a Snowstorm.”  She captures his interest, and as he turns and looks at her, the audience sees Wilson Fisk for the first time.

Moments That Blind You with Awesomeness

  • Matt Murdock’s compelling closing arguments.  Daredevil can easily double as a high-stakes courtroom drama.
  • The fight between Daredevil and Healy.  And, of course, the end of that fight.  Utter brutality.
  • We’re finally introduced to Wilson Fisk.

Final Thoughts

This third episode of Daredevil allowed the audience to see what great attorney’s Matt and Foggy are.  The writers did a great job in showing the intellect of the two and not preaching it to us.  There are some shows where characters, for some reason, have to blatantly announce their abilities.  Not here.  We get a first hand account of why Matt and Foggy graduated at the top of their class at Columbia University.

I have to say, Daredevil is one of those shows that can’t be classified as a superhero series.  It has the same qualities as The Dark Knight (2008).  It’s a crime drama that just so happens to have a guy wearing a mask in it.  That’s what makes the show so compelling and real.  None of the villains are cartoony in any way (Gotham, are you listening?).

So far, in a short span of only three episodes, I can safely say that Marvel has redefined its universe.  Going into the more unpolished regions of their world, we see the tasks that the less fantastical characters aren’t handling.  Yet, the thrills are on par or even higher than its special effects-laden sibling shows and films.  Now onto Episode Four: In the Blood.

Next: Check out our previous recap of Episode 2 - Cut Man

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