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Daredevil Recap – S01E05 – “World on Fire”

By Christina Roberts

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Amidst all of the de-wallpapering, paint priming, and Home Depot-going being done at my home, I somehow managed to keep going with Daredevil. I hope you guys are enjoying it as much as I am.

Miss a review before this? Check ’em out: Episode 1  |  Episode 2  |  Episode 3  | Episode 4

Not-So-Short Summary: We see Claire in the aftermath of her abduction, still at Matt’s apartment. “Do you have a job? Are you one of those billionaire playboys I hear about?” she asks in the morning, and I crack up at the Iron Man reference. He helps patch up one of the cuts on her back and shows off the range of his powers, how he can taste copper in the air and know she ripped open her stitches, how he can hear her bones shifting when she breathes so he knows it’s just a hairline fracture.

It’s impressive.

She asks what he can see and he answers with, “A world on fire,” with a very cool, almost intense visual of his sight: everything engulfed in reds, yellows, oranges, and blacks. He also asks her to stay until he can figure something out; and then they kiss (a long time coming, really).

On the Russian side of things, Wesley stops in to visit Vladimir and pointedly asks where his brother is, like he wasn’t in the car Kingpin used to bash in his skull. Of course they find the missing Russian, head nowhere to be found, but with a black mask in his pocket, setting up Daredevil as the culprit.

Fisk meets in person with his organization of various crime bosses to bear the news that the Russians are no longer part of their ring. No one is happy with Fisk’s choice, but side with him in the end. Hey, they’ll get more money when things are split four ways instead of five!

In the meantime, Daredevil is off trying to find Vladimir, only to find other Russian pawns who don’t want their heads cut off. He asks Foggy and Karen if they’ve heard anything about a Russian losing his head on the news, but they are interrupted by a new client! Her apartment has been destroyed because the owner of the complex wants to change them to condos and seems to just be waiting for the tenants to leave or take a buyout.

Matt goes down to the precinct to inquire about complaints, but really to listen in on people’s conversations and hears Piotr (one of the Russians he beat up) give up Wilson Fisk’s name…only to be killed by the cops interrogating him because they work for Fisk. He beats up the cop that killed Piotr and steals his burner cell, discovering four locations for the Russians.

Vladimir is after Daredevil and finds out from a source of his that a very expensive SUV with a white, bald dude as the owner, came in splattered with blood and brains. He believes Daredevil is working for Fisk, and pulls out all the stops to find Fisk.

Fisk is still going after that pretty art dealer, Vanessa. They attempt a second date at a restaurant he rents out for just them. It goes fairly well until he calls her out on having a gun in her purse. she ends up trusting him and handing over her gun while the maître d calls into the Russians to give Fisk’s position away.

The Russians are armed and ready to go for anything when one of Madam Gao’s delivery boys blows himself up and takes out the armory with him–that includes knocking out Daredevil outside and blowing out the windows of the apartment complex next door where Foggy and Karen are feeling each other’s faces (no, literally–that’s not a euphemism).

In fact, all four of the Russian complexes go up in flames with Fisk and Vanessa watch from a distance. It turns out the maître d made the call on behalf of Fisk.

Daredevil picks himself up after the blast to follow Vladimir and beat the crap out of him…until the police show up, Daredevil standing over Vladimir.

Miscellaneous Musings and Thoughts: The team-up of Foggy and Karen is oddly likeable. They work off each other very well, and I know I didn’t touch on their storyline much. They end up having an impromptu first date in their client’s apartment and seeing their personal side is a humanizing touch in a show so rooted in darkness. We also see Foggy in the lawyer-zone and it’s awesome.

There is quite a bit of talk about people not enjoying what they do, from Daredevil to Kingpin. Getting their hands dirty, killing to get what they want and make the city a better place, albeit in two differing ways, makes for very complex characters. Even Claire points it out to Matt. It’s a running theme in these episodes: doing what’s necessary for the greater good.

Vincent D’Onofrio plays a much more subdued Kingpin than the one I knew from the animated Spider-Man TV series from the 90s. However, it’s a much more believable character in a much more grounded universe. The layers he shows, the weird, barely noticeable facial twitches when something irks him… it’s almost a work of art.

I like Vanessa’s comment about a man in a white suit and an ascot, and Kingpin’s response of it being a bit too much. Come on, man, are you sure you don’t want to look like this? That’s the Kingpin I know and love.

You know, if this was a weekly show, I would be so angry with that cliffhanger ending. But now I can just let the autoplay go right into the next episode.

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