DAREDEVIL Season 1 Episode 3
Episode Title: “Rabbit in a Snow Storm”
Writer: Marco Ramirez
Director: Adam Kane
Previously on Daredevil:
Daredevil episode 3 was the first episode of the series that I wasn’t fully enamored with. It’s still a very good episode, but not up to the standards of the first two.
Still, even a very good episode of Daredevil is shaping up to be great television… even if Netflix itself might object to the TV label. The central conflict of ‘Rabbit in a Snow Storm’ puts Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and his law partner, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) at odds over an obviously guilty man named John Healy (Alex Morf). And it only gets messier from there.
From this point on, there are full spoilers ahead for Daredevil Episode 3!
We know immediately that Healy is guilty because we witness his assassination attempt of a local crime boss that goes very badly for him. Healy eventually gets the upperhand and murders his target, but he barely has time to hide the weapon before the cops show up.
It’s pretty safe to assume that Healy was acting on orders from the Kingpin, when James Wesley (Toby Leonard Moore) shows up at Nelson and Murdock willing to write a fat check to hire them for Wesley’s defense. For the first time, Matt and Foggy are openly at odds, as Matt immediately realizes that Wesley is shady and Foggy can’t wait to cash his check.
Amusingly, Foggy and Matt change positions once Foggy meets Healy and Matt figures out that he can potentially use Wesley to learn who is he working for. The series brought Wesley into contact with Matt and Foggy much more quickly than I anticipated. Up until around midway through the episode, it wasn’t clear what Wesley hoped to accomplish other than bending another law firm to the Kingpin’s will.
Fortunately, this episode had some really sharp scenes in the courtroom as Matt showed off his skills as an orator. Matt’s closing argument was a well written speech that could have been interpreted as both a rousing defense for his client and an invitation for the jury to convict him. Instead, Matt’s move is dashed when Wesley apparently gets to the jury forewoman even after Daredevil prevented the earlier jury tampering.
Once again, Daredevil delivered on the action front as Matt confronted Healy in his costumed persona… and he very narrowly came out on top. The fact that Matt hasn’t been very dominant in his fights actually makes them more compelling to watch. There were a couple of moments when Healy seemed like he could have won.
I loved that the harsh lesson that Matt learned from the fight was that he may be way out of his league. Healy gives up the Kingpin’s real name (Wilson Fisk)… and he promptly kills himself to escape Fisk’s inevitable retaliation. Healy’s method of suicide was legitimately shocking and unsettling, even for Matt.
But almost as a reward, we finally get to see Vincent D’Onofrio as Wilson Fisk in a scene that was previewed last year at New York Comic Con. Fisk bonds with art gallery owner Vanessa Marianna (Ayelet Zurer) over his “interest” in a white canvas painting that leaves him feeling alone. Think about that for a second. Daredevil just introduced the show’s leading villain in an emotionally vulnerable moment that may spark something with the woman beside him. It’s not a redemptive quality, but Fisk isn’t without his own humanity.
It’s good to see that Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) is getting her own subplot, as she tries to find a way to bring her former employers to justice for trying to kill her. That’s a nice touch that prevents her from being just a damsel in distress. Although her efforts seem like they will inevitably attract the wrong kind of attention again.
This episode also introduced Vondie Curtis-Hall as newspaper reporter Ben Urich… and he didn’t click for me. The issue is not Curtis-Hall himself, it’s the way that Urich was written. He just seems too far removed from his comic book counterpart in terms of personality. The episode goes out of its way to create sympathy for Urich, by following him around as he tries to keep his wife’s medical insurance intact. But pairing Urich and Karen together in a storyline could be a promising way to eventually introduce Urich into the larger plot. At this point, Urich doesn’t even realize that he’s chasing Daredevil and the Kingpin.
The high points of Daredevil continue to be the cast and the terrific action choreography. “Rabbit in a Snow Storm” may not have been up to the level for the first two episodes, but it does feel like a necessary step along the way.
Click here to read CraveOnline’s review of Daredevil Episode 4!
