Episode 3…Damn…

To say I am speechless after watching the third episode is an understatement. This episode has honestly been one of the best hours of entertainment I think I have ever seen. From start to finish the episode was top notch all across the board with from the beautiful visuals at the start of the episode to the intensity that I was not expecting this early on in the show.

Foggy once again proved how good he is at reading a situation and working it. His skill at out thinking every one in the room is clear. Each episode we have been able to see him out think and out maneuver different people in different situations. Where Matt is out there putting physical beat downs on people, Foggy is dropping intellectual beat downs, and Elden Hensen does it so naturally. At no point during this show did I ever think, “this doesn’t make sense, Foggy is just the comic relief”. There is not a single moment of screen time wasted in his scenes.

Karen has clearly missed her calling in this world; she needs to get a job as an investigative reporter. Karen, more so than the others, is driven by a need to do what is right. It is what got her into trouble in season 1 and I fear it will get her into trouble in season 2. Even in her confrontation with the ADA she never threatens him, rather it comes across as a warning; “Your boss will eventually throw you under the boss, so help do the right thing now!” Karen is the heart of the show and is probably the one thing really keeping Matt from crossing the line. That being said I fear that she will get caught in the Punisher’s crossfire and that will be, as Frank said, will be the one bad thing that will push Matt into becoming him.

Matt and Frank finally get to have a heart to heart and honestly I would have loved if that were the entire episode. The intensity of the episode wasn’t just that final fight, but was also in the passion and conviction both men spoke with. The great thing about their conversation is we learn so much about Frank with out him just giving us an exposition dump. He doesn’t sit there and lecture Matt about how bad guys killed his family. Instead they have a philosophical debate about justice, how it is dispensed, and who gets to dispense it. Ultimately Frank puts Matt’s convictions to the test in a moment of life or death. If the debate they are having feels familiar that’s because it is a commonly used superhero trope, most famously used in the Batman story, The Killing Joke. That being said, the stakes have never felt so high or so real as they did in this portrayal of it.

Of course this leads us to that epic fight to escape the building. In season 1 the most memorable scene for most people was the long hallway fight that “appeared” to be done in one take. The stairwell fight, which also “appeared” to be a single take, took that to another level (get it, because they were going down the stairs through different levels). The choreography was great and the pacing was excellent, and just like a video game, it ended with a boss fight on the ground floor.

I didn’t hear anyone say War Zone this episode, but Frank said war about a hundred times so you should probably take a shot for that.

I can’t believe I am about a quarter of the way through already. On to episode 4!