Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Starring Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock / Daredevil), Eldon Henson (Foggy Nelson), Deborah Ann Woll (Karen Page), Joanne Whalley (Maggie Grace), Jay Ali (Ray Nadeem), Wilson Bethel (Dex), and Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk / Kingpin).
DAREDEVIL: SEASON THREE
Produced by Marvel Television
Originally aired on Netflix
Number of Episodes: 13
Initial Streaming: October 19, 2018
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Fun Daredevil: Season Three Facts
Daredevil: Season Three was the eleventh series produced by Marvel Television for the Netflix Streaming Service. You can read about the history of Marvel Television from its inception as a division within Marvel Entertainment overseen by Ike Perlmutter and run by Jeph Loeb to its incorporation into Marvel Studios and the eventual canonization of Marvel Television’s Defenders Saga into the Marvel Cinematic Universe under the Fun Facts section of my Daredevil: Season One review.
Between Daredevil: Season Two and Daredevil: Season Three, Matt Murdock’s MCU journey can be followed in Marvel Television’s The Defenders miniseries which sees Matt team-up with other Marvel Heroes such as Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and the Iron Fist against a resurrected Elektra and The Hand.
Upon the MCU (Sacred) Timeline, Daredevil: Season Three takes place after Iron Fist: Season Two and before Thor: Ragnarok.
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My Daredevil: Season Three Review
Resurrection – Directed by Marc Jobst. Written by Erik Oleson
Picking up right after the events scene in The Defenders where a building collapsed upon Daredevil and Elektra, we see a badly wounded Matt Murdock, having been washed out of the sewer system, discovered by a taxi driver, whom he asks to get him to Father Lantom. The man complies and Matt falls under the direct care of a nun named Sister Maggie at the Saint Agnes Orphanage where Matt grew up. Matt’s injuries are many, and he has consequently lost his enhanced senses. He cannot smell or taste anything and he cannot hear clearly. As he is nursed back to health, Matt decides not to tell anyone that he is still alive and falls into a cycle of grief, depression, and self-pity. Matt is pissed off at God and can barely stomach the religious ramblings that come from Father Lantom and Sister Maggie. Matt seems almost desperate to commit blasphemy, as he has lost all faith in God and His accompanying scriptures.
This is powerfully shown in a scene in which Matt recalls the story of Job from the Holy Bible. Job was a devoutly faithful servant of God, but God and the Devil made a bet over Job as the Devil insisted that if Job were to undergo enough suffering, he would eventually denounce God. God takes the bet and allows the Devil (Satan) to unleash a multitude of horrors upon Job, who despite the deaths of all of his children and the loss of his own health, remains steadfast and refuses to denounce God. Matt Murdock’s response to this tale?
“Job was a pussy.”
Yeah, it doesn’t get much more controversial than that, does it! So, this is the state that Matt is in. He has lost so much and sunk so low that he simply cannot see God in a positive light any longer. Gone is his vision of the loving protector God who created the world and all of the people in it, giving His followers a purpose and a destiny and ultimately, an eternal reward. All Matt can see now is a cruel dictator who allows death and torture and injustice to afflict even the most noble of his creations while calling it love.
Seeing the Matt Murdock character in this state hit me especially hard, as I have felt these very same things and have said similar words after having a crisis of faith that drove me away from Christianity and its rules and doctrines. When I lost my faith, I specifically brought the story of Job up when talking to friends and family and preachers and teachers as a reflection of God’s cruelty. It’s a rather disgusting (for all of the endorsed suffering) and nonsensical story to me, considering that God is Omniscient and all-knowing, and therefore would have known the outcome of the bet before the bet was ever made. It’s a Biblical tale that I just can’t draw any inspiration from.
I expect Matt to ultimately resolve his crisis of faith in this series. He wrestles with his Catholicism and his relationship with God quite frequently in the comics and unlike me, he always seems to find his way back to his faith, but kudos to Marvel Television for showing us this side of his spiritual crisis. A lot of people may not have liked it, but it’s a character moment that I was certainly able to relate to in a very personal way.
In time, Matt begins training to fight again. He gets bested by a boxer that Father Lantom brings in to privately face them, after which he sneaks out to fight crime, again falling victim to a severe beating when he interferes with an attempted kidnapping, which only manages to increase his frustration and leads to one of the darkest moments in MCU history, as Matt gives himself up for whatever punishment the would-be kidnappers see fit to dish out, only for them to walk away and allow him to live to fight another day. Matt Murdock is at the bottom and it’s going to be a long climb to get back up.
Elsewhere, we catch up with Wilson Fisk and see him agree to a deal with the FBI in order to protect his beloved Vanessa. Fisk makes the deal with FBI Agent Ray Nadeem, who had previously been denied a promotion based on his financial history, which has been severely complicated by his assisting his brother after his sister-in-law was diagnosed with cancer. Ray is a good man that is feeling desperate, under-appreciated, and frustrated, and that makes him the perfect candidate for Wilson Fisk to manipulate.
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Please – Directed by Lukas Ettlin. Written by Jim Dunn
After making the deal with Nadeem and the FBI, Fisk is stabbed in prison for being a snitch, but he stops just short of retaliating and killing his assailant. Nadeem meanwhile has become the FBI’s hottest act so to speak. Due to the attack on Fisk, Nadeem makes the controversial decision to have Fisk moved to a safer location which turns out to be the luxurious Presidential Hotel. This sparks widespread public outrage of course and has major ramifications for the FBI. As Fisk is transported inside an armored truck with an FBI escort, his convoy is assaulted by members of the Albanian Crime Syndicate, who’d recently been decimated by Fisk’s testimony against them. Nadeem is rendered unconscious during the crash and several FBI Agents are gunned down, but as Fisk faces certain doom, a lone FBI sniper and expert marksman emerges from the flames to accurately slay everyone that was still standing with gun shots to the head, saving Fisk’s life.
Meanwhile, Matt Murdock is still struggling with his feelings concerning God. During a conversation with Father Lantom in the church sanctuary, Matt explains how he used to listen in on the private prayers of people, growing to believe that the tragedy that befell him, occurred so that he could be used by God to answer select prayers of the hopeless and tortured. Father Lantom is encouraged to hear this until Matt says that he now knows that this was never the case. Theorizing that his recent injuries and all of the drama that came with them were some sort of punishment from God, Matt now feels that as Daredevil, he was doing what God wouldn’t: protect the innocent. Matt then declares that he is now all-in on resuming his role as the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen and that not even God can stop him.
Cloaked in the simple black clothing that he wore in the First Season of Daredevil, Matt tracks down the kidnappers and administers a severe beating, regaining his full hearing in the process, which restores to him the equilibrium that he needs to “see.” After taking down the men, Matt calls in an anonymous tip to the police and then seeks out the kidnapping victim at the hospital where he informs her that she is safe and that the men who attacked her and her father are in police custody.
“Thank God for you”, she tells the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen.
His reply?
“He didn’t help you. I did.”
Again, the religious stuff is pretty heavy and extremely deep, and this show is holding nothing back in exploring it. The lack of the voice of God is yet another thing that I struggled with immensely when I lost my faith. I have never heard God speak … I’ve heard others tell me what God has supposedly told them to tell me, but God has never spoken to me for Himself. I loved that Father Lantom brought up the Biblical story of the Burning Bush, as this was one of the things I have often pointed to in my religious struggles … “Where’s my burning Bush?” … “Why won’t God talk to me?” … “Why does a perfect and loving God allow evil and suffering?” Once again, Matt echoes some of my own very real questions and I continue to relate to Matt’s feelings this Season in a very personal way.
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No Good Deed – Directed by Jennifer Getzinger. Written by Sonay Hoffman
Wilson Fisk is more hated than ever by other FBI agents, who detest the fact that so many of their fellow agents lost their lives protecting a man like Fisk. Fisk nonetheless safely arrives at the Presidential Hotel, albeit with a few scrapes and bruises. There, he settles into a rather comfortable living space, though he is in a state of constant surveillance (except when his lawyers are present). His primary concern remains the safety of his beloved Vanessa.
Fisk has also become enamored with the agent who saved his life: Benhamin “Dex” Poindexter, who stands guard over Fisk at dinnertime. Fisk thanks Poindexter for not discriminating against him and for putting his job ahead of his personal feelings. Dex ignores Fisk’s compliments and takes his dinner from him before Fisk has had a chance to begin eating. From there, we get some insight into who Dex is as he meets with an FBI-appointed psychologist. Dex describes his relationship with a woman named Julie, explaining how she keeps him grounded and how special she is to him. The psychologist is moved by his words but when Dex leaves, we discover the truth about Julie: while Dex is clearly infatuated with her, he is also obsessed with her and they are not in any kind of an active relationship, and we see him covertly stalking her from the shadows while she goes out alone for pizza. Dex came out of this segment looking like a creep!
Meanwhile, the first clear thing that Matt Murdock hears since regaining his hearing is the news that Wilson Fisk has been released from prison and housed at the Presidential Hotel. The news sends shivers down Matt’s spine, leaving him disturbed, concerned, and repulsed. Matt voices the irony in news of Fisk’s release being the first thing he heard after his hearing was restored to Sister Maggie. She of course, sees Matt getting his hearing back as a positive thing that is in her view a reflection of the grace of God, but Matt sees it as a curse … as Hell.
As the episode goes on, we see Matt have an inner debate with himself with his conscience taking on the guise of Wilson Fisk. Matt visits the Presidential Hotel and slips his way inside the building as he tries to sort out all that he is feeling. Through these visions, we see that Matt is guilty over the deaths of the people that he has recently lost such as Elektra and Stick, and he is likewise terribly guilty for the loved ones that he has exposed to danger such as Foggy and Karen. Matt fears the merciless retribution that Fisk will seek out at his own expense … hurting Matt by hurting the people that Matt loves. Fisk promised as much the last time that Matt was in the same room as him. Matt is furthermore disgusted by the FBI’s decision to transfer Fisk. He, like many protestors who have positioned themselves outside the Presidential Hotel, sees Fisk’s current predicament as a vast upgrade that he does not deserve. Ultimately, Matt is unable to breach the hotel security, which he begrudgingly accepts when he comes face-to-face with Dex for the first time.
Perhaps the biggest revelation from these visions however is the greatest aspect of guilt that Matt is wrestling with, and these are his most complex and darkest feelings. The first is the guilt that he feels over wanting to die. As angry as he is at God, his Catholicism is still deeply entrenched in his soul. He still believes in God; he just doesn’t like Him anymore and he understands the concept of mortal sin as good as anyone. And that brings us to the darkest corner of his soul … Matt believes that he made a grave mistake in his decision to not kill Wilson Fisk when he last had the chance. He in fact sees himself as a sort of accomplice to Fisk’s reign of terror. He had the power to stop Fisk and didn’t … now, in his view, he shares the blame for everyone that Fisk has hurt since.
I loved these little glimpses into Matt’s soul and the way that they were presented, and I love that we’re going back to some of those hard questions that this show revolved around in previous Seasons; those debates that Matt had with himself and with Frank Castle. Was Frank right all along? Would it not be better to simply put Fisk out of everyone’s misery? Matt’s loss of faith changes the angle on these questions. If God’s will is not a factor anymore, what’s to stop Matt from ending Fisk once and for all?
Late in the episode, Matt attacks Fisk’s lawyer to get answers on why Fisk is cooperating with the FBI as he is, and Matt is deeply troubled to discover at the insistence of Fisk’s lawyer that it is all for Vanessa. Matt cannot bring himself to believe that a monster like Fisk could love anyone so devoutly as it adds layer upon layer to his dark soul. That, combined with the fact that regardless of the motive, Fisk really is making the city safer by working with the FBI as he is, torments Matt psychologically and complicates the decision of whether or not he should actually kill Fisk if the opportunity arises. Really great stuff and we get an incredible sequence during Matt’s attack on the lawyer in which he single-handedly takes out several FBI agents. As great of a fight as this was though, it also alerts Fisk to the fact that Daredevil is still out there and actively interfering in his business.
I should mention Foggy and Karen here, as I haven’t really addressed them in light of all of the other things happening in this show. Karen is of course obsessed with Fisk’s release, but her editor (Ellison) wants her having no part in the story whatsoever. Karen had previously been involved with the story on the kidnapping victim and she was taken aback when the woman described her savior: a man in a black mask. She instantly believes that Matt yet lives, but when she goes to Foggy with the news, he emphatically shoots her down.
Foggy has had his own difficulties in dealing with Matt’s death. He’s haunted by nightmares and general guilt over being the person who got Matt’s suit to him just before his presumed death. Foggy is also struggling with his lucrative legal career. He has virtually everything that he ever wanted, but it’s just not the same without Matt. Foggy’s life gets extremely and suddenly complicated however when Matt confronts him at a local bar. Foggy is initially thrilled to see that his best friend is still alive, but the reunion quickly sours when Matt warns him to stay away from everything that has anything to do with Wilson Fisk and to tell Karen to do the same. Matt declares that he is leaving Matt Murdock behind and that he is only Daredevil now while apologizing for endangering Foggy and Karen as he had. Matt also steals Foggy’s wallet, furthermore reflecting how far his moral code has deteriorated.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Blindsided – Directed by Alex Garcia Lopez. Written by Lewaa Nasserdeen
Matt impersonates Foggy’s in order to enter Ryker’s Prison and seek out the leader of the Albanian Crime Syndicate (Vic) and question him over the activities of Wilson Fisk. Matt reaches out to a former client (Michael Kemp) in his efforts to speak with Vic, and fearing for his life due to Matt’s questions, Kemp punches Matt in the face and screams that he didn’t tell Murdock anything. Kemp is taken away by guards and Matt is taken to the infirmary for a health evaluation. There, Matt has to wait for several minutes before he sees a nurse and then when the nurse arrives, he assaults Matt, injecting him with a sedative. Matt fights the nurse off, at which point the infirmary phone begins ringing. Matt answers, and it is Wilson Fisk on the other line! Fisk has been watching Matt’s activities through a rigged security camera and after he chastises Matt for daring to ever threaten Vanessa, he abruptly hangs up the phone. The infirmary door then opens, but so do several cells and a groggy Matt has to literally fight for his life through a slew of prisoners and guards. Matt eventually finds his way to Vic and learns that the man who stabbed Fisk in prison was encouraged by Fisk to do so. Matt vows to bring Fisk down if Vic assists him in escaping, and Vic agrees. A full-blown riot has overtaken the prison, but Matt gets out with help from the Albanians and eventually reaches the taxicab that brought him there. Matt’s problems aren’t over though. After he awakens from his blackout, he realizes that the taxi driver that brought him there had been replaced and that his life was still in danger. Soon, the taxi driver jumps out of the cab as the vehicle crashes and begins sinking in the New York waters.
Meanwhile, Foggy is extremely stressed over the threat of Wilson Fisk, and his girlfriend Marci convinces him to counter that looming threat by confronting Fisk publicly and directly. That means running against Blake Tower for the position of District Attorney in a campaign to get Fisk back in prison. Foggy also goes on to tell Karen about his meeting with Matt, confirming that Matt is still alive. She is both relieved and angry and continues her investigation into Fisk and his activities despite the previous warning from her editor.
Back to Fisk, he continues his meticulous chess match with Dex as the FBI launches an investigation into the night of Fisk’s prison transfer. Dex is panicked because he knows that Fisk knows what really happened. Dex accesses the recorded interview with Fisk that was conducted by his superiors and is shocked to hear Fisk collaborate the story that Dex told. Dex turns off the security cameras and confronts Fisk somewhat angrily, but Fisk responds with nothing but sympathy, compliments, and gratitude. Slowly but surely, Dex is beginning to feel that perhaps Fisk is not such a bad man after all.
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The Perfect Game – Directed by Julian Holmes. Written by Tonya Kong
No body is recovered from the taxicab crash that Fisk orchestrated to eliminate Matt Murdock, and Fisk is growing more and more curious about the blind attorney’s rather spectacular capabilities in fighting off the elaborate ambush at the prison, which Fisk was able to follow blow-by-blow through the security cameras. Fisk then devises a sinister plan to get at Matt by labeling Murdock as a criminal partner in cahoots with Fisk as a sign of Fisk’s continued cooperation with the FBI. Just as was the case with the Albanians, Agent Nadeem goes all-in on bringing in and charging Matt Murdock. Nadeem leads a team into Matt’s apartment and also questions both Foggy and Karen. Matt’s activities as Daredevil give Nadeem plenty of room to build a case against Murdock, but not for being a lawyer by day and a vigilante by night, but for being a corrupt lawyer and a criminal.
Foggy denies having ever worked with Fisk, but Nadeem counters with evidence that Foggy wasn’t telling the truth, bringing up the one case that James Wesley did in fact hire Nelson and Murdock for back in Season One (for CGI), a case they took knowing not that Wesley’s employer was in fact Fisk. While Foggy is concerned over the potential of being arrested and disbarred, Karen is panicked over the mention of Wesley by Nadeem, as she is fearful of being arrested for murder. In her panic, Karen comes clean with Foggy over killing Wesley, hiring him to represent her and shaking Foggy to his core!
This episode also delved deeply into the past of Dex, and it was really well done. Fisk is actively studying Dex’s past therapy sessions which began after he murdered his baseball coach with a baseball when he was a child. These sequences are presented in black-and-white with Fisk shown watching and reacting. We learn that Dex lost both of his parents when he was a child and that he was an All-Star pitcher. He killed his coach out of spite over being benched during a game in which he was pitching a no-hitter, and we see several of Dex’s therapy sessions, learning that he does not understand the concept of empathy and that he has natural psychopathic tendencies. The only notable relationship that he had as he grew up was with his therapist, who eventually grew ill and died. Dex kept the tapes of the sessions in order to cope following her death. We also learn that Dex first encountered his crush Julie while working for a suicide prevention center (a job that Dex was not so good at). Taking all of this in, Fisk sees in Dex an opportunity to give the city a new villain to obsess over.
Back in the present, Dex encounters Julie at the Presidential Hotel where she has just started working, and after briefly talking with him and remembering him from the suicide prevention center, she proposes they hang out together when she gets off work. Dex readily agrees, but as they converse, he lets some details slip that reveal to Julie that he has been stalking her. The whole date blows up and Dex angrily returns home and destroys his apartment in a rage before settling down and turning on one of his therapy sessions.
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The Devil You Know – Directed by Stephen Surjik. Written by Dylan Gallagher
Matt finally meets with Karen, reaching out to her for help in taking down Fisk, requesting that she track down the man who stabbed Fisk in prison (Jasper Evans) and get him to tell the true story about what happened with Fisk. Dealing with the stress pertaining to James Wesley in the previous episode, Karen isn’t thrilled with her meeting with Matt, feeling that he only revealed himself to her because he needed something from her, and she refuses to help him. She does however take the information back to Foggy and he encourages Karen to find Evans while insisting that Matt needs to turn himself in to the FBI if Evans agrees to testify against Fisk. From there, Karen ventures to Clinton Church to seek out Matt but Sister Maggie tells her that Matt is no longer staying there and encourages Karen to not give up on Matt.
Karen locates Evans and Matt tails her when she goes to meet with him where a fight ensues, and Matt convinces Evans to cooperate. Matt furthermore agrees to turn himself in to the FBI and to be legally represented by Foggy, who takes all of this information to Nadeem, giving Nadeem pause on his ongoing working relationship with Fisk, who has begun to live like a king at the Presidential Hotel.
Matt, Karen, and Foggy all go to the New York Bulletin office building with Evans where they intend to meet with Nadeem, but things never get that far, for Wilson Fisk isn’t going to go down so easily. After carefully manipulating the increasingly unstable Dex to align with him, Fisk bestows upon Dex a replica Daredevil suit (crafted by Melvin Potter) and dressed as Daredevil, Dex unleashes hell upon the Bulletin staff, killing several journalists. Matt suits up in his black mask to confront this wannabe Daredevil, but Dex dominates Matt and makes his way to the room in which Foggy, Karen, Ellison, and Evans are hiding. Dex attacks Ellison and then points a gun at Karen but suddenly aims at Evans and shoots Evans in the head. He then speaks to Karen, dropping her name in an effort to incriminate her. Nadeem and his FBI team arrive, and Dex takes down several agents and makes a clean getaway. Despite being badly wounded, Matt also eludes capture and as Nadeem takes in the carnage, he vows to take Daredevil down.
This was about as good an episode as Marvel Television has ever produced. The massacre at the Bulletin was raw and shocking and the creative choice to vilify Daredevil was brilliant, as was the way it was done. Deborah Ann Woll was fantastic throughout this episode, as was Wilson Bethel, and the way Dex’s talents were presented in terms of how he can use almost anything as a weapon was awesome! Six episodes in, and this has been Marvel Television at their absolute best. In my head, I’m toying with words such as “masterpiece” so far, but we will see how the second half plays out!
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Aftermath – Directed by Toa Fraser. Written by Sarah Streicher
After the chaotic and world-breaking sort of episode that preceded it, Aftermath allows this story to breathe and deals with the fallout of the massacre at the Bulletin. Foggy jumps Marci’s bones and then haphazardly proposes to her while Karen visits Ellison in the hospital. Ellison greets Karen with kindness and does not allow her to blame herself for the horrifically tragic events that transpired, but his kindness turns to bitter anger when Karen insists that the assailant was not Daredevil, cluing Ellison in on the fact that Karen knows who Daredevil is. When she refuses to share this information with him, he lashes out at her and orders her to clean out her desk.
Meanwhile, Daredevil has been deemed a murderous monster by the media and Nadeem has his own frustrations with Foggy and Karen’s insistence that the Bulletin assailant was not the real Daredevil. Both sides throw a few stones before Foggy abruptly escorts Karen out of the meeting. Elsewhere, Matt confronts Melvin Potter over the suit that he made for Dex. Potter confirms that he has gone back to work for Fisk, but only in order to continue protecting his beloved Betsy. Potter also confirms that the suit was made to fit an FBI agent, but then attempts to lock Matt up in a caged area of his workshop. Matt realizes that he has been setup to take the fall for the Bulletin massacre as he hears incoming FBI agents. He breaks free and brawls with Melivin and then flees the premises while Melvin brawls with the agents and is ultimately arrested. This was a phenomenal sequence!
Elsewhere, Nadeem is beginning to crack under the pressure of everything that he has taken on, slowly but surely beginning to doubt Wilson Fisk’s sincerity. Matt infiltrates Nadeem’s home, dressed in his black mask and tells Nadeem face-to-face that the man who carried out the massacre was not Daredevil and was in fact an FBI agent that was working under orders from Fisk to eliminate Evans before he could testify against Fisk. It is also revealed that Fisk has created quite the elaborate underground setup to visually monitor several of the goings on that have been transpiring both inside and outside of the hotel. The FBI is certainly being played!
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Upstairs / Downstairs – Directed by Alex Zakrzewski. Written by Dara Resnik
We catch up with Dex at the beginning of this episode, seeing him return home after the Bulletin massacre and on the edge of a nervous breakdown. He listens to therapy tapes to calm him and begins cleaning his apartment. He next reaches out to Juile once more, desperately apologizing for what he still insists was a misunderstanding and asking her to meet with him in a public place so they can talk. She reluctantly agrees and this “date” goes better than their first one and she agrees to be the friend that Dex so urgently needs. Sadly, the ever-watching Kingpin has eyes on Dex and Julie, and seeing the way that Julie grounds Dex and how truly smitten he is with her prompts Wilson Fisk to order her death.
In the meantime, Nadeem, considering Daredevil’s warning that the Bulletin assailant was an FBI agent, begins contemplating just who that could be and he ultimately lands on just one person: Dex. Not wanting to believe it, Ray decides to privately infiltrate Dex’s apartment, setting Dex up to meet with a lawyer who vows to help Dex sue the FBI so he can get back to work. This way, Nadeem knows that Dex will be occupied while he searches his apartment. The meeting with the lawyer does not go as Dex had hoped and feeling himself sinking, he reaches out to Julie but only gets a reply from her telling him to leave her alone and to never contact her again.
Daredevil meets Nadeem at the apartment, and they quietly go in together. Matt senses that the copied Daredevil suit had been in the apartment but was no longer there. What is there however is a huge weapons cache and more importantly Dex’s therapy tapes. Matt listens to just a small sample and hears enough to insist that Dex is the guy. Daredevil and Nadeem end up staying far too long though and a dejected Dex returns home and hears them speaking as he approaches his door. Arming himself with pieces from a nearby chandelier, Dex chases after the fleeing FBI agent whose life he saved and the vigilante that he had impersonated, badly wounding Nadeem. Dex is not able to follow through with the pursuit though, due to the arrival of the NYPD.
Now knowing that Nadeem knows about his murderous actions and feeling betrayed by both Nadeem and Julie, Dex burns all of his therapy tapes, knowing that they will only incriminate him. He then reaches out to Fisk and tells him about Nadeem and the Kingpin comforts Dex, assuring him that everything is going to be okay.
Two other huge things transpired during this episode. The first was an immensely suspenseful sequence that saw Karen Page venture to the Presidential Hotel to meet with Fisk. Sickened by the luxury of Fisk’s living quarters, she sits down with the Kingpin, and they talk. Karen’s best case scenario goal is to get Fisk on camera admitting to the murder of his father when he was a child. Her worst-case scenario is provoking Fisk into violently assaulting her. As they talk and Karen tries to manipulate him, she learns that she is far outmatched in that category when Fisk asks her how long she knew that her former boss Matt Murdock was Daredevil. Karen’s reaction confirms to Fisk what he had been suspecting. Karen is instantly filled with a combination of guilt and terror, and she responds by taunting Fisk and telling him that she killed James Wesley. The Kingpin is prompted into an instant rage, but before he can attack her, Foggy arrives with FBI agents and Karen is handcuffed and escorted out of the building while a sneering Fisk stares her down. From there, Karen tells Foggy the terrifying news that Fisk knows Matt is Daredevil and it’s her fault. This was an absolutely incredible sequence.
The other big thing that transpired in this episode was the reveal that Sister Maggie is Matt Murdock’s mother. Comic book readers such as myself knew that this was the case all along, but it was executed very well here with Matt discovering it while overhearing Maggie pray for him. Really great, high-stakes stuff!
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Revelations – Directed by Jennifer Lynch. Written by Erik Oleson and Sam Ernst
Matt Murdock is furious about being lied to about the identity of his mother by his mother herself, his late father, and Father Lantom. Matt feels misled, betrayed, and disgusted over the fact that he was essentially abandoned by Maggie in favor of her fulfilling what she believed was God’s calling. Matt lashes out at Father Lantom and he is the one that tells Maggie that Matt knows, reducing her to anguishing tears as she feels she will no longer have a relationship with her son. Later however, Sister Maggie encounters Karen Page and Karen tells her about Fisk knowing that Matt is Daredevil and Maggie tells Karen that she is Matt’s mother. Maggie furthermore offers Page shelter from Fisk’s wrath, offering a place to stay and hideout within the church.
Elsewhere, Nadeem decides to tell his boss (Tammy) about Dex’s corruption, hoping that with enough details, the FBI can take the Kingpin down. Meeting at Tammy’s house, Ray talks with Tammy and the FBI agent that is overseeing the ongoing investigation into Dex. This proves to be a horrible mistake, however. Nadeem, admitting to the overwhelming guilt he was dealing with, having been played by Fisk, turns over his badge and gun to Tammy, but she then commandeers the gun, yells at Nadeem to stand down, and then shoots FBI Agent Winn in the throat and then the head, killing him and making it clear to Nadeem that she had just framed him for murder, and if he wants to keep it quiet, he best get in line and follow Wilson Fisk’s lead. Later, Dex arrives at Nadeem’s home while his wife is preparing breakfast and subtly threatens Ray before demanding that he leave with him. Dex orders Nadeem to contact Daredevil and tell him (as part of Fisk’s plan against the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen) that he was following a new lead on Fisk and would provide further details later.
A now reinstated Dex leads several FBI raids (with a reluctant Nadeem on his team) that moves top crime bosses to one location where Fisk soon arrives to meet with them, backed by Dex in the Daredevil suit. Fisk has Nadeem ask Daredevil to be there as well. Dex brutally murders a crime boss that tried to take a stand against Fisk, prompting the rest of them to comply. As for the actual Daredevil, he figures out that it was a trap and does not attend the meeting. With Fisk preoccupied, Daredevil infiltrates the Presidential Hotel and discovers Fisk’s elaborate and troubling surveillance system.
There are some other developments in this episode pertaining to Foggy. He has obviously been very outspoken against Fisk during his campaign and his popularity is growing. However, Fisk’s meticulous corruption has touched his life, as he learns that his brother and parents had been manipulated by Fisk and will face criminal charges for fraud if Foggy doesn’t backtrack his very public statements. What a tangled web Fisk weaves!
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Karen – Directed by Alex Garcia Lopez. Written by Tamara Becher-Wilkinson Erik Oleson
As the title of this episode suggests, this episode largely revolves around Karen Page. We get a lengthy flashback to Karen’s youth and a time when she was young, curious, and rebellious. Karen is living a life of drugs, boos, and supposed romance while her brother Kevin is desperately trying to convince her to be better. The point of all of these scenes was I guess to show why Karen had a falling out with her dad and why she is so emotionally fragile. Kevin did not approve of Karen’s boyfriend, believing that he was toxic to her and enabling her bad habits. One night, after Karen lashed-out at her father over her mother’s death, Kevin got into an argument with Karen’s boyfriend. Karen left with her boyfriend and indulged in some drugs and alcohol and by the time they returned to her boyfriend’s house, Kevin had already set the place on fire. Karen’s boyfriend began to violently assault Kevin, prompting Karen to shoot him in order to make him stop. She then fled the scene with Kevin and was so inebriated, she soon crashed the car. Kevin was killed in the crash. Though her father made sure to keep the truth buried in order to keep Karen out of jail, Karen’s relationship with her dad would never be the same.
In present day, Wilson Fisk has learned that Karen is in hiding at Clinton Church and he orders Dex to kill her. From there, during an ongoing service led by Father Lantom that Karen watched from the shadows, Dex storms in, dressed as Daredevil and demands Karen Page be brought to him. He begins assaulting members of the congregation, prompting Karen to step out of the shadows. Having left the Presidential Hotel in an effort to defend Karen from Fisk, Matt intervenes and begins fighting Dex in the sanctuary, but Dex soon seizes his moment and hurls a Billy Club at Karen but Father Lantom steps in the way, saving Karen’s life and losing his own. A grieving Matt begins pummeling Dex, but the fight remains a back-and-forth affair. Karen ultimately intervenes on Matt’s behalf and Dex flees the scene.
The death of Father Lantom was immensely tragic and the whole fight between Matt and Dex at the church was as hauntingly disturbing as it was entertaining.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Reunion – Directed by Jet Wilkinson. Written by Jim Dunn and Dara Resnik
As Dex flees Clinton Church in the Daredevil suit, he is spotted by Sister Maggie who quickly understands the gravity of the situation as panicked congregation members are flooding out of the church into the streets, most saying the same thing: that Daredevil had committed an unspeakable tragedy. When Maggie enters the church, she is horrified to see the corpse of Father Lantom and as the FBI and the NYPD begin arriving upon the scene, Maggie is quickly targeted and questioned by Dex and Nadeem, ordered to show them around the church and point to anywhere that Daredevil and Karen Page may be hiding. Despite stating that she had clearly seen “Daredevil” leave the church, Maggie does as they say, but Matt and Karen hideout in a crypt and elude capture.
As Karen and Matt hideout, Karen admits to inadvertently outing Matt as Daredevil to Fisk, and she also admits to killing James Wesley. Matt has no stones to throw Karen’s way, however, as he admits to Karen that he’d gone to the Presidential Hotel to kill the Kingpin. Meanwhile, disgusted by Wilson Fisk’s edicts and Dex’s actions, Agent Nadeem’s conscience is getting to him more and more by the second as the search for Karen and Daredevil continues. Another conversation with Sister Maggie pushes Nadeem over the edge and he makes a rebellious move to turn the crime scene over to the NYPD, with Nadeem privately telling Officer Mahoney that Page will not be safe in FBI custody. From there, the NYPD take Karen into their custody and then promptly release her.
Karen, Matt, and Foggy reunite and Matt apologizes for having ever wronged them in the ways that he did. Things are finally right between the three of them, but Agent Nadeem has made himself a target and he rushes home in an effort to whisk his family way to safety, but Fisk’s FBI team arrives before they can escape. Nadeem defends himself and his family as best he can until Matt arrives and takes down the assailants. Fearing that Daredevil may want revenge over Nadeem selling him out, Nadeem points a gun at Matt, but Matt (having overheard Nadeem’s conversation with Mahoney) professes that he believes Nadeem is noble and in a show of faith, removes his black mask right in front of Nadeem, revealing that Matt Murdock is Daredevil.
Elsewhere, there is a lot of Wilson Fisk stuff in this episode. All of the Federal charges against Fisk are dropped and he holds an elaborate press conference in which he denounces Daredevil for the murders at the Bulletin and at Clinton Church, labeling Daredevil as a public enemy. From there, Fisk’s ankle monitor is removed, and he is now a free man, but the FBI will continue to protect hm due to his value to the Bureau.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
One Last Shot – Directed by Phil Abraham. Written by Sam Ernst
Vanessa Marianna returns to New York and reunites with Wilson Fisk, but he senses that something is off with her. She goes on to tell him how lonely she has felt and confirms that even after her reunion with Wilson, she still feels that loneliness. This is due to how consumed Fisk is with his work … work that he keeps separate from Vanessa. She lovingly declares that she wants to be a part of Wilson’s entire world. Her words move Wilson, and he takes her downstairs to his surveillance bunker. There, Vannesa learns of all of the complications pertaining to the rebellion of Agent Nadeem. Fisk suggests that they move forward with framing Nadeem for the murder of Agent Winn, but Vanessa coldly counters that plan, suggesting the smart move would be to follow through with killing Nadeem. Wilson quietly takes tremendous pride in Vanessa’s proclamation, realizing that she is more like him than he ever allowed himself to dream.
This episode heavily revolves around Agent Nadeem. Ray and his wife and son are quietly and covertly moved to the home of Officer Mahoney’s mother as Nadeem agrees to be represented by Nelson and Murdock and to testify against Fisk before a grand jury. From there, DA Blake Tower agrees to hear Nadeem out and after hearing all that he had to say, he insists on a five-year prison sentence for Agent Nadeem due to his admitted crimes. Matt is furious that Nadeem isn’t being offered full immunity, but Nadeem takes the deal, insisting that he had broken the law and that is only fair that he serve the time for his crimes. I really loved this reunion between Karen and Ellison!
The following morning, Karen Page meets with Ellison, who is thrilled to see her and greets her with kindness and warmth, despite the falling out they had the last time that they saw each other. Karen informs Ellison that Dex is the imposter Daredevil, and that Agent Nadeem is going to testify against Fisk. She furthermore requests that he call for a press conference at which she will publicly speak out against Fisk. In the meantime, Matt escorts Nadeem to the courthouse and they face a great deal of resistance as Fisk’s thugs try and take Nadeem out before he can testify. Matt’s precision (which amazes Nadeem) insures they arrive safely and after thanking Matt, Foggy, and Karen for their efforts, Nadeem tells the grand jury everything he knows about Wilson Fisk and everything that he has seen.
Assuming that an indictment is guaranteed, Matt, Foggy, Karen, and Nadeem are devastated to discover that Fisk has already gotten to the jury and there would be no indictment! Foggy tries to calm Matt down, but he has reached his breaking point. He tried it Foggy’s way … the legal way, but that failed miserably. For Matt, there is nothing left to do but to kill Wilson Fisk. As for Agent Nadeem, he is literally sickened by the development and fearing for his family’s safety, he knocks out Foggy and returns to his family’s home. There, he records a video on his phone for his wife and son, has a drink and then walks out into his backyard where the family pool he had promised his young son is under construction. He is greeted by Dex, and they share a few words before Dex murders Ray, shooting him in the head.
Vanessa has what she wanted.
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
A New Napkin – Directed by Sam Miller. Written by Erik Oleson
While Wilson and Vanessa prepare for their wedding at the Presidential Hotel, Daredevil hunts down Fisk’s associate Felix Manning and gets him to tell him everything he knows about Fisk, with the main pieces of information he retrieves being the murder of Dex’s “North Star” Julie under orders from Fisk and Vanessa ordering the hit on Nadeem’s life.
From there, a press conference is held by the FBI in which the late Ray Nadeem is labeled a murderer. Nadeem’s former boss Tammy states that Nadeem had killed Agent Winn and had then died at the hands of FBI agents when he resisted arrest. Foggy Nelson is then called to FBI Headquarters to meet with Nadeem’s wife. There is a pretty great scene here between Foggy and Dex when Foggy arrives and takes a selfie with Dex, only for Dex to assure him he is in no imminent danger. Sitting down with Nadeem’s wife, Foggy listens to her criticize and denounce her late husband. When they are left alone in the room however, she covertly writes words on paper for Foggy to read that reveal she had only said what she had said so that she and her son would remain safe. She then turns Nadeem’s phone over to Foggy and what he later sees changes the game!
Along with the farewell message to his wife and son, Agent Nadeem also made a Dying Declaration, incriminating Fisk and his FBI associates. Knowing that this video can and will bring Fisk down, Foggy gets the video to Ellison, who uploads the video online.
In the meantime, Matt calls Dex on Manning’s phone and taunts him just a little bit before informing him that Fisk had killed Julie and directing Dex to Julie’s corpse. Dex believes Daredevil just enough to follow the lead and is both disgusted and heartbroken to discover that Matt had been telling the truth. Julie was dead and Fisk was to blame.
This creates a collision course! Fisk is marrying Vanessa, Ellison is uploading Nadeem’s Dying Declaration, the real Daredevil is suited up in his black mask and preparing to kill Fisk, and the faux Daredevil is suited up with the corpse of his beloved Julie in the passenger seat of his car, heading to the Presidential Hotel to also kill Fisk … and Vanessa!
So, we get quite the epic fight at the Hotel. After Nadeem’s video is uploaded, the crowd quickly begins to turn on Fisk and he and Vanessa attempt a getaway, but Dex cuts them off and begins brawling with Fisk. During the fight, Dex frequently looks for things that he can use as a weapon with which to kill Vanessa, but Matt saves her on more than one occasion. This is essentially a three-way fight until Fisk takes hold of Dex and brutally rams him into a brick wall, breaking Dex’s back. With the faux Daredevil out of the fight, Matt can now zero in on Fisk and boy does he ever! Daredevil beats the Kingpin to a bloody pulp, and with his wounds worsening by the second under the weight of Daredevil’s fists, Fisk challenges Daredevil to finish him off. Matt has wrestled with this moment time and time again, and he has at long last readied himself to go for the kill, but Vanessa’s desperate pleas give him pause. Matt unleashes a primal scream and brings himself to stop beating Fisk to death. He instead begins to barter. Removing his mask so that Fisk can clearly see that it really has been a blind lawyer that was the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen all along, Matt agrees to not incriminate Vanesa in Nadeem’s death in exchange for Fisk agreeing to not out him as Daredevil and to not harm Foggy or Karen. Fisk agrees to the terms, insisting that Vanessa means more than anything else to him. So, as long as Vanessa is safe … so is Matt’s secret and his friends.
Fisk is arrested as are several FBI agents and the Kingpin’s entire criminal network comes crashing down. Dex is paralyzed and Officer Mahoney confirms that he is not and never was the actual Daredevil. Foggy publicly endorses Blake Tower, as promised. And Matt, Foggy, and Karen are together again with dreams of launching a new practice: Nelson, Murdock, and Page! Matt even meets with his mother and says enough to comfort her for her to realize that there is a lot of forgiveness in his heart and that the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen he such a lost soul after all. Finally, we catch up with Dex and see him undergoing a complex medical procedure that teases his transformation into Bullseye.
Just an incredibly satisfying conclusion to this incredible Season of Marvel Television! I’m going to go ahead and use the word Masterpiece! This was a top-shelf, grade-A, first-class, premium Marvel production! The writers, the directors, the actors, the choreographers, the costume and makeup people … they all deserve praise! I rarely ever talk about DC Comics on this site, but the biggest compliment that I can give this Season of Daredevil is to compare it to The Dark Knight. The spirit of the rivalry between Batman and The Joker in that film and how that was captured by Marvel Television here with Daredevil and the Kingpin was so very captivating. Throughout this Third Season, there was so much drama, suspense, psychology, and twists and turns with a coinciding moral conflict within the titular character that has been utilized as a plot device several times by Marvel Television in these now former Netflix shows. Should a hero like Daredevil kill a villain like Wilson Fisk? Is that the correct moral choice? I’ve already given my feelings on that sort of thing, specifically in my Daredevil: Season Two review, so check that out if you’re interested, but I will say here, that I wanted Matt to kill Fisk within the narrative, though I am excited to see this rivalry continue in a production formally overseen by Marvel Studios with the upcoming Daredevil: Born Again series on Disney+.
I think Daredevil vs Kingpin is the most intriguing rivalry between a hero and a villain in the MCU!
Beyond this Third Season, I think the Daredevil series is the best series that Jeph Loeb’s Marvel Television delivered. For me, I’d rank them as follows: Daredevil: Season Three, Daredevil: Season One, and Daredevil: Season Two. Topping Daredevil: Season One was not easy due to the quality of that Season. In fact, none of the Marvel Television series before Daredevil: Season Three lived up to that gold standard until Daredevil: Season Three.
I am so genuinely excited to see these characters live on and even after 39 episodes (and The Defenders) there is still a lot of stories that can be told moving forward, and I’m so very thrilled that Kevin Feige has finally agreed!
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Highlights of Daredevil: Season Three:
Charlie Cox is Matt Murdock / Daredevil
Vincent D’Onofrio is Wilson Fisk
Daredevil vs Kingpin (vs Bullseye)!
Matt’s Spiritual Conflict
Wilson Bethel as Dex
Kingpin makes a Deal with the Devil
Elden Henson as Foggy Nelson
Deborah Ann Woll as Karen Page
Joanne Whalley as Sister Maggie
Geoffrey Cantor as Mitchell Ellison
Peter McRobbie as Father Lantom
Jay Ali as FBI Agent Ray Nadeem
The New York Bulletin massacre
The Clinton Church murders
Ayelet Zurer as Vanessa Marianna-Fisk
Chemistry Between Vincent D’Onofrio and Ayelet Zurer
Nadeem gets the last Laugh
Nelson, Murdock, & Page!
Impeccable Writing and Acting Throughout
The presentation of Dex’s remarkable abilities in multiple Combat Sequences
Marvel Entertainment / The Walt Disney Company
Notable MCU Concepts and Characters Introduced:
FBI Agent Nadeem. Wilson and Vanessa Fisk married. Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter.
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