Classic tropes of loss of powers, flavorful nods to the use of the word dog in the title, development of the relationship in our three main protagonists and a a second fight between DD and ....The Punisher (my attempt at being as dramatic as the assistant DA's reveal).
Let's start by just getting out where this area was lacking so I may get around to places it shined. The writing could have been better. As has been named in a review below, there were simply areas where disbelief could not be suspended (particularly in the end scene when many police snipers had open shots at the Punisher and could not seem to land even one; the grand total of their firing was one graze to the arm. And the fact that an injured Punisher was quickly able to carry DD's potentially resistant body away while injured himself).
What was great: Murdock really has to come to terms with sacrifice and the cost of being DD. When he was shot (in E1), could have been killed or found. We have our first loss of powers situation here and the most serious "concerned mother" Foggy we've seen hitherto this point. Matt has been reduced not only to human but to someone deaf and blind, helpless in his apt as he heals. Of course this doesn't last long.
The title is a clever nod to the dog Frank rescued from the Irish (who had bullet hole injuries), the Dogs of Hell he shot up and one who he sent in to bullets of the police via semi-truck cab, and the two main dogs in this episode, DD and Punisher, fighting on a rooftop while it's raining bullets on them.
This episode is an important lesson in the consequences of Murdock's haste and compulsion to put the suit back on without patience. He loses a second time to the Punisher, who perhaps this episode is more about in a way.
The dramatic scene revealing the nickname of the "hospital shooter" as the Punisher makes clear that he will be more important than just a character of two episodes. They set the stakes by showing that his work is tantamount to the work of a small, trained army, and the severity of his violence hanging on meat-hooks. And finally showing that hand-to-hand, this man has bested a suited MM (and eluded the cops at least) twice. And of equal importance, Frank Castle who clearly has the capacity, chose not to kill our main character twice now.
This episode is not the best of the season, and has its flaws for sure (how did DD get his powers back so quickly after being shot in the head? how does a man stand atop a water tower so near a high-level police sting and not get seen? Why do these cops lack the protocol, or sniper skill of cops in the real world?), but it is very important because of what it sets up...a very important conflict between DD and the Punisher, and an underlying philosophical contemplation about the nature of a hero.
Finally, I MUST name a crazy, potential foreshadow of 2019 Punisher season two. In the pawn shop scene, the store owner says (about the NYPD mobile communications rig) "it'll probably pick up the mayor banging his boyfriend". Well interestingly enough **Spoiler for Punisher Season two** one of the primary points of conflict for Punisher season two is a set of photos of politician David Schulz kissing a man at a funeral of which two powerful entities has interest in obtaining. By this time he is already a senator (who the Russians want to control before he becomes president), but it seems plausible that he could have been NYC's mayor first. To my knowledge the mayor hasn't been named in the Netflix MCU, but correct me if I'm wrong. Now to be fair, if this was soo secret, then there's no reason a random pawn shop owner should know it, but the writers certainly did, and perhaps they were dropping an oh so subtle egg to be found. If I'm right, you saw it here first.
Let's start by just getting out where this area was lacking so I may get around to places it shined. The writing could have been better. As has been named in a review below, there were simply areas where disbelief could not be suspended (particularly in the end scene when many police snipers had open shots at the Punisher and could not seem to land even one; the grand total of their firing was one graze to the arm. And the fact that an injured Punisher was quickly able to carry DD's potentially resistant body away while injured himself).
What was great: Murdock really has to come to terms with sacrifice and the cost of being DD. When he was shot (in E1), could have been killed or found. We have our first loss of powers situation here and the most serious "concerned mother" Foggy we've seen hitherto this point. Matt has been reduced not only to human but to someone deaf and blind, helpless in his apt as he heals. Of course this doesn't last long.
The title is a clever nod to the dog Frank rescued from the Irish (who had bullet hole injuries), the Dogs of Hell he shot up and one who he sent in to bullets of the police via semi-truck cab, and the two main dogs in this episode, DD and Punisher, fighting on a rooftop while it's raining bullets on them.
This episode is an important lesson in the consequences of Murdock's haste and compulsion to put the suit back on without patience. He loses a second time to the Punisher, who perhaps this episode is more about in a way.
The dramatic scene revealing the nickname of the "hospital shooter" as the Punisher makes clear that he will be more important than just a character of two episodes. They set the stakes by showing that his work is tantamount to the work of a small, trained army, and the severity of his violence hanging on meat-hooks. And finally showing that hand-to-hand, this man has bested a suited MM (and eluded the cops at least) twice. And of equal importance, Frank Castle who clearly has the capacity, chose not to kill our main character twice now.
This episode is not the best of the season, and has its flaws for sure (how did DD get his powers back so quickly after being shot in the head? how does a man stand atop a water tower so near a high-level police sting and not get seen? Why do these cops lack the protocol, or sniper skill of cops in the real world?), but it is very important because of what it sets up...a very important conflict between DD and the Punisher, and an underlying philosophical contemplation about the nature of a hero.
Finally, I MUST name a crazy, potential foreshadow of 2019 Punisher season two. In the pawn shop scene, the store owner says (about the NYPD mobile communications rig) "it'll probably pick up the mayor banging his boyfriend". Well interestingly enough **Spoiler for Punisher Season two** one of the primary points of conflict for Punisher season two is a set of photos of politician David Schulz kissing a man at a funeral of which two powerful entities has interest in obtaining. By this time he is already a senator (who the Russians want to control before he becomes president), but it seems plausible that he could have been NYC's mayor first. To my knowledge the mayor hasn't been named in the Netflix MCU, but correct me if I'm wrong. Now to be fair, if this was soo secret, then there's no reason a random pawn shop owner should know it, but the writers certainly did, and perhaps they were dropping an oh so subtle egg to be found. If I'm right, you saw it here first.
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