Daredevil Month: Rabbit In A Snowstorm

The episode opens at a bowling alley. A man named Healy comes looking for Mr. Prohashka and turns a friendly greeting into a stick-up. 36 hours earlier, two men are opening up a crate of fresh firearms. One of them, Turk Barrett, admires the craftsmanship of a fresh gun. Back at the bowling alley, that same gun that Healy’s holding doesn’t work. The two of them get into a fight, ending with Healy killing Prohashka by crushing his head with a bowling ball. Healy then hides the gun in a pinball machine as police come in and asks for a lawyer.

Outside at a church, Fr. Lantom recognizes Matt as Jack’s kid and assures him that his Confession is secret. He invites Matt for coffee, but Matt turns down the offer. Down at the docks, New York Bulletin reporter Ben Ulrich meets with Silvio, an Italian mobster who’s planning on retiring and moving to Florida. Ulrich wants to find out about who’s been targeting the Russian mobs, but Silvio tells him to stay out of it.

In the Murdock and Nelson offices, Foggy and Karen encourage Matt to get a dog because of his black eye. Wesley walks in with an offer for the firm from his employer. He wants the two lawyers to work for his company. Then he insults Karen about her being arrested for murder and offers the two lawyers a case to look into. Matt goes off looking for Wesley, using his superhearing to listen for the watch that Welsey uses, only for Wesley to get into a car and drive off. It’s also clear that the wounds from last episode haven’t completely healed.

Back at the offices, Healy talks to Foggy about what happened at the bowling alley. Foggy is reluctant to represent Healy, but Matt decides to take Healy as a client. Matt asks Healy about what happened, but Healy claims that he killed in self-defense and there was no rhyme or reason why he attacked Prohashka otherwise. Healy wants to go directly to trial, having faith in the judicial system. Healy’s also somehow connected with Welsy, but neither we nor Murdock and Nelson know exactly how. Wesley shows up at the bowling alley’s pinball machine, knowing exactly where Healy hid the gun. Foggy and Matt talk over strategies and notice that Karen is missing. It turns out that Karen is negotiating things with Union Allied, who asks her to keep things quiet in exchange for a large amount of money.

In the New York Bulletin offices, Ulrich talks to the insurance company about getting an extension. He wants to look into the organized crime activities, but his supervisor wants him to focus on stories that sell, even if they’re not “meaty” enough for him. He later goes to the hospital to get an extension form signed by a hospital supervisor. After she signs the forms, he goes to visit his wife.

Cut to the Murdock and Nelson offices, where the two of them complain about not having enough wi-fi. Karen finds out that Wesley was representing some kind of front company. The next day, Nelson starts up the trial while Matt listens to the frantic heartbeat of one of the jurors. Wesley is also in the audience, implying that the trial might be rigged in their favor. That same juror gets confronted by one of Wesley’s mooks, who later gets taken out by Daredevil. It turns out that the juror is being blackmailed over a sex tape she made. The mook gives Daredevil as much information as he can. Daredevil orders him to get the juror out and to get out of town.

At trial the next day, the juror gets excused and Matt makes his closing arguments, even as he listens to everyone’s heartbeats. He advocates to them to stick to the facts and to leave the judgment of his sins to God. (He doesn’t explicitly say God per se…)

Leland and Wesley are out on a drive and Wesley advocates that Murdock and Nelson be able to get Healy off. In the meantime, Karen tries to talk to Daniel Fisher’s wife and asks him if they made an offer to her. Karen refuses to take the hush money, but Mrs. Fisher took Union Allied up on their offer. Then she makes a visit to Ulrich’s offices and asks if she could talk to him about what’s going on with Union Allied.

Meanwhile, at the trial, the case has a hung jury, which is the last thing that Matt wanted. And even though the jury has declared mistrial, Matt knows that Wesley will probably sweep the case under the rug. Out in an alley, Daredevil fights Healy. I like the way that this scene is shot, but the lighting could’ve been better. I know the scene takes place at night, but it’s hard to see some of the action. He interrogates Healy about who Wesley works for and we finally get the name of Wesley’s employer: Wilson Fisk. Healy tells Daredevil that Fisk doesn’t like it when people speaks his name and goes after the culprits and everyone they care about just to make an example of him. Healy calls Daredevil a coward for killing him and decides to kill himself instead.

At an art gallery, a very gorgeous woman named Vanessa Marianna strikes up a conversation with a man staring at a painting that is nothing but white paint on canvas. She says: “There’s an old children’s joke. You hold up a white piece of paper and you ask, what’s this? A rabbit in a snowstorm,” and then asks the man how it makes him feel. The camera pans up to reveal Wilson Fisk, who says that the painting makes him feel alone. Although Vanessa’s name isn’t said in this scene, the way that the camera lingers on the two of them shows that they’re probably gonna hook up later.

Overall, this episode was really great at continuing what has been established. I’m glad that the Big Bad of this season has finally been revealed. Plus, this is the first episode that brings up the different kinds of morality. Murdock and Foggy are working around the letter of the law, using gray morals. Daredevil himself works outside of the law with his own brand of morality. He refuses to kill Healy and is agonized when Healy chooses suicide. Karen also shows that she is above the ambiguous morals of her former employer. I also find it interesting that Fisk and Vanessa first meet while Fisk is looking at a white painting, even though both of them have the darkest set of morals in this show. Also, kudos for keeping the priest in as a recurring character, willing to help Murdock with whatever he’s going through. It’s always good to have straight-laced moral characters in a show that kind of blurs the line when it comes to morality.

All screenshots are copyright to Marvel Studios and are used for editorial purposes only.