Daredevil Month: Stick

The episode opens with someone running down flights and flights of stairs to an office. The man grabs a gun and runs to an elevator, waiting for someone to come out. He immediately fires, but nobody’s inside. A Japanese man holds him at swordpoint and asks about the “Black Sky” he cuts off his arm and asks him again about Black Sky. The man swears on his family that it’s in New York City. The swordsman kills him and it’s revealed, as he gets onto the elevator, that he is an old, blind man.

Inside the Murdock and Nelson offices, Foggy reads about Daredevil in the newspapers and wants to beat the guy to a pulp. Matt, of course, being Daredevil, plays (to put a pun on things) Devil’s Advocate. Nelson asks Karen out on a date, but Karen’s got other plans. Foggy asks Matt about his girlfriend, but Matt tells him it didn’t work out. Matt gets to work on a case.

Leland and Nobu have a discussion in a parking garage. Nobu is planning something at the docks. He leaves Leland with a Zen saying. Leland opens his car and Daredevil finds him and asks Leland who he works for. In the middle of the interrogation, he hears the tapping of a cane. The distraction gives Leland the chance to taze Daredevil and leave.

Flashing back to Matt’s childhood, he’s suffering from major oversensory issues. Matt is living in a Catholic orphanage. The same old man from the intro comes to visit him. He acts like a mentor to the young Matt, telling him that he was born blind. Matt talks about how he started developing his supersenses. The man, who is called Stick, mentors Matt in developing his supersensory powers. 20 years later, Stick tells the grownup Daredevil to get up, telling him that he’s back in town to help.

Karen and Urich meet up and compare notes on what they have on their investigation. Urich has a lead on Japanese and Russians that might be connected to Union Allied and tells her stay away from the man in the mask. Karen can’t shake the fact that he saved her life. Urich tells her that there are no heroes or villains, just people with differing agendas and that he doesn’t want to be responsible if anything happens to her. Karen feels she can hold her own.

Stick and Matt meet at Matt’s apartment. Matt isn’t on good terms with his old mentor. Stick sees Matt as too attached to his things and to his friends. It’s clear from their interaction that Stick was not your typical mentor. Flashing back to his childhood, Stick trains Matt how to fight. Little Mattie blames himself for his father’s death. Stick tells him to stop blaming himself. Flashing forward to the present, Stick tells Matt about Black Sky, some kind of weapon that Nobu is bringing in, and recruits Matt to assist him on the mission, since Nobu is connected to Fisk. Matt accepts on the condition that Stick won’t kill anybody. Stick makes a half-hearted promise.

Meanwhile, Karen helps Mrs. Cardenas with her groceries in exchange for information linking Union Allies with Mr. Tully’s “repairmen.” Mrs. Cardenas describes them to Karen, pointing out that one of them has a tattoo. A man follows Karen as soon as she leaves the apartment complex. He and his friend attack Karen in an alley, but thankfully Foggy comes in, armed with a bat. Karen gives one of her attackers a face full of mace and Foggy bats the other guy down for good measure.

Down at the docks, Daredevil and Stick get a layout of who’s there: Nobu with a dozen henchmen, armed to the teeth. Stick tells Daredevil to take out the henchmen while he takes care of Black Sky. Daredevil chooses to go with the “sneak and smother” procedure. In the midst of the sneak attack, we find out that Black Sky isn’t a weapon…but a child. Daredevil acts quick and kicks away the arrow meant for the child and fights off the mooks. Unfortunately, Nobu and Stick are both gone.

Flashing back to a training sequence between Mattie and Stick. Mattie gives Stick a bracelet. Stick crushes it in his hands and says “I can’t help you anymore.” Matt returns to his apartment, where Stick is already waiting for him. Stick justifies his attempted murder of a child and his abandoning Matt because he wanted a soldier. He tells Matt that he already killed the kid while Matt was fighting Nobu’s men and a fight breaks out between the two of them. I seriously wish that the lighting was better in this scene, but hey, blind man’s apartment. I can at least tell what’s going on from the silhouettes. Stick, being older, quickly knocks Matt down, but Matt gets a second wind and fights back. After one last attempt from Stick to smother Matt, Matt knocks Stick to the ground and tells him to get out of the city.

At the New York Bulletin offices, Karen brings Foggy in on the investigation. They look at Urich’s board and comment on who the King of Diamonds is. (We know it’s Fisk.) Daredevil is represented by the Jack of Hearts with a mask over one of the faces and the name “Black Mask” written on it.

Matt cleans up the wreckage and finds the bracelet that he gave to Stick all those years ago. Stick reports to his superior and says that he took care of Black Sky. The camera reveals a shirtless muscled man who knows of Murdock.

One thing I’m noticing about Netflix series is that there aren’t any filler episodes. All the plots and subplots flow together a lot easier, but at the same time, it would be nice to have a breather.