sinkwriter

Yeah, I wished we could have ended with the main 3 enjoying their time together and skip the Dex reveal. They just made it seem like he's going to be all Terminator now, with his metal spine or whatever, and that made me eyeroll. Matt barely beat him as it was, because Dex had his magical perfect aim every single time, so to make him pretty much a mechanical killing machine bores and annoys me. I know it's a moot point, but I wouldn't have wanted him to come back.

No, perhaps not, but he probably would have kept stalking her. He wasn't some innocent. He was smart and calculating and knew what Fisk was. If he truly cared about Julie, he would have kept her out of it and stayed away from her after he freaked her out the first time.

That was not the Vanessa I saw in this series. She was not clueless to me. I saw her going into that relationship with her eyes wide open. She knew exactly what Fisk was, and she decided to go out with him anyway. She decided to marry the guy, and was certainly not caught up when she pushed Fisk to have Ray killed instead of merely discredited. We should have learned more about her, yes, but she was in no way clueless or a child. She knew what she was doing. We just don't know why she made such a choice, except for her mysterious comment to Fisk that she's not innocent and hasn't been, well before he came along.

One thought I had at the end of season 1 was that if Fisk were ever killed, or went to prison and stayed there, I definitely could have seen Vanessa taking over his enterprises. She knew what he was and still wanted to be with him, even back then, so I felt like she would be a believable new 'boss.' The way she calmly 'suggested' that Ray needed to be handled differently was stone cold, for sure.

James McAvoy is in the first group photo. Definitely unusual - there are a LOT of bridesmaids and only 4 men in one of the group shots (not including Tom).

Yay! The team's back together. What a great episode. SO tense, but ultimately such a relief to see Matt and Foggy and Karen re-team up and Agent Nadeem do something good. And a big HELL YEAH to Brett for his awesome stare-down of Dex. The man did not even waver. It was fantastic. After so much darkness and so many episodes where the bad guys kept winning and crushing everyone in their path, it was great to see even the smallest measures of positive, from the woman (hi, Lesley!) standing up to Fisk over her family's painting, to Brett standing up to Dex and all the criminal FBI agents, to Matt's mom and the other nuns lying and hiding Matt & Karen in the church (I half expected a 'They're gone!' a la The Sound of Music, LOL), and of course, the reunion of the core 3. Just all so much good.

I know. I just want to punch him right in that smug face.

LOL. Yeah, it's just a little laughable to me, the extent of his reach. It's so convenient whenever they need it. I could see him orchestrating all sorts of things, but to have an entire lair built within the hotel seems pretty over the top. At some point, I say, he can't have access to everything and everyone.

Jesus Christ, Karen... don't you know, you don't poke the bear? I get what she was trying to do, but in some ways I feel like she just made everything so much worse by what she just did. Has she forgotten what Wesley told her? Fisk won't simply kill Karen for what she just admitted -- he'll kill everyone else first.

Seriously, when he opened that door, I was like, "He has a secret LAIR in there???" Come ON. I know he likes to play the long game and has obviously been planning this a long time, but how was this missed? It just makes the FBI look really, really incompetent. And again, where did he get all the money to do this? Did he have this built back in season 1, "just in case"? Because they already said he was out of money, so ...???

Yeah, he had so many interesting expressions as he 'watched': curious, intrigued, calculating, maybe a little disturbed, yet oddly understanding and sympathetic. I found myself watching D'Onofrio instead of the unfolding scene, sometimes.

When that fight broke out in the prison, I was like, "COME ON. How was Fisk able to get that many prison guards on his side? After all he's done?" I couldn't believe no one came to Matt's aid during all of that. Good grief. So intense. I did too! I thought, "Seriously?!" With all the alarms blaring about a lockdown, he's still cool with waiting for Matt? My next thought was how on earth Fisk was orchestrating all of this. I appreciate the tension, but at some point it's got to be a little implausible for him to have such reach this time around. (Especially the way he was able to just talk to Matt over some sort of speaker in that exam room, from the privacy of his hotel room penthouse where he's supposed to have pretty much nothing. WTF?) I thought he had no money left because he spent it to get safe when he first went into prison (and the rest was for protecting Vanessa).

I really, really miss the Nelson and Murdock friendship. It's killing me to watch Matt push Foggy away like this. It pisses me off and makes me really sad. I mean, I get why he thinks it's the safer choice, to separate from anyone he cared about, but for crying out loud, is anything going to snap him out of that? I'll find out when I get to the end of this season, I suppose, but I do have to wonder, does this season (and thus the series) end with them still not friends? Because that will suck, if that's the case. It will be a huge disappointment. The heart of the show for me was their friendship in season 1.

That kind of cracked me up. The feds ask Fisk a basic question about whether or not he understands the rules they just laid out, and he turns it into a gigantic monologue about his love for Vanessa. At the end of which I just said to my TV, "Uh... a yes or no would have sufficed, dude." LOL.

Poor Foggy. He better be okay, or I'm going to be very pissed off. P.S. I was glad to see Karen actually brought Ben's editor boss with her when she went to see the medical examiner, and actually acquiesced when he insisted she bring some cops with her when she stopped off at her apartment for her files. I know she can take care of herself, but her insistence upon always going alone to these incredibly dangerous places (or when she knows she's in danger) just pisses me off. She doesn't need a man to save her or anything like that; I just prefer knowing she's going with some backup, you know? Don't be stupid. (Especially when sometimes your hard-headedness and pushiness ends up getting someone else killed.) In fact, I loved the line the editor gave when she tried to call him out on insisting she not go alone because he never would have insisted on it with Ben, and he said, "Yeah, and I'm never making that mistake again." That was a great line for his character. Poor Ben. I miss him.

There was a this one camera shot that made me really see the difference in size between Frank and Fisk, when Fisk came to see Frank in that solitary sort of room he was brought to after the big cellblock massacre. They were practically nose to nose a few times in that scene, facing off with one another, and in that moment the camera made Fisk look a lot taller than Frank. Before that, I always saw Frank as this giant, but in that moment, he looked scarily vulnerable in comparison to Fisk who loomed over him in size (height and bulk). It was pretty fascinating.

I find Fisk pretty fascinating, though brutal. I don't always need to see him, but it was a nice dosage to have him pop up in this way, for a bit. I have to admit, I cracked up more than I probably should have at the weird visual of Fisk eating his supper, sitting by Dutton's bedside, telling him matter-of-factly that he was probably going to die in the next few hours. Your lungs are filling up with blood, no big deal... btw, this steak is delicious, too bad you will never have any ever again because did I mention you'll be dead soon? It was just hilariously warped.

Me too. I felt so bad for him. Both Matt and Karen seem to be turning this case into something super personal, for different reasons (whether she realizes it or not, Karen seems to want some sort of absolution for killing Wesley, and Matt wants to prove he's not the same kind of street vigilante). Meanwhile, poor Foggy didn't even want to take the damn case, and he's the one who's had to do the most work for it. I usually side with Matt in various episodes, but he was a mess in this one. I wanted to slap him upside the head. Foggy yelling at him was well warranted.

Karen drives me up a wall. I appreciate her courage and drive to find answers, but for fuck's sake, when someone gives you the address for the PUNISHER, why do you go alone?? Bring some backup, just in case, you idiot. Or maybe don't take your time lurking for so damn long. ARGH.

Frankly, I've been waiting for something like that to happen since episode 1. That guy's big mouth was bound to get him into trouble sooner or later. He could never shut up with his snark. Once he actually took part in getting Vanessa poisoned, I figured it was only a matter of time before Fisk found out and killed him. I figured it was him before he ever admitted it. I couldn't believe Wesley never followed up to make sure things were okay with Gao. He just took Leland at his word, which to me was suspect all along, especially given how much he bitched about everything.

Fucking Fisk. I liked Ben. And I'm pissed at Karen too. She pushed and pushed and pushed him about that damn story, even though 1) he told her time and again that he needed to confirm sources and get more info, and she needed to be patient and wait; and 2) he told her that Fisk could easily spin the story that he was some poor abused kid just defending his mother (and now people are trying to kill him and they hurt his lady friend and his "assistant" and whatever else he could say to make people feel for him and say, "He just did what he had to, to save his mom. I'd do the same thing"), distracting people from what Karen wanted them to see, that he's a liar. The story could so easily backfire on them and they'd end up with no "smoking gun" at all. This is why I find her character so frustrating. She just pushes and pushes and wants things without thinking anything through... damn the consequences. And other people get hurt in the crossfire. He told her he had more important priorities, and she lied to him and put him in that situation talking to Fisk's mom. That cost him his life. After killing Wesley, I thought she might ease up a bit, learn that she needed to be more fucking careful before taking action, but instead she turned around and pushed Ben even harder to write that damn story. For what? Matt might be foolish, but so is Karen.

Side note: I also liked Foggy's questions about how Matt has kind of dragged them (Foggy and Karen) into it and put them in danger. It's true. Matt's so driven by his singular purpose that in some ways he is putting them in danger (like he did with Claire). Then again, Karen's doing the same thing, with her brazen recklessness. On the one hand, I like how strong she is, and how unwilling she is to put up with evil lying murderous corporate bullshit. But at the same time, I get so angry with her because she's incredibly reckless about it, and I fear she's going to get Ben killed, or someone else (like Foggy) hurt. All because she thinks she's got it all covered, but in truth there's no way to anticipate everything, because she's coming from a different POV than the nasty evil people like Fisk. She wouldn't be a ruthless murderer, but Fisk and his people would. And that she doesn't think about that (or that she blows it off as something she can handle, even after she was already almost killed twice) makes me think that her actions are terrifyingly dangerous. And that pisses me off, because I don't want to see Ben get killed because Karen can't stop pushing him to help her even when he has a legitimate reason to say "No more. My wife needs me, so I'm out."

I'm just finally watching this series via Netflix, so it's all new to me (so no spoilers, please, LOL), but my impression is that deep down Foggy put Matt up on a bit of a pedestal. He saw Matt as this idealistic guy who wanted to do all these "right" things, help people, do good... and those things are true, but it's colored with shades of grey that Foggy wasn't aware of, and was definitely unprepared for. Matt talked him into leaving the shitty evil law firm, Matt reminded him of the ideals they wanted to fight for. It's the basis for their entire private practice. To then see that Matt's been hiding all these things, and doing things that draw outside those lines, and in some ways, go against the very things they're supposed to be fighting for... well, that's a big damn deal. Everything he thought he trusted about Matt feels ripped to shreds. So he heard Matt's answers, but some of those answers go against everything they've been vowing to accomplish. The poor guy is completely thrown by that. I loved this episode, but it was so hard to watch because I really wanted Foggy to finally come to an understanding about why Matt does the things that he does. (I thought his questions about how on earth Matt went from wounded fatherless kid to adult vigilante were particularly interesting and on point, because who wouldn't think, WTF?? How did this happen? How did you become this?) Anyway, I can't wait to watch more episodes, mainly in hopes that they find their way back to being friends. It's heartbreaking to see them torn apart like this.

I thought for sure Lucifer was either lying to Chloe and hadn't checked for his wings yet, or that they were gone and he couldn't bring himself to tell her. Didn't imagine that his wings had changed - nice twist!

Didn't she say she met Charlotte in heaven? I assumed since she said she talked with all the new souls, that Eve got info about Ella and Dan and Chloe and Lucifer from Charlotte. Seconding the love for the exchange between Amenadiel and Chloe. I teared up, too. It was really well played. Still not sure about Eve. I get that she seems really into Lucifer (and she didn't bother me in this ep as much as she did in last episode), but now I'm suspicious that she has ulterior motives. Or maybe they threw that Cain comment out there just to tie things in with last season? Would she really play such a long con to get revenge for him killing her son? Probably not, right?