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Welcome to the TV Soup podcast, home of drinkfive.com’s television review series. In this episode we continue our discussion of Netflix's Daredevil with episodes 11 & 12, "The Path of the Righteous" and "The Ones We Leave Behind". From the very beginning of the series, we've known that there was something special here; these last few episodes that lead up to the season finale only serve to prove more of the same. Actions of Karen's show us that there is more to her than we may know, some major characters make quick departures from the show and everything leads up to the big confrontation between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. Can't wait to wrap up this excellent series next week!

TV Soup Podcast: Daredevil, "The Path of the Righteous" & "The Ones We Leave Behind" Review 

Just as a reminder, we're going through this series 2 episodes at a time so there are only a few weeks left before we move on to something else. We would highly recommend that you watch Daredevil in a similar fashion, since the whole thing plays out more like a movie than a TV series. Although there are a few gaffs that always come with a show based on a comic book, Daredevil has been put together pretty flawlessly in our professional opinions and we're looking forward to breaking down the rest of the episodes in the series leading up to the finale.

Netflix is taking over the TV market

They're doing it slowly, but they're doing it. Over the past few years there have been marked declines in TV ratings on traditional, cable and premium networks. Executives scrambled to try and figure out the cause(s), thinking that it may stem from incorrectly measured statistics, etc but recent data shows that it may have been the growing use of Netflix and other similar streaming services all along. 

In fact, Netflix now represents close to 6 percent of total TV viewing in the United States, according to analyst Michael Nathanson. This trend does not currently seem to be in any danger of slowing, so if Netflix is able to keep up its current frenzied pace of promotions and the development of successful original programming, we're going to see a more drastic shift in viewing habits over the next few years. I'm not sure yet how I feel about this going forward, but as a lover of well produced, serialized content that you watch on a screen - bring it on!

Full disclosure - I didn't read the comics

It would be remiss of me to start off this review without first mentioning that I am not a Daredevil expert. Far from it, actually. I've seen the 2003 movie starring Ben Affleck, which I don't regret seeing but was certainly not memorable. I haven't read any of the comics and I'm not familiar with any other version(s) of the story that may be out there in the media from years past. But I'm not here to compare this new original series to anything that already exists out there.. I'm going to review it on its own merits.

Starting on a good note
Daredevil was created by Drew Goddard, who worked with both J.J. Abrams (Alias, Lost, Cloverfield) and Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, The Cabin in the Woods) on numerous projects. Initially, he was given the role of show-runner, but he had to step down when he was offered a chance to write and direct Sinister Six, a Spiderman spin-off featuring a group of super villains. For whatever reason, though, Sony decided to put Sinister Six on the shelf for the time being and instead move forward with a new Spiderman reboot.

Why a new Spiderman reboot, you ask? Haven’t there been enough?! Right, well.. apparently Sony has decided to share Spiderman and Marvel, Sony and Goddard are hatching a plan to cast an actor for the long haul and mix Spidey in with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cool!

Daredevil S01E01 Review, "Into the Ring"

"The Incident"

Daredevil is immediately linked to The Avengers and the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) by mentioning that the events that occurred in The Avengers had just happened (referred to as "the incident" or "death and destruction raining down from the sky") and the resulting devastation is allowing criminals to breed in the underbelly of the city. It's refreshing that Daredevil doesn't feel like it has to hold our hands through this back-story and actually glazes over it rather quickly to get back to the characters and story at hand. 

Nelson and Murdock, Attorneys at Law

Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) form Nelson and Murdock.. a brand new law firm trying to find clients in order to keep their lights on. The banter between Matt and Foggy works pretty well and Foggy is a likable character providing some comic relief. We don't have very much background on their relationship together and how it first started yet, but that would shed some much needed light on the situation. Based on their interactions, it seems like Matt and Foggy have been close for quite a long time. 

Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) was previously in HBO's True Blood (in fact she actually started filming Daredevil less than two days after True Blood wrapped).. and her initial appearance here would not have looked out of place in Bon Temps, Louisiana. We are first introduced to her character with the striking visual of Karen racked with emotion, quivering on the floor, holding a knife and covered in the blood of her former co-worker who is lying next to her. Yikes. She is not, of course, a vampire - but at a high-level her character is not that different from the one that she previously played in True Blood - innocent, but harboring secrets. 

(Tune in to the TV Soup Podcast - Daredevil, "Into the Ring" & "Cut Man" Review) 

Now that she has been saved by Nelson and Murdock, it looks like she has signed on as their permanent secretary. She could be trouble though.. she lied to the people that were helping her, and stole the file that got her into trouble in the first place (called 'pension master', apparently containing evidence of some illegal activities disguised as rebuilding and renewal projects for the city). Did she actually have bad intentions in mind such as blackmail or worse? Perhaps not, but having taken the file at all shows us that Karen is strong-willed and able to act swiftly if necessary. Karen lies to Matt about having taken the file when he questions her about it, so we know there will be some turbulence between these two characters going forward.

Origin story

As I said earlier, I am not familiar with Daredevil's original back-story from the comics, but in Netflix's Daredevil, young Matt has saved an older gentleman by pushing him out of the way and in the process gotten a toxic chemical all over his face and eyes, blinding him. It's not clear exactly what the chemical is at this point, but it doesn't appear to have caused any superhuman abilities for Matt. It's no radioactive spider, if you know what I mean.

That doesn't mean, however, that Matt has not benefited in several ways from the loss of his sight. We can observe that Matt is able to hear incredibly well.. using people’s heartbeats to see how anxious they are under duress, etc and picking out voices from very far away. He’s also very athletic and able to take a tremendous amount of abuse. Traits picked up from his father, surely, and whatever training he has engaged in along the way to becoming who he is today.

A more reasonable take
Matt gets his ass kicked several times in this first episode. I hate to say it, but it’s nice that they are showing his weakness and mortality early. This guy could definitely die - he’s not from some alien planet that gives him invulnerability, etc - and apart from the obvious similarities (vigilante, no demonstrable superpowers) he is very much unlike Batman in that physical confrontations for him appear to be incredibly difficult and cause extreme consequences each time he engages in them. I appreciate this more reasonable take, especially considering that Matt cannot see in the traditional sense of the word. He may be amazing, but he is also obviously going to take a beating each time he pulls on the mask and heads out into the night.

We haven’t yet seen Vincent D’Onofrio, who is playing the Kingpin in this series, but we do get to know Wesley (Toby Leonard Moore) as the guy running the operation so far. He’s great at being an extremely unlikable, yet strangely charismatic character.

Daredevil S01E02 Review, "Cut Man"

Character development

Like other Netflix shows, there is not that sense of urgency at the beginning of new series that usually exists in linear network or cable tv programs. These series get the ‘benefit of the doubt’ from fans, who tend to watch several episodes before deciding to continue or cut and run. That is probably a good thing for shows like this that need to develop a large back-story and foster the relationship of the characters before more major plot developments take place.

This episode mainly exists to show (again) that Matt Murdock can be killed and is still made of the same flesh and blood as everyone else, and also to introduce Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), presumably as someone that Matt will lean on and have a relationship with throughout the series. She's a nurse. How great is that for a vigilante that comes back from fights with more than just his share of cuts and bruises? Claire seems to quickly understand Matt and not have an issue with the way that he handles himself. She has also seen his face and they both realize that this forced relationship that started with a chance meeting at a dumpster will have long-reaching consequences.

It’s difficult to understand why Claire wouldn't have called the cops on Matt when she found him dying in a dumpster outside her apartment, and we have to trust in the writers of the show until the very end when she reveals that she knew who he was and what he had been doing. It's a nice pay-off for what initially seems like it could have been a poorly thought out sequence. Referring to the title of the episode, a cut man is someone who is responsible for treating the wounds of a fighter in between rounds and after the fight. Matt was his father's cut man, and now Claire is shaping up to be Matt's.

Bravery, or insanity?
It makes sense that in this time after ‘The Incident’, people are a little more willing to accept things that are out of the ordinary, as the ordinary got blown out of orbit by The Avengers, but Matt seems to have a questionable conscience. He doesn’t appear to have any issues with torturing people for information, breaking bones or dropping Russians off of roofs. How much of that is bravado, how much is necessary and how much is insanity? Would we be surprised to see Matt kill?

I think more of Matt's back-story including the events that occurred after his father's murder until the present day will shine some light on his motivations. I don't believe that we've seen Matt actually kill anyone on purpose yet in this series, but it seems to be heading in that direction. Likely there will be some upcoming fights or events that lead to a moral dilemma for Matt. How far should he be taking things? That goes all the way back to the beginning of "Into the Ring", the premiere episode, when he goes to confession not to be forgiven for something he had already done, but for something that he was yet to do.

The backstory here with Matt’s father Jack gives us a little insight into his psyche. Jack seems (so far) to have constantly thrown fights for money and was beaten to a pulp because of it. He left his son home alone, let him drink scotch and had him stitch up his cuts after particularly bad fights. Obviously, Matt had to grow up quickly. Even more so when Jack finally had enough and tried to give his son (and himself) a little pride by refusing to throw a fight against one of the big names in the game. It remains to be seen if any of the money that Jack bet on the fight (likely all of the cash that we saw in the envelope earlier in the episode) came back to Matt and his mother. But I hope so, because Jack certainly didn’t.

All the extremes
In the meantime, Foggy and Karen go drinking to forget their problems. It’s a fun sequence for the most part that shows us they are still people outside of the context of Matt Murdock but I’m not sure where they are headed. Is Karen trying to get close for nefarious reasons? Are there any inklings of romance there? I think most of those scenes were placed there simply in order to provide a stark contrast to how Matt and Claire’s nights were going.

Ultimately, Matt was on a mission to rescue a kidnapped boy – and he ended up doing just that. In a great fight scene with lots of close combat. My favorite parts about the way that the fights work in this show are that people are slow to get up, techniques are not perfect and the camera is not constantly cutting. Sure, we have to suspend our disbelief in order to swallow Matt beating up a whole warehouse full of henchmen. Still, that’s certainly easier for me to do when it looks like he’s on the verge of losing quite a few times. Again, this guy kicks his ass.. but he also gets his ass KICKED!

This show manages to combine a "monster of the week" kind of story while advancing the overall plot all at the same time. It reminds me of shows like Fringe, which did it well (though Daredevil may do it better) and Burn Notice, which did not do a good job of mixing it.

(Tune in to the TV Soup Podcast - Daredevil, "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" & "In the Blood" Review) 

Episode 3 - "Rabbit in a Snowstorm"

In the opening scene we see a bloody execution of someone who is clearly a boss of some type, bringing a couple of bodyguards with him to an empty bowling alley. While watching this, the gruesomeness of this show becomes apparent. Marvel movies don't usually feature too much blood, but our new friend (Healy) is splattered with it. He hides his gun, and in a move that does not seem very typical, he waits to be arrested by the police.

Matthew, imbued with some proper Catholic guilt, finds himself sitting in front of the church. Father Lantom really tries to get him to come in and talk, as clearly Matthew has been roughed up and has a lot on his mind, but he's not ready to talk, not yet.

We meet a couple of new characters against the backdrop of New York City. I'm not sure if there are a lot of buildings missing, but you can definitely see lots of buildings being constructed after "the event" or whatever they're calling it. It's an informant/gangster relationship, clearly, and later on you learn that Ben is a reporter and not a cop. In proper comic book fashion, Ben is warned off of the case that he's about to embark on (spoilers?).

Confederated global investments, represented by James Wesley (the errand boy with the employer-who-must-not-be-named), shows up at their law office with an offer to put them on retainer. Matthew is clearly (and rightfully) suspicious of their intentions, and Foggy is the opposite, fawning all over the money they've just been offered. Matt has a good line about how Foggy might care the other way around if he couldn't see the check.

Matt's senses are really finely tuned; he can tell Wesley by the specific tick of his watch, he can hear one conversation a ways off and I'm sure there are more surprises still to come. We've been wondering thus far if this is some sort of extra ability, or just his senses making up for his lack of sight.

Foggy is interviewing Healy, who finally tips off Foggy's BS detector with his amazingly fluent legalese. Clearly, as Foggy says, "this wasn't his first rodeo". Matt shows up and, without consultation, tells Healy they are taking the case. Matt's being a little bit unilateral in the early days of this law firm.

Matt is really just interviewing Healy for info on Wesley (whose name he doesn't know yet). Healy is eerily nonchalant about the whole thing (a "shark in a skin suit"), but Matt says they need to take clients just for the money, though clearly he wants to dig into their mutual "employer" more.

We see Ben at his office, and it's all very standard "we're old news guys, we can't do the news like we used to before". I've seen this now for the last 10 years on almost every newspaper storyline in anything I've seen on TV. It was done best on The Wire, season 5. Unless you're going to beat that, take a different angle.

Karen is offered a contract and buy-off to keep her mouth shut forever about Union Allied Construction (another good generic name) in exchange for the company not going after her for legal ramifications for breaking the NDA and stealing a file which got leaked to the papers. She leaves and it's uncertain which way she went. She later encounters Daniel's (the guy who they tried to frame her for killing) wife, asking her if she can help track down what really happened. The wife had already signed an agreement and is getting the hell out of dodge so Karen is on her own, but looking for someone else. Since she lied to Matt & Foggy about taking the file (by not telling them about it), she doesn't want to go to them about the situation.

Healy's case is sped to trial, and during the opening Matt quickly sniffs out a juror who has been compromised and deals with it that night nearly as quickly. This actually works, and Matt makes his closing argument to a jury of the untampered (he certainly listens for long enough to be sure). His speech is a warning to Healy as much as it's meant for the jury to take only the facts of the case into consideration. It's a good speech, but no McConaughey from A Time to Kill.

The verdict comes back, and there is no verdict! It's a hung jury, and the state will not be retrying the case as it's "too expensive". It doesn't seem like a hung jury should come back so quickly, clearly something else is happening behind the scenes. I like how every time Matt asks Healy a question he doesn't want to answer, he not only changes the subject but seems to compliment him too.

Finally we get a hell of a fight, as both Matt and Healy are friggin' bad-asses, so in proper Daredevil form, it goes on for quite some time with both sides gaining some advantage over the other. Matt is able to squeeze the name of Healy's employer out of him, which prompts Healy to impale himself on a spike rather than continue on after having given up his name.

Wilson Fisk is our man, played by Vincent D'Onofrio, and he's just hanging out in an art gallery. He looks like Gomer Pyle from Full Metal Jacket, all grown up (and not dead) but possibly just as crazy. He buys a painting called "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" which is kind of a joke, making up something that isn't there.

Episode 4 - "In the Blood"

We find out quickly what "In the Blood" refers to (as opposed to the last episode, in which we found out at the end). The Russian brothers have a very tight bond, strengthened in a Russian prison years ago where they presumably broke out with the use of sharpened bones taken from their deceased cell mate. That's sure to forge a tight bond between anyone.

Matt is getting patched up, again, by Claire, who is running her own ER out of a friend's apartment and hiding out from the Russians on advice from Matt. Matt & Claire certainly have an interesting relationship developing, and it looks like one of those that could go romantic, but won't (yet?) because Matt doesn't want her to be a target.

The Russians are in their "hideout", basically a taxi garage. Wesley comes by and tries to motivate the Russians to take down their "problem", as it's affecting business. They're also given an "offer" for Fisk (he who must not be named) to help out, but of course they resist at first. I like Vladimir's point about how the only reason they aren't supposed to say "Fisk" is because it makes him seem like he's not a man, not because of some eavesdropping suspicions or something else.

Karen and Ben are going over the facts of their case and Ben is trying to get Karen to move on from looking further into this. He smartly points out that most people who have gotten in the way have wound up dead. Unswayed, Karen is determined to find the paper trail.

Vladimir and Anatoly go looking for answers about the masked man and they seem to know a lot about how to get a guy out of a coma. I suppose they are some hardcore gangsters, but still, this is a pretty crazy thing to do to a guy on your side. Anyways, Semyon (the guy in the coma) leads them to Claire's apartment where they are able to connect the dots and eventually find Claire at the place she's hiding.

Wesley and Fisk are in the car, talking. Even when talking amongst themselves, they use really vague terms. Maybe it's just a habit for these guys at this point. Fisk mentions that he wants to handle it all quietly... but of course it ends up being the total opposite of that. He goes into the art gallery and tries to get a date with the lady from the last episode. You almost start to feel bad for this guy, as he's trying to relate to normal people (especially at first at dinner), but it's still awkward. It almost makes you forget that he's most likely a psychopath.

Matt finds out where Claire has been taken from Santino (after Matt was just barely too late). It's interesting that most of the time, he goes around with a walking stick, but when trouble is about, he's able to run full speed and navigate perfectly. The stick is just a prop to help him stay under the radar as Matt Murdock.

Matt always fights at night, but he finally uses a tactic that I've been wanting him to use for a while now. When he arrives at the taxi depot, he kills the lights, putting him at an instant advantage. This fight isn't even close to being even, as the Russians take a really dumb approach to this situation but this is a comic book series, so I guess I need to take that into consideration. Claire takes a huge swing at one of the guys - in the face, with a baseball bat - in one of the most satisfying moments of the episode, though it does leave her very, very shaken up.

Karen buys furniture at the auction and we find out that Ben is still interested in the story. I'm hoping that Ben becomes a better character, he seems far too cookie-cutter, and I usually like the good guy journalist character.

Anatoly heads to see Fisk, who was spotted at the restaurant. Anatoly seems like the level-headed brother, but he charges into the restaurant like a fool and we find out that Fisk has been surrounded by guards the entire time. Definitely ups the creep factor right after he was starting to seem normal.

The shoe is on the other foot for once; Matt is patching up Claire, just like when he used to fix up his dad after matches. Claire urges Matt to continue what he's doing, and that it's worth the risk. Matt then reveals his real name.

Fisk is finishing his date with Vanessa, trying to act all nonchalant about the bizarre scene at the restaurant. He then takes his frustrations out on Anatoly, in a very sloppy ending to an episode where all the characters were a bit sloppy with their actions. All the fights in this episode were very one-sided as well. Also, wtf, is Fisk wearing chain mail? I suppose so, he's going to war...

So far, I've loved how the episode pairs that we've watched seem to all go together. Episodes 5 and 6 went together very well - if it was a cheesy network show, there would have been a "To be continued........." after episode 5. Thankfully, this is Netflix and we can watch at whatever pace we want.

(Tune in to the TV Soup Podcast - Daredevil, "World on Fire" & "Condemned" Review)

Episode 5 – “World on Fire”

Matt & Claire’s relationship gets much more serious as he’s trying to protect her from the Russians. We get a little more insight into his “abilities” – he can taste the copper in the air when someone is bleeding, he can hear the bones inside someone’s body to tell if they’re broken. As Claire says, “You see….so much”. 

We get a “vision” of what Matt sees, which is a “World on Fire”. I’m not sure what this is referring to, if this is because he’s trying to save the world, or if he really does “see” something, but it’s nothing like traditional vision. He did have sight until he was 9-years-old, so he does know the difference.

Wesley goes to talk to Vladimir and witnesses the seeds being planted that the man in the mask (Matt) was the one who killed his bother. Vladimir sees it as a declaration of war, which it was, but against the wrong man. This isn’t something I saw coming, but makes perfect sense. Fisk is very calculating and we see it on an even greater level later on in this and the following episode.

We find ourselves in a car wash that seems to be taken right out of Grand Theft Auto. Of course, in Fisk’s line of work, you need a shop on retainer that doesn’t shy away from hosing blood and brains off of your car door. GTA VI: Hell’s Kitchen anyone?

Matt is on a mission to get after the Russians and tracks them to a cab in the middle of an alley. This is a really well shot scene. As long as the guy working for Madame Gao is alive, they stick with the camera in the back seat next to him and slowly rotate it around to view what’s going on. Matt finds out that he’s being framed for killing Anatoly and the cops show up – they’re getting closer every time.

Back in the real world, Foggy and Karen are having technical difficulties with the equipment they bought – a paranoid person would think that the previous owners (Karen’s evil ex-employers) have bugged it. Mrs. Cardenas, their newest client, comes to them to report on a slumlord who is trying to kick her out of her rent-controlled apartment by forcing her to live in squalor. Their case of the week does a good job, as usual, in tying into the rest of the overarching story (and eventually becoming much more than a case of the week).

While digging for more info, Matt hears a couple of cops kill a guy in an interview room just because he dropped the name "Wilson Fisk". This is yet another guy that winds up dead after giving up Fisk's name. Looks like people take that "we don't say his name" very seriously.

Foggy and Karen stop by Mrs. Cardenas's to help fix up the place, and she winds up fixing them up. She can certainly make a decent meal while living in terrible conditions. The date goes very well, and yes, it is a date now. Goes to show that being a lawyer will help you net a girl that's way out of your league. Of course, that all changes once the city starts blowing up...

Meanwhile, Fisk manages to get a second date with Vanessa. Somehow, the scene at their last date didn't scare her off entirely. She’s clearly attracted to power and doesn’t know that she’s walked right into a scheme that Fisk has been working on. This is all just a part of his grand plan to trap Vladimir and the man in the black mask at the same time. It's very well unraveled, as the misdirection works and nobody ever figures out what's going on right away. Vladimir takes the bait and rallies his troops for an attack on Fisk, even offering $1 million for his location.

Claire is trying to keep Matt from spiraling out of control. He's saying he will do "whatever it takes" and a few other worrisome phrases. She's worried that he is getting closer and closer to the guys that he fights every night. She has a point, he's quite ruthless, even if he seems to sorta draw a line at actually killing people.

Vanessa and Fisk's date continues with plenty of creepy vibes, but apparently Vanessa is attracted to creepy. Fisk goes on about his "business" and you can see that he's justified everything that he does through his excuse that he is trying to "clean up the city". I have no idea what his ultimate motivations are, apart from probably just being a psychopath who wants power.

So, Fisk's first part of his plan goes pretty well and he winds up blowing up all four of the Russian's hideouts, in a stunt that makes it look like the city is under attack. Just a continuity note - later on Foggy is injured from the blast, but he's not bleeding at all right after, in fact his shirt seems to be entirely intact.

Fisk and Vanessa have a "Fight Club" moment, where they romantically watch a bunch of explosions from a high-rise. Vanessa is totally drinking the kool-aid. The episode leaves on quite a good cliffhanger, but of course, this is Netflix, so on to the next episode!

Episode 6 – “Condemned”

This episode opens in spectacular fashion, with Matt taking out 3 cops while handcuffed, surely one of his best performances yet. Immediately after, Matt has to drag Vladimir away so he can get more information out of him, even though he's just trying to kill Matt the whole time. I suppose that prison bond with his brother is just as strong as they were implying.

Ben is back, and he appears that he's going to be our window into the outside world solving this case. I suppose if that's as deep as his character gets, that's fine with me. I do like his use of a deck of cards to build the hierarchy of the enterprise without any photos handy. He shows up at the "hostage" situation, if only to be a pain in the ass, but it causes Fisk to call the TV networks to drown out Ben (and get a big audience for what comes next).

The pair of asshole cops, and boy are they assholes, are canvassing the area for "survivors" and changing their status quickly (aka putting a bullet in their heads). Matt sneaks Vladimir into an empty warehouse and they have a friendly conversation (I have counter-proposal - suck my dick).

At the hospital, they have a fun time crossing story-lines left and right and we see at least 5 characters that we know by name. Matt asks Claire for help and she starts settling into a little comic relief, in this ridiculously dark moment in the show. "It's not like in the movies! I don't watch movies, I like records though".

Matt has to (gets to?) cauterize the wound on Vladimir's side and his screams wind up giving them away to a cop. Matt kind of assumes that all cops work for Fisk, and if that's not true, they certainly don't work for him and the rookie cop doesn't cooperate. Matt finally hears what he wants to hear from Vladimir about Fisk. While it seems like it's the truth, it's a distraction so that Vladimir can catch Matt off guard, because, well, he did make counter-proposal and all. It becomes apparent during all of this, that Vladimir never realizes that Matt is blind.

Fisk comes up with an excellent, though crazy, plan on the fly. He doesn't seem to mind sacrificing people that he employs to reach his ends. A sign of his power is when he gets a police radio and can get the officers in charge at the scene to get on a private channel so they can all talk together. You have to own a whole lot of cops to even risk doing something like that, and Fisk doesn't seem like a guy who takes too many risks. This is his last stage of his plan, framing Matt for the bombings, pointing out that he's taken a cop hostage (he really did do that), and then framing him for the shooting that takes place right outside the building. Blake (asshole cop #1) is taken out first, and it's probably because he gave up the cell phone to Matt last episode. Anybody who disappoints Fisk is pretty much screwed.

By the end of the episode, Vladimir and Matt are besties and make it out to the tunnel. Vladimir sacrifices himself and Matt is able to get away without being either killed or captured by the cops. Vlad gives him a name that he really needs, someone who is easier to get at than Fisk. Leland Owlsley, basically the money man for Fisk and the cabal that they've formed. Now that this is done, we can move on to episodes 7 & 8!