Marvel's Daredevil S1E1 - "Into the Ring" Recap

After showing us the accident that left young Matt Murdock blind, he heads to a confession to ask for forgiveness for what he's about to do. Before the priest tells him that this isn't how confession works, we also hear him talk about his father and how he was a boxer said to have the Devil in him, which made his opponents fear him as soon as he got 'that look' in his eye.

Next, Matt takes out some criminals who are attempting to lock up some girls they plan to distribute in the human trafficking market. It's an impressive display of fighting skills. Good to know what we're in for this season.

Next, we meet Matt's friend and associate Foggy Nelson, who bribes a cop with some cigars to give to the cop's mother, in order to get better cases thrown their way. Foggy and Matt buy out some rental space in Hell's Kitchen for their business. Hell's Kitchen is rebuilding since something known as "the incident." They have a professional disagreement over the fact that Matt doesn't want to defend guilty people, while Foggy says that everyone is innocent in the eyes of the law until proven otherwise.

Enter Karen Page, a woman getting arrested for murdering her co-worker. We even see her with a bloody knife in her hand. Foggy's cop friend calls Foggy to put him and Matt on the case and they go to visit her. Matt and Foggy go in to take her case. She was working as a secretary at the construction company Union Allied, and her co-worker Daniel Fisher is the one who was murdered. She's skeptical to let them help but she's desperate and despite Foggy's protests, Matt is willing to do the case pro bono. Karen had thought Daniel was a nice guy and invited him out for some drinks. When she woke up, he was dead. Matt's abilities basically make him a human lie detector and as he believes her to be innocent, he is determined to help.

Foggy thinks Karen is guilty but Matt points out some inconsistencies with the case. If her guilt is so obvious, then she should have been charged with something by now and the case should be all over the papers.

While in her cell, Karen is attacked by a cop who tries to strangle her with her bed sheet. HE is apologetic about it so clearly he's got to be just a pawn in the larger scheme at hand. She's able to get a finger in his eye though and scream for help. Matt and Foggy press for her to be released or else they will plaster the airwaves with the corruption at play. The cops at the precinct have no choice but to do so, though one of them threatens Matt to not give him lip like that again. Matt is more convinced than ever that there's a greater conspiracy going on.

Matt and Foggy get Karen released and ask her to have a frank discussion with them about what's really going on there. She doesn't know who is trying to kill her but she admits to knowing why they're trying to kill her. While doing her job, she accidentally discovered that Union Allied had a pension embezzlement scheme. She vastly underestimated the scope of it all. Since Daniel worked in the legal department, she asked to meet him after work and as soon as she started to tell him about what happened, things got blurry as if she'd been drugged and then she woke up in her apartment next to Daniel's dead body and covered in his blood.

Matt lets Karen stay at his place, promising to keep her safe. He's trying to determine why they didn't just kill her outright the first time. For them to have only tried to scare and discredit her means that she must have something they want, the Union Allied pension file. Karen claims she didn't keep it but it's unclear whether or not she's telling the truth.

The Russian mafia, Yakuza, and Chinese gangsters meet together. They have a sort of professional relationship going and the Russian men share how their latest shipment (of women) is no longer in play because of the masked vigilante's interference. Wilson Fisk's henchman says his boss will not be happy about losing his shipment so the masked man needs to be removed from the equation. They also discuss the Union Allied situation, which Fisk's henchman says is being handled.

Karen sneaks out in the middle of the night to go back to her apartment, and doesn't realise Matt is following her. At her apartment, she is attempting to retrieve a flash drive but gets attacked by an assassin instead. Matt shows up and fights him off, of course donning his black disguise. In the struggle, Matt and the assassin end up crashing out of the second-story window.

In a flashback, we see Matt feeling his father's battered face after returning from a fight. His father tells Matt to get to work, so an adult Matt picks himself up off the ground and continues to fight the man off, eventually managing to beat him. Matt retrieves the hard drive from the assassin and despite Karen's pleas, he says he'll put it in the right hands. Lance ends up arrested for the crime and the blame for Union Allied falls on a secondary player as planned. Fisk and his henchman James Wesley discuss these latest happenings, with Fisk's henchman promising to look into how this all came to pass.

Thankful for all their help, Karen offers to work for Matt and Foggy's firm for free. Matt is later shown to be training in a gym alone, the assassin's suicide is staged in his cell, countless criminal organisations are continuing to conduct their business and making plans for many more nefarious affairs.

James Wesley orders the Russian's leaders, Anatoly and Vladimir Ranskahov, to deal with "the man in black" (Matt), and they make preparations to do so by kidnapping a boy to set a trap for Matt.

Marvel's Daredevil is available for viewing on Netflix.

