We’re back with our fifth review of this season’s Daredevil on the episode “Kinbaku”. As we’ve mentioned in our previous reviews, this season we are reviewing each episode so we can get deeper into the nitty gritty of this spectacular series and so we can keep up with everybody’s various binge-ing habits.
In Kinbaku, we got to learn more about Elektra and her past with Matt, Karen does some research into the Punisher’s past and Karen and Matt go on their first date. So let’s get into Kinbaku:
The saga of Matt and Elektra
This episode we were properly introduced to Elektra, who was slightly alluded to in the first season as Matt’s greek girlfriend. But in ‘Kinbaku’ she shone, as we learnt through a series of flashbacks about her history with Matt.
The two met at a dinner party that Matt crashed and the relationship seemed to evolve quickly whereby Elektra was able to coax secrets out of him that it was obvious he didn’t tell anyone else. There was a darkness inside both of them that attracted them to one another, and their chemistry is palpable as they fight or have sex in a boxing ring.
The last of their flashbacks shows the young couple breaking into a mansion which Matt finds out is the home of Roscoe Sweeney, the man who killed his father, once Elektra has him cornered and then tied to a chair. So encourages Matt to beat him, and he is slightly egged on by the jeering of Sweeney himself, but he is unable to finish the job, so he calls the police. Elektra looks disappointed, but you know she ended up finishing the job for Matt.
In modern times, Elektra is first trying to get Matt to help her professionally as a lawyer with a deal she’s making with Roxxon (hey Agent Carter season 1) but he, the audience and everyone knows that this is just a ruse. He finds out that her actual plan is to draw him into a fight with the Yakuza, and all of her actions up to this point had lead her to this.
Elektra is an interesting addition to the cast at this point, she is a wildcard, she keeps Matt on his toes, and she is someone he is emotionally invested in and attached to. I thoroughly enjoyed their scenes together, and I’m keen to see the confrontation between them and the Yakuza.
In comparison to Matt and Karen
Matt and Karen went on their first date in this episode and while they were both preoccupied with other people – Matt with Elektra, and Karen with The Punisher – it seemed the epitome of the perfect date.
There seems to be something very sweet and innocent in this relationship between two characters that are very damaged, as if they have created a small, idyllic world apart from their real lives, and they are both waiting for the shoe to drop.
As of yet, while I do find them cute, I don’t feel invested in their relationship at all, perhaps that is what they want as Daredevil is not a series about romance, but I still felt more interested in Matt and Claire, and at this point even Matt and Elektra. This episode was obviously meant to compare the two relationships – the toxicness with Elektra and the purity of Karen, but I left the episode wanting more of Elektra so I don’t know if they achieved what they intended.
What does the Kinbaku in the episode title refer to?
Kinbaku is a type of Japanese bondage and is clearly metaphorical in the title pertaining to the scene with Roscoe Sweeney tied up and perhaps the hold that Elektra has on Matt.
Last minute notes
- Meanwhile on his own side quest, Foggy met up with his ex Marcy to talk about the crunchdown on superheroes/vigilantes, and she throws a mention to Jessica Jones
- Karen meets with Ben Urich’s editor to talk what’s been covered up in Frank Castle’s story and he agrees to give her the resources to research what she needs.
- No Claire or Frank this episode 🙁
- Also I want Elektra pulling up her mask to be tattooed on my forehead.