Recap / Daredevil S1 E9 "Speak of the Devil"

"Speak of the Devil" is the ninth episode of Marvel's Daredevil.

When Fisk gains the upper hand, the goal to destroy him becomes even more difficult, while Matt faces his own demons.

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Tropes:

• Alternate Aesop Interpretationinvoked: Called out In-Universe when Father Lantom quotes a bible verse at Matthew (Like a muddied spring or polluted fountain is the righteous man who gives way before the wicked) and Matthew gives the standard interpretation.
  Matt Murdock: Meaning righteous men have a duty to stand up to evil.
  Father Lantom: One interpretation. Another is that when the righteous succumb to sin, it is as harmful as if the public well were poisoned. Because the darkness of such an act... of taking a life... will spread to friends, neighbors... the entire community.
• Armor-Piercing Question: Father Lantom is pretty good at his job.
  Father Lantom: So the question you have to ask yourself is: are you struggling with the fact that you don't want to kill this man, but have to... or that you don't have to kill him, but want to?
• Artistic License: At the end of the episode, after stumbling upon the critically wounded Matt, Foggy places a call to 911, but hangs up after a few rings. Even if the call could get to that many rings before being answered, a 911 hang-up is called an abandoned call, and 911 services immediately follow up on these by either dispatching a police officer to the location (if available) or by calling the number back. Because Foggy is calling from his cell phone we can assume that the 911 dispatcher was not able to determine the address, but Foggy's phone doesn't ring afterward from the call-back.
• Artistic License – History: While Father Lantom's story about a priest being slaughtered during the genocide in Rwanda could easily have happened (many many priests and nuns were among the victims), it rather ignores the problematic role many Catholic clergy played in actually aiding and abetting the Hutus. One priest, for example, had his own church bulldozed with about 2,000 Tutsi refugees inside.
• Ask a Stupid Question...: Father Lantom's in the middle of his story about his development on the story of Satan, how as a young man he convinced himself that the devil is an inconsequential figure, built up from nothing for propaganda purposes because the word "satan" just means "adversary" or "opponent" in ancient Hebrew.
  Matt Murdock: So you don't believe he exists?
  Father Lantom: Was I done talking?
  • Later, Father Lantom recognizes that Matt is wrestling with the possibility of killing Fisk.
    Father Lantom: Few things are absolute, Matthew. Even Lucifer was once an angel. It's why judgment and vengeance are best left to God. Especially when murder is not in your heart
    Matt Murdock: ... How do you know?
    Father Lantom: You're here, aren't you?
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Matt can't help smiling on hearing Karen gush about what an asskicker the Man in Black was.
• Charles Atlas Superpower: Vanessa reveals that when it comes to selling art, she is really, really good.
• Cliffhanger / Internal Reveal: Foggy discovers that Matt is the Devil of Hell's Kitchen.
• Coincidental Broadcast: Justified because it's not a coincidence, but Fisk trying to incite the Man in Black—who has been laying low—to attack him.
• Continuity Nod:
  • The painting that Vanessa "shows" Matt, with its fiery cloud of tonal reds, strongly resembles Matt's perception of the world that we saw in "World on Fire".
  • Matt is cautious about being Lured into a Trap after the Russians did so in episode 2. Unfortunately Nobu uses meditation to lower his heartbeat and body temperature, so Matt won't detect him waiting in ambush.
  • When Foggy enters Matt's apartment, he finds it still smashed up from his fight with Stick. Foggy naturally assumes something bad has happened to his friend, especially on finding the Man in Black there.
• Double Meaning:
  • When in the art gallery, Vanessa asks Matt "Have you changed your mind about what you came here for?", believing he's there, as he claimed, because he wants to brighten up his apartment. Matt, who is strongly considering murdering Fisk despite being devoutly Catholic, replies that "I would just need to consider the cost."
  • Likewise when he leaves the bar after the gang drown their sorrows after identifying Mrs. Cardenas's body. He leaves after saying, "I've had enough".
• Dramatic Unmask: The In-Universe version; on finding the Man in Black collapsed in Matt's apartment, Foggy is on the verge of calling the police, only to hang up and unmask him instead.
• Due to the Dead:
  • As Elena lacked any next-of-kin, Matt and Foggy promise to make all the funeral arrangement themselves.
  • Averted with Nobu; Fisk callously tells Wesley to let him burn.
• The Empath:
  • Vanessa reads Matt perfectly when he shows up at the art gallery, leading him to a painting perfectly suited to his description of a "world on fire", a painting of a landscape in tonal reds.
  • She also correctly pegs Matt as a Chick Magnet when guessing the reason a blind man wants to decorate his apartment is to impress female guests.
• Epic Flail: Nobu's weapon is the kyoketsu shoge.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Matt wavers in his cause after meeting Vanessa and realising that she genuinely loves Fisk, and vice versa. The priest even thinks he might have gone there so he'd have an excuse not to kill Fisk.
• Five-Second Foreshadowing: We learn that the reason the bad-guys are going so hard after Mrs. Cardenas's apartment is because Nobu is demanding ownership of that block for reasons unknown. When he and Fisk agree to cooperate to take out the man in the mask, Nobu points out that the man has been cautious of late, but Fisk replies that emotions can make people incautious... cut to Matt and Foggy meeting with Mrs. Cardenas, and Matt arguing that maybe she should take the new offer from Fisk for double the money...
• Flaw Exploitation: Fisk figures out Matt's "emotional weakness" for disadvantaged victims, plays on it, leads him into a trap, and on the matter of how long his plans have taken, outright discusses the whole idea of a "character flaw". (Rather than his own temper, he admits to not being able to quiet his mind, even when it's quiet.) He also knows that Nobu's pride will lead him to be the one to challenge the man in the mask personally, so he's pitting his two most physically dangerous opponents against each other in the hopes that one will take the other out and, in so doing, leave the survivor weak enough that Fisk can take him out without difficulty.
• Godzilla Threshold: Despite claiming just a few episodes ago that he doesn't kill people, Matt is pretty much forced to resort to lethal force in his fight with Nobu. Although as we learn next season, Nobu isn't so easily taken down.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Nobu's ninja outfit, which is blood red with black—and the traditional attire of the Hand.
• Hollywood Law: Matt goes to the art gallery owned by Vanessa to see how much she knows about Fisk's operations. The visit goes sideways when Fisk himself shows up, and there is a lengthy and tense conversation between the two archenemies. Since Matt is the opposing counsel on a case that Fisk is involved in (a tenancy dispute in a building Fisk recently purchased from a slumlord), this interaction is completely inappropriate. Matt knows Fisk is represented by counsel, so ethically, he can't reach out to Fisk directly; he'd have to go through Fisk's lawyers first. This is lampshaded by Fisk, who comments, "Although we probably shouldn't be talking. I believe we're on opposite sides of a tenancy case." (There's a proper aversion of this in "The Man in the Box", when Matt visits Fisk in prison, and he has to sign a waiver with Fisk's lawyer before he can sit down with Fisk).
• How We Got Here: Matt's fight with Nobu is intercut with the story of how they wound up trying to kill each other in the warehouse.
• I Did What I Had to Do: For all of Father Lantom's willing to accept Pragmatic Heroism, he still draws hard lines.
  Father Lantom: Another man's evil does not make you good. Men have used the atrocities of their enemies to justify their own throughout history.
• Internal Reveal: Foggy discovers that Matt is the man in the mask.
• It's Personal: Karen, Foggy, and Matt all get very emotional when Mrs. Cardenas is murdered... just as Fisk intended.
• Kick the Dog: Invoked by Fisk when he has Mrs. Cardenas murdered, intending to provoke Matt into coming after him.
• Let Me Tell You a Story: When Matt asks Father Lantom if he believes the Devil exists in person, Father Lantom talks of how he didn't until the Rwandan genocide, where there was a well-respected community leader who refused to participate and so was targeted by the militia. But even they were reluctant to hack him up with machetes to Make an Example of Them, so asked their leader for permission to kill him quickly instead. Their leader decided to meet this man himself, spent hours talking to him...and then hacked him up along with his family.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Fisk asks for Nobu's help in taking down the Man in Black, planning to finish off whoever wins.
• Man on Fire: Nobu, at the end of the fight. He doesn't seem remotely fazed by it, continuing to attack Matt as he's burning. As season 2 reveals, he survives.
• Necessarily Evil: Fisk claims this of Elena's death. He wasn't happy to kill her, but felt her loss would enrage Matt enough to come out of his hiding and avenge her. Notably, when he talks about her death on television (obviously minus his part), Karen thinks that he's lying about being sorry, but Matt believes that Fisk is genuine. This does not inspire any kindly feelings in him towards Fisk.
• Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Subverted; Matt is wavering in his willingness to commit murder until Fisk has Elena murdered. However it turns out Fisk was deliberately inciting Matt to come after him.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Matt receives two, from Nobu and then Fisk, which even for his durability nearly ends in killing him. Matt then jumps through a window two stories up to get into the water after the fights, losing even more blood and taking more damage.
• Not So Stoic:
  • After viewing Elena's body, Foggy and Karen are openly distraught. Foggy casts a look at Matt who is expressionless behind his sunglasses...then we see his hands squeezing his cane until the knuckles turn red.
  • Likewise, Matt has trouble keeping his cool when Fisk unexpectedly shows up a the art gallery.
• Oh, Crap!: Played for laughs when Matt is talking with Vanessa and is caught off guard by Fisk's arrival. He was already aware of the absurdly heightened security; he just wasn't expecting the crime boss to show up in person.
• Pragmatic Hero: Father Lantom lays it out pretty goddamn clear for Matt.
  Father Lantom: There is a wide gulf between inaction and murder, Matthew.
• Properly Paranoid: Ben is well aware that the man in the mask could be playing him and doesn't take anything he says at face value, he knows this is just another source of potentially tainted information and he needs to pursue and verify.
• Pull the Thread: Father Lantom wonders briefly how Matthew knew he was sitting in that particular pew. He stops pulling when Matthew obfuscates.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: Father Lantom demonstrates this in spades. He's known since episode 1 what Matt was doing, and has been desperately hoping he could steer him on a better course... and recognizes that, given the shitty state of NYC, that could include throwing a few punches.
• Shout-Out:
  • Foggy's attempt to speak Spanish to Ms. Cardenas is from the stereotypical language class.
    Foggy Nelson: Donde esta la biblioteca.
    Matt Murdock: You just asked her where the library is.
  • A more direct one at the end:
    Foggy Nelson: I heard a crash... Not the fun-sexy-time crash, more of a "I've fallen and I can't get up" variety...
• Shown Their Work: Father Lantom's speech about Satan has a few.
  • "Satan" is indeed a noun that means "adversary" in ancient Hebrew. Someone joins an army, someone already there is worried about betrayal saying, "He will become a satan to us". All the other stuff about propaganda is Lantom's personal interpretation, though not without merit.
  • The genocide in Rwanda really was that awful. Murder wasn't the worst of it.
  • Matt gets to make a graceful exit from the art gallery when Fisk walks in because he's correct, getting involved with Fisk risks him getting a sanction from the bar association for conflict. They're fairly forgiving, but the rules do say you should actively avoid conflicts.
• Speak of the Devil: The episode is named after the saying, and the trope occurs twice.
  • Karen sees Fisk on TV after talking about him.
  • Nodded to when Matt asks Vanessa if she has someone in her life before Fisk is shown to be present at the art gallery.
• Villain with Good Publicity: Fisk lands firmly in this territory, between his sympathetic mannerisms and his philanthropic plans for Hell's Kitchen.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Downplayed when Fisk stops his men from shooting Matt to take him on himself, but Fisk then orders Wesley to inflict the Coup de Grâce. When Matt musters enough strength to jump out the window into the river, he has his men scour the docks with orders to shoot Matt on sight.
• The Worf Effect: Matt is an incredibly skilled fighter with a ridiculous level of pain tolerance. Then Nobu comes along and the best Matt is able to do during the fight is avoid death. He only wins through luck and a situational advantage in the end.
• Worf Had the Flu: Fisk's beatdown of Matt occurs while Matt has already been exhausted and sliced up fighting Nobu. He even has the gall to say that he's disappointed Matt didn't put up more of a fight.
• Worthy Opponent: Nobu towards Matt, and namechecked. He feels killing Matt would be an honor, and becomes offended when Matt doesn't return the courtesy.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Matt has a second conversation with Father Lantom, asking if he's damned if he's forced to kill Fisk.
  Father Lantom: You have to ask yourself, are you wrestling with this because you don't want to kill this man, but have to, or because you don't have to kill this man, but want to? ... I don't think you went to speak with that woman for insight into how to kill this man. I think you went because you were looking for a reason not to.

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