[note: This review attempts to contain as little spoilers
as possible. However, potential spoilers and plot points may come up. If you
haven't seen Daredevil yet, read at your own risk]
Absent from
Daredevil's previous episode "Stick", Wilson Fisk comes blazing back
into the show with "Shadows in the Glass", or as I like to call it,
Fisk Begins. That's right, our resident villain who isn't really a villain gets
the flashback treatment in this episode, where we get to see how Wilson Fisk
the child morphed into Wilson Fisk the man. And...it's not pretty. What, you
were expecting Hell's Kitchens biggest crime lord to have grown up in a healthy
family that played catch and attended the Saturday night double feature
together? The only villain to ever have a normal childhood is no one. Even Dr.
Octopus probably has some childhood scars that we don't know about.
So what is Fisk's
story? Basically, the poor sap grew up in Hell's Kitchen with a submissive,
scared mother (Angela Reed) and a father (Domenick Lombardozzi) who is pretty
much Floyd Mayweather Jr., except white and somehow with less hair. Initially
presented as a sleazy, yet well meaning schmuck, Bill Fisk slowly turns into
the sort of monster you'd expect his son to be. He forces young Wilson (Cole
Jensen) to beat up a young man who had been picking on him, makes him stare at
a white wall as punishment for his lack of manliness (totally explaining why
Fisk bought the "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" painting in episode three)
and then beats his wife due to his insecurities. Swell dude. I mean, you have
to be swell if your violent ways led to your son becoming a crime lord, who has
nightmares of (spoiler alert) killing you in self defense and stares at a
painting that resembles something from that dark period in his life. You'll be
taking home father of the year award at the Parenting Oscars next year good sir!
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| Female version of Bill Fisk |
As you can see from
that description above, "Shadows in the Glass" is, to say the least,
pretty grim. Per usual though, the grimness works, in this case to make us
feel more sympathy for our would be villain. As presented by Stephen DeKnight
(making his first official credited appearance as a writer) and director
Stephen Surjik, young Wilson is a typical young boy; meek, kind and still not
of age. He easily could've been someone who grew up to be a legitimately
important person if his father had been out of the picture, and the destructive
path he ends up on is absolutely tragic. Both performers portraying Fisk
expertly handle it. The young Jensen is incredibly sympathetic as a young boy
who's life slowly falls apart, while Vincent D'Onofrio is his usual amazing
self as the older Fisk, a man still struggling to reconcile what happened to
him in that Hell's Kitchen apartment years ago. This is the best performance of
the series for D'Onofrio; here in "Shadows in the Glass", we see him
elevate himself from a man trapped by fear to a man free of it, thanks in a
large part to Vanessa and Wesley. Toby Leonard Moore is particularly effective
in this episode; once seen largely as an evil stooge, Wesley is shown to be
someone who deeply cares about Fisk and would do anything to help him. You
sense, for perhaps the first time, Wesley isn't evil, just a man devoted to his
best friend and his line of work.
The star of the
episode is Domenick Lombardozzi as Wilson's father Bill. A decorated TV veteran
best known for his role as Herc in The Wire (Daredevil's biggest non comic book
influence), Lombardozzi gives us several different layers to Bill. When we
first see him, we want to root for this guy. Yes, he's a little full of himself
and something isn't altogether right, but Lombardozzi is such a likable presence
that we look past that and wish for him to become a city councilman and better
both his and his family's life. As the episode progresses however, Lombardozzi
takes the mask off and we see exactly why we felt so uneasy about the character
to begin with. By the end, you'll be thrilled that Bill has met his appropriate
fate, and thrilled that a talented actor in Lombardozzi did so well to make you
both like and hate the character so immensely.
 |
| Domenick Lombardozzi as Bill Fisk |
By the way, yes, we
do see the main characters in this episode. l know, I probably should've
mentioned that earlier, but it's easy to forget them due to how juicy the Fisk
storyline is. Matt, Foggy and Karen all have some prominent scenes, the most
notable being where Matt is introduced to Ben Urich and the investigation of
Fisk the three have been carrying on. As usual, it's good stuff and everyone
from Charlie Cox to Deborah Ann Woll does their usual good work. That said, the
episode is (intentionally I believe) clearly more interested in Fisk and his
story, thus pushing our main characters to the background. Never fear; Matt
will be back to being the focus with balls to the wall fights and self loathing
in the next episode. Even the best need a breather now and then!
Bottom Line: A Fisk
centric episode if there ever was one, "Shadows in the Glass" offers
us a chilling look at the crime lords origin. It's sad, grim tale of how abuse
can shape a person, and once again makes us consider the fact that our hero and
villain are at least somewhat cut from the same cloth. You'll at least enjoy
the fate of Bill Fisk though, if you're a fan of comeuppance and the Death Wish
movies.
Please change disks to continue...
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