Daredevil: Rabbit in a Snowstorm - Breather

After two exciting episodes, how can Marvel's Daredevil keeping upping the ante; easy, have a third episode silly. While the first two episodes seemed to concentrate on stand alone arcs and character development, episode three, entitled "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" starts to shape what we are going to see the rest of this season.

Matt and Foggy are still trying to find their groove with their law practice when their first big case falls into their lap; a murder in a bowling alley involving a man named Healy who seems to be well connected with James Wesley, a man we meet in episode one who works for a mysterious benefactor.
Matt is suspicious of Wesley and the reasoning behind hiring himself and Foggy.

Elsewhere, we meet Ben Urich, an old newspaper writer who is interested in a man in black taking on the Russian Mob. Urich, once a respected reporter, has seen the decline of the printed page and the rise of blogs, and has been relegated to writing fluff pieces instead of hard-hitting news.

As Healy's case goes to trial, Matt uses his enhanced senses to remove jurors that seem to have been tampered with, but is dismayed to learn that even with that juror gone, the case still ends with a hung jury and Healy is back on the street, but is met by Daredevil who beats a name out of him; Wilson Fisk.

This episode is treated almost like a setup and is more filler than anything else. That isn't to say it's a bad episode, quite the opposite, it's just that the previous two episodes were so good that this one "pales" in comparison. What we do get however is the introduction of Ben Urich, played by Vondie Curtis-Hall, who I'm sure is going to play into the grand scheme of things in a big way, especially since we are teased that both he and Karen Page will likely be working very closely together.

The other big reveal is of course the "rabbit" himself; Wilson Fisk, or in comic book parlance, Kingpin, played by Vincent D'onofrio. While we only catch a quick glimpse and only a few lines of dialogue, we see an icy, yet thoughtful man. As far as his look, and the complaint about his size, look people, to find someone the size of Wilson Fisk would be nearly impossible and not likely, so get off that, and listen, he's the perfect look, and another thing; it's Vincent F'ING D'onofrio.

The only real Easter egg of sorts in this episode would be a newspaper article that we in Ben's off with the byline of "Battle of NY" which is an obvious nod to the events in "The Avengers." It's still a nice little shout-out of course.

The last thing I'll bring up in this episode is the elevation of the violence this time around. We have a broken arm with a bone poking out of the skin, a head based with a bowling ball, another broken arm with the sound effect being the payoff, a stabbing with a shard of glass, and the coupe de grace; a suicide via a shard of metal through the eye.

While "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" might not be the strongest effort so far this season, in no way is it lacking; it's merely a formality where new story lines need to be opened up and characters developed.

Fun Fact: Wilson Fisk's first appearance was in The Amazing Spider Man #50 in 1967.