Daredevil: Born Again Episodic Coverage: “The Hollow Of His Hand”

“The Hollow of His Hand” Is An Amazing Bit Of TV

“The Hollow of His Hand” chronicles one of the most electric courtroom dramas I’ve seen in a long time. This may be because I only tend to watch certain genres and not typically legal thrillers, but the twists and turns, the emotional highs and lows, all contained within one episode, simply floored me.

I’d previously complained about Daredevil: Born Again not having enough fight scenes, but if this is the kind of stuff the series wants to do, then I am all for it. The battle for White Tiger’s freedom is indeed a fight, with massive stacks.

The Episodes Knows How To Keep Stuff Engaging

And whoever decided to make the court case a battle of information was just doing damn good writing. The monologs are potent, but they can only be so good when we, as the audience, know more than the jury does. But “The Hollow of His Hand” utilizes that very scenario to set up gambits. I was somehow absolutely pumped when I realized how they were going to utilize their witnesses.

And they managed to tie all of this into the overarching themes of the series. I’ve already said Daredevil: Born Again is about rage, and that is present here—Matt’s rage and the police force’s rage clash throughout the episode—but it’s also about vigilantes and the rule of law. Kingpin’s declarations, plans, and assertions are thrown against the in-person, personal moments of White Tiger (and Daredevil, by extension) saving people. Every time anyone has to break or skirt the law to achieve their goals, it throws even more of the story—and the city—into a sense of conflict. If you’re going to do an edgy superhero story about a lawyer, this is the perfect setup.

“The Hollow Of His Hand” Combines Every Theme

But I do have to mention something that makes this episode a different sort of experience. I should’ve already said something about it in the previous article. We’ve lost an amazing actor, Kamar de los Reyes. I don’t know anything about his personal life, and it’s not my business to, but this performance, as White Tiger, as Hector Ayala, was incredible. The emotions he portrayed, his line delivery, he was a fantastic actor. This episode takes on a level of sadness knowing that he passed away after it was filmed.

“The Hollow of His Hand” is a great episode of TV. It cinched my internal debate. I am going to review every episode of this season like I did for Agatha. The tension, the writing, the understanding of all the themes that it plays with: just fantastic. At the time of writing this, the fourth episode is already out, and I am excited to get to it.   

  

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