I’d argue that Stick, who seems comfortable making absolute decisions for what he sees as the greater good, is far closer to Fisk than Matt ever will be.Īs much as I enjoyed this episode, especially Stick and Matt’s apartment-wrecking brawl, the entire Nobu-Black Sky plot felt like it was part of a different television show. Sure, we might be scared of the Matt who tortures suspects and leaves mobsters comatose, but he could obviously be much worse. Had his old sensei not walked out on his life, Matt could have easily turned into this misanthropic, vicious and morally simplistic man. While the show has repeatedly told us the line between Matt and Fisk is drawn in erasable ink, this installment shows us Matt’s approach to vigilantism is pillowy soft compared to Stick’s. The episode also provides us another parallel path for Matt. Where a young Matt sees a father-figure, Stick sees attachment as a mortal sin, and crushes the boy’s spirit long before Wilson Fisk will ever have a chance to do the same. He’s a killer, a bully who seems to take pleasure in acting as a drill sergeant to young Matt, and he doesn’t know forgiveness in the slightest.

This episode spends half its time in the past, and although it doesn’t show us what eventually led Matt to put on the mask, it goes a long way toward showing us why our eventual Daredevil operates very differently from the rest of Marvel’s heroes. “Stick” introduces us to the loveless, single-minded mentor who taught Matt Murdock how to read heartbeats, hear broken bones and beat the tar out of the city’s underworld.

It took more than a batch of chemicals to turn Matt Murdock into the brutal spirit of vengeance that haunts Hell’s Kitchen.

Daredevil season 1 episode 7