Karen’s trial starts, and Matt returns to practising law as Fisk digs in.

I’m a no longer remotely practising Catholic and the final scene of this episode made me laugh so hard, in the best of ways. Beat up, barely escaping an attempt on his life by the AVTF and back in the public eye, Matt limps to a church and prays to St Jude, Patron Saint of ‘Difficult Cases’. The joke works on several levels at once. St Jude is the patron saint of hopeless or impossible cases, meaning Matt’s underselling to his patron saint, lawyering it up even in prayer. St Jude is also the patron saint of lost causes, which pretty much everyone in the show seems to be at this point and, again, Matt’s underselling. But there’s also real sincerity to this, a man defined by his faith and how much he crosses the lines of it falling back on it in his darkest hour yet.  Finally, there’s the fact that the prayer cuts across everyone still standing, and one crucial character who isn’t.

Let’s talk about him, because the core of this episode is, appropriately, mortal sin. Daniel Blake, all set to hand BB Urich over to Buck to be killed, finally folds and admits what we’ve known all along. He’s a good man, and that’s going to get him killed. And it does in one of the most horrific, unbearably sad moments the show has done to date. Arty Froushan’s work as Buck has been stunning in a cast made of fantastic talent but there’s a moment here where we see him break. He beats Daniel almost in second gear, barely even recognising what he’s doing to a man he’s friends with and may be falling for. It’s awful, Buck’s soul and body warring for control as he murders the show’s final victim. Froushan does stunning work here as does Michael Gandolfini. Daniel knows he has no chance and he fights anyway and it breaks your heart as you see Buck’s fist rising and falling and his plaintive ‘No! No!’. No wonder the original plan, to spare him, changed. Daniel as a line Buck didn’t know he had until he crossed it is a brave and fantastic choice to make. It also removes the last human face the Fisk administration had.

Fisk is, finally, wounded and Matt’s appearance defending Karen isn’t just a punch the air moment, it’s Fisk’s bluff being called and he knows it. In an early confrontation with Karen, she remarks she’s never seen him scared before and he is. Worse for him, everyone sees it. Mr Charles, the governor, the vigilantes, the city. Fisk finally has nowhere to hide and, ironically, has had Buck kill the last person he could hide behind.

There’s so much else here too including some interesting developments with Jess that seem to confirm Luke is working for Mr Charles and by extension, Valentina, the CIA chief running the New Avengerz. There’s also a great beat with Bullseye where Matt cuts him loose to do the ‘one good thing’ he’s desperate for and an electric confrontation between Heather and Karen that sets up so much of Season 3. Deborah Ann Woll is playing Karen like her second name was Murdock, chin forward, eyes locked on her opponent, furious and daring them to take another shot. Margarita Levieva as Heather matches her beat for beat and the decision to have Muse, blurred out but coming into focus behind Heather, is brilliantly disturbing. Karen is furious, exhausted and as desperate for a good fight as the man she almost killed last week. Heather, I suspect, is going to give it to her.

Verdict: Intensely Catholic, intensely paced and driving forward into the finale this is another great episode of a great season. A lot of folks haven’t bothered with this one and they really, really should. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart