Daredevil S2:E8 Guilty as Sin

Simple Synopsis

How quickly things can fall apart.

While Daredevil and Elektra examine the massive hole that the Yakuza have dug under Midland Circle they are set upon by ninjas. And yeah, I’m sticking with “set upon” there. I’m not the one being suddenly silly here. Matt complains that he is having a hard time tracking their movements because they are masking their heartbeats, an explanation that was barely passible when Nobu did it in the previous season to hide from Daredevil’s approach by staying very very still, but seems utterly ridiculous when being applied to a bunch of ninjas that are actively fighting. Elektra tells him to listen for their weapons, allowing him to get back into the fight, despite the fact that being able to hear their weapons shouldn’t really be any easier than hearing, I don’t know, their actual bodies. But I guess ninja masters can move completely silently and without putting off any body heat, or having their hearts beat, or otherwise make any noise at all but just can’t get their inanimate metal weapons to stop ringing. So they start fighting off the ninjas, and despite it being very much a life or death situation, Daredevil stops Elektra from killing one of them, distracting her and leading to a pretty serious wound. When he gets overrun by more ninjas the two are suddenly joined by a surprise appearance from Stick, who fights off the ninjas and rushes them out of the building. They have a car vs. ninja race while Elektra bleeds out in the back seat and head off for Matt’s apartment.

Stick talks a very confused Matt through emergency medical procedures to counteract the poison of the ninja’s weapons to stabilize Elektra, and Matt learns that Elektra has been working for Stick the entire time he’s known her. He is told that Stick and his group of warriors, known as the Chaste, have been locked in a centuries old battle against an organization known as the Hand, that they discovered the secret to immortality ages ago and have been slowly taking over the world looking for an ultimate weapon known as the Black Sky. He also learns that he met Elektra as part of a mission, that she was meant to try to break him away from his life, his friends, and his career so that he could rejoin Stick in the war. Instead she fell in love with him, and when he refused to kill the man that murdered his father she left so that he would remain uncorrupted.

Meanwhile in the trial of the century, Foggy is able to present evidence that Frank Castle is a decorated war hero, applauded by his former commanding officer, and that as a result of his gunshot wound is stuck reliving the emotions of the night that his family was killed. The jury seems to be coming over to his side, but an outburst from the son of one of Frank’s victims reminds everyone of just how bad his crimes are. Seeing no other choice, Foggy and Karen decide they need to put Frank on the stand, and Foggy insists that Matt needs to be the one to question him. Karen goes to Matt’s apartment to find Elektra in his bed, just as he is telling her to leave Stick and stay with him. She tells him to question Frank and just leaves.

The next day Matt arrives in court and Frank takes the stand, but as he does the guard that brings him in gives him a cryptic message. Matt begins to question Frank about the night his family died, trying to get the story out there, but Frank refuses to cooperate. In response Matt gives a speech to the jury, calling Frank a hero and saying that the city needs vigilantes like him, and that he just needs their help to get better, but Frank throws out a speech of his own. He bombastically accepts guilt for his crimes, yelling that he isn’t crazy, doesn’t need any kind of mental help, and would gladly keep on killing for justice. With his outburst the case is over, and he is sent to jail rather than the institution that Matt and Foggy had hoped for. Foggy blames Matt’s vigilante rant for their loss and tells him that they are through. Karen tells him off as well, and announces that their relationship is over.

Matt returns home to find that Elektra has chosen to be with him and has kicked Stick out, wanting to stay with the one person that truly believes that she can be good, despite Stick warning her about what will happen if Matt finds out what she really is. With all of his relationships in chaos and his normal life all but destroyed Matt embraces her and realizes that the vigilante is all he has left. Then another Hand ninja appears and tries to kill them. He manages to slice Matt with another poisoned weapon before Matt can incapacitate him, but while he’s trying to question the ninja he realizes that he’s just a kid, right before Elektra slices the kid’s throat. She wonders aloud if Matt will still be able to love her, knowing that she’s a natural killer.

In prison, the guard from the courtroom leads the Punisher to a weight room, and introduces him to Wilson Fisk.

TL;DR
Daredevil and Elektra fight off a bunch of ninjas and are saved by Stick, but Elektra is badly hurt. Matt learns that she’s been working for Stick the entire time in his war against a group called the Hand. They are able to save her, and Matt begs her to leave Stick and fight the Hand with him, without killing anyone. Matt interrogates Frank before the jury, but Frank throws the trial and goes to prison.  Foggy dissolves Nelson and Murdock, and Karen leaves Matt over Elektra. Matt is poisoned by another ninja who Elektra murders right in front of him, and the Punisher comes face to face with the Kingpin.