[Matt needs to treat Vladimir's bullet wound, so he calls Claire]
MattI need your help. I found someone who has intel on what I've been looking for, but he's been shot.
Matt
Can't. Police are the ones that shot him. I'm thinking they'd like a crack at finishing the job.
Do you want me to come out to you? In all this?
Matt
No. I want you to walk me through stabilizing him.
It's not as easy as it looks in the movies, you know?
Matt
I don't really go to the movies. I like records, though.
[Over the police radio] I'd like to speak to the man in the mask, please.
Matt
[Picks the radio] Hello.
Are you there? Can you hear me?
Matt
Who is this?
I think you know. You've been asking about me. I thought it was time we spoke.
Matt
Say your name.
[Matt hesitates]
That's what I thought. You and I have a lot in common.
Matt
We're nothing alike.
That's what you'll tell yourself.
Matt
You're feeding off this city like a cancer.
I want to save this city, like you. Only on a scale that matters.
Matt
Now tell that to the people you've hurt.
Young man, life is not a fairy tale. Not everyone deserves a happy ending.
Matt
I'm gonna find you, and I'm gonna make you pay for what you've done.
No, you are not. Not that I don't admire what you're trying to do, to change the world, with nothing but desire and your own two hands, secure in the knowledge that you're doing the right thing, the only thing. That's something that I do understand. But we both can't have what we want. So, your part, in this drama, by necessity, comes to an end.
Matt
It's gonna take a lot more than a voice on a radio to stop me.
It's not me you need to worry about. It's the city you just blew the hell out of.
Matt
[chuckles] You... You think anyone's gonna believe that?
You're running around in a mask, holing up with a known felon in the wake of a series of bombings. There's that police officer you're holding hostage, so... yes. Actually, I do. But it doesn't have to be this way. The Russian, is he alive?
VVladimir
I'm still here, you fat shit!
Matt
Does that answer your question?
It's a one-time offer. You kill the Russian, and we'll call the night a push. You know what he's done to women. To children. To the people of this city that you claim to care about. But do you know how much he enjoyed it?
Matt
You just confirmed how important he is. That must worry you, what he might tell me.
Which means he hasn't told you anything yet. You're a child playing at being a hero.
Matt
No, no, I'm not trying to be a hero. I'm just a guy that got fed up with men like you and I decided to do something about it.
That's what makes you dangerous. It's not the mask. It's not the skills. It's your ideology. The lone man who thinks he can make a difference. I'm glad we could talk. I, I respect your conviction even if it runs counter with my own.
[In a flashback, Matt and Stick are on a park bench, eating ice cream]
Young Matt Murdock
So what kind of training is this?
Young Matt
Yeah.
Then shut up and eat it. I'll ask the questions. First thing you gotta understand is nobody feels sorry for you and nobody ever will. 'Cause when it comes to being born lucky you won the friggin' lottery.
Young Matt
I did?
[Smacks him with his cane] What did I say about questions?
Young Matt
"Shut up."
Good. How old were you when you got blinded?
Young Matt
Nine.
Nine? So you had nine whole years of looking at movies, blue skies, up girlies' skirts that I never had. I was born blind. You don't hear me whining about it, do you?
Young Matt
No.
So, you're nine years old, walking along, minding your own business and whammo! Get hit by a truck, killed dead on the spot.
Young Matt
I wasn't killed.
You lived? Praise God, it's a miracle. So you survive the truck and get this chemical shit in your eyes. What next?
Young Matt
I hear things.
Young Matt
Everything. Coughs and fights and cats meowing. Sometimes blocks away. I can sense things. I know where things are and when they move. But I can't see.
You know what they call stuff like that? Gifts. The special kind. The kind that very few people have. Or deserve.
Young Matt
I never thought of it that way.
Well, that's because you're stupid.
Young Matt
I'm not stupid, I'm smart.
Because you taught yourself how to run your little fingers over the bumps and read Braille? Smart don't come out of books, kid. Smart is making the right decision at the right time. Like now. What's it gonna be, Matty? You gonna spend your life crying and rocking yourself to sleep at night? Or are you gonna dig deep and find out what it takes to reshuffle those cards life dealt you? Your call.
Young Matt
No one's bought me ice cream since my dad died.
Young Matt
Vanilla.
[scoffs] Everybody can taste vanilla. Pay a little more attention, use those gifts. You know what you got? [sniffs] Sugar grains, vanilla bean, milk from three different dairies from two states... [licks] ugh... batch of chemicals straight off the periodic tables and... [sniffs] dirt off the guy's hand that served it to you. He spent his morning gardening. Whole world around you, Matty, and it is friggin' huge. And all you need... are the guts to let it in. Try. That dog, what's his story?
Young Matt
He's hungry... his stomach's growling... and he's dying to eat the hot dogs that guy's carrying just upwind of him.
Not bad. What about the girl?
Young Matt
Her skin's... Her skin's too hot. Her heart's beating fast. Is she sick?
Worse. She's in love. And the old man?
Young Matt
He's...He's dying.
And there's nothing you can do about it. Big world, not all of it flowers and sunshine. And the only way guys like you and me can survive is to grab it by the throat and never let go.
Matt
Do you believe in the Devil, Father?
You mean... as a concept?
Matt
No. Do you believe he exists? In this world, among us.
You want the short answer or the long one?
Matt
Just the truth.
When I was in seminary I was more studious than pious, more skeptical than most of my peers. I had this notion which I was more than willing to speak about, at length, to whoever I could corner, that the Devil was inconsequential. Minor figure in the grand scheme.
Matt
Not very Catholic of you.
Uh-huh, yeah. In my defense, in the scriptures, the Hebrew word "Satan" actually means "adversary." It's applied to any antagonist. Angels and humans, serpents and kings. Medieval theologians reinterpreted those passages to be about a single monstrous enemy. And, in my youthful zeal, I was certain I knew why: propaganda. Played up to drive people into the church.
Matt
So you don't believe he exists.
Matt
Sorry.
Years later, I was in Rwanda trying to help local churches provide aid and sanctuary to refugees. I'd become close with the village elder, Gahiji. He and his family had the respect of everybody, Hutu and Tutsi alike. He'd helped them all through famines, disease. The militia liked to force Hutu villagers to murder their neighbors with machetes. But nobody would raise a hand against Gahiji. They said, "Well how can we kill such a holy man?" So the militia commander sent soldiers with orders to cut his head off in front of the entire village. Gahiji didn't try to put up a fight. Just asked for the chance to say goodbye to his family. By the time he was done, even the soldiers didn't wanna kill him. So they went to their commander and asked permission to shoot him. At least give him a quick death. The commander wanted to meet this man who had won the respect of so many. He went to Gahiji. Talked with him in his hut for many hours. Then he dragged him out in front of his village and hacked him to pieces along with his entire family. In that man who took Gahiji's life, I saw the Devil. So yes, Matthew. I believe he walks among us, taking many forms.
I was worried you might've gone out and done something foolish, after our talk this morning.
Matt
I haven't done anything. Not yet.
Sounds a bit on the ominous side.
Matt
I went to visit someone close to the... close to the Devil. Not to hurt her, just to get a sense of him. Of who he is and what it would take to... do what I have to.
And... what did you learn?
Matt
That he has someone he loves... who loves him, who'd mourn his loss.
Mmm-hmm. Few things are absolute, Matthew. Even Lucifer was once an angel. It's why judgment and vengeance... are best left to God. Especially when murder is not in your heart.
Matt
How do you know?
Matt
I know my soul is damned if I take his life. But if I stand idle, if I... if I let him consume this city, all the people that will suffer and die...
There is a wide gulf between inaction and murder, Matthew. Another man's evil does not make you good. Men have used the atrocities of their enemies to justify their own throughout history. So the question you have to ask yourself is: are you struggling with the fact that you don't want to kill this man but have to? Or that you don't have to kill him but want to?
So, give me an idea what you're after.
Matt
I'm not sure.
Good... art isn't furniture. If you knew exactly what you were looking for, you'd be just decorating. Art should speak to you... move you. [Walks up to a piece] This one, for example. One of my favorite pieces.
Matt
Describe it to me.
Imagine a sea of tonal reds. The color of anger... of rage... but also the color of the heart... of love... hope. This strikes the perfect balance between the two.
Matt
I don't know, it sounds aggressive.
All depends on your point of view.
Okay, so you get these whatever-you-call-thems when you're a kid. How do you go from that to what you're doing now?
Matt
When I was a kid, before the accident…I'd lay awake at night listening to the sirens. I liked to put stories to them. Trying to figure out what they were for, ambulance or cops, robbery or fire. I don't know, just a stupid game. But after I lost my sight, after my abilities developed, I realized how many sirens there actually were…how much this city suffered every single night.
You've been running around doing this since you were a kid?
Matt
No. I…I tried not to fight…to make my dad proud. To…to block it out. The sirens, the pain, the fear, all strangling Hell's Kitchen. For years, I buried my head and turned away. Then one night, right after we quit Landman & Zack…I heard it.
Matt
A little girl. Crying in her bed, in a building down the block. Her father liked to go to her room late at night…when his wife was asleep.
Matt
I called Child Services. Like you're supposed to. But the mom, she wouldn't believe it. Said it wasn't true. And the dad, he was smart. [scoffs] He made sure what he did, how he did it, didn't leave a mark. The law couldn't do anything to help that little girl. But I could. [Matt is shown beating said father senseless] He spent the next month in a hospital, eating through a straw. And I never slept better.
You're going to get yourself killed, you keep this up. You know that, right?
Matt
I can take care of myself.
What about the rest of us? Me, Karen…we're a part of this now, because of you. And we didn't get a say in that.
Matt
What do you think's gonna happen if I give up now, Foggy? Who's going to stop Fisk?
Oh, I don't know. The law?
Matt
Tell that to Elena. [pause] If you could have put on a mask and prevented what happened to her…you telling me you wouldn't have?
Matt
We don't live in a world that's fair. We live in this one.
I have a pretty good idea who you are and what you do. How you do it… That's something else entirely.
Matt
Accident when I was a kid. Used to think it was God's will.
Matt
Yeah, He made each and every one of us with a purpose, didn't He? A reason for being.
Matt
Then why did He put the Devil in me? Why do I feel it in my heart and my soul clawing to be let out if that's not all part of God's plan?
Maybe you're being called to summon the better angels of your nature. Maybe that's the struggle you're feeling deep within you.
Matt
And how do you know the angels and the Devil inside me aren't the same thing?
I don't, but nothing drives people to the church faster than the thought of the Devil snapping at their heels. Maybe that was God's plan all along. Why He created him, allowed him to fall from grace to become a symbol to be feared warning to us all, to tread the path of the righteous.
Daredevil · 175 quotes
