Four episodes into Daredevil I've become reasonably confident about how the season as a whole is being structured. Episode One was the first act, introducing the world, the main character, and hinting at the main conflict. Episodes Two, Three, and Four (and, I'm guessing Five and Six) are set firmly in the beginning of Act 2 of the story. Throughout these episodes, Matt is being challenged in his 'New World', but the tension hasn't reached the climactic heights it will reach later in the season. Matt's still on the backfoot when it comes to how exactly he's going to take down the new threat in town, but he's learning, he's flexing, he's pushing. We're meeting new characters in the form of Ben Urich, and learning more about Fisk's criminal operation through the Russian. All classic early Act Two beats.
But if we need another pointer as to where exactly in the story we are structure-wise, we need look no further than the end of this episode--at the moment known as the First Pinch Point.
The First Pinch Point should occur somewhere close to halfway through the first half of the second act. (Which, if episodes Two to Six/Seven comprise the first half of act two, the end of episode four is exactly where a good writer would put this moment.) If you're wondering what exactly the First Pinch Point is, it's basically a reminder to audience of the threat the antagonist poses to the main character. The two don't necessarily have to interact in a scene together--cutting away to the villain for a scene is perfectly fine--so long as we get the reminder that this is what our main character will have to deal with head-on at some stage.
And man, does Daredevil's First Pinch Point deliver. If you've seen the show, you'll remember the scene--it's the kind that lingers. If you need reminding, it involves Wilson Fisk, a car door and a dead Russian... if you haven't seen it, well, you can image that it's not a pretty scene. It drives a clear message home, though: If that's what Fisk does to one of his own men, what's he going to do to Matt?
The scene also reveals something about Fisk, playing on the complexity hinted at at the end of the last episode. Wilson's, um, outburst, isn't unmotivated or done in a casual manner. So often, Pinch Points feels like the writer just ticking a box. "Did we cut to the villain doing something villainous in the middle of the first half of Act Two? Great, next." But the beauty of a series like this is that this moment can be constructed--built up to--so that it doesn't just feel like a story beat, but like the climactic moment of a whole story unto itself. In this case, the B-Story revolving around Wilson and Vanessa's first date.
If there's one writing lesson I'm pulling from this episode it's of the possibilities that opens up from treating plot beats as their own mini-stories, and specifically how the First Plot Point can serve as an important turning point in antagonist's character arc.
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