Woman of the Month: Elektra Natchios

Elektra Natchios from Daredevil

I didn't know much about Elektra before watching season two of Daredevil; only that she was Greek, was an assassin, and had a tendency to die a lot. I had watched Jennifer Garner as the character in 2003's Daredevil, but I get the distinct impression that she bore very little resemblance to the character as originally conceived. (And I skipped the spin-off film entirely).

Elodie Yung's take on the character gets quite an entrance, in what I think is one of the season's best scenes: Matt stands in the darkness of his apartment, on an elated high after his first kiss with Karen, only to come crashing back to earth when he realizes he's not alone. Reclining on the couch as though she has every right to be there, Elektra greets him with a simple: "hello Matthew" before the credits hit. It was a fantastic introduction.  

In many ways Elektra is defined by her lack of definition, which is my fancy way of saying she has one hell of an identity crisis. When the audience first sees her, we're led to believe she's a spoiled little rich girl; a child of privilege who is almost pathologically self-centred.

But Matt discovers the real darkness in her when she breaks into the house of the man who killed his father, offering him up on a platter for a summary execution. It's done with much the same attitude as a cat that can't understand why you're not delighted with the dead mouse she's just brought you.

And then we find out that she was working for Stick all along, that her relationship with Matt was designed to bring him back into the fold, and that she's only been playing the role of a rich bitch after being put up for adoption as a child.

And THEN it transpires that she's a Black Sky – whatever that means. The writing doesn’t do a particularly good in clarifying the whats or whys of this concept, but even that underlies Elektra's fundamental characterization: that neither she nor we (nor anyone) knows who she is. There's layer after layer after layer, and I'm not sure we ever got to the bottom of them – plus her inevitable resurrection no doubt means there's more to come.

In a lesser show, this could all be dismissed as bad writing, with Elektra coming across as more of a plot device than an actual person. But that they regularly depict Elektra as struggling with various parts of her identity: her upbringing, her understanding of good and bad, her enjoyment of death and chaos, her genuine feelings for Matt and what that means to her – allows her to become a deliberate mystery, even to herself.

(And for what it's worth, I didn't think her death counts as a fridging, since a) she chose it for her own reasons, b) it didn't inspire Matt to do anything he wasn't going to do anyway, and c) it's temporary). 

I await the arrival of The Defenders with anticipation...