Marvel's Echo Episode 1 Sets The Stage With A Six-Minute Action Packed Oner
This article contains spoilers for "Echo."
Throughout the 2010s, filmmakers seemed determined to one-up one another when it came to crafting single-take action scenes. This spirit of competition even filtered its way into television starting with the famous oner from "True Detective" season 1, in which all hell breaks loose in a housing project. Netflix's "Daredevil" series would subsequently get in on the trend, delivering a brutal season 1 tussle in which the masked Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) smacks the everlasting snot out of a gang of thugs in a hallway while trying to rescue a kidnapped boy. Years later, "She-Hulk: Attorney at Law" cheekily nodded to this moment before the titular superhero set to work "smashing" Matt in a far more agreeable manner.
Fittingly, the action-packed oner makes its return to the world of Marvel in the first episode of the "Echo" series, "Chafa." Much of the episode functions as a glorified "Previously On" for those who skipped its namesake's introduction to the Marvel Cinematic Universe on the "Hawkeye" show. However, we're also shown never-before-seen events from Maya Lopez's (Alaqua Cox) past that shaped her into the ruthless mafia assassin we previously met, including the first time she carried out a job for her "uncle," Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio). Naturally, this involves killing some upstarts who have (rather unwisely) decided to encroach on the big guy's turf in New York City, resulting in a six-minute single-take brawl.
Director Sydney Freeland broke down the sequence for GamesRadar+, noting that Maya "comes into the scene as a teenage girl, and she leaves the scene as a cold-blooded killer." This resulted in the fight being conceived as an oner "because I wanted the audience to be able to see that transformation take place in real-time," Freeland explained.
Enter Daredevil
Did you really think Marvel was going to stage a bloody single-take throwdown without the Devil of Hell's Kitchen? Sure enough, just when it seems like Maya and her henchmen have disposed of their enemies in vicious, unrelenting fashion, who should show up but Matt Murdock himself? Much to her surprise (and, later, Kingpin's approval), Maya manages to hold her own against the Man Without Fear during their ensuing fisticuffs. As Freeland saw it, this was an effective way of not only allowing audiences to discover Maya's remarkable fighting prowess right alongside her but also honoring her origins in the "Daredevil" comic books (1999's "Daredevil" #9, to be exact):
"I wanted the audience to be able to put themselves into her shoes and hopefully experience things along with her. I think within that as well, we wanted to honor the origins of the Echo character in the comic books. And she first appeared in the 'Daredevil' series in the late nineties. But in order to see how all that comes together, you have to watch the series."
Ultimately, this sequence works because it develops Maya as a character. We watch as she kills someone for the first time, only to gain a newfound sense of confidence that visibly manifests itself in the way she plows through her remaining opponents and even gives Matt Murdock a run for his money. It's the same reason why the original one-take fight on "Daredevil" was far more emotionally impactful than those in later seasons, which were more about upping the ante than serving the story. Just as we watched Matt prove his mettle as a hero committed to doing the right thing, "Echo" shows us Maya's descent into the darkness she'll spend the rest of the series struggling to escape.
"Echo" is now streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.