Favorite Characters: Claire Temple (The Defenders)

I realized that I’m not quite sure which of Marvel’s Netflix shows Claire “belongs” to.  She first appeared on Daredevil and has had an important, if periodic, presence there, her spot on Jessica Jones is brief but memorable, and she makes her biggest showing so far in Luke Cage.  So, I’m sticking with The Defenders – Claire goes with everybody!  (Some Claire-related spoilers.)

I remember sitting up and taking notice as soon as I saw Rosario Dawson’s name in the credits for Daredevil, and right out of the gate, she doesn’t disappoint.  Claire is a woman who essentially gets Matt’s world of superhero insanity dumped in her lap.  She happens upon an injured Matt outside her building, and Claire, a nurse, realizes this is the same masked man who so many of her recent ER patients have encountered, either saving victims from further harm or giving bad guys a brutally-sound thrashing.  She decides to take him up to her apartment and treat him herself, thus beginning an odd relationship whereby she becomes the one Matt goes to when he’s broken and bleeding.

It’s a neat dynamic.  I like that, from their first meeting, Claire learns about Matt’s powers.  That’s not information he usually gives away unless he absolutely has to, but with Claire, there’s barely a second thought.  Whatever the reason, though, he picked a good person to reveal himself to.  Claire can be trusted absolutely – she’s as discreet as she is highly competent at her job, and she proves herself a valuable ally for tending to the many serious injuries that come Matt’s way when he’s being Daredevil.  She’s not easily shocked and is able to handle much of what comes her way with a level head and a steady hand.  That said, over the course of season 1, she comes to realize her dealings with Matt can’t always be about fractured ribs and stitches, she can’t always drop everything for this masked man’s crises and do whatever he needs her to, and she can’t always patch Matt up when she feels like her help is enabling him to go down a progressively darker path.  It’s not that she isn’t compassionate or that she doesn’t want to help (she is and she does, as she proves when she pretty much instantly goes to bat for a couple more superpowered strangers – Jessica and Luke – who need her help,) but she can’t just be the one on retainer for whenever Matt needs her.  She can’t just be a function within his world.

This leads Claire to some soul searching about what she wants, and when she decides to get back into the helping-superheroes game, it’s on her terms.  Running by chance into Luke again, she’s the one who approaches him, telling him a little about her experiences with Matt and deciding that this is the contribution she wants to make for good.  I just love her partnership with Luke so much.  Yes, she’s still a player in someone else’s story, but she’s making a lot more of her own moves, supporting someone else as a conscious choice rather than not wanting to say no to the bleeding vigilante on her doorstep.  With Luke, she offers the usual medical help, brainstorming workarounds for his unique physiological condition and keeping her cool in some pretty intense situations.  However, she also helps out in other ways.  She’s intuitive and resourceful, she has strong ideas, she’s ready to support Luke in whatever way he needs as he digs into his past, and near the end of the season, she gets her own non-powered chances to be a hero, protecting other civilians during a hostage crisis and generally keeping people alive until Luke can get to a place where he can take out the bad guys.  If I were a superhero, I’d have plenty of reasons to totally want Claire in my corner.