‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Finally Gets to the Point

This week, Daredevil: Born Again dropped two episodes (five and six) for a good reason: finally getting to the point. The first, titled “With Interest,” is a breezy day-in-the-life story for Matt, only a day in his life naturally involves thwarting a bank robbery. Dude can’t catch a break. Once that was out of the way, the second episode, “Excessive Force,” picks up the main story again and finally pushes Matt and Wilson to their breaking points. This means that, yes, Daredevil is back in his suit and ready for action! And Kingpin is, uh, smashing heads. Poor Adam.

The bank robbery episode feels like another vestigial leftover from the show before it was retooled, something that was already shot and didn’t quite fit the new arc of the show but was used regardless. That’s my theory at any rate - I don’t have any sources for it, just vibes. Maybe it’s the way Disney dumped the episode alongside the next one, so it wouldn’t interrupt the pace, or maybe it’s the fact that the main attraction is the team-up between Matt and Kamala Khan’s father, Yusuf, which ends in a dinner invitation to Khan’s house in Jersey City. It’s cute, the way Matt meeting (ahem) She-Hulk was cute, and that’s how you know it’s not of a piece with the rest of Daredevil: Born Again. Because this show ain’t cute. So naturally, I loved it and I need to know when that dinner is going to happen!

Matt is at the bank to meet with Yusuf about a loan for his law firm (he’s turned down), and as he’s leaving he hears the bank robbers arrive so he goes back to assist. What ensues is a glimpse at how Matt Murdock could use his special talents without becoming a full-on masked vigilante if he wanted. He manipulates the situation to ensure the hostages are safe, engages in some light fisticuffs, and leaves without anyone getting suspicious that the blind lawyer might be something more. The part at the end - when Matt follows the lead robber and breaks his leg - is so unnecessary I can only figure it was a reshoot to keep Matt on his main trajectory of returning to violent vigilantism. Overall a fun episode, but one that hits very different when paired with the next.

Episode six deals with the hunt for Muse, the city’s graffiti artist-slash-serial killer, and it includes what is perhaps the most realistic NYC detail I’ve ever seen on television. Nobody even realizes there is a serial killer loose until the New York Sanitation Department runs samples of some hard-to-wash graffiti paint and discovers it is made of human blood. Yup, the Sanitation Department scooped the NYPD! Of course the trash guys know what’s really going on in the city! Anyway, Mayor Fisk uses this new threat to assemble a task force of the NYPD’s worst (you know, the skull bros), under his personal oversight, to take down Muse and any other vigilante they cross paths with. Meanwhile, Matt gets a visit from Hector Ayala’s niece, Angela, who reveals that her uncle was investigating the recent increase in missing persons and thought there was a killer in the subway tunnels. Matt doesn’t want to get involved, so Angela decides to pursue the lead herself - and comes face to face with Muse.

To save Angela, Matt finally, FINALLY puts on his devil suit and goes to kick some a$$, which just so happens to be the same night that Wilson decides he’d better deal with that dude he’s got locked up in his secret lair. Why now? Because it’ll make for a cool crosscut, of course! Wilson beats Adam to a pulp while Daredevil fights Muse, and everybody just fell off their high horses at the same time. This is what the entire season has been leading up to! It only took six episodes, which is apparently two more than the original iteration of the season would have. But who’s counting, amirite?

I am, it’s me.

Anyway, now that the inevitable has finally occurred, maybe Daredevil: Born Again will finally bring Daredevil and Kingpin’s storylines crashing together - perhaps in pursuit of Muse, who escaped while Daredevil stopped to help Angela.

One last cool little tidbit: Like Yusuf in episode 5, episode 6 had another familiar face turn up. Jack Duquesne, from Hawkeye, appears as one of the rich donors Fisk tries to impress, but he’d already shown up earlier in the episode when footage of his vigilante persona The Swordsman is featured in The BB Report. Some people may be frustrated that these aren’t cameos on par with, like, Hawkeye himself, but I do appreciate that these smaller characters make the Marvel universe feel connected in a lived-in way. It’s subtle and doesn’t distract from the plot, yet still rewards viewers who are paying attention.