'Daredevil: Born Again' Finally Unmasks Muse

Daredevil: Born Again just delivered its most cohesive episode yet, as if this was the point in the season where it shook off the remains of the original iteration and was free to present its true vision of the show. Many of the threads we’ve been following for the previous six episodes - Muse, Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force, Heather Glenn, and Matt’s return to Daredeviling - all came crashing together in episode seven. Though the serial killer storyline seems to be resolved, the ramifications will carry us through the last two episodes of the season.

Remember that intense young guy who approached Heather at her book signing in episode 2? If you thought he looked familiar, it’s because you probably watched Netflix’s Wednesday (the actor, Hunter Doohan, played the potential love interest and antagonist named Tyler). The intentional bit of casting pays off in “Art for Art’s Sake” when he returns as Heather’s patient, Bastian Cooper — a troubled rich kid with demanding parents, a mean Taekwondo instructor, and an artistic soul. Yup, he’s Muse, and it turns out he’s obsessed with Heather because he thinks she’s helped unlock his true (murdery) self. This is a big departure from the comics, where Muse never had a civilian identity or backstory. He was a blank canvas (heh), but just made it easy to transform the villain into the perfect plot device to tie all our storylines together.

Luckily, both Matt and the NYPD simultaneously realize that Muse is after Heather thanks to the copious sketches he left of her at his hideout. If the coincidence that the serial killer would target Matt’s new girlfriend seems too easy, don’t worry — it’s barely a blip compared to the sight of Matt feeling the artwork and recognizing Heather’s facial features. I mean, I’m not doubting his special senses, but seriously, how thick did Muse lay on his paint? Oh who cares! We gotta get this plot rolling somehow! So Matt heads over to Heather’s office just in time to save her from Muse’s next Very Important Art Project, and Fisk — following the debrief from Detective Kim — hands the case over to his task force.

While Matt and Muse fight, the task force approaches the office. Heather, bleeding, manages to grab Muse’s gun and shoot him before passing out herself, and Matt stabilizes her before escaping. Still, the task force knows he was there, which means Fisk knows — and yet Fisk decides to announce that his task force stopped Muse. It should drive him nuts that Daredevil beat him to the punch, but Fisk is back in his Kingpin mode and knows that, long term, it’s better to legitimize his task force with this fake win now so he can use them to exact revenge on Daredevil later. Because that’s what his anti-vigilante agenda is, really. It’s revenge. He admits as much earlier in the episode to his flunky, Buck. He can’t let go of the fact that Daredevil toppled his “business” empire, and now that he’s Mayor, he has the resources to pursue his enemy should Matt ever step outside the law.

Good thing Matt surely has no reason to ever be Daredevil again now that Muse is sorted, right? Right?!

Matt has more than the Mayor coming after him, though. His law partner, Kirsten, is getting frustrated with his unreliability and knows something is up, and Heather remembers hearing Daredevil say her name while he helped her. Will one or both of the women in Matt’s life figure out that he’s Daredevil before the season is over? As for Fisk, it certainly looks like Vanessa tried to kill him by siccing Luca on him — or maybe I just don’t understand her love language. Seems like something they should discuss with Heather in their next session.

One thing I haven’t talked much about in these recaps is the Gandolfini of it all — Michael Gandolfini, that is. He plays Daniel Blake, the young putz working in the Mayor’s office who introduced Fisk to BB Urich. I’ve been waiting to see where that storyline was heading, and it finally took an interesting turn this week. BB ran bystander footage that claimed Daredevil was at the Muse takedown, which contradicts the Mayor’s story. And Daniel, proving there are a few nefarious brain cells rattling around upstairs, hauls her in and intimidates her into backing the official version of events. We don’t see her decision, but I’m sure that by the end of the season, we’ll know whether she’s got the same journalistic chops as her uncle.