Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Tori Preston | TV | March 25, 2026
When last we saw Matt Murdock, he was gathering a resistance group to fight back against Mayor Fisk’s tyrannical overreach - and he even revealed his secret identity to them. So, uh… how’s all that going? Daredevil: Born Again had a lot of table-setting to accomplish with its season two premiere, and most of it was what you’d expect: Matt and Karen are working in the shadows to uncover Fisk’s criminal activity and bring him to justice, while Fisk is still doing his whole vigilante-ban thing and trying to kill Daredevil. You’d be forgiven for thinking it’s a lot of the same old, same old, except it isn’t. What the premiere, titled “The Northern Star,” makes clear is that this season, Matt hasn’t just embraced his superhero alter ego - he’s going to be spending all of his time as Daredevil. He has no choice, given the manhunt Fisk has mounted against him. What’s he going to do, show up in court in a suit and play lawyer again?
Not that we’re going to be entirely free of the legal side of the show. Matt’s old partner, Kirsten McDuffie, has taken on the job of defending all those arrested vigilantes, and our old friend Jacques Duquesne, aka Swordsman, is shaping up to be the first defendant on the docket. Meanwhile, Matt’s ex-girlfriend, Heather Glenn, is performing psychiatric evaluations on the vigilantes for the trials. Too bad she’s not only in Fisk’s pocket but also having hallucinations of Muse, the psycho vigilante who attacked her last season, so she’s not exactly an unbiased third-party expert here. She’s not even mentally well, or sober. Or likable, really, but that’s my bias showing.
And yes, I can say she’s Matt’s ex because he and Karen Page are like totally smooching now, you guys! They’re a thing! It’s cute! Nobody tell Frank.
Speaking of Frank Castle, he’s MIA so far this season, after breaking out of the Anti-Vigilante Task Force’s little extrajudicial dungeon last season. Don’t worry about him, though - he’s got a whole-ass movie coming to Disney+ on May 12, and he’s in Spider-Man: Brand New Day this summer. He’s definitely kicking around the MCU somewhere, is what I’m saying - and now, so is Shaggy!
Matthew Lillard has joined this season as the mysterious Mr. Charles, a CIA operative who has been deployed to New York City by Valentina Allegra de Fontaine to clean up Fisk’s mess. Remember that thing last season, about how Red Hook is a “free port” that falls outside state and federal jurisdiction? Well, now we know what Fisk is doing with it: he’s using it to smuggle a crap-ton of guns into the county, seemingly on behalf of de Fontaine. When Daredevil boards the ship and finds the hidden cache of weapons, the captain follows orders to sink it all, which like… half works? The guns sank just fine, but the boat is jutting out of the water like a sad boner and blocking the harbor.
Mr. Charles is there to guarantee that the guns are recovered and transported in secrecy, including making sure any witnesses (the captain, first mate, and anyone on the recovery team) are silenced. So he’s mostly there to make sure Fisk doesn’t screw things up any further, but he also throws his weight around to keep the state from getting in Fisk’s way too. So he’s part fixer, part monitor, and it’ll be interesting to see how his dynamic with Fisk unfolds. Kingpin is not going to like having to answer to someone else’s authority, especially when it inevitably comes into conflict with his Daredevil obsession, but he also chose to do business with de Fontaine in the first place. Is he just doing it for the money, or is there something else at stake?
Yes, meeting Lillard was definitely the high point of the premiere, which is another way of saying that Jessica Jones did not make an appearance. Sorry, folks! I mean, Karen tosses off a quick mention that “Jess” is looking into something for her, so we know she’s involved with our heroes and it’s just a matter of time before grumpy Krysten Ritter finally arrives, but it was a Jessica Jones-less start to the season. I’m not mad at it, though, because the anticipation of her arrival led to one heck of a fake-out at the end of the episode.
The Anti-Vigilante Task Force comes a-calling for Cherry (Clark Johnson), because he’s been using his detective skills to help McDuffie build her case in defense of the vigilantes (and helping Matt on the side). Luckily, Cherry got a text off to Matt before they entered his apartment, so Daredevil arrives to help - but not before the beating Cherry received causes him some cardiac distress. Because Matt can hear his friend’s heartbeat going haywire, he can’t focus on the ass-whooping he’s trying to deliver to the goons. In his distraction, the task force gains the upper hand and unmasks him, which causes Cherry to have a full-blown heart attack, and it’s all looking pretty bad. Surely this would be the perfect time for a surprise appearance by a fan-favorite superhero to save everyone’s bacon, amirite?
Alas, Jessica Jones doesn’t swoop in to save the day with an exasperated quip and a few good punches. Instead, someone snipes all the agents through the window, killing every person who discovered Daredevil’s identity - and then a knife comes flying in and lands in front of Matt’s face. “You’re Welcome” is written on the blade, along with a little bullseye, courtesy of you-know-who. If you can’t get a hero to help, a psychotic villain with a grudge is basically just as good - and if anyone wants Fisk to go down more than Matt does, it’s Bullseye.
Though if we’re being honest, the “You’re Welcome” was a bit much. Bullseye kinda owed Matt one, for accidentally shooting him last season when he was aiming for Fisk. And also for killing Foggy. And also… you know what? Bullseye owes Matt, let’s leave it at that - and while I’m sure Matt’s not ready to ride shotgun in a full-blown redemption arc for Bullseye, I’m also certain Matt is in no position to refuse a helping hand from anyone willing and able right now. For my part, if Bullseye’s intervention helps save Cherry, then I’ll be satisfied. Anything to keep Clark Johnson on my television.
All in all, it was a solid start to the season with some good action and plenty of interesting threads to carry us through the next seven episodes. Mostly, though, it’s nice that Daredevil: Born Again finally feels like it knows the show it’s trying to be, and isn’t frantically dusting off fragments of a half a dozen different iterations to see if they’ll fit together.
