The Only Scene That Mattered in This Week’s 'Daredevil: Born Again'

We’ve known since the beginning that Daredevil: Born Again would be a waiting game. How long before Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk abandon their more righteous paths and return to their shadowy alter-egos? Episode four, titled “Sic Semper Systema” (“Thus Always To The System”), nudges both men closer to the brink of relapse. For Matt, the reason is as the title suggests: The justice system is broken, and he can’t fix it as a lawyer. Wilson also struggles with the system and its endless bureaucratic red tape in his position as Mayor, but that’s not what tempts him to lose control. As with most things in his life, his reason is rooted in his love for Vanessa - and her affair with some guy named Adam.

We’ll get back to Adam shortly, but let’s talk about the only scene that really mattered this week: When Matt meets his old pal Frank Castle, aka The Punisher. Matt locates the missing shell casing from Hector Ayala’s streetside execution and discovers the casing is carved with the same skull we’ve seen cops sporting as tattoos. You know, the Punisher logo. So Matt drops by Frank’s secret lair unannounced to ask for help locating the culprit - or really, as Frank surmises, to ask for permission to get his hands dirty in his pursuit of justice. We’ve known Jon Bernthal would appear as Frank Castle this season, but I wasn’t prepared for the dramatic weight of his entrance. The impassioned scene does less to remind viewers of the characters’ previous interactions and instead sketches their dynamic anew. With Foggy gone, Matt is burdened by grief and guilt, the same emotions that fueled Frank’s own transformation into The Punisher (his family was murdered). Frank can smell the violence simmering beneath Matt’s surface, and he eggs him on until Matt breaks and hits him.

Frank asks Matt if he still hears Foggy’s voice, and admits that every time he stops moving he hears his son telling him to “get ‘em, Daddy.” The scene drives home how alike Matt and Frank are in this moment, then finally lands on their difference. Frank may hear his son’s voice, but it’s just the sound of his Id telling him to satisfy his rage. Matt’s tears prove Frank hit the mark - he does hear Foggy talking to him, guiding him - but we know Matt’s version of Foggy is closer to reality. His Foggy is the voice trying to steer him away from vengeance and toward law and order, but Matt is struggling with the realization that he doesn’t have faith in the system Foggy believed in. He doesn’t have faith that justice can be served by following the rules, and by the episode’s end Matt is back in his secret lair full of costumes. He doesn’t don his red suit yet, but he will. It’s just a matter of time.

Wilson Fisk also returns to his old lair (lots of lairs in this episode; love a good lair), where we discover that maybe he hasn’t completely abandoned his old ways after all. We’ve heard a lot of talk about “Adam,” a man Vanessa had an affair with during Wilson’s absence (during the events of Echo), and he returns as the subject of Wilson and Vanessa’s latest couples counseling session with Heather. Wilson reveals that he had a conversation with Adam, but that’s not the whole truth. He abducted the poor guy and is keeping him locked up in his hideout while he decides what to do with him. Is Wilson capable of forgiving Vanessa for her infidelity, or is he punishing her by keeping her away from the criminal enterprise she grew to love - and keeping her boy-toy imprisoned? And if he can’t move on, what does that mean for Adam? It’s probably a good sign that Wilson didn’t kill Adam immediately, but let’s be real — it’s not like he can really let him go now. He can’t exactly have a guy running around who could claim he was abducted by the Mayor of New York City. That’s just bad optics.

Adam wasn’t the only character we finally got a glimpse of this week. The masked serial killer we’ve heard referenced this season also showed up, and he looks suitably deranged. Muse, as he’s known, was shown carrying a body down a train tunnel and later pumping blood out of that body in his — wait for it — SECRET LAIR. Comics fans know that Muse is likely planning to use that blood as paint for his graffiti, which is kind of his whole thing. No real name, no secret origin, no dastardly master plan — just lots of gory artwork on public display. As far as villains go, he’s almost painfully simplistic a threat, but that’s alright. Matt has a lot on his plate, between the looming danger of Wilson Fisk and the ongoing investigation into Hector’s killer and the Punisher-fan cops. He’s earned a gimme.