What the heck is happening in the Daredevil universe?

Two episodes into the *loosely* rebooted series, almost everything hits the fan. With the first 10 minutes of Episode 1 setting the scene for where Matt ends up, the reintroduction to the series has been serious and intense. While still Daredevil, the focus of the show so far has shifted slightly, in line with earlier reports that the show would focus more on the legal aspect of Matt’s life. Yet, all fans of the original show know that Matt’s legal and vigilante life always ends up mixing in some way, a point Episode 2 was already beginning to drive home. Let’s get into the main pieces from the first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again.

Saying Goodbyes and New Hellos

When Marvel confirmed that Foggy and Karen would be making their return to the show after initially deciding to move away from their characters, it was assumed that Born Again would follow a similar cadence to that of the first three Netflix seasons. Only a few minutes into the first episode proved that that would not be true. In a shocking turn of events, Foggy was killed by Bullseye. It is later revealed that after Foggy’s death, Karen and Matt had a falling out that culminated in Karen leaving for the West Coast, taking the original cast members off the board for Born Again. While Foggy’s situation is clearly more permanent, Karen can still be a vital player later in the season or series, as she might make either recurring appearances. or a permanent return. In a play that would have seemed crazy before seeing the actual episode, taking Foggy and Karen off the board early on allowed Marvel to focus Born Again on Matt entirely and his relationship with being a vigilante.

Removing the two of them also made way for a new direction for Matt’s character, with a new partner and love interest. Kirsten, Matt’s new partner, and Heather, his new love interest are both interesting characters that seem to already be filling the shoes of being wrapped up in Matt’s problems. With only really one full episode to judge the dynamics, it’s hard to tell what path their characters may go down or how it will impact Matt yet, but both seem to be flying a little close to the sun. Heather is already exposed on two fronts, first with the Fisk marital therapy sessions and the second with Bastian, the young man who approached her looking for help. With the rumors that Muse will be in this season, all signs point to Bastian possibly filling the role of Muse. As for Kirsten, Matt’s partner, she is already involved in the White Tiger case, which will come to a head with the other threats later in the season. It’s going to be exciting to see how Matt continues to interact with both of these new characters and moves on from the loss of Foggy and Karen.

The New Matt Murdock

The shock of the first few minutes aside, the idea to bridge the Netflix seasons with the Disney ‘reboot’ by writing out the old characters and essentially the life of Matt Murdock to bring the show in a new direction was genius. For those who watched the Netflix show, the connection was still there and for those who didn’t, they didn’t have to spend too much time trying to figure out who the guy who died and the blonde girl were. Yet it also allowed Disney to pay the proper homage to the show’s roots while also moving it in the direction that they would like to see Matt and his story go. Without Karen and Foggy, Matt really is a new man. He’s moved out of Hell’s Kitchen, is a partner at a firm he began with the new character Kirsten, and has given up the mask, for what appears to be for good (yeah right). The new direction allows Marvel to focus on what they initially wanted, which was the legal side of Matt Murdock, and less on the Daredevil side, which at times the Netflix series leaned pretty far into.

All comic fans and Daredevil fans know, though, that this isn’t it for Matt. While the legal side of his life is interesting and has so far kept the audience entertained in the first two episodes, there’s no point in rebooting a superhero show to barely have any actual superhero parts in it. We know from trailers that there are plenty of Daredevil scenes to come and the ending of the second episode shows exactly what Kingpin was saying to Matt in the diner: it’s hard to fight the inner instinct of violence. Anyone who has enjoyed the first three seasons of the show also knows Matt has tried before to hang up the mask and he’s tried to be ‘less violent’ as Daredevil, but in the end, he always goes back and something always pushes him past his breaking point. Dirty cops trying to actively kill him aside, with the rumored villain of Muse coming this season, his psychopathic murdering tendencies will likely be what brings Daredevil back. In fact, with the easter egg that we may have already seen Muse interacting with Heather, it wouldn’t be shocking if she ended up being killed by him, proving to Matt that whether he’s in the suit or not, the people around him are never safe.

Kingpin Wins the Mayor Election

It came as a surprise that the first episode addressed the mayoral run for Fisk, as many of the scenes in the trailers appeared to imply he would already be mayor by the time the first episode debuted. It acted as a solid bridge, not just between where Fisk left off in Daredevil but from where he has been since he came under the Marvel/Disney+ umbrella. Fans last saw Fisk in Echo, where the end credit scene set him up to be interested in the mayoral race and Episode 1 seems to pick up right on his return to New York. It was smart to not shy away from his adventures with Maya but also his injury, which seemingly was part of what cost him his marriage to Vanessa.

Regardless, Kingpin as mayor was always an anticipated storyline but as the second main plotline of this series, it’s important to dissect just where this might go. The blanket statement is that fans know Kingpin won’t stay good forever, the same way fans know Matt won’t resist the temptation to put the mask back on. It’s been made clear already that Kingpin isn’t afraid to go below the belt, as seen when he blackmailed the police chief. No matter how straight he seems to say he wants to go, it’s not going to happen. The real question that seemingly remains is why exactly Kingpin wanted to become mayor. Vanessa has been running the criminal empire, rather successfully it seems, so it’s unclear why Kingpin would want to shuffle that all under the rug to run for office instead. He claims he can fix New York and while he’s made it clear some of his goal deals with doing away with the vigilantes, his past in criminal dealings is making him a mayor the police force won’t even back. With confirmed vigilantes like White Tiger and Spider-Man running around New York and a police force that appreciates the help that they’re giving, how Kingpin properly rallies the men in blue and executes his plan of anti-vigilantism is unknown. He not only has to execute it but he has to avoid falling too far down the rabbit hole of shadiness, which seems unlikely for him the more he’s pushed.

Bullseye, White Tiger, and Muse?

Going into this season, White Tiger was a confirmed player in the vigilante field, while Muse was rumored but said to be playing a big role. The character that came most out of left field was Bullseye, bringing the count to three possibly opposing forces in Matt’s life. Starting with the returning antagonist of Bullseye, his appearance at the beginning again helped to bridge the past with the present but it’s more what his future looks like that interests us. For now, he’s off the board after being found guilty of his crimes but it’s important to note he wasn’t killed off, no permanent ending for him. When Marvel avoids doing away with a character completely, it usually means fans should keep an eye out on them for a future reappearance, even if it comes years down the road. So while it’s unlikely Bullseye will be making a return this season, he can’t be counted out to come back later on, likely still as a foe of Matt’s unless prison suddenly reforms him.

Moving to White Tiger, we can admit we were horribly wrong about this one. Going into this season, we predicted he might act as an adversary to Matt, but it seems that these two may be in more for a team-up than anything else. White Tiger has tried to fill the hole Daredevil left upon his disappearance, maybe not to quite the same scale, but has now been apprehended and is facing murder charges for killing a cop. Matt, of course, unknowingly took his case. It would be far too much of a shame if Marvel wasted White Tiger on just having his case be a plot device, so hopefully with Matt already on his case and the hope that Matt would win it, White Tiger can join Daredevil later in the season, which could be a cool team-up considering their skill sets.

The final character on this list is likely going to be a bigger problem as the season rolls on. The rumored antagonist, Muse, might have made his first appearance at one of Heather’s book signings. An unhinged comic character, Muse is deemed a supervillain because he is a “serial killer artist who plans shocking mass murders, abductions, and torture as a means of creating his “art”.” An issue that will be bigger than just Daredevil’s, Muse’s first cameo in the second episode is just enough to tell the character clearly needs help. Unfortunately, it looks as if Heather is the one he has come to, which as mentioned above, is likely going to be not only her downfall but the downfall of straight-laced Matt Murdock. The carnage this character may invoke this season is going to be shocking and a very different direction than some of the Hand-related stories told in the Netflix series. Expect a lot of gore, that’s all I will say.

Image: “Daredevil: Born Again Episodes 1 and 2,” Aiden Kelley, Collider