A devil, dirty mayor, and serial killer walk into a bar.

Marvel dropped both Episodes 5 and 6 this week and neither was a disappointment. Episode 5 revolved almost entirely around the bank robbery, which was the final line that caused Matt to give at least into his more violent tendencies. Then Episode 6 came around and quite literally all hell broke loose in this show. Daredevil makes his return, along with Kingpin and Muse officially comes into play as a serial killer artist who has racked up an estimated 60 kills. Nearly all the boys came out to play this episode, setting up what is to be an intense final three episodes of the first season of Born Again.

There’s a Serial Killer Loose in NYC

Episode 4 gave us the first real glimpse of Muse, but Episode 6 has brought him fully to the forefront of the story. It’s confirmed first to Mayor Fisk that a serial killer is running around NYC and using his victim’s blood to paint murals across the city. During this conversation, some pretty intense stats are shared, including that Muse’s body count is estimated to be around 60. It’s also confirmed that many of the works of graffiti that the show has shared in the other episodes are actually his, meaning Muse has been present even when we weren’t aware of it. Now, he is in the light, at least to a degree, as Mayor Fisk orders it kept quiet about the serial killer, although he does have a plan to find him using his new Anti-Vigilante Task Force, which we will get into more later.

Muse is unaware of the fact he is now being hunted by the police, but he also ends up on Matt’s radar in Episode 6. The first interaction between the two comes when Matt, finally reembracing his other half and back in the Daredevil suit, tracks and attacks Muse to save Angela’s life. Muse fights back, clearly showing he does have some skills, although it is still unclear if Born Again is going to make him enhanced like he is in the comics. He ends up disappearing as Daredevil works to save Angela, but a cornered animal is more dangerous than anything else. Muse might not know the Mayor is on his trail, but he does know Daredevil is, which means he likely is going to become more reckless with both his abductions and his art. Episode 6 already showed that Muse and his art were evolving, as for the first time he used two of his victims directly in the art rather than just their blood. This is likely what he will do more of, as his art gets ‘louder’ and he becomes more susceptible to risks until he may or may not be caught.

Daredevil is Back

After 5 episodes and a time jump, Matt suits back up as Daredevil. The final straw was the fear of not saving Angela, as Matt already lives with the guilt of what happened to her uncle and not going to do something when she came to him before. If Angela died, her blood would be on his hands and that is what finally broke Matt. Knowing that time and time again he has been shown that the law and letting things be handled the way they are supposed to be handled hasn’t been enough proved to Matt that being Daredevil is actually needed. The police or the law in general can’t actually always solve the problem, and sometimes, it takes a more unethical route of getting things done to actually get things done.

The return of Daredevil has pretty heavy implications. For Matt, suiting up again is going to change his life, similar to how it had before. The people around him are now at a heightened risk and if the past proves one thing, it doesn’t bode well for many of his relationships. Beyond Matt’s inner circle, Daredevil’s return is also going to be a trigger for Mayor Kingpin. Let’s not forget that the two of them met early on and spoke about their new lives, all while threatening the other one about slipping up. Episode 6 saw both of the men give into their darker instincts, but for Daredevil, his return with a mayor who already has it out for vigilantes is set to be the impetus for Mayor Fisk’s checkmate: the Anti-Vigilante Bill.

Mayor Fisk? Mayor Kingpin.

As mentioned, Matt wasn’t the only one to break during Episode 6. Mayor Fisk, who has been actively fighting to try and play by the rules, broke in two fairly monumental ways. The first, with Adam, was the response that many likely had initially expected to see Fisk have. The fact that up until this point, he seemingly had stayed relatively calm beyond kidnapping the man was unheard of. Yet, this was also his breaking point in this episode, reverting back to who he really is in the name of his love for Vanessa.

The other pivotal way he broke was his way, in our opinion, of becoming fully Mayor Kingpin rather than Mayor Fisk. In his response to Muse, Kingpin has decided to form the Anti-Vigilante Task Force, made up of cops in the police force who all seemingly have a checkered history. They will all be granted special privileges, including no body cams and seemingly unrestricted roam. If this isn’t reminding some of when Kingpin had his hands in the NYPD back in Season One of the Netflix series, then it should be. This time, while not exactly ‘breaking the law’ as he was before by paying cops to do his dirty work from inside, he is toeing a dangerous line. It seems unlikely the people of New York will take kindly to having a group of sketchy cops given free rein to do what they want, how they want in the name of stopping vigilantes. On top of that, not announcing their existence to the public but leaving it to be something they will likely learn about after something happens just appears to be asking for it. With Kingpin’s already questionable past with the NYPD, it seems this is one pot that is already seconds from starting to boil over.

Introducing the Anti-Vigilante Task Force

The introduction to the Anti-Vigilante Task Force is something many expected to show up sooner rather than later. This group has comic book precedence, not exactly through name but through similar storylines, including a group of cops who take up the Punisher symbol for their own perceived way of following his message. Also in the comics, Kingpin does set loose the cops to go after all vigilantes, similar to what was shown in Episode 6. Where some of this gets interesting is that as part of Kingpin’s war against the vigilantes, the original Thunderbolts are created. With the Thunderbolts* movie following aggressively on the heels of the conclusion of Born Again, a connection between the two could still very well be possible, especially with the Thunderbolts* being at least partially set in NYC.

As for the current adaptation of the AVTF, these guys are primarily supposed to be going after Muse, although this is going to change now that Daredevil has reappeared. It will also be interesting to see if Frank makes another appearance as his ‘fanboys’ now will be running the streets of New York in the name of good while given minimal restrictions. If it doesn’t happen in Born Again, it could be a really interesting plotline for the upcoming Punisher Special Presentation. Either way, the AVTF is bound to grow out of control and cross paths with Daredevil, which will end up blowing up in one of their faces.

Special Appearances

There were two ‘cameos’ during these two episodes. The first and most obvious was Mr. Khan, Kamala’s dad from Ms. Marvel. He played a pretty prominent role in Episode 5, as the assistant bank manager at the bank actively being robbed. His appearance is not actually the focal point of his cameo more than his conversation with Matt at the beginning of the episode was. The conversation probably lasted longer than it needed to, but the prominent piece of information that Mr. Khan dropped was that Kamala is currently in California. To those who remember The Marvels’ first end-credit, Kamala has started to gather the Young Avengers, beginning with Kate Bishop in New York. She mentions to Kate that Ant-Man has a daughter, who we will know from his trilogy, and she is in California the last we heard of her, meaning there’s a great chance Kamala is out there to recruit Cassie to the Young Avengers team. That would make a team of 3 so far, collecting them slowly through different properties.

The other cameo was a little less obvious and not nearly as full of important information, but Kate Bishop’s mother’s now ex-boyfriend, Jack Duquesne gave a brief appearance. To give a reminder, Jack was engaged to Kate’s mother who framed him for murder while working with Kingpin. Jack then helped Kate and Clint take down Kingpin and the Tracksuit Mafia. With this history, Jack is most definitely not a fan of Kingpin and so he could easily be considered an ally in this show. If needed, he could make another appearance to help Daredevil in whatever capacity that might be, all while keeping a nice character throughline from one property starring Kingpin to another.

Image: “Daredevil: Born Again Episode 6,” Proma Khosla, Indie Wire