Matt Murdock

Daredevil: Born Again Episode 9 Reactions

Daredevil

Now that’s how you do a finale.

The beauty of having a second season that is actively filming is that you can end the first season on a cliffhanger. The final episode of Daredevil: Born Again Season One has beautifully set up for what is going to be a chaotic and intense second season. While it was not always a homerun, in the end it told the right story between Episodes 1 – 2 and 8 – 9 that fans are getting the one thing they haven’t yet seen: Kingpin winning. New York is in shambles, with curfews and their police turned into a militia. Vigilantes are being hunted and collected, and the good people trying to stop Kingpin are disappearing one by one. For once, being the good guy is leaving much more at stake as the corruption of Mayor Kingpin overtakes the city.

Frank’s Been Waiting For This One

Frank made another, more prominent return for this season finale, and you can tell he was having fun with this one. Enlisted by Karen to help Matt during his manhunt, Frank had been waiting for Matt back at his apartment and helped him escape Kingpin’s Task Force. Then later on, Frank confronts his fanboys face-to-face at the port, taking down quite a few before being overpowered. He’s clearly been waiting for the opportunity to take on these ‘posers’ who have taken his pain and his message and warped it for their own twisted purposes. The show did an amazing job of shooting Frank’s scenes, specifically the one with him tied to the chair overlooking roughly 20 officers with skulls like his painted on their chests. It’s clear that not only is Marvel not shying away from their comic line that deals with this very topic, but that it is the direction they are likely going to go with the Punisher’s upcoming Special Presentation.

The only end credit of the entire show was also Frank, likely preparing fans for what they can expect in the Special Presentation that is currently being worked on. Frank will likely escape his current capture and lead his own manhunt to take down anyone who is using his symbol for the wrong purposes, and at this point, the list seems extensive. However, it will help bridge the gap between Born Again Season One and Two, as Daredevil is going to have much bigger issues to deal with than just the Task Force. While the Task Force is being used as Kingpin’s personal army at this point, they’re more Frank’s dilemma than anyone else. They are also going to need to still be somewhat present in Season Two, so it’s likely the Special Presentation will also focus in on Frank’s feelings about his fan club and who he is going to be moving forward as the Punisher, a story that can’t really be told in the middle of Born Again.

Kingpin’s Empire

It was expected that Kingpin wouldn’t remain good throughout the whole season, yet the reveal that he’s actually been playing the game the whole time actually made up for some of the more random things that happened. Without meaning to, Bullseye put Kingpin exactly where he wanted to go, giving him the assassination attempt that would usher in his most extreme measures yet. On top of this, it’s revealed what his port project is really for and how he is using it as a cover to essentially create a lawless state in a completely legal way. As it turns out, it’s the exact reason Vanessa ended up having Bullseye kill Foggy, wrapping these specific narratives together in a perfect bowtie.

Season One of Born Again goes to Kingpin, who has come out successful by the end. The next question to ask is: now what? There are two ways to look at this, the first on a smaller scale, the fact that the mayor of NYC has created a military state. On a grander scale, it’s unclear how Kingpin’s moves are going to affect the country as a whole, and also leaves the legal ways of stepping in hard to decipher. Everything involving the port is legal and his strong police presence is justified in response to the looting and additional crime during the black out, even if it was orchestrated by him. The real truth here is that there is likely going to be no help from outside the island and even from a hero front, it seems unlikely anyone who isn’t currently there will be able to stop him. Kingpin is sitting in the thrown of his empire, finally. One thing is for sure, though, and that is empires fall.

Matt’s Next Move

Much of this episode was Matt reacting to Kingpin’s aggressive onslaught and honestly, him probably regretting jumping in front of the man to save his life. Between being hunted in the hospital, his apartment being blown to bits, becoming the number one fugitive in New York and his girl abandoning him to join Kingpin (which he doesn’t even know yet), Matt has had one very, very bad day. He played defense the entire episode and it was clear that he was in no position to go on the offensive at any point, finding out one issue after another. This is partially what led to this being a great finale, as the hero didn’t win, he didn’t take down the bad guy and instead has to solve the entire conflict in the next season, leaving fans chomping at the bit for it.

The biggest next move for Matt that Marvel kept completely open-ended was Matt’s speech regarding taking back the city. Much of his wording seemed like there might be an indication towards a large team-up in Season Two, even if the group gathered at the end of this season seemed to be primarily only regular citizens. Something a lot of this finale proved was that at this point, this storyline is far larger than just Daredevil or even Daredevil and the Punisher. Matt needs help, the city needs help and that means there’s a great chance some familiar faces will be popping up in Season Two. Frank is clearly on this list, and there’s actually a strong possibility that Bullseye might be as well. He is still at large and at this point, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, so there’s a chance Daredevil and Bullseye might end up on the same side here. Yet a few other familiar faces could be expected, including Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and even Ironfist. These are all New York City based heroes that Matt has fought with before and would all be effected by the new laws. Also, it can’t be forgotten that Luke Cage actually becomes mayor of NYC after Kingpin, so this could be a great way to move into that future storyline as well. Right now, the possibilities for Season Two of Born Again seem limitless, but it seems fans will have to wait until at least March 2026 to return to the world of Daredevil.

Image: “Daredevil: Born Again Episode 9”, Johnny Malks, Winter Is Coming

Daredevil: Born Again Episodes 1 & 2 Reactions

Daredevil

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