Daredevil, Born Again, Season 2, Episode 5: Grand Design
This is a great episode.
Part of it is due to the obvious 'nostalgia bait' of the original Netflix Daredevil cast returning in a flashback, and we get Foggy Nelson and (unexpectedly) James Wesley back. I recognize the obvious fanservice for what it is, but it also works a lot in context of this episode.
The episode goes around different characters and different time periods, but let's go through them one at a time, since technically not a whole ton happened. In the present day stuff, Vanessa becomes lucid for a while before dying; Matt and Dex evade the AVTF; while Buck and Blake have a bit of a mafia moment. But the way the present-day stories tied to each other and to the flashbacks really did work in making this a really good character focus for our characters.
Vincent D'Onofrio is one of the best castings that elevated Kingpin so much during the original run of Daredevil and all of his subsequent appearances (by and far being the strongest actor in Hawkeye and Echo as well) and the present-day scenes with him babbling with joy at Vanessa's brief moment of lucidity, his rage at the nurse, and his utter distraught expression at the end of the episode is amazingly acted. You really do feel sorry for Wilson Fisk -- regardless of the handling of Vanessa's writing in this season, the show has been quite consistent at portraying Wilson's love and care for Vanessa.
And for a moment, it does seem that Vanessa's back -- a little changed, a little loopy -- but she's back and I would like to highlight, again, how amazing that performance is as Wilson Fisk drops all of his mask and just asks what he can do for Vanessa. All of that disappears by the end of the episode, of course, as Vanessa eventually succumbs to her wounds.
On the flashback side of things, we get to see a bit of a reinterpretation of Vanessa's original meeting with Wilson. Vanessa's meeting with Wilson was a combination of both characters' ruthless pragmatism as well as their own longing in life. There is always something about that painting that strikes both of their hearts, and Vanessa even mentions to her old boss that this painting will 'speak' to someone. But they're both ruthless businessmen as well, with this episode having Vanessa reveal that... yes, she likes that art piece but she also ripped off Wilson a whole ton for it. Meanwhile Wilson also does like the art, but went there to diversify and move money into different forms under James Wesley's suggestions. That's neat.
In a way, too, this helps to reconcile the sometimes-inconsistent portrayal of Vanessa over Daredevil and Born Again, incorporating how Vanessa could be the 'normal person in Wilson's life' as well as the more ruthless 'co-conspirator' she would be portrayed as under different writers.
Meanwhile, Daredevil and Bullseye are running around town, avoiding the AVTF members. Bullseye continues to rant about how he's just balancing the scales, and I think stops short of telling Daredevil that Vanessa deserved it for ordering the hit on Foggy... but Daredevil cuts him off there -- he's not willing to justify Vanessa's death as anything but murder, and notes that it's the same reason why he's trying so hard to save the murderer of his best friend. Whether it's to make up for the past crimes of seriously attempting to kill Bullseye last season, or Matt's own way to balance the scales, it's a neat enough nod to the character's mindset.
Of course, not everyone agrees with Matt -- least of all Karen, who is less than impressed that Matt brought Foggy's killer to their base.
Foggy himself appears very prominently in Matt's side of this episode's flashback. The two burgeoning 'avocados at law' get to muck around as young lawyers with huge ambitions. Ah, we were all there, once. Their client, this time, is Lionel -- an asshole that used to bully Foggy. Lionel is scared shitless about going to prison, noting that the mysterious organization that he crossed will have him killed within 24 hours. There was an argument between Matt and Foggy later on, where Matt argues that Lionel is a drug dealer and deserves the punishment... but Foggy counters by listing the fact that Lionel was screwed by the system; and more importantly, now that they know the punishment won't be fair, that knowledge precludes them to ask.
Again, the ethics of this argument could be debated over and over, but ultimately Foggy takes things into his own hands. Taking the money out of the pile that he and Matt have been saving up to open their own firm, Foggy gives Lionel a second chance to get out and do something with his life.
(This happens right at the same time that Kingpin and Wesley send their hitman Buck Cashman, who's retconned to be one of Kingpin's enforcers and a nice little tie-in for one of the many side-characters introduced last season.)
But more importantly, Foggy's optimism -- regardless of whether you agree with it or not -- is something that's clearly struck a chord in Matt as he interacts with Bullseye. Even if Bullseye did kill Foggy. It's an interesting decision for the show to explore this storyline, and while I'm not fully convinced that it will be wrapped up in a manner that satisfies everyone, it does help to bring a wrinkle and some explanation as to why Daredevil isn't beating up Bullseye and leaving him for dead.
Meanwhile, in the C-plot, Daniel Blake gets confronted by BB Urich and under the price of a hug, ends up blabbing about Vanessa's condition to her. It's... it's a bit silly and after episode 3, Blake surely realizes fully that the (very dangerous) leak is BB, isn't he? But he dose so anyway, and BB leaks it to the media. Buck comes in and we get a bit of a tense sequence where he makes it appear as if he's going to take Blake out to a forest and shoot him; but instead gets him to help dispose of another body. The tension is palpable, and well-done, even if I don't really care about Blake all that much as a character the acting between the two characters are excellent.
Still, the highlight of the episode is still Kingpin and D'Onofrio's acting throughout scenes both past and present. Curious to see how this will develop as Born Again's second season zooms to its final three episodes.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- The events of the flashbacks all lead to Wilson and Vanessa's initial meeting in 'Rabbit in a Snowstorm'.
- James "Owl" Wesley makes a surprising return in the flashback, having only been seen as a major supporting character in Daredevil season 1, where he was killed. In addition, the status quo of how the criminals describe the Kingpin in hushed tones, almost as like an urban legend, fits with the pre-Daredevil-season-1 status quo as well where Kingpin works through a lot of intermediaries.
- The specific word Daredevil uses for someone who can help, 'nurse', is a clear reference to Claire Temple, a.k.a. Night Nurse.
- Bullseye lampshades that he should have died after being thrown off the roof by Matt. Daredevil season 3 did end with Bullseye receiving an operation that gave him a version of his comic-book counterpart's adamantium skeleton (changed to 'cogmium'), but I'm not sure if Bullseye even knew about this.
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