Daredevil: Born Again S01E05 Review: The Great Return of Yusuf Khan

Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 5: With Interest

Daredevil: Born Again was a TV show that has a bit of a troubled production, and with that troubled production also came a fair amount of reshoots. Apparently, 'With Interest' was the only episode that did not get reshot in any way... which makes absolute sense because this episode really was a standalone, filler episode. I like the episode, and enjoyed my time watching it... but at the end of the day, it does stand a bit apart from the ongoing narratives about Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk.

Charitably speaking, I guess it does help to be a bit of a palate cleanser between the White Tiger and the Muse halves of the season, but it's still a bit... off, I should say, tonally. I don't mind it all that much, since I did have a lot of fun with this episode. It's just a bizarre inclusion, is all. 

The big surprise out-of-nowhere guest star in this episode is Yusuf Khan, father of Kamala "Ms. Marvel" Khan. It's a bit of a 'wtf' moment since Yusuf is just a supporting character in his show, but Mohan Kapur's acting is so bubbly and energetic that I can't help but enjoy his time on the episode. Besides, unlike most MCU cameos, you don't even need to know anything about Yusuf to understand his cameo here. There is some attempt to tie Matt's presence in the bank with the rest of the season, with him trying to get a bank loan or something... but it gets handwaved aside for the excuse plot. Yusuf himself at least is a nice combination of 'panicked civilian' and 'he knows enough about the game to be competent' to be a fun foil to Matt. 

A group of robbers with multi-coloured masks led by 'Green' (or Devlin) decides to rob the bank, giving us a rather cute, simple superhero episode. Other than the fact that they wave around shotguns at the hostages, you can't really take these goobers seriously -- particularly since the episode itself has a lot of fun with the villains. The robbery takes place on St. Patrick's Day as well, which makes Devlin have a lot of fun Irish back-and-forth both with Matt (who obfuscates stupidity a lot) and detective Angie Kim outside. We also finally acknowledge the Irishness of the Murdock family name, as well as get Charlie Cox to do an Irish accent. 

Again, there is a bit of a tie-in to the main plot because Devlin is one of the henchmen for one of the Five Families that used to work under Fisk -- and there's something they need to steal for some plan down the line. I really would've liked to have some more development between the actual characters that'll matter a bit more down the line, though. Ultimately, the plan is for Devlin's rainbow-mask mob to steal a jewel from the vault, but their disorganized plan and the luck of the draw meant that the bank employees can't open the vault... at least until Matt does so to distract everyone. Also, turns out that one of the random background characters is also working for the mob, and is 'planted' there as a distraction. Neat enough to keep me entertained throughout the 35-minute runtime. 

It is a lot less interesting in a superhero show when the jewels they're stealing aren't Infinity Stones, isn't it? I also found the punchline that Matt hid the orange gemstone in Yusuf's rock candies to be a bit of an eye-rolling bit. 

Of course, the robbery itself isn't really the main point of the episode. The point is how Matt Murdock, bereft of his Daredevil equipment, can sashay his way through the hostage situation with his charisma and taking full advantage of his blindness causing people to underestimate him. Again, it's fun, and some of the action is quite brutal (particularly when Matt tracks Devlin outside the bank, wears a mask and then starts breaking limbs). But otherwise, after the dust settles, it's just... it's just a fun, harmless filler episode. I'm not sure whether it should be placed at this spot in the season instead of somewhere a bit earlier. I did enjoy it, if nothing else -- it feels very old-school comic-book-y, where the writers will just sometimes turn in a standalone story just to give some breathing room for them to plan for the next arc or something. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Yusuf Khan, father of Ms. Marvel (Kamala Khan), makes a guest star this episode! He debuted in Ms. Marvel's Disney+ TV show, and was last seen in the movie The Marvels. As expected, he mentions a lot about Kamala and being excited about the local Jersey superhero Ms. Marvel who totally isn't the same person as Kamala, no. 
• Yusuf mentions that Kamala is in California right now, which seems to imply that she's making good on her attempt to recruit Cassie Lang for the Young Avengers -- something that is hinted she was doing at the end of The Marvels. 
• With one of the major threats in Ms. Marvel being a government agency (or an agent gone rogue, at least), it's unsurprising that Yusuf sympathizes with Matt's frustrations against the system. 
• Matt dismisses Yusuf's question about "what kind of a lawyer [is he]" with the response "a really good one", which was Matt's response to Peter Parker's family in Spider-Man: No Way Home when they asked the same question. 
• It has been glitter-ified a lot, but what Yusuf is holding is the real, official Funko Pop for Ms. Marvel -- albeit her comic book incarnation instead of the MCU version. 
• Detective Angie Kim previously appeared in a very small role in the bar scene in the first episode; while Devlin has shown up several times in the gang summits.