Daredevil: Born Again, Season 1, Episode 9: Straight to Hell
We have a huge finale for Daredevil: Born Again's first season, and... a good part of what the episode is about has to do with the fact that the key word in that sentence is 'first'. That's right, baby, we're pulling out an Infinity War and ending this on a cliffhanger!
I'm... I'm of two minds about this episode. On one hand, we get some really, really good character moments for Daredevil, Punisher and Karen Page. That apartment fight as Daredevil and Punisher takes on Fisk's task force is a great action scene that puts a lot of Disney/Marvel's recent efforts to shame. On the other hand... some aspects of the cliffhanger also feel forced. I do absolutely love that we're giving the storylines introduced in this season the time in a future season to breathe, because there absolutely was not enough time to cover everything in this final episode.
Let's get my main gripe out of the way... I'm not a huge fan of how the show handles the Punisher in the last run of the episode. On one hand, it just feels utterly stupid for Frank to just waltz into Red Hook Pier that way -- and while the audience doesn't see it until a bit later, the fact that Daredevil and Karen call off their own assault makes it feel like the Punisher kind of got fucked by bad communication. But there's also a bit of a suspension of disbelief -- in a series that has otherwise been good at being more grounded and "realistic" in its portrayal of vigilante violence -- that none of the Task Force's bullets so much as wound Frank beyond knocking him around, while he's blowing people's heads and limbs off. Sure, the Task Force wants to bring Frank in alive, but it really does feel off. I didn't mind the spirit and idea of the scene of the Punisher biting off more than he can chew, but the way it's portrayed just feels really off to me.
I also know that we're saving it for next season, but the absolute lack of Bullseye (other than a brief cameo at the end) feels really odd, especially after last episode's cliffhanger. While I agree that him going underground after the botched assassination is a smart thing to do, I felt like they could've showed the audience that a bit earlier.
With that gripe out of the way, though, this was an excellent hour of television. We start off with a flashback to Vanessa hiring Bullseye prior to the events of Daredevil: Born Again, with a lot of great showcases of just how much Vanessa is intent on destroying whatever progress Bullseye has made to being 'stable' just to get an assassin to do her dirty work. This is a nice bit of twist that makes MCU Bullseye a lot more compelling than the evil-psycho of the comics.
After taking the shot for Wilson Fisk last episode, Matt recovers in a hospital, but since the two people he has with him there -- Heather Glenn and Kirsten McDuffie -- are his allies that aren't aware of his (or Kingpin's) double life, they just think he's obsessed and kind of crazy. Again, as I mentioned in my review of the previous episodes, I really do think these two characters are just lacking that je ne sais quoi for me to really care. The performances are done well enough, and Heather at the very least has some interesting plot threads, but I really didn't miss them at all when Karen and Frank show up as our deuteragonists for the rest of the episode.
Which is odd, because Wilson Fisk's side-cast, who are made up of new characters as well, end up being a bit more interesting. Sheila Rivera ends up being the surprising star of this one despite her limited screentime. Having been the one sane person in Fisk's payroll (with Buck Cashman being a glorified hitman, and Daniel Blake really drinking Fisk's kool-aid) she's seemingly set up to join Commissioner Gallo and BB Urich as betraying Wilson eventually. And for a good chunk of this episode, Sheila seems to struggle with this in a really excellent showcase of her realizing that this isn't just her being an aide in a game of politics, that 'those loyal to me' meant something far more dangerous than just votes or negotiations, but something far, far more dangerous and dystopian. The slow realization that Wilson Fisk is not above using methods to harm those who go against her, and finding that she is in a spot where she needs to pick a side... Sheila ends up being the Judas against all of Wilson's enemies, although we get some great acting for this relatively minor character that shows just how much she hates being placed in this position.
Wilson, meanwhile, monologues to Vanessa about his master plan. Something that Matt would find about later on. Red Hook Port is important for their business because it's a free port that they have been using to smuggle a fuck-ton of goods before, but now they can make it utterly thriving, to the point that they can make New York essentially their own city-state. It's... it's a tilt towards a more ridiculous, comic-book-y supervillainy that I didn't expect from Daredevil: Born Again, but it's also close enough to the spirit (if not the logic) of having a more grounded villain scheme that I didn't mind it so much.
What about the follow-up of Matt taking the bullet for Wilson? It's handled rather succinctly, but I think in a way that makes sense for the character. After a brief moment of thought as the Kingpin struggles with what honour he has within him, he decides to send off his hitman, Buck Cashman, to kill Matt Murdock in the hospital and use him as a martyr. Matt escapes amidst the blackout (which I think is also part of Fisk putting New York under lockdown? The episode isn't the clearest on this part) but it's still a somber nod towards Wilson Fisk's character. Was he conflicted? He seemed like he was, but then he sends off the Anti-Vigilante Task Force after Daredevil's apartment anyway.
Which, yeah. Fisk puts New York City under a dystopian lockdown, which is protested by Commissioner Gallo, who keeps yelling about how insane and unethical this is just to catch Bullseye. But a combination of anger at the direct attack on his life, and his general control-freak tendencies, cause Kingpin to put New York City in a horrid night of martial law... and one scene that ends up being particularly chilling was the Anti-Vigilante Task Force gunning down just some punk who's looting televisions, and putting a mask on him to pass off the death as a 'justified' vigilante killing.
Meanwhile, Matt returns to the apartment and dresses up as Daredevil... to find the Punisher waiting for him for some reason. There's no time to really debate (though they do some fun banter before and after) as the Task Force arrives and we get a glorious fight scene against them. A lot of great use of the physical prop and set around them, and the darker surroundings really do help in selling the scene. Again, just a really fun action scene to watch all around, and I especially love how the Punisher initially tries -- by god, he tries -- to not kill any of the attacking Task Force members until he just goes 'fuck it' and starts maiming and killing.
The best moment, however, comes when the Punisher picks up one of the bullets emblazoned with his mark, noting that they found the 'fanboy' that killed White Tiger. We get a confrontation between Daredevil and Cole North, who, just like Bullseye before him, shows absolutely no remorse for killing someone good and decent. We get a really great moment as Daredevil tries his best to hold his temper, settling for knocking North out cold, while the Punisher... just cocks his gun and wordlessly offers to do it. Hell, he wants to do it. And it's at this point that Daredevil gets into a scuffle with the Punisher, who is rightfully angry that Daredevil is doing stupid shit like jumping in the way of bullets meant for scum like North... and Kingpin.
Their little argument about justified killing and villains who deserve them gets interrupted by a fucking grenade that obliterates Matt's apartment. Our heroes manage to escape with the aid of Daredevil's billy club, and we learn why Frank knew to be there at the right time. He's contacted by Karen Page, who asked him for a favour. Again, her shared history with both Frank and Matt really helps to sell the subsequent scenes, which really thrive on the history that these characters have across multiple seasons. Karen helps to ground both Frank and Matt, getting them to essentially sit down and recap on what's been going on. Frank tries to wave off his help as just paying off a favour, but Karen accurately notes that Frank Castle is not the type of person who doesn't care.
Matt and Karen then goes off on a bit of a lawyer-mode, as the two of them go off and dig around just what made Vanessa Fisk order the hit on Foggy Nelson, leading to them discovering the Red Hook Port plans. This is set back-to-back with Fisk's minions rounding up the disloyal politicians, with Cashman and Blake having blackmail ready on every single person who would go against Fisk. But the clear focus is Matt and Karen's relationship, as they reminisce about Foggy, and about their shared past. It's the very thing they were both running away from back in the first episode, and I like that this gets called out a bit.
(We also get some cute ship teases between Karen and both Frank and Matt with the help of Matt's super-hearing and 'adrenaline', although Karen herself remains dodgy and dismissive. It's nice that it's there, and thankfully doesn't take up too much screentime)
The next scene is then the rather prolonged scene of Punisher arriving and attacking the Task Force officers at Red Hook Pier, while the episode cuts back and forth between Punisher and Kingpin. After getting a recording from Sheila about Gallo's planned betrayal, Kingpin has Gallo brought in front of his subordinates, and Fisk starts monologuing about how Gallo clearly is a piece of shit for not being in the 'front lines' like the rest of them. In a shocking moment, Fisk grabs Gallo by the head, and twists his head off to his death. Or rather, Fisk twists half of Gallo's head off, giving us a surprisingly grisly make-up/prosthetic as his white suit is stained red, and the dirty and/or indoctrinated cops around him barely react.
Meanwhile, Punisher wakes up in front of a horde of his fanboys, who take him alive. They want nothing but for the Punisher to join their ranks and lead them, but the Punisher growls that none of these violence-happy yahoos really understand him, or his loss. Some really great acting by Jon Bernthal in this scene, which I feel is also a nice middle finger to a lot of Punisher's real-life misaimed fandom as well. The Task Force takes turn beating Punisher up, almost in a ritualistic way.
And this is when the episode shows us a brief conversation between Daredevil and Karen... and then we get a scene that is a hard cut between the martial law night and the very next day.
And yes, this is where we roll the denouement. Wilson Fisk addresses the people of New York, putting all the blame of last night's chaos on the vigilantes, handwaving Gallo's disappearance (he 'resigned') and enacting the Safer Streets Initiative after getting everyone to vote for what he wanted. He also gets Heather Glenn essentially on his side as the Minister of Mental Health or something. Oh, and also, Wilson and Vanessa visit their base in Red Hook Pier, where they keep their prisoners -- including Jack Duquesne, the socialites that were assholes to Wilson before, and finally the Punisher. This personal dungeon is admittedly the part in this episode that feels the most visually 'comic-book-y', but it's also one that shows just how much Kingpin is really not giving a shit anymore about any consequences with the amount of power and influence he's cultivated.
Meanwhile, Daredevil and Karen have gathered at Josie's Bar, with Daredevil giving us a cool 'darkness' monologue. He then walks out to a gathered group of resistance, which includes Cherry and some NYPD officers like Angie Kim. Separately, Kirsten McDuffie also gets the case files about Foggy. And in a post-credits scene, the Punisher breaks out of jail after getting one of his fanboys to lower his guard.
And... yeah, to get the most obvious thing out of the way, I really do think that having one or two of the Defenders show up would've been great. Having an MCU character based in New York, like Spider-Man or Kate Bishop, would've been an actually great move at merging the continuities. I really just don't have that much attachment to the motley crew that Daredevil's gathered for it to be a particularly badass alliance. But ultimately? This episode really does deliver quite a bit as a cliffhanger season finale, and to be one of the absolute best things to come out from Disney+ in a long, long while. It's a great return for everyone's favourite blind lawyer, and while it's not a perfect season, it's still a really wonderful experience for me. Until next year when we come back with season two!
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- While the circumstances are different, just like in the comics version of Born Again, Matt's apartment and a huge chunk of the surrounding building was blown up as a result of Kingpin's actions.
- Karen Page returns after previously appearing in episode 1 of this season. Karen has been one of the characters most involved with the Punisher in both Daredevil season 2 as well as both seasons of The Punisher.
- Karen and Matt bring up a conversation they had in the first season of Daredevil, where Matt describes his blindness as 'not dark, but a thousand suns'.
- The 'Avocados at Law' joke was made between Matt and Foggy in the first season of Daredevil, and Karen was notably confused about it in the season 1 finale. Matt finally explains it to her.
- This isn't the first time Fisk sent an assassin to kill someone hospitalized by sabotaging their IV line -- he had officer Christian Blake killed in season 1 of Daredevil with the same method.
- Matt calls New York City "the City Without Fear", a spin of his comic-book title of 'the Man Without Fear'. This has been done previously in Daredevil season 3 at Father Lantom's funeral.
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