Daredevil: Born Again S02E01 Review: The Devil's Back

Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2, Episode 1: The Northern Star

And so, we begin my coverage of season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again. Real life conspired to make me unable to watch this series as it was coming out weekly throughout March through May this year, but I did manage to slowly make through the season and do some episode reviews. 

Season premiere 'The Northern Star' is a pretty simple status-quo setup, taking part six months after the events of Daredevil: Born Again's first season. 

And in a way, it's... interesting to see how muted the first episode is. Sure, we do open up with a typical grand-scale action scene as Daredevil in a fancy new black suit beats up a bunch of guys on the titular cargo ship that's smuggling large amounts of weapons, before the captain sends the ship into crashing and sinking. Daredevil survives, of course, ostensibly crippling part of the Kingpin's operations... but this also sets up the storyline of both Daredevil and Kingpin's forces hunting down the loose ends of the surviving captain and first mate. 

Much of the episode flashes around to see random videos made by citizens of New York as well as some anti-Kingpin videos, in a somewhat more in-your-face version of the 'voices in the street' storyline they did in the first season of Born Again. It's always nice, even if I felt there were maybe one or two too much in this episode. I felt that actually showing random civilians -- like the Greek restaurant owner that resisted the Taskforce and later befriends Matt -- worked a lot better than the in-your-face videos. 

We don't really get to see much of the big 'resistance' that was set up at the end of the first season, and it really does seem that the team is just Matt and Karen for now. Which is all fine and good -- the two at least are in good relations, bonding over both their vigilantism and their still-lingering grief over Foggy's death. 

A bunch of storylines happen with much of the B-cast involving Kingpin's regime. BB Urich is still forced to do the 'people in the street love Kingpin' videos, but is still getting close to Blake. Not the most exciting storyline or characters, but BB being in contact with Karen, and Karen bringing up Ben Urich, promises at least some nice drama and/or character development for them.

Jack "Swordsman" Duquesne, having minor roles in the first season of Daredevil: Born Again and briefly glimpsed a half-decade ago in Hawkeye, is being interviewed with Matt's ex-girlfriend and psychiatrist Heather Glenn. Glenn's descent into villainy caused by her own trauma -- she hallucinates Muse all throughout the episode -- is solidified as she goes from 'trying to do her job for a cause she thinks is right' to actively changing her psych evaluations at the gentle urgings of dirty DA Hochberg. 

Matt's ex law partner Kirsten McDuffie gets a brief confrontation with Hochberg, refusing to close the aid that she's giving to all the anti-Taskforce clients; and McDuffie is also still working with Cherry, who's also doing information gathering for Daredevil. This leads to the climax of the episode as the Taskforce ends up attacking Cherry for digging around for the missing sailors, leading to the episode-ending action scene. Cherry gets injured (and maybe killed? He did have a death flag earlier in the episode) and the trauma of being reminded of Foggy's death causes Daredevil to freeze up mid-fight, get subdued... and unmasked. 

But before that bit turns out to be the huge status-quo changer, the Taskforce soldiers that recognized Matt Murdock's face all get instantly killed (that's what happens when minor characters accidentally find out the superhero's secret identity, I guess), before a knife emblazoned with Bullseye's symbol gets tossed into the room.

Oh, and I suppose I need to talk about Kingpin's side of the story. As with most of the show's lifetime, any time Kingpin stars as the main villain, he usually stars in a B-plot. It's not terribly exciting this time around as, again, it really does feel like a reintroduction and realignment of his position of the mayor-with-a-good-reputation-but-an-iron-fist that was established last episode. I'll... refrain from any timely political commentary in these review series; but as a villain concept, it's definitely done well. 

The 'Freeport' plan is definitely working out for Kingpin at the very least, until the Northern Star incident that forces Kingpin to have to take more drastic measures. While he does manage to handwave it as a terrorist attack by vigilantes, and his Taskforce and head henchman Buck manages to track down and kill the captain. But while Kingpin still manages to throw his weight around the political stage, the arrival of CIA representative "Mr. Charles" ends up throwing him off the hook. 

Mr. Charles is rude, abrasive, flamboyant, and clearly isn't intimidated by Fisk. He's at least tied somewhat to the quasi-villainous Valentina de Fontaine, last seen in Thunderbolts and having slowly been built up as essentially an evil Nick Fury. There's a nice discussion where Fisk is seemingly a bit disturbed by Mr. Charles's initial suggestion of having all of his men that helped to salvage the ship all killed, showing that Kingpin at least has some lines he won't cross pragmatically. Charles seems to be working for Fisk's mysterious powerful customers/clients (or just Valentina), and it's interesting to see what direction this will be taken. Charles is a fun character, and I do want to see more of him. 

It is a good, if not great, opening to the second season. I understand there's a fair bit of directional change as the show goes into its second one, but I did feel like this episode ends up being a bit of a recap more than anything. It's still always nice to return back to this setting and characters, though, so I'm not complaining. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Daredevil's new black suit with a red logo costume is based particularly on the outfit he wore in the Shadowland arc in the comics -- ironically, an arc where Daredevil actually became evil due to demonic possession.
  
• She doesn't show up in person, but Karen's source is Jessica Jones, who gets name-dropped as 'Jess' and identified as someone who's an expert at information finding. 
• Valentina de Fontaine was last seen during the events of Thunderbolts*, clashing against the titular team. 
• The Watchtower from Thunderbolts* is seen in shots of the New York skyline. 
• Matt references his 'old, psychotic sensei' Stick, who made appearances in the first couple of seasons of Daredevil as well as The Defenders. 
• Karen refences the events behind Ben Urich's death in Daredevil Season 1, and while she doesn't go to the details, she does note that Ben died to save her life. 
• Karen's red-haired wig when she goes undercover is a short hair patterned after Black Widow, particularly her comic-book incarnation. Black Widow is nominally one of Daredevil's major love interests in the comics.