Daredevil: Born Again S02E02 Review: Bull's Eye

Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2, Episode 2: Shoot the Moon

I thought the episode opened up in a rather splendid fashion, ratcheting up a fair bit of tension. Bullseye is back and we get to see him be a wildcard in-between Kingpin and his taskforce; as well as Matt's 'resistance' allies. What seemed to be another taskforce-vs-good-cops standoff regarding the hospitalized Cherry ends up being unexpectedly brutal as Bullseye does that cool elevator moment, complete with an actual (sadly overmodernized) supervillain suit.

On the other side, Kingpin pushing up the hunt for Daredevil while also making a brilliant manhunt for Matt Murdock -- framing him as a poor blind hero who is a victim of Daredevil and someone that he wants found due to saving his life in the previous season -- was also fantastic. We... don't really get any of these cool threads followed up in the second half of the episode, which just kind of meanders around with the side characters until we land at the requisite fight scene. 

Some of these are entertaining, of course. Vanessa Fisk (and Wilson too, to a lesser degree) having paranoia about Bullseye and having conversations about legacy and escaping New York is nice. The action scene at the end of the episode is neat, too. The AVTF try and arrest Josie, leading to Daredevil fighting them as they breach the bar and find out Matt and Karen's little hidey-hole. I do like the close-quarters combat of Daredevil ziplining and beating up the two AVTF members that entered all the way to the basement, particularly the bit where he jumpscares the taskforce members with the gun (that he wasn't going to use). This action scene leads to the cliffhanger of the episode showing that Karen actually subdued a task force member for interrogation. 

But I must admit that the secondary cast really isn't the most exciting part of the episode, and more importantly it really does take away from Matt, Karen and Kingpin. Again... not all of them are interesting. 

Angela del Toro, the niece of the late White Tiger, ends up being caught smack dab when AVTF members come in and arrest some thieves, the store owner that pulled a gun on them, and Angela's aunt for 'assaulting an officer'. The unfairness and the power abuse is clearly shown well, and it's a nice contrast to the word-on-the-street interviews with random civilians who talk about how good the Fisk regime is to New York. This leads to Angela going off to Kirsten and finding her uncle's superhero amulet, which presumably will lead to White Tiger II in the upcoming episodes. That's neat, I guess, if I didn't feel that the show has too many characters, many of whom are struggling for airtime. 

Blake gets into a confrontation with Kingpin, and manages to weasel his way out of suffering the same fate as the overeager boxing coach in the episode's earlier scenes. His fooling around with BB has caused a data leak and Kingpin is really not liking it. The confrontation between BB and Blake is very muted and I must confess I don't find either character particularly engaging. The reveal that BB is also producing the 'fake Kingpin parody' propaganda isn't a huge surprise, either. 

Both Blake and Sheila (who's kind of protecting Blake? Sort of?) get implicit warnings from Fisk, who shows off the reports of Gallo's unfortunate death. I do find Sheila to be a fair bit more engaging and I like that she's kind of protecting the overeager puppy that is Blake... but again, all of this is coming at the expense of potentially more interesting storylines. 

The titular 'shoot the moon' comes from Taskforce goon Powell, who gets a couple of scenes establishing how much he hates vigilantes (and hates them even more after Bullseye kills two of his men that were clearly trying to arrest/murder/brutalize Cherry). We also get Cole from Born Again season one, who inexplicably survived Matt's apartment blowing up to kingdom come with some scars. Not sure if he's going to be particularly relevant. 

Meanwhile, up until the end of the episode, Matt and Karen kind of just do some vague investigating that doesn't really add up to much. Karen's frustrated that they can't do more (hence her capturing a Taskforce member at the end of the episode) and... Kingpin prepares for a gala and they're paranoid because of Bullseye, but nothing really happens in this episode. 

(It also doesn't help that most of the other side-characters spotlighted last episode -- Duquesne, Heather, Mr. Charles, the missing sailor Christofi -- essentially disappear in this one)

Again, I get the need of a setup episode, but considering how Daredevil: Born Again's greatest strength has been in Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk (and sometimes Karen) even as it builds a world around the two main characters. Honestly, it is quite baffling that we haven't really given either of the leads any particular huge moments or character spotlights two episodes into the second season. I wouldn't have minded if Karen, Bullseye or Vanessa had been given the spotlight to build them up a bit, but the focus has been so scattershot and it's even harder when I sit down and have to review the episodes and I have to sit down and really think about what has happened in the episode that's notable. Still enjoying myself, but I'm waiting for something actually interesting to happen. 

Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:

• Bullseye looks for Sister Maggie, who was last seen in Daredevil's third season before the channel hop from Netflix to Disney+. Maggie's on a sabbatical to Rome, apparently. 
• Kingpin in His Gym is a trope named after Kingpin's comic-book incarnation, and this is certainly a demonstration of the trope as Kingpin trains in boxing and ends up maiming his coach.