Daredevil: Born Again Recap: Bad Apples
Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming. After an entertaining standalone episode, “Episode 6” jumps back into the serialized story we’ve been following, setting up what should be an exciting final third of the season.
For one, there’s a new serial killer out there: Muse, a graffiti artist who paints with his victims’ blood and has killed at least 60 people for his art. Cherry tells Matt to let this one go and let the cops do their jobs, but Matt has had enough of that, and so have we. Before he can plot a course of action, though, he gets some news that forces him to move quickly: Hector Ayala’s niece Angela (the fourth incarnation of White Tiger in the comics) hasn’t come home this evening. Luckily, Matt has a good idea where she is; just today, she visited him at work and mentioned that her uncle was investigating the recent kidnappings near the old Q line before he died. He would’ve wanted someone else finishing his work, Angela pointed out, and the police can’t be trusted.
Watching Matt say “fuck it” and elect to finally don the red suit instead of calling 911 is a triumphant moment, and I say that as someone who tends to prefer his black mask from seasons one and three of the original show. But it’s just good to see Daredevil be Daredevil and to see Daredevil be Daredevil, returning to some of the nastiness and grit of the pre-Disney+ days. The sight of Muse pumping blood from the leg of a child on a table underground is pretty disturbing — and though Daredevil shows up in time for a good, tense fight, he’s forced to let Muse go and prioritize reviving Angela in the end.
Muse’s presence also plays into Fisk’s plans. At first, the un-washable Fisk murals are a nuisance to the new mayor, but there are ways to take advantage of the situation. Sanitation discovered a serial killer before the NYPD, which doesn’t reflect very well on the NYPD. Daniel also shows Fisk some photos of victims near the graffiti, another mockery of the police that could be valuable.
Fisk uses all of this as pretext for a slightly terrifying idea: an anti-vigilante taskforce of “bad apples” who will have no body cameras or oversight. One of these is good old Powell, the smarmy cop whom Matt once left bloody and unconscious on the floor. Another is a guy who caught someone handing Oxy to an 11-year-old and “encouraged” him to come clean. Of course, the irony here is that these cops are acting outside of the law, too. They’re just kind of evil and homicidal while doing it. But I do appreciate Born Again’s continual critique of law enforcement and police brutality, subjects that didn’t get much space in the first run.
Outside Fisk’s war on vigilantes, he’s mostly still occupied by his wife and the port project. Following the failure of a bank robbery in the last episode, Luca shows up at Fisk’s office to protest the $1.8 million he supposedly owes Viktor. But Luca’s whole vibe doesn’t exactly invite empathy, and Fisk takes no pity on the guy. Instead, he ups Luca’s debt to 2.8, requesting a million for himself. For now, though, Luca doesn’t seem scared of Fisk; he tells him to stay out of the game and “give your wife my regards.”
Rather than immediately having Luca killed, Fisk just vents about this disrespectful meeting when he sees Vanessa. He’s still not ready to get dirty yet. That night, he schmoozes with some New York elites at an event, recognizing the similarities between politics and crime. Attaining money and power is all about controlling people, offering or withholding what they want in order to gain leverage. To Vanessa, who prefers running a crime empire and still feels skeptical of Fisk’s port plans, politics is all ego. That might be true, but these people do run the city, whether they deserve to or not. Hawkeye’s Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton), who criticizes Fisk’s vigilante obsession and status quo shake-ups, reminds him that the wealthy socialites shouldn’t be underestimated. And one woman calls out the port expansion for what it is: a con that only enriches Fisk and the people he’s paying off.
Fisk ultimately returns to Adam’s cell for the fight he’s been craving, tossing an ax to the guy and letting him try his best. But I think Adam would need a machine gun to even up the odds in this fight, and even then, I’m not sure he’d make it out alive. Fisk easily takes control, beating him relentlessly and throwing him around like a ragdoll.
Director David Boyd cross-cuts between this brawl and the Daredevil-Muse fight, and the message is clear: Both Matt and Fisk are officially back to being the men they pretended to leave behind. Great news for us, but the jury’s still out on what that means for them.
Devil in the Details
• Nice to see Matt talking about praying, but I do wish this show had more of a faith focus. His Catholicism was such a big part of the old show, and it feels like there’s something missing here.
• In Heather’s one scene of the episode, she tells Matt about the vigilante focus of her next book, and even has the gall to ask him to introduce her to some of his old clients like the Punisher or Daredevil. Yikes!
• Will we see more of Duquesne’s Swordsman alter ego teased in Hawkeye on this show?
• I kinda miss Karen.