Of all the plot threads coiling around and through Daredevil: Born Again, the one I’ve followed with the most interest is the tempestuous morality of Daniel Blake, Michael Gandolfini’s Deputy Mayor Of Communications for Mayor Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Watching Blake being devoured by his conscience as Kingpin consolidated power over New York City has been fascinating. Not just because it’s good character work—it is, and it’s more gripping than what we’ve seen from Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) this season—but because Gandolfini renders Blake’s inevitable fall with a sense of dignity and tragedy that complements Born Again as a Marvel series that continues to punch above its dramatic weight..Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer) is gone, and her murderous husband is spinning out. Now is the worst time for a Kingpin sycophant to learn decency. Or is it better late than never?
Given where Blake ends up at the end of “The Hateful Darkness,” I believe it is the latter. He’s been slowly pivoting from Fisk at least since his budding friendship with reporter BB Urich (Genneya Walton) gave him something else to worry about besides making Hizzoner look good. What was it about BB that appealed to him? Puppy love? Respect and admiration? Both? This week, Blake gave BB his only Get Out Of Kingpin Jail Card, even though he knew it’d sign his death warrant. BB’s gutsy anti-Fisk videos all but guaranteed an abrupt halt to her career, either through an extended stay in Kingpin’s vigilante prison or an even longer dirt nap. Now, she can continue her good work thanks to Blake’s last gift as her friend. As he said to BB before sending her away, it was the right thing to do.
So, with righteousness in his heart and a curse on his lips, Blake reports to Buck (Arty Froushan) and faces the music. “Fuck you,” he says as Buck, with whom he had recently developed an oddly cute fraternal connection, puts on his murder gloves and sets about protecting Kingpin’s rule. Interspersed with the episode’s other goings-on, this violent beat carries a sense of earth-shifting power that Born Again has strangely been unable to generate for its leads (the late Mrs. Fisk notwithstanding). The never-ending aspect of superhero stories must be to blame. At any rate, Blake’s defiance is compressed into brutal bursts as “The Hateful Darkness” assembles the show’s ensemble for the finale. This frantic intercutting, which usually occurs when Born Again reaches for its next dramatic summit, avoids blunting the impact of Buck’s parting shot. Daniel Blake is sent to the hereafter, and Born Again is down yet another valuable player.
Vanessa and Daniel’s untimely departures leave a void that begs to be filled in Born Again’s third season. (Arty Froushan, consider this your cue to shine.) For now, we’re left with character business that hasn’t been nearly as engrossing, such as the return of Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), now ostensibly a moral foil for Matt Murdock when she isn’t wearing wigs. We’re well familiar with the strife within their Resistance by now. Daredevil is stuck in that tedious will-he/won’t-he cycle that plagues most “gray” heroes. Will he, an outlaw vigilante, forsake his morality and kill his enemies, who have repeatedly proven themselves worthy of his wrath? Enemies like Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), whom DD cut loose this week to balance the scales after killing Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson)? What about Kingpin? We know he won’t. Still, this feeble internal strife generates friction between him and Karen, who serves as the season’s ersatz Punisher with Jon Bernthal presumably busy filming his one-shot and a much-hyped Spider-Man appearance.
“The Hateful Darkness” is a big Karen episode. Beyond putting her in the midst of a media firestorm—after being pinched by Powell (Hamish Allan-Headley) in last week’s snoozer cliff-hanger—it gestures toward the moments that define her as she clashes with the season’s shadiest players. Notably, those moments come from the last Daredevil series, which casts a harsh light on what’s been missing from this character in Born Again: any sense that Karen Page exists beyond plot function or ginning up more enmity between Murdock and Fisk. Not helping matters is her hearing in Fisk’s kangaroo court, designed to funnel his enemies into secret prisons under the guise of justice. She’s bait meant to draw out Daredevil.
Her early jail scene with Kingpin tries to shift this thinking, with a glowering Fisk evoking the shooting death of James Wesley (Toby Leonard Moore). He’s posturing, and Karen calls him out. “I’ve never seen you scared before,” Karen notes. “I kind of like it.” Her bad-ass resolve, which the mayor doesn’t appreciate (he chokes her for a beat before offering her a phone call), carries over into the latter half of the episode. Dr. Glenn (Margarita Levieva) gives Karen the same bullshit quiz she gave Swordsman (Tony Dalton). Ms. Page changes the subject to Murdock (this season has been hell on the Bechdel test), purring that his “complications” are hot. Glenn brings up the death of Karen’s brother and asks whether she felt powerful after killing Wesley, and on and on their little game goes. Karen sneers, Glenn remains stoic even as Muse flickers in her periphery. That Karen ends the session with blood on her face suggests Dr. Glenn is well on her way to becoming Muse 2.0. (See also her conversation with Kingpin about self-control halfway through the episode.)
Even as some of Born Again’s spinning plates show no sign of stopping, “The Hateful Darkness” zeroes in on the season’s endgame. Fisk has turned Karen’s “trial” into a televised trap, which Daredevil, Page, and Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James) wisely use to their advantage. Fisk praised Matt as a hero earlier this season, and now he’ll defend Daredevil in the mayor’s own kangaroo court, using the justice system he clings to as leverage against an enemy who has long made a mockery of it. Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force—Powell, North (Jeremy Isaiah Earl)—are called to the stand, and McDuffie, emboldened by her backup, is warned against her theatrics by the judges, who say there is no jury to play to. “Are you sure about that?” she says, motioning to the cameras.
And, on cue, we pivot to Governor McCaffrey (Lili Taylor), who calls the attorney general to initiate suspension papers concerning the Red Hood Port. Fisk’s time is done, she says, but their window to act is now. Yet Fisk has planned for this. Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) got it out of Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard) that Kingpin’s next big move is to ice McCaffrey. That’s not all she tells Murdock before running off to her daughter: Fisk has gone rogue, and he won’t stop until someone stops him. Turns out it’ll take more than a splash-page finisher to the face and some gentle words to put an end to Kingpin’s reign.
Which, as ever, brings us back to Matt Murdock. I’m struck by McDuffie’s opening statement in defense of Karen Page and her vigilante resistance. She asks whether a vigilante is someone who defies the law in pursuit of their own definition of justice or a last resort for justice in a broken system that no longer upholds it. It’s a damn good question and one Murdock has to be asking himself. There’s little doubt he’ll uphold the law when the time comes—he’s a good Catholic, after all, as his prayer to Saint Jude, the patron saint of lost causes, makes clear. But what does upholding the law mean for a man who operates outside it? What happens on the day Fisk is brought to justice, should it ever come? First things first. There’s a bullet in our hero, blood on the steps of city hall, and a mayor who needs to be removed with extreme prejudice.
Stray observations
- • If I never hear the word “vigilante” again after this season, I will die a happy man.
- • I wonder what effect that gunshot is going to have on Hornhead next week as Born Again reaches its latest finale? Maybe more super support is in the offing?
- • Mr. Charles confirms that Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is currently working overseas, “doing the Lord’s work.” I find it hard to picture Cage, hero for hire or not, working for Uncle Sam. Maybe we’ll learn his motives next season.
- • Dr. Glenn: “I like to think I have more self-control than that.” Kingpin: “But you didn’t.” The not-so-good doctor has had some nice moments in this season’s latter half. I’m hoping against hope she doesn’t end up in that Muse mask before the end.
- • Agent Nadeem shout-out! He was killed by Bullseye back in season three of Daredevil.
- • And say! There’s Detective Brett Mahoney (Royce Johnson) from the Netflix days. It’s not the splashiest cameo, but another useful tether to the past.
- • It’s nice to see Cherry (Clark Johnson) this week. I still don’t like how the season sidelined him. But then, Born Again only gets one hour per week.
- • Josie’s jukebox: Ron Davies, “It Ain’t Easy.”
Jarrod Jones is a contributor to The A.V. Club.