There’s no denying that Daredevil is emphatically back. The suit, the violence, the cast (or at least the ones that survived the first episode) and the tone of the original Netflix series has managed to survive the transition over to the MCU pretty well so far and it only seems like the only thing I’m struggling to get used to is the dact that I now have to wait a whole week to catch another episode as Disney+ refuse to do a total season drop.
Anyway, first world problems aside, Daredevil: Born Again forges on into its third episode while still focusing on the more law centered side of its main character rather than the parts of Matt Murdock that pulls on a horned suit and breaks the ribs of wrongdoers. While this measures up nicely with the more sober tone of the Netflix era, can this show about vigilantes still manage to do its thing while it’s lead still refuses to don the reds? Don’t worry, Marvel has something of a heart breaking plan…
As the trial of Hector Ayala rumbles on, things aren’t looking particularly rosy for the mask vigilante known as White Tiger. After being brought in on a cop killing charge, the odds seemed stacked against him from the start despite the fact that the death was purely an accident and the man who fell in front of a subway train was a corrupt cop beating on an informant with his partner.
Similarly in a tight spot, emotionally speaking, us his lawyer, Matt Murdock, who recently found that his days of pounding thugs as his alter ego Daredevil, isn’t quite so in the past as he once thought after he was forced to beat the shit out of the dead cop’s crooked partner to save the only witness. However, as the trial proceeds, it seems that their best chance to free Hector is something of a no-go as the nervous informant commits perjury when his nerve goes.
Meanwhile, Vanessa is discovering that the criminal empire she took over from her husband, Wilson Fisk, is starting to crumble since the freshly crowned mayor of New York asked her to step back from presiding over it in his stead. However, while the former Kingpin is far more interested in pushing his anti-vigilante agenda, the strain on his marriage only increases.
Given no choice but to make a hail mary play to save his client from prison, Murdock decides that the only way to make the jury see how much of a decent man his client is is to out his White Tiger persona to the world. However, while this finally gives Murdock’s case the hook it needs to sway the court, it sets of a train of events that not only has tragic repercussions, but it suggests that a certain skull-wearing figure from Daredevil’s past is making a resurgence.
There was a rumour that the earlier pass of Daredevil: Born Again was more lawyer orientated that what we’re currently getting after the behind the scenes overhaul brought things more in line with the Netflix show, but if The Hollow Of His Hand is any indication, it might not have been quite the disaster we narrowly avoided. For an episode of a show based around a costumed vigilante that’s set firmly in the fantastical world of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the episode features no fight sequences, no ramped up action, precious little wise cracks and barely a snifter of a super suit – and yet the episode manages to hit with the force of a world heavyweight boxer without having to rely on any of the above. While you may be a little annoyed that that the cliffhanger from the previous episode doesn’t have greater ramifications (I was convinced that Matt has seriously wounded – if not inadvertently killed – the other officer involved in the Ayala incident) and Murdock’s bout of violent rage seems only to be a passing phase, it doesn’t mean that we’re not about to be treated to an engrossing hour of drama.
What helps the emotion of the plot immensely is the tragic fact that actor Kama de los Reyes passed away not long after his scenes were filmed and his death inadvertently makes the story of Hector Ayala incredibly poignant and unavoidably painful – especially considering how his story ends. Reyes radiates an air of dignity as his vigilante finds himself trapped as a pawn between the corrupt police trying to put him behind bars and Murdock’s quest to exonerate him, even if doing so violates his private life. This is laid out in a scene after Murdock throws out Ayala’s superhero identity in court and the two have something of a revealing conversation later.
It seems that Murdock is projecting a little and it’s suggested that he even thinks that he’s doing Hector some good by forcing him to ditch his life as White Tiger in the same way he gave up being Daredevil. However, despite Matt’s insistence that Hector living a normal life is in the best intrests for everybody, his client hits back with the simple truth that he didn’t choose to be White Tiger, White Tiger chose him. Of course, Hector is referring to his mystical necklace that apparently gives him his powers, but the inference that all superheroes have a calling larger than themselves is plain to see. Murdock can deny his life as Daredevil all he wants, but there’s a chance that the man without fear is simply bigger than him and his wants and needs.
It’s all weighty stuff and it’s done without the aid of fancy costumes or billyclubs and Reyes in particular manages to convey the sad reality of a man being condemned by evil simply wanting to do the right thing.
As if this wasn’t apparent enough, the absolutely shocking ending drives it home in an act that may be the single darkest and tragic thing the MCU has ever done. Found innocent by the jury after witnesses are called who the White Tiger had saved in the past, Hector still insists on following his superhero calling, only to be assassinated by a shadowy figure wearing a worryingly familiar outfit with a skull emblazoned on the front. While I don’t believe this to be the work of Jon Bernthal’s soon-to-be returning Punisher, the various skull tattoos certain members of the police have been sporting suggest that there’s a cult of Frank Castle emulating officers who have been adopting some rather violent extra curricular activities. This, combined with the fact that Hector’s verdict of innocence causes Fisk to up his plans to outlaw vigilantes, means that New York is practically screaming for Matt Murdock to put on the horns once more even though the lawyer’s thoughts on unlicensed crime fighting aren’t currently that different from Fisk’s.
Yes, it’s yet another version of getting a broken Matt into a full costume that the Netflix era had done at least three times before, but the route Born Again is taking not only feels fiercely new, the fact that it’s being mirrored in the people around him makes the stakes all the more higher. Hector instantly goes from an inspiration to a cautionary tale with the single pull of a trigger and Matt shares a heartbreaking memory of Foggy when he opens a bottle of celebratory booze after winning a case which was an old tradition of theirs. But with Fisk tightening his grip, the Punisher waiting in the wings and an entire subplot featuring the serial killer known as Muse yet to begin, I feel the longer it takes to get Daredevil back on the streets, the more unbearably tense the show will get.
Without any cheap sight jokes intended, I certainly never saw that coming.
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