We’re only on our third episode of Daredevil: Born Again, but already it seems like the powers that be have stirred up a power keg of tension that requires – nay demands – some form of release. It’s been no secret that the events laid out within the darkest show in the MCU have been strategically ripped from real world headlines that are literally occuring as we speak and while it’s succeeded in making the machinations of Wilson Fisk deeply uncomfortable, it’s also provided some great television.
However, while Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk have been trading metaphorical blows as they one-up each other in their battle for the hearts and minds of New York, it seems that the Mayor formally known as Kingpin has been gaining the upper hand as of late. However, it seems that even in the moral murk of Daredevil’s world, rays of light can penetrate and while things seem dark in real life, Marvel can occasionally throw us a bone to give us an uplifting win.
It seems that despite his best efforts and a slick new colour scheme, Daredevil is gradually losing his grip on New York. With every move he makes, his nemesis Mayor Wilson Fisk seems to counter, pivot and come back harder than ever before in order to constantly edge out on top. Even going underground and striking out at Fisk’s private army has proven fruitless, as Murdock can only chip away at that mayoral facade while his opponent delivers body blows. Worse yet, the Anti-Vigilante agenda Fisk is pushing to mask the noise of his crimes is in full swing with the trial of Jack “Swordsman” Duquesne gearing up to be a televised farce. However, not all of the assaults on Fisk are being carried out directly by Matt Murdock and Karen Page.
Proving that someone in the American government still believes in some sort of oversight, governor Marge McCaffrey is putting pressure on Fisk after being leaked details about his dubious uses for the free port known as Red Hook. Elsewhere, after the attack on their safe house in Josie’s Bar, they discover that the member of the AVTF Karen captured is willing to aid them after becoming disillusioned with the actions of his comrades.
However, all eyes are on the trial of Jack Duquesne, and while it indeed is a kangaroo court of epic proportions, it does offer Murdock a way into Red Hook – his former partner in law and Duquesne’s defence attorney, Kirsten McDuffie. Questioning her for clues on the ins and outs of Red Hook, Daredevil enters the lair of his enemy to destroy the guns taken from the wreck of the Northern Star and deliver a definitive smoking gun to the authorities. However, upon entering, Daredevil discovers that Red Hook is also where they’ve been keeping the detained people arrested by the AVTF which delivers something of a conundrum – incriminate Fisk or free the innocent.
The fact that episodes two and three were both dropped on streaming on the same day kind of led me to guess that something was going to pop by the end of the latest episode – and if I’m being honest, the show was crying out for it. Yep, after only three episodes, not only has Born Again thrown off the unevenness of the first season, but has managed to accumulate a sense of clutching tension that should do the fans of the Netflix era proud. While a large part of the success of “The Sword & The Scales” comes from an ass-kicking, air punching climax that sees Daredevil stage an impromptu jail break after pivoting from an act of destruction, it wouldn’t be anywhere near as effective as it is without the substantial build up to that organic crescendo.
Simply put, the show, with its crafty use of those unsettling, unsubtle, real-world politics has been bearmting us down with its corrupt, yet enigmatic leader as he plays the public like a fascist stradivarius, letting his jackbooted thugs run riot over New York and carry out his every whim. With no oversight, no constraints and a smug sneer for every victory, Fisk’s influence lay over Born Again like a claustrophobic tarpaulin, driving the oxygen out of us as we hoped for some sort of release. For the most part, episode three mercilessly continues this trend, offering yet more travesties of justice occur in order to piss us off and prime us for what comes next. For example, for a show essentially about lawyers, there’s been previous little action occurring within a courtroom this season, but while Matt has put that life behind him for now, it’s the long suffering Kirsten McDuffie and her doomed defence of Jack Duquesne that takes most of the centre stage here. While his arrest and treatment makes you wonder what Kate Bishop is up to these days (I guess she’d be wise to lay low after serving Kingpin a defeat in Hawkeye), it again drives home what a depressing and frustrating world it is when the corrupt have absolute power to remove troublesome pieces from the board with the full backing of the law.
Elsewhere, the show justifies that rather huge supporting cast by doing some rather interesting things with them. For example, while Fisk’s various underlings usually only interact to plot and scheme, the collection of Vanessa Fisk, Heather Glenn, Daniel Blake and Buck are given space to fraternise and even have actual conversations with each other. Buck and Michael strike up some mutual respect over eating street meat, Vanessa and Heather bond further over their masked-man PTSD and Vanessa even seems to be setting Buck and Heather up to date (which never turns out well for Heather, to be honest). But while it may seem weird to flesh out the supporting players to such a degree, it really does help the show to obtain that nuanced detail that a crime show in this day and age demands.
However, while shows like The Wire and The Shield are flawless in their own right, they don’t have the fallback of having a black-clad superhero with greatly enhanced senses round out an episode by waging war on the oppressors that’s had the upper hand for a while now. Continuing the show’s themes about how a hero should conduct themselves (cue more Karren/Matt debates about the validity of killing), Matt has to make a snap decision between dealing the Mayor a crippling blow by detonating that CIA ammo cashe anf exposing his practices, or releasing all the wrongly imprisoned people caged on site. The payoff is glorious and while we’ve seen Daredevil whale on the AVTF numerous times before, watching him do it and actually make a difference proves to be the concentrated blast of hope we’ve been waiting for. Yes, Fisk pulls another move that’ll no-doubt hinder the good guys even further (the murder of the crew of the Northern Star), in these troubling times, we need more scenes of pummeled fascists in our lives.
As the background players of Daredevil and Kingpin’s territorial tiff gets ever more entwined with one another and other players continue to enter the field (we also have a new White Tiger on the verge of being born), Born Again briefly gives us the “fuck yeah” moment we’ve been salivating for as hornhead serves up flying billy clubs for everyone. Watching the innocent freed, villains trounced and the Swordsman finally have his moment; the triumph may soon be quashed by more plot machinations, but the feeling of catharsis is very real.
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