Daredevil: Born Again Found Its Way – And Sets Up A Thrilling Season 2

This article contains spoilers for the season finale of Daredevil: Born Again.

Late into Daredevil: Born Again’s Season 1 finale, we’re treated to a needle-drop of Radiohead’s haunting, melancholy tune ‘Everything In Its Right Place’. It’s an extremely apt soundtrack to the closing events of our return to Hell’s Kitchen – a season of TV which, despite some issues with consistency, cohesion and character along the way, managed to tie everything together in its two hard-hitting final episodes. As the credits roll, everyone is in their right place: Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) are, after their tentative truce, sworn enemies once again; and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) is back by Matt’s side, ready to take back their city from the white-suited crime-boss-turned-mayor.

After Matt – to everyone’s surprise – took a bullet for Fisk, shot by vengeful prison escapee Benjamin ‘Bullseye’ Poindexter (Wilson Bethel) in last week’s ‘Isle Of Joy’, finale ‘Straight To Hell’ depicts the aftermath, set over one long, violent night. Fisk uses Bullseye’s assassination attempt to trigger his fascistic Safer Streets Initiative, which leaves New York without power, locked down, and ultimately under curfew. Matt dodges Fisk’s attempt to finish him off in hospital, teaming up with Frank Castle (aka. The Punisher, played by Jon Bernthal) to take on Fisk’s corrupt task force and then Karen to look into the findings that he’s found out got Foggy (Elden Henson) killed.

"Now the season is complete, it’s clear that any suspected detours in middle episodes were all part of leading us to this thrilling end point."

What they discover is the underpinning of the entire show – that Red Hook, the site of Vanessa’s (Ayelet Zurer) dodgy dealings and that Fisk plans to redevelop as Mayor, is actually a Freeport, and therefore outside of the jurisdiction of US law enforcement. That might sound like a slightly dull bit of legal formality, but it explains why Vanessa took out a hit on Foggy, why Kingpin has been so intent on investing in the place, and sets up a (currently shooting) Season 2 where Fisk is more powerful than he’s ever been, forcing Matt to (it seems) more publicly stand up against him as Daredevil.

It’s a satisfying ending to a strong but sometimes-muddled season. It started with a bang – Bullseye on the loose, Foggy murdered, Matt and Karen torn apart by grief – and then swiftly moved forward a year, following Matt at his new law firm. But whilst Cox and D’Onofrio’s adversarial chemistry as Matt and Fisk, even from afar, is always compelling, and the important threads about Fisk’s tirade against masked vigilantes did slowly emerge, not every element in those middle episodes works. Dr Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) has been wildly underdeveloped as a character so far, instead only providing emotional motivation for Matt and a voice for the themes of the show during the most clunky moments of dialogue. Serial killer Muse (Hunter Doohan), who uses the blood of his victims to paint political murals, was set up as the supervillain of the season, but his arc was wrapped up far too quickly for us to care about the impact of his antics. Often, Matt was moved between plot points through convenient phone-calls or out-of-the-blue conversations, rather than an authentic journey from one state of mind to another. Episode five, ‘With Interest’, in which Matt interrupts a bank robbery, was a fun ride through a day in his life – but, with it following a more procedural-type structure, did feel completely out of place.

It’s unsurprising that Born Again has had some bumpy moments. In 2023, midway through shooting, it was announced that the show was undergoing a creative overhaul. New showrunner Dario Scardapane (who previously worked on The Punisher series) and directors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (fresh from Loki Season 2) were brought on board, charged with reworking the footage shot so far into a new, shorter season that felt more of a piece with the Daredevil world established in the three seasons of the original Netflix show. They did so by writing and shooting entirely new pilot, finale and penultimate episodes, and weaving in new storylines in the eps in between.

"Born Again has eventually managed to craft a story that leaves us desperate to know what happens next."

Now the season is complete, it’s clear that any suspected detours in middle episodes were all part of leading us to this thrilling end point, and that we’re finally seeing the show Scardapane had always wanted to make. The last two eps – the finale especially – are the best of the season by far. They unleash both Fisk and Matt’s darker, rageful sides in a very real way (that Kingpin kill in the finale surpasses any moment of violence in the original series). They reunite Matt with Frank, and Frank with Karen, and Karen with Matt, and all the weight and history of those relationships are effortlessly conveyed. They exhibit more stylistic flair, thanks to Benson and Moorhead being at the helm – and whilst the action throughout the season has been impressive, the last ep takes the fight sequences to a whole new level.

Perhaps most importantly, the finale did what most other Marvel TV show closers fail to do – it raised the stakes, significantly. It ends with Fisk taking unprecedented control of New York, generating chaos and terror on the streets, and with Matt telling Karen that they need an “army” to take him on. Could that be a hint at more NYC neighbourhood heroes joining the show? Perhaps some of Matt’s fellow Defenders – Jessica Jones (Kristen Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and the immortal Iron Fist (Finn Jones)? Fisk’s former mentee, Echo (Alaqua Cox)? Or, dare we say it, a certain web-slinger from Queens? Whether that kind of crossover happens or not, Born Again has eventually managed to craft a story that leaves us desperate to know what happens next.