After seven long years, Daredevil is back, in the Disney+ revival series Daredevil: Born Again. Many of the main players from the original series have returned, although for some, it’s not for very long. Here’s everything that went down in the first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again.
Revelations From Daredevil: Born Again Season 1, Episode 1, “Heaven’s Half Hour”
R.I.P Foggy Nelson, and Farewell Nelson, Murdock, & Page
The episode opens some years after we left our heroes at the end of the original Daredevil show. We have no clear idea how much time has transpired since then. We also don’t know if any of them got Thanos-snapped for instance. But enough time has passed for Foggy Nelson to get quite a glow-up. We see our trio from the original series out for a few post-workday drinks at Josie’s Bar in Hell’s Kitchen. Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), Foggy Nelson (Eldon Henson), and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Wohl) are at a retirement party for their cop friend Cherry (Clark Johnson). After Foggy awkwardly flirts with Assistant D.A. Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James), he gets a frantic phone call from a client. He goes outside to talk to him, and Matt senses something is up. Foggy isn’t outside for more than a few moments before a sniper’s bullet hits him in the chest.
That bullet turns out to be from Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter, a.k.a. the assassin Bullseye (Wilson Bethel). He kills two more people and takes aim at Karen, before Daredevil steps in and the two have an epic brawl in the bar. As Daredevil and Bullseye fight inside of Josie’s Bar, and then on the roof, Foggy lies dying on the pavement outside. Matt can hear his heart slow down, and when he knows that his best friend has died, he breaks his “no killing” rule. He promptly throws Bullseye off the building. Bullseye survives the fall. We assume it’s due to his enhancements received at the end of the original show. But there may be more to it. In just the first fifteen minutes of the series, Matt Murdock’s life comes crashing down on him. And it’s brutal.
“One Year Later” – Matt’s New Life, and Is NYC Better Without Daredevil?
After the credits roll, we then pick up one year later, in Matt’s new swanky apartment. He still looks very sad, and they’re letting us know Foggy’s death still weighs heavily on him. We then watch some street interviews with locals on an online show called The BB Report. The titular BB is BB Urich, niece of reporter Ben Urich from season one, played by Genneya Walton. Seems she’s following in her uncle’s footsteps. From these candid interviews, we learn Daredevil retired and things are not any better. Career-wise, Matt is doing great though, as he and Kirsten are now partners. Soon after, Matt gives a very emotional testimony during Bullseye’s trial, and Karen Page also appears for the sentencing. The judge sentences Poindexter to life in prison on 11 counts of first-degree murder.
The Kingpin Goes Legit. Maybe?
We are soon reintroduced to Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), eating a fancy meal as if his time served in prison never happened. As his estranged wife Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer) has a secret meeting with the heads of the Five Crime Families, he walks into the room. Just like that, everything comes to a stop. Vanessa has been keeping his criminal enterprises thriving while he’s been gone. But Fisk soon informs her he now wants to go “legit.” We’ll soon find out exactly what he means by that.
Awkward Reunions, and What Happened to Matt and Karen in the Missing Year?
Karen and Matt have an awkward conversation in the courthouse after, where Karen reveals she’s living in San Francisco. It seems the trauma around the events a year ago means she’s not ready to renew a close friendship with Matt. It’s all still too fresh and painful. Matt simply reminds her of Foggy and their practice together. Before she goes, she gives Matt a broken-off horn from his Daredevil costume, realizing he might just need the push. Does she want him to become Daredevil again, or keep his vow to not go the vigilante route again? It’s unclear what Karen is hoping for here. That night, Matt learns that his old nemesis Wilson Fisk is running for Mayor of New York City. And he’s not very happy about it at all.
Matt Has Two Awkward Coffee Dates
After we see Fisk meeting with his campaign staff, including his Gen-Z representation Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini), we return to the offices of Murdock & McDuffie. Kristen sends Matt on a client meeting with a woman named Heather Glenn, an old friend of hers who is a therapist. What she didn’t tell Matt (or Heather) was that it was actually a blind date. Although Both Matt and Heather are mad at Kirsten for the ambush, the two do hit it off, and a romance begins. Soon after, Matt’s ex-cop buddy Cherry reveals he’s not discovered anything dirty on Fisk’s campaign. At least nothing he can use against him in his upcoming mayoral run. This doesn’t make Matt very happy, and then he says “Maybe New York is getting the mayor it deserves.” Ouch.
Then we get to the pièce de résistance for episode one. Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk meet up in a diner and exchange some tense pleasantries. It’s clear the two have not seen each other face to face since the events of Daredevil, several years back. Matt makes a few verbal jabs, reminding Fisk that his protégé Echo shot him in the face. Although Fisk assures Matt that he had nothing to do with Foggy’s death, keeping his promise to leave them alone (Matt would know if he was lying). Both men remind the other that if they “step out of line” there will be consequences, with Fisk threatening Matt should he ever put on the Daredevil costume again. We’d say the first coffee date went better than this one.
New York Votes for a Convicted Criminal as Its Mayor
Later, while on a proper date with Heather, Matt learns that Fisk has won the race. The former Kingpin is now Mayor of New York City. After his victory, Fisk confronts his wife Vanessa over an affair she had with someone named Adam, after which she calmly pleads with him not to kill him. Fisk says “I’m not that man anymore.” But we kind of doubt that. Are we meant to know who this “Adam” is? Is he a character we’re meant to have any familiarity with? It’s unclear.
Revelations From Daredevil: Born Again Season 1, Episode 2, “Optics”
Mayor Fisk Lays Down the Law on Masked Vigilantes
Episode two of Born Again, “Optics,” begins right after Fisk’s recall election on New Year’s Eve, where he assures New York City that he won’t tolerate any costumed vigilantes running around, like the guys wearing skulls on their shirts or men dressed as spiders (Hey, we know them!). We then cut to a man heading to a (mostly) empty subway platform, who tries to break up two men beating down another man. He kicks their butts, but one of the men falls on the subway line and is creamed by a train. The guy they beat up runs away, and the good Samaritan is arrested, as the surviving assaulter is a cop.
Fisk starts his job as Mayor pontificating on how old his desk is, not very interested in the mundane minutia of his job. Later, Matt Murdock is down at the Police Precinct, when he overhears the cops threatening the subway Samaritan, whose name is Hector Ayala. Matt offers to represent him in court, knowing thanks to his handy-dandy hearing powers he’s not lying about what took place. Although he immediately knows Victor is holding something back. Back at his office, Matt and Kirsten realize that vindicating Ayala is going to be an uphill battle, as he killed a police officer, and the only witness he saved ran away.
BB Urich Meets Mayor Fisk, But Does She Know He Killed Her Uncle?
Daniel Blake introduces BB Urich to Mayor Fisk for an interview. Fisk realizes her coverage of his campaign actually helped his election efforts. It’s unclear whether or not BB realized that Fisk murdered her uncle in cold blood, but she doesn’t seem to like him much. Interestingly, she doesn’t really ask him a question despite getting permission to try and get a soundbite out of him. What exactly was the point of this meeting?
Heather Glenn is hosting a reading/signing for her newest book, when an awkward young man approaches her about getting some help. Next, Fisk’s right-hand man Buck Cashman approaches Heather with a different offer. At the funeral for the cop who died on the subway platform, Fisk confronts Police Commissioner Gallo. He’s trying not to get him to quit in protest, as he knows many cops will follow his lead. But Commissioner Gallo knows the true criminal Fisk is and wants no part of him. He tells him “You’re not a mayor who loves this city. You’re just a whiny kid who wants everyone to love him.” This insult is not one Fisk will soon forget.
Surprise! Our Subway Hero Is Actually Marvel Comics Hero White Tiger
At Hector Ayala’s apartment, Cherry discovers that Hector is actually operating as the vigilante White Tiger. This obviously throws a huge wrinkle at Murdock & McDuffie’s case. When the Police chief goes to Fisk’s office and tries to resign, Fisk essentially threatens him to stay on the job, or he’ll expose that he has a son with another woman (presumably not his wife). Pressured, the comish stays on the force, but tells Fisk “Be careful what you wish for.” Matt and Kirsten get the judge to not allow Ayala’s masked identity to be brought up in trial. They argue that since he wasn’t in costume or using his mystical amulet during the incident, it shouldn’t factor in.
The next scene shows us Wilson and Vanessa Fisk in couples therapy. It seems that older voters don’t like seeing estranged married couples as the Mayor and First Lady of New York. And, as it turns out, Heather Glenn is their therapist. Seems Fisk’s guy recruited her at her book signing. They skirt around the criminality of their marital issues, but it’s clear Vanessa was happier without Wilson around.
Matt Murdock Lets the Devil Out (But Did He Kill Again?)
Matt eventually discovers the young man that Hector Ayala saved, hiding out in his apartment. Turns out his name is Nicki Torres. Matt learns that he was a police informant who the cops were roughing up. Matt goes to his apartment to get him to testify in Hector’s case, but the cops are also on their way to kill him. Nicky escapes through the window, and when the cops try to kill Matt instead, he unleashes holy hell on them, letting the ol’ Devil of Hell’s Kitchen out to play. It doesn’t appear he killed them, but it’s actually unclear. As the episode ends, Matt Murdock screams into the night. But we’re not sure if it was a howl of pain, or a howl of victory. On some level, Matt enjoyed letting his rage out. As they said in the original series, “the Murdock boys have the Devil inside them.”
And that is our recap of the first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again season one. Join us next week as we continue our return to Hell’s Kitchen and the ongoing struggle between Matt Murdock and his “darker half.”
More revelations and questions in Daredevil: Born Again next week.