Welcome, everybody! Every week, I’ll release a review corresponding to the available episode(s) of the nine-episode season of “Daredevil: Born Again” (2025). A week after the last episode airs, there will be an overall review of the season with spoilers at the end. There may be spoilers for anything that happened in prior episode(s) or the Netflix seasons. I’ve never done an episodic review before so thank you for coming along for my experiment!
“Daredevil: Born Again” is back with Episode 8, which is forty-nine minutes and the metaphorical eleventh-hour episode that is rushing to pack everything in before the final episode of the first season. Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) has his groove back, and Matt (Charlie Cox) is unraveling. There are so many last-minute revelations that should have been threaded through the season instead of limited to the first episode that it feels like a big cheat instead of cathartic. While most people will like it because a lot happens, and it is very melodramatic, it was the weakest episode after the first episode, which is more forgivable because first episodes are usually shaky with everyone trying to find their footing.
Matt just realized that being a defense attorney and paying the bills sometimes means having horrible people for clients. There are more details about the Madison case, but it is not important, and it was such a dreckitude episode that dunking on this part feels excessive. Basically, it involved teachers, and there is a discovery issue. Like Matt, the writers Jesse Wigutow and Dario Scardapone are phoning in the legal side. Kristen McDuffie (Nikki M. James), Matt’s law partner, reads him the riot act then sympathizes and seriously can someone put this lackluster storyline out of its misery. Partners can be fired. Just fire Murdock and leave the series! This storyline is never getting better.
Foggy’s murder suddenly merits investigating, which seems convenient as the season finale approaches. It means the return of his murderer, Bullseye, aka Benjamin Poindexter (Wilson Bethel), who is the same sociopath that dominated the third season of Netflix “Daredevil.” As a villain, he is kind of one note, but he always gave good action, so I have mixed feelings about it. It reintroduces Matt as a wannabe murderer, but also the possibility that the enemy of my enemy is my friend, which strains credulity, but here we are. Feels like a storyline that deserved more development. At least it resulted in a scene with Matt and Josie (Susan Varon), Hell’s Kitchen’s favorite bartender until Cherry (Clark Johnson) pulls up and ruins it. He is so redundant.
One of my pet peeves with the last season of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” was that Sunnyvale was at the Hell Mouth, the locals figured it out, and there was a mass exodus. The dialogue referenced it, but the precipitating events were never shown. It would cost more-got it! The aforementioned writers and codirectors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead prioritized an *checks notes* inaugural black and white ball. Are you fucking kidding me? If The Punisher PD suddenly became effective via a top three shitty storyline from M. Night Shylaman’s “Glass” (2019), i.e. the power of media and believing in someone, and were running rough shod over the city, guess which thread I want to pull. Hint: it is not watching the Mayor and his wife dancing. I found that shit painful when Pierce Brosnan did it with Rene Russo in “The Thomas Crown Affair” (1999). Just when I begin to recover, you give me this parcel of third-hand embarrassment! No, I get one scene in a kitchen of excessive force. Are you fucking kidding me? Get your shit together! Amateur hour.
Also in a related note, BB (Genneya Walton) suddenly belongs on the series with some revelations about what she knows, what she does not know, who she is trying to work with, and what she is willing to do. Again, the Ulrich family line deserved better than this hastily sketched unfolding, but it is solid and feels overdue. Better late than never. Do not fuck it up. Unfortunately, it seems to be paired with the life of Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini), who feels like an audition for the next generation sequel to “The Apprentice” (2024) with his true colors showing and stars in his eyes over his newfound success. Again, the character does not feel like a complete person. I do not see a world where Daniel and BB are friends except that maybe he has the hots for her, but it is only implied and is undercooked. Just make them childhood friends—just a single throwaway line. On another related note, Sheila (Zabryna Guevara) needs a new job because the humiliation of having to watch Daniel’s ascent is the second most third-hand embarrassing thing in the episode.
No shade to Cox, and I’ll blame the direction, but Matt seemed all over the place and not only in the way that was intended. It feels like part of it is supposed to be a Hamlet style plan so he seems more off than he is so that he can get up to shenanigans. If he is more in control of his faculties than he is presenting, then Matt is officially a piece of shit for the way that he is treating his freshly traumatized girlfriend, Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), who is having the worst day ever. As I predicted, their relationship is going downhill, and Matt is making it all about him. Just dump him, girl. It ain’t worth it. There is not enough fine in the world to exchange for your truth. Also, therapists, chime in. If your patients invited you to an exclusive party, would you go? I would not, and a sign that Heather is not doing well: she accepts the invitation! It feels like a setup to make her land on Fisk’s side against Matt. It is laying it on a bit thick instead of taking time to cook. It could work, but it is feeling a little eight season of “Game of Thrones” for my taste.
Episode 8 also revisits the affluent people who turned their noses up at Fisk when he tried to elicit their support for his Red Hook Project in Episode Six. Again, it is another storyline that feels rushed and misses opportunities. Severe blonde hair cut rich bitch, Artemis Sledge (Katherine Lanasa), and the continental Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton) are in Fisk’s crosshairs. Lanasa, Duquesne and D’Onofrio do their best with the five seconds that they are given to communicate this storyline, and it may feel like sufficient time for viewers of “Hawkeye” and “Echo” who know the twist, but if you did not watch those Disney+ Marvel Cinematic Universe television series, then you will be like me and wonder why we did not get to see it unfold slower.
Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) gets a lot to do, but it does not feel as if her action in the previous episode, giving information to Luca (Patrick Murney) so he could kill her husband, is addressed and maybe it is being held back for the last episode. For inexplicable reasons, I am sad that Vanessa is no longer wearing green, but red, and Fisk wore a white tuxedo. I kept having “Alice in Wonderland” flashbacks or horrific thoughts that they could be swingers with plans to invite Heather. Please, do not do this! Vanessa and Fisk were the best part of the episode and felt earned. Second place goes to Buck Cashman (Arty Frousshan) who seemed to have fun sticking his nose literally and figuratively in everyone’s business. We love a messy bitch, and he was the most fun part of a truly flat-footed episode.
Episode 8 felt like a fever dream as if all the writers and directors got sick then had to rush to complete the assignment even though they had plenty time to do it. It was so exaggerated, overblown and rhythmless that it offended all my sensibilities. The only insult that I did not take out of my quiver was comparing it to “Lost,” but there is one episode left. They could have tossed Episode 5 and spread out some of these storylines. What the fuck were they thinking?!? I’m looking forward to Episode 9 not ruining an otherwise strong reboot with all this last-minute hustling. I would pay money for cut scenes of Heather calling her friends and talking to her therapist about Matt. If the last episode is just Josie hanging out alone in her bar, it would be an improvement over this mess. Seriously it lacked elegance, style and excitement. Did the Muse work on this episode behind the scenes? Boooooo! Don’t rush things like this again in the second season.
