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 9, which is fifty-seven minutes and the last episode of the season. Going into this episode, I was incredibly concerned about the sloppy work of the prior episode, and while this episode steadies the ship, it is not enough to make it not feel like a three-legged stool with one of the legs too short. Fortunately, the fighting, acting, chemistry and overall vibes are sufficient to make it work so kudos to codirectors Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson for finally sticking the landing visually though depending on the screen and your surroundings, scenes could still be a little difficult to watch during the nighttime scenes.
It is important to remember that something can be satisfying, but not be quality, which is what this episode is. There is an exchange when one-character talks to Matt and basically asks, “Why the hell did you do that?” He answers “Dunno.” These last two episodes wanted to get somewhere, knew the basic information that it wanted to convey, but the writers had no idea how to get there without landing it like a rock on a wet tissue. It would be easy to blame the shorter season run, but with Episode 5 acting as filler, it is not an excuse. They chose between relationships and mythology though both can coexist and must pair with each other for a story to soar. For instance, suddenly expecting me to care about Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) is a big reach with little to no groundwork. Just because another psycho exploited a sociopath’s mental health is not going to make him land as a character to empathize with.
Episode 9 works because it gets all the characters to where they need to be and is mostly a set up for the second season. There is also a clear political agenda that I resonate with but ultimately should not come at the expense of sacrificing a cohesive, well-crafted narrative. Mayor Kingpin is clearly a stand in for Presidon’t and cowriters Heather Bellson and Dario Scardapone want to depict the vision that we see unfolding around us in real-time: the hijacking of public institutions to serve criminal and exploitive members of society who are clothed in the veneer of the institutional authority that they are undermining from within while wielding that authority as an offensive weapon against the people it is supposed to protect. The “rule of law” transforms into a dystopian society in which extrajudicial executions become common place. Cue a vigilante like Daredevil (Charlie Cox) who believes in the rule of law, Christian principles of thou shall not kill and helping the underdog as an unlikely leader in the resistance. The reaction to the Fisk administration becomes a Rorschach test for how people see the world and respond to it: a place that needs to be controlled and submissive to gain or keep power, a place of inherent dignity to all people, including those who do not deserve, which includes Fisk, a place worth fighting for.
Now this comic book hero television series does not have the logistical wherewithal or attention span necessary to give a practical image of resistance, but they are good at fighting and depicting images of oppression and fear, which is what makes this episode strong. It rivals and beats The Raft from “Captain America: Civil War” (2016) in depicting a world where vigilantes are outlawed, and civilians are just as affected. It is a cliff hanger episode that is supposed to make you return for Season 2 to find out how this mess is going to clean up. It is the equivalent of “Avengers: Infinity War” (2018) and “Avengers: Endgame” (2019) on a smaller, quotidian scale, which makes it feel germane and will resonate with audiences. It also does a disservice by hijacking important issues critical to our survival then not treating it with the thoughtfulness, care and texture that it deserves.
A lot of old faces reappear, and for the entire season, Matt needed someone who knew all of him, so it is refreshing. When I am happy to see Karen (Deborah Ann Wohl), you know that prior episode was a mess. Again, if the newer characters were given more to do than prose dump or act as if they do not exist when Matt is not around, then maybe it would not be a problem. It is teased as if Kirsten Mcduffie (Nikki M. James) will hold the key to resolving Foggy’s case, but I’ll believe it when I see it. There are answers about why Red Hook is so important. Cherry (Clark Johnson) is just silently supportive, so I guess that he has given up on telling Matt to stop being Daredevil. Because Heather (Margarita Levieva) thinks Matt is gonzo, Heather thinks Fisk is reasonable, but no groundwork is laid regarding how she feels about all Fisk’s other highly visible measures, which makes her seem dumb and short shrifts a character that deserves better.
On the Fisk side, the smart women are not getting more plausible reasons for their blind spots. Suddenly Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) is a bumbling idiot who needs Fisk to right her wrongs, and the revisionist history is such a violent change of course that I’m suffering from whiplash. Also does Fisk know about her little plot to kill him? If he does, bygones. Buck (Arty Froushan) finally gets to indulge in his preferred activities. Sheila reaches a turning point between being a reservoir of sanity in a criminal enterprise or capitulating to the darkness. Daniel (Michael Gandolfini) is Daniel. The Punisher PD finally gets a storyline, but it is like a bunch of storm troopers where one occasionally gets a line, so the writers do not quite know what to do with them in a three-dimensional way. Just like people, organizations have personalities so while they do not have to be likeable or relatable, it should be distinguishable and memorable. They are either fearsome and effective or laughingly incompetent and outmatched when facing a vigilante. They are only interesting because it means more Frank Castle/The Punisher (Jon Bernthal), and no one has ever said no to more Frank Castle/The Punisher. Best one liners, and they would not work if Bernthal was not in the role. Let’s pretend that in real life, he never said one problematic thing.
It is fair to feel ripped off or excited after seeing the season finale. The spectacle is fun and seeing your fears writ large on your television screen can feel cathartic after suppressing all the quiet catastrophizing to function in society. Watching a television series is clear cut, but it is not action. If the show creators do want to engage seriously with this discourse and not just play pretend, hopefully they will use this time to create a world of vigilantes and practical, accessible resistance so viewers do not leave the series feeling disempowered.
Remember there will be an overall review of the season so stay tuned!
