Full spoilers follow for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 7, “The Hateful Darkness,” which is streaming on Disney+ now.
Aww, there’s Matt Murdock, Attorney at Law! I missed that guy! It sure was nice to have Matt walk back into that courtroom again, although I do wish we could have seen the scene where he revealed to his friend and law partner Kirsten that he’d just sort of been hanging out all this time (and how he accounted for where he was), while she had no idea if he was even alive.
The final moments of the episode were very strong, intercutting Matt in church praying for help after being shot in the leg (and then receiving it in the form of Jessica Jones) with the final moments for Daniel Blake, as Buck executed him…
…although it did make me wonder why Jessica’s initial return wasn’t a bit earlier in the season, so we could have had her telling Matt she was going back home happen earlier as well, since it was way less impactful to have her waltz in when we’d literally just seen her in the same episode.
The build-up to Daniel’s death was well done, as he and BB got more honest with each other about who Fisk is and what he does, including killing Ben, and how much Daniel has tried to pretend it wasn’t happening or that he was okay with it. The fact that he was actually going to bring her to Buck, only to change his mind at the last moment when she desperately asks him to, feels believable for a guy who had little backbone but ultimately also wasn’t the kind of person Buck is, who can just coldly go along with all of this.
We got some more tidbits on Luke Cage here (and his name said, confirming what we already assumed) that made the situation with Mr. Charles more complex. Charles saying he’s the only one who can connect her with Luke and that he’s working for the CIA “so you don’t have to” does at least imply there was some sort of scenario where they were told one of them had to work for Charles. But it would still be nice to get the specifics on that and why Luke decided to go along with it rather than them, say, fleeing elsewhere.
Seeing the walls closing in on Fisk has been interesting, even as some of the specifics feel wonky. Does he really think he can just get away with having the governor of New York murdered? What kind of sway does he actually have outside of the city, given we already saw he went too far with Mr. Charles and there have been consequences? Matt fears that if Marge is killed, Fisk will get “one of his puppets” to replace her, but who would that be and why would they do it? And even if they actually answered to Fisk, it feels weird that he’d want that person in a role that outranks him, versus just working to make himself governor (though yes, at this point, that doesn’t feel like an easy sell!).
I feel like maybe just going a more direct route with Fisk still having all those powerful weapons for the AVTF to use for a more physical showdown might be a more effective way to depict him desperately pushing back, even as he likely has no real way out regardless. Yet still, it was a nice payoff to have the “good deed” Matt sent Dex to fulfill turn out to be saving Marge, even leaving the would-be assassin alive so he can spill the beans about who sent him.
It felt out of character for Karen to open that conversation with Heather by essentially mocking her that she was with Matt now. Even if she is pissed at Heather for her recent actions, it seems like she’d have more sympathy towards Heather for what she went through… Of course, she got there eventually, only for Heather to snap and beat the hell out of her.
Hell’s Kitchen Bullet Points:
- Nice callback to the very beginning of the Netflix Daredevil series with Karen once more locked up in jail, wearing an NYPD t-shirt.
- Brett Mahoney! Though never a central character, Brett was a likable recurring presence not just on Daredevil but across the Netflix Marvel series (he also popped up on an episode of Jessica Jones and was in several episodes of The Punisher) and it’s good to see him back.
- Daniel got to heroically stand up to Buck, yet then also believably cower, as he cried out “No!” over and over as he was beaten. I’m pretty sure that’s how it would go for most of us, alas.
- Matt’s line to Dex as he sends him out the door is a great one I’ll have to remember: “Go. Disappear. Die. I don’t care.”
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