Erik Adams
Warning: This review contains full spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again episode 7!
Many dominoes have been set up throughout the first half of Daredevil: Born Again, and boy is it great to watch them start to fall. Matt Murdock’s personal and vigilante lives collide in violent fashion in episode 7, and the fun comes from watching him fight to keep them separate. (We all know that’s a fruitless endeavor, of course.) Wilson Fisk’s story mirrors Murdock’s, but the merging of his two lives as gangster and politician isn’t a burden to him but an opportunity. This all comes about thanks to the serial killer artist known as Muse, who’s sending big shockwaves through this little corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Murdock starts off this episode feeling revitalized and energized after suiting up as Daredevil again, but his romantic moment with Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) quickly turns sour when she calls him out on his erratic behavior. She can plainly see that Murdock is hiding something, and she may even be on to the fact that he’s Daredevil. It’s fascinating to watch her see through all of Murdock’s usual BS and use her therapist’s ways on him to highlight his rather unhealthy method of coping with trauma.
Daredevil may have just saved an innocent life, but you wouldn’t know it based on how everyone is treating him. Detective Cherry (Clark Johnson) is mad at Murdock for blowing up his life by donning the horns once more, but it’s hard to feel invested in their argument, or their relationship for that matter, when Cherry’s character has remained as paper thin as it was in the first episode. Can we please get him a flashback or dramatic monologue about his past or something?
Mayor Fisk is put in a precarious spot this episode thanks to Muse, but he manages to spin it in his favor. His task force fails to find Muse before Daredevil, but that doesn’t stop him from taking credit for his defeat and taking the opportunity to demonize all those who wear masks. Early in the episode, it’s almost funny watching Fisk explain why, yes, it would be bad for him if Daredevil were to be the one to stop Muse. Daredevil is the one who brought down his criminal empire, after all. Fisk sees New York City as his new empire, and he’s doing every rotten thing he can to protect it from Daredevil this time around. It’s truly scary how realistic his rise to political power feels, as though it were ripped from today’s headlines.
Meanwhile, in Fisk’s private life, the subplot involving Vanessa and Luca the gangster finally reaches its bloody conclusion. I was never sold on the idea that Vanessa would actually betray her husband, so this whole side plot seems a bit empty. It always felt like Fisk’s Fisk’s inability to outrun his past life as a criminal would amount to something a bit bigger and more consequential, but alas, it doesn’t. If anything, at least we got to enjoy the classic mafia-movie vibes of the final scene where Luca tries, unsuccessfully, to assassinate Fisk at dinner.
The main thrill of this episode is the bloody brawl between Daredevil and Muse. I find it hard to believe that a young man with three months of martial arts training, even from a Taekwondo master, could go toe-to-toe with Daredevil like that, but I’m willing to accept it as an excuse to have him go absolutely wild on Daredevil and push him to his limits. There isn’t a lot of suspense leading up to the reveal that this psychotic guy is Muse, but they sure do a good job of making him as creepy and unsettling as possible. It makes Daredevil’s arrival at the last second to stop him all the more satisfying. The hook-through-the-shoulder move in particular got an audible reaction out of me.
Other Thoughts
- What are the odds that Glenn is a therapist not only to the Fisks but also Muse? Daredevil’s love interests do always end up being a magnet for supervillains, so that would at least count as some consistency from Marvel.
- Okay how much did Muse’s nose have to bleed to allow him to paint that much with it?
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