Daredevil: Born Again Recap: The Predator and the Prey

At times throughout this first of two planned seasons, Daredevil: Born Again has felt at war with itself. Much of that feeling likely comes from the creative overhaul that transformed a lighter procedural into a more serialized drama in the vein of the original Netflix series; “With Interest”’s stand-alone hostage situation clearly belonged to the former version of the show, and much of that iteration lives on in even the plottier episodes. According to showrunner Dario Scardapane, the only “brand-spanking-new” installments are the first one and the last two, all directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead.

That means “Isle of Joy” is the first episode since the premiere to belong fully to the new vision for the series, and you can tell. I wouldn’t say it’s a night-and-day difference, but Benson and Moorhead just bring a different level of visual panache and artfulness to the show, as you can see with the blue motif that comes up with Dex throughout this episode, beginning with that blue rose in the opening.

There’s also just a lot going on right now, and the momentum feels good. The centerpiece event this week is the Black and White Ball to celebrate the Red Hook port-revitalization project, and much of the first half is about setting up several different characters to eventually collide dramatically at that climax. Fisk and Vanessa seem better than usual after dealing with the nuisance of Luca, and Vanessa is actually communicating her lingering frustrations to him, maybe thanks to Heather’s therapy. What seals the deal on their reconciliation, strangely enough, is Fisk revealing his big Adam secret to his wife. She’s mad for a second, but ultimately this demonstrates his love in some twisted way, showing that he technically kept his promise not to kill her boy toy. It’s Vanessa who pulls the trigger in the end, which shouldn’t have surprised me. With that, Fisk promises he’ll never leave her again, and some missing trust is reestablished.

Matt and Fisk have mostly existed in their own worlds since that electrifying reunion in the premiere, privately keeping tabs on each other but never interacting directly. That changes in “Isle of Joy,” though, when their paths become entwined once again. When Matt sees Heather receive an invitation to the ball from Buck, he realizes Fisk is one of his girlfriend’s clients, and expressing his concerns only exacerbates the building tension between them.

Heather’s guilt about killing Muse is understandable, but it’s hard to sympathize much with her in her arguments with Matt, even if she’s right about some things. Yes, Matt is lying to her and has no real excuse for that, but he’s the one we really care about; when she insists that Daredevil and Muse are both underdeveloped boys hiding behind masks, I’m like, “Yeah, but Daredevil is my underdeveloped boy hiding behind a mask.” Heather’s judgment doesn’t really endear us to her, and the fact that she’s still in the dark about his double identity makes her appear a little out of her depth.

Matt has plenty of reasons to be stressed right now, and his frustration comes out during a meeting with a client guilty of defrauding teachers. As he explains in a venting session to Kirsten, nothing they do here changes anything long-term. She’s the one who informed him that Fisk got Dex moved to gen pop despite his “enhanced supervision housing” status. During a visit to a closed Josie’s (and another stern talk from Cherry, a character who’s really starting to seem one-note), Matt realizes that on the night Foggy died, he knew he was going to win his big upcoming case. There’s some conspiracy at play here, someone who wanted to silence Foggy. But a visit to Dex doesn’t yield any answers about Fisk’s possible involvement, since he’s not willing to dish without a way out of prison.

Ironically, Matt’s choice to indulge in bashing Dex’s face against the table gives the latter the opportunity to escape. After getting stitched up, he spits a bullet directly into a guard’s eye with his famous aim, then kills him and the doctor with a couple pairs of medical scissors. From there, it’s just a matter of sneaking onto a bus with the other guards and heading straight for the ball to kill the mayor.

The event would be a tense affair even without that threat looming over everything. For one, Matt arrives late as Heather’s plus-one and can’t pay attention to anything she’s saying, too distracted listening in on Fisk’s private chats with Jack Duquesne. (He seems to be extorting him for support on the Red Hook project by threatening to expose his Swordsman vigilante persona.) He keeps trying to explain to Heather why she can’t trust the mayor and his wife, but everything he says sounds like nonsense because he won’t fully be straight with her.

As they join the Fisks on the dance floor, Matt comes to the biggest realization: Vanessa was the one who put the hit on Foggy for some reason, not her husband. He’s even bold enough to cut in for a dance and accuse her, and she all but admits it with her retort about Heather’s ignorance of Matt’s Daredevil identity. Before there’s any time to investigate further — and before there’s time for Fisk to reveal Matt’s secret to Heather — Matt hears Dex’s gun up on the balcony, and he steps in front of a bullet to save Fisk’s life. Dammit, Matt. You just have to be the hero all the time, don’t you?

“Isle of Joy” isn’t a perfect episode, but it feels like Daredevil: Born Again working as intended, raising the stakes for every character for next week’s finale. That includes BB Urich, who reveals her own hidden agenda this week: She actually already knows about Fisk’s possible connection to her uncle Ben’s death, which is why she’s trying to get close to him in the first place. She’s yet another party interested in taking down the Kingpin, and Commissioner Gallo could be a valuable ally, with important intel on the anti-vigilante task force. With the war between Matt and the Fisks heating up, there are so many variables at play, and that’s not even mentioning characters like Frank Castle and Karen Page. We’re cooking with gas now.

Devil in the Details

• A nice detail based on established history: Matt realizing from the choice of Foggy’s final drink that he was celebrating a win early.

• Fisk tells Powell to “take care of” someone taking photos of his meeting with Jack, and he responds to Gallo’s opposite directive by dunking the guy’s hand into boiling oil. This Powell guy is a real piece of work, huh?

• Daniel gets promoted to deputy mayor for communications! Good for him. He’s still sleazy, but it doesn’t seem like quite so straightforward a villain arc based on his continual efforts to maintain a good friendship with BB. I always figured he’d be the one breaking her trust, but could it actually be the other way around?

• After watching Katherine LaNasa so much on The Pitt lately, it’s weird seeing her appear as Artemis on this show.