Editor’s note: This review contains spoilers.
Lies travel fast, especially when spread by someone in a position of power. They can twist the story into whatever they want to hear and drown out the truth. In “Daredevil: Born Again,” the manipulation of the truth is a crafty tactic which causes New Yorkers to heavily question their safety.
In Episode 7, “Art for Art’s Sake,” Wilson Fisk, the mayor of New York, learns the news of Daredevil’s return. This worries Fisk as he promised New Yorkers he would bring an end to Muse’s rampage with his anti-vigilante task force. Now, his number one enemy is back as the race for the serial killer escalates.
Matthew Murdock (Daredevil) has been acting differently since getting back into the costume. His love interest, doctor Heather Glenn, notices as much as he’s been getting into more dangerous situations and spending less time with her. Murdock’s new life with her seems disingenuous and conflicts with his alter ego as Murdock’s priority at the moment is to stop Muse.
Later at Glenn’s therapist office, Muse reveals himself to Glenn as Bastian Cooper before attempting to torture her, claiming that she allowed him to unlock the Muse persona. Cooper had a troubled childhood and wanted to be an artist, so he could be seen and believed that creating murals with blood as paint makes an impression.
The scene with Muse and Glenn is unsettling with how the serial killer is acting, but there is a hint of truth when Glenn says, “Anybody who needs a mask is a coward.”
Cooper, without the guise of Muse, is someone who wants attention, not as a terrifying murderer but as a passionate artist. That line causes some tension because Murdock wears a mask but, unlike Muse, as a shield and a way to help others when the law can’t.
The finale of the episode sees a race between Daredevil and Fisk’s anti-vigilante task force to Glenn’s office, which Daredevil reaches first and Glenn shoots Muse, killing him.
When Fisk’s task force arrives to scope out the crime scene, Fisk treats it as a victory, reshaping what Daredevil did as something he did for his no vigilante policy. The news spreads fast with Daniel Blake, one of Fisk’s lackeys, pressuring reporter BB Urich to spread the pro-Fisk agenda.
The episode’s themes of manipulation were prominent and insightful as well as the set designs. Glenn’s office looks like an office a person could actually go to for therapy. The relationship between Murdock and Glenn before Muse’s attack was very sweet.
Episode 8, “Isle of Joy,” sees the return of Benjamin Poindexter, also known as the assassin Bullseye, to wreak chaos and murder. There are blue tints in the episode, signifying the point where Poindexter’s tunnel vision takes control, which contrasts with the red associated with Daredevil.
Relationships are rocky at this point as Glenn and Murdock talked about how Daredevil and Muse are the same, with Murdock opposed to the motion. Meanwhile, Fisk takes his wife Vanessa to Red Hook to show her Adam, the person she was romantically seeing. After shooting Adam, the Fisks seem to have settled their ongoing dispute of being mayor or controlling crime families.
Later on, Murdock meets with Poindexter as he taunts the lawyer. This makes Murdock determined to find out who tasked him to assassinate Foggy Nelson back in Episode 1.
As the episode reaches its climax, Glenn arrives at a black and white ball to promote the revitalization of the Red Hook Port, and to her surprise, so does Murdock.
While dancing, Murdock overhears Vanessa talking to her husband and deduces that she sent Bullseye after Nelson. A tense dance ensues as secrets are traded about who killed who and who’s under the mask they each wear.
Bullseye breaks the tension as he climbs to the top of the balcony, aims a hidden weapon he snuck into the ball at Fisk and shoots. Murdock intervenes however, as he gets shot instead and bleeds out on the floor as the ball falls into disarray.
Murdock is injured, secrets are withheld and deceit spreads like wildfire as the episode comes to a close.
While Murdock could have let Bullseye shoot Fisk, the mayor needs to know that it was his wife who controls Bullseye. The big question is with everything that happened and the crackdown on vigilantes, will New Yorkers be safe after their mayor was almost assassinated?
