Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 episode 3 opens with Karen and Matt interrogating Alan Saunders, the AVTF officer that Karen had kidnapped. Why has Karen kidnapped Alan particularly? Because she got a non-threatening different vibe from him. Based on her hunch, Matt begins grilling Alan (and it’s one of the worst interrogations put to screen), while checking his heartbeat, and he comes to the conclusion that Alan is truly unlike the rest of the bunch. So, they give Alan the opportunity to reveal whatever dirty details of Fisk’s operation he knows about. Alan, without beating around the bush, gives them his access card so that they can infiltrate Red Hook and expose what Fisk is bringing into the city via the Northern Star. Matt and Karen accept the card, and even though Matt knows that Alan isn’t bluffing, he warns him that if anything goes wrong, he will find him and hurt him. In addition to that, Matt says that he is about to knock out Alan and dump him somewhere so that the AVTF doesn’t suspect that he is the rat. Before Alan can finish statement that he believes that Matt is the only person who can save the city, Matt delivers a blow to his face and it is “lights out” for him. In the previous episode, the show made a distinction between police officers and AVTF officers to show that they are not cut from the same cloth. Now, they are stating “Not all AVTF officers are bad.” I wonder what’s the politics of this show. Anyway, for now, allow me to talk about how the plot progressed in episode 3.
Spoiler Alert
Kirsten Confronts Heather
Heather is spotted hammering a nail into the wall of her office and that causes the wall to crack. This triggers a meltdown and she pulls out the Muse mask to calm down. I suppose this raises several questions. Firstly, why does she have the Muse mask? Isn’t it evidence? How did she get access to evidence? Did nobody question the fact that the Muse mask has gone missing? And why is the Muse mask helping Heather calm down? The following day, at the courthouse, when Heather runs into Kirsten, who politely accuses her of botching Duquesne’s psych eval test, she begins spewing that same old anti-vigilante rhetoric and supports Fisk’s crackdown on this community of superheroes. As annoying as that sounds, I think you spot how conflicted Heather is. Like, she is saying one thing while her face is telling a completely different story. She feels betrayed by Matt’s sudden disappearance. She knows that she’s lying to herself when she’s equating Muse with every other vigilante. And all of these contradictory emotions are bringing out the dark side of her personality, thereby making her relate to what Muse used to do. From this point onwards, Heather can go in 2 directions: she can either let herself be consumed by the Dark side and become the next Muse (and she’ll be Daredevil’s nemesis), or she can come to terms with the fact that she was saved by Daredevil and that she should be thankful that vigilantes like him exist and work to save people from mentally unstable villains like Muse.
By the time she “picks a struggle,” the damage she will do will probably be irreparable because the psych eval reports of anti-Fisk protesters and vigilantes are in her hands. Hence, instead of wasting any more time on Heather, Kirsten takes off to meet Duquesne and get his side of the story. Where’s Duquesne? In the basement of Red Hook along with all the people who have, accidentally or intentionally, stepped out of line. Duquesne is allowed to exit his cage and go to the interrogation room to talk to Kirsten. During their conversation, Duquesne reveals that Fisk isn’t punishing him for being an alleged vigilante; Fisk had asked Duquesne, along with several other rich people, to invest in Red Hook. Duquesne coincidentally happens to be a vigilante and Fisk is out to prove that because if he succeeds (which is guaranteed because the judiciary is in Fisk’s pocket), he’ll be able to force Duquesne to forfeit his assets under one of the new anti-vigilante laws he has passed, and get the money he needs to make Red Hook profitable. Of course, the rest of the rich folk that are being kept in Red Hook’s cages aren’t vigilantes, but when they see him go to jail, they’ll fall in line “organically” and give Fisk the investment money that he wants.
Karen Misses Frank
Karen has set up shop in Frank’s old headquarters and is seen observing her evidence board. Matt says that Karen is becoming more and more like Frank. Karen wonders if Frank is dead or not, and Matt says that he is not because if he was, Fisk would have hung him from the Brooklyn Bridge and celebrated it. In the ending of Season 1, Frank broke out of his cage by fooling one of the AVTF guards and then his fate was spoiled before Season 2 even released as he appeared in the trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. As if that’s not enough, the news of a new Punisher special arriving right after Season 2 ends was also published. At this point, I feel sorry for the writers for trying to keep anything a mystery because Kevin Feige and the marketing team will ruin all your effort so that they can earn more money. Going back to Karen and Matt’s discussion about Frank, the latter senses that she misses Punisher because he is more “effective,” while their approach is slower and not as impactful. So, he points out that murdering “bad” AVTF officers, Fisk, or Vanessa won’t bring Foggy back.
They need to make the system robust so that people like Fisk, Vanessa, or the AVTF officers think 10 times before doing something criminal; which is correct because Frank’s actions have emboldened the AVTF to go to any lengths in the name of justice. Currently, it seems like their best chance at resurrecting the system is Governor McCaffrey. As per Matt’s instructions, Karen has leaked the details of Red Hook to McCaffrey, thereby giving her the necessary ammo to put Fisk in his place. McCaffrey shows up at Fisk’s office and, during their chat, she brings up the topic of using the CIA (Mr. Charles is surprisingly absent after the first episode, by the way) to keep the state out of the loop. Fisk assures McCaffrey that everything that he and Vanessa are doing is legal, but it seems like that’s not enough to get McCaffrey to bow down. She says that she has the power to revoke Red Hook’s freeport status and she intends to do that if Fisk is unable to prove that cargo that arrived via the Northern Star is not “dubious.” In the meantime, Matt chalks up a plan to get into Red Hook and destroy all the arms and ammunition so that even if McCaffrey doesn’t come through, he’ll be able to inflict some damage on Fisk.
Buck Has A Chat With Blake
Buck shows up at Blake’s office and finds him stuffing his face with food. So, he reminds Blake that the Governor’s Dinner is happening in an hour. Buck says that he is playing it safe because he doesn’t know what the food over there is going to be like (that’s relatable because I don’t eat at fancy occasions too because they usually serve rotten or cheap food). Once all the chitchatting is done, Buck asks Blake if he has done any research on the governor, and Blake immediately whips out a portfolio that he has created on McCaffrey (yeah, looks can indeed be deceiving). As per Blake’s investigation, McCaffrey is invincible, but Lt. Governor Gomez can be exploited; so, they should focus on exploiting him instead of setting their sights on McCaffrey. Buck wonders how they are going to make Gomez sing and Blake says that that’s Buck’s department because he is the one who has the expertise that’s necessary to break someone like Gomez.
Buck is surprised to know that Blake is aware of his Secret Service and Special Ops background, but instead of appreciating his ability to gather intel, Buck intimidates him so that he doesn’t go digging into his past. He tells Blake to focus on unmasking the individual who is making all those “City Without Fear” videos whilst wearing Fisk’s face, and underscores the order to turn in that individual without hesitation. I think this is some subtle foreshadowing for Blake eventually turning against Fisk. He has been Fisk’s #1 bootlicker from day one, but I have a feeling that when he learns that the Fisk impostor is BB, he’s going to defect. Or maybe that’s what the showrunners of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 want us to think and, actually, Blake is going to backstab BB and give her up to Fisk. Speaking of BB, we see another one of her videos where she is mocking the justice system and how it’s treating vigilantes like villains while giving Fisk, a known criminal, free reign to do anything he wants to do with the city. Does that shake the consciousness of the judges presiding over Duquesne’s case? Nope. They find him guilty of all the crimes he has been accused of doing and then send him back to the detention camp where he’s being kept. Fisk celebrates this achievement, while Matt and Karen start to unravel because they are hit with the realization that the uphill battle is steeper than they have been imagining.
Daredevil Meets Kirsten
At the Governor’s Dinner, Sheila is seen fraternizing with McCaffrey; Blake is working his magic on Gomez, and Vanessa is congratulating Heather for being so instrumental in Duquesne’s incarceration. Vanessa sets up Heather with Buck because, I suppose, she wants them to be a couple. Buck uses this opportunity to glaze Vanessa and how she has used her expert sitting arrangement skills to tilt the scales in Fisk’s favor. That said, when the time comes to deliver the official toast of the evening, McCaffrey upends Fisk by giving the speech herself instead of letting Fisk take the spotlight. That obviously hurts Fisk’s ego, but Vanessa assures her that based on how much McCaffrey is yapping, it’s evident that she is afraid of Fisk; and if she is afraid of Fisk, that means she can be forced to bow down to the Kingpin. While all this is going on in that cozy room, out on the cold docks, Powell is seen forcing the night crew (that’s been arranged by Mr. Charles) to stay with the Northern Star even though their job is done. Why? As per Charles and Fisk’s conversation from episode 1 of Season 2, they are lambs being readied for slaughter.
The focus of the episode then shifts to Kirsten, who is drinking away her sorrows at a bar, and just when it seems like she’s going to get lucky as well, Karen slyly delivers a note, telling her to go back to her office. Why? Because during the televised trial, Matt and Karen had noticed that Kirsten had been to Red Hook, which means that she can give them an idea of the building’s layout and that’ll allow Matt to navigate the place more easily. But does Kirsten cooperate with Matt? Yes, even though she is very drunk and she was blindfolded while Cole was taking him to the interrogation chamber, Kirsten manages to give Matt a really detailed description of the insides of Red Hook. The cross-cutting between Kirsten remembering the labyrinthian architecture of Red Hook and Matt stealthily making his way through the detention camp in the basement might seem impressive to some, but it didn’t work for me. I understand that the sound design and excessive warping of the frames is supposed to put us in Matt’s shoes, but it’s too bland to be memorable (much like its commentary on justice and law enforcement).
Fisk Kills The Night Crew
In episode 3’s ending, Matt frees Duquesne and all the other detainees from their respective cages while also tackling all the AVTF guards in there. The whole sequence is supposed to look like it’s been done in one-take, thereby being reminiscent of the oners in the Netflix Daredevil series, but it’s nowhere close to being as gritty, intricate, and emotionally exhausting as those fights. The whole thing feels so weightless; the “hidden cuts” are so obvious that it does the exact opposite of immersing you in the action; and the choreography is too convoluted to properly use the space where the fight is taking place (also, the lighting is bad). At this point, I wish the directors and stunt team would try to find their own voice instead of emulating something that fans are nostalgic about and in turn exposing how inept they are at doing that style of fight choreography. I am sure that the team behind making this multimillion dollar show is talented, but the showrunners have to stop making them remind us about the good stuff because it’ll just make me wanna go back and watch the good stuff. Anyway, going back to the plot, before Matt can get the detainees to board a truck and leave Red Hook, Powell and his men show up and open fire on everyone. Thankfully, Angela shows up (donning the White Tiger locket) and helps Karen rescue Matt and the rest of the escapees (which includes Angela’s aunt too).
For a second, it seems like the heroes have won, but that’s when Fisk calls up Powell and, after learning that his cargo is safe, tells him to blow up the Northern Star along with the night crew. Matt, Karen, and all those who have been rescued watch the explosion from afar as they are horrified to their core. Why did Fisk do that? Isn’t it obvious? He is going to put the blame of the explosion and the rescue of the detainees on Daredevil and convince the justice system that the vigilantes’ vigilantism has gone out of hand. And he’s gonna tell them that if vigilantes don’t want to follow the law, and if they can go so far as to kill innocent labourers (who were being exploited by the CIA and Fisk), then the AVTF should ramp up their violent methods of anti-vigilantism. I have a feeling that Fisk will use this incident to sideline McCaffrey because if a governor stops the mayor from doing his job during these trying times, it’ll reflect poorly on her. Also, now with the Northern Star at the bottom of the river, Fisk’s barges and ships will be able to move in and out of Red Hook. Win-win for him, lose-lose for Matt and co.
