Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 episode 1 kicks off the proceedings with the titular vigilante infiltrating a barge called the Northern Star, which is headed to Fisk’s Red Hook Freeport. Matt finds out that it is filled to the brim with all kinds of guns and ammunition, which will either be used to arm the Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF) or some other gun-loving anti-vigilante mercenaries. When the barge’s captain and first mate realize that Matt is going through their stuff, they bring the vessel to a halt in the middle of the river and then scuttle it. No, the captain and the first mate don’t go down with the barge, unlike most captains and first mates do, probably because they are not getting paid enough to be dedicated to this job.
Matt starts making his way out of the barge too, but before doing so, he takes the wristwatch off one of the armed guards that he has knocked out and stuffs it in a crate full of guns. I don’t exactly know why he does that. Maybe the watch has a GPS tracker in it, and it’ll help Matt learn about those guns’ final destination once they are inevitably retrieved from the bottom of the river. Maybe he’ll keep an “eye” on the shipment by tracking the ticking sound emanating from that crate. I guess we’ll find out about it later on; for now, the question is, is the sinking of this barge going to impact Fisk’s long-term goals at all? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Matt’s Actions Anger Fisk
Matt and Karen seem to have turned Josie’s and its adjacent buildings into their new HQ. The place is trashed (and it’s kept that way on purpose so that nobody cares to look at it), but it has all the equipment they need to train, disguise themselves, and rest up between missions. Matt informs Karen about the cargo that that barge was carrying, and Karen says that she’s going to get in touch with her “friend” to see if she can help them find out where those weapons were headed. Who’s this “friend” that Karen is talking about? Well, she calls her “Jess,” which can only mean that she’s talking about Jessica Jones, who is set to appear in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 later on.
Fisk, Blake, Buck, and Rivera arrive at the docks and learn that until the Northern Star is removed from the river (which is going to take a lot of time because that’s a big barge), no other barges will be allowed to enter the city. Fisk orders Blake to get the word out that this catastrophe is the work of Daredevil; he tells Officer Powell to take the AVTF and intensify their search for Matt and Karen; and he tasks Buck with nabbing the captain and first mate of the barge, because he doesn’t like loose ends. Well, Buck isn’t the only one after those two; thanks to Jessica, Karen and Matt are also looking for them. It’s only a matter of who finds them first.
Fisk Has Valentina’s Hand on His Shoulder
The following day, Fisk meets Gomez and the attorney general, Steverud, who are there to hold him accountable for the insane and irresponsible display of power that he has shown after becoming the mayor of New York. Fisk stands his ground by saying that he’s doing what he sees fit to tackle the vigilante menace, and he’ll keep doing so, because he has the city’s support. As Gomez and Steverud are about to go overboard with their criticism of Fisk’s activities, a certain Mr. Charles enters the office; he has been personally sent there by the CIA’s current director, Valentina Allegra de Fontaine. Fontaine even gets on a call with Steverud, which causes him to do a complete 180 and offer his support to Fisk’s cause. Rivera, as usual, is blindsided by this turn of events, and, again as per usual, she voices her confusion instead of staying silent and trusting Fisk like Blake and Buck do.
By the way, another person who seems to have turned into a very strong supporter of Fisk is Heather, who can be seen doing a psychological evaluation of Duquesne so she can get him to admit that he’s the Swordsman (who is represented by Murdock and McDuffie). It’s evident that Heather has psychological issues of her own (caused by her altercation with Muse), but instead of dealing with them, she has chosen to align her ambition with Fisk’s goals, probably in the hopes that if she starts to see the world through Fisk’s eyes, the memory of Muse will stop haunting her. She even goes so far as to botch the data she obtains from her interviews with Duquesne to accuse him of being a vigilante, even though he claims that he isn’t.
McDuffie Is Fighting A Losing Battle
McDuffie hands over a bunch of case files to Cherry, who says that it’s impossible to keep track of all the people that the AVTF is “abducting” under false charges. McDuffie reminds Cherry that it’s their job to make sure that justice is served, especially during times when the system is trying to change the very definition of “justice.” While Cherry grumbles, McDuffie asks him about Matt and what he’s up to. Even though Cherry knows exactly where Matt is, he merely says that he must be doing fine. McDuffie wants Cherry to elaborate on that, but since D.A. Hochberg enters the office, they put that on the backburner. While Cherry takes off to meet Matt, McDuffie sits down with Hochberg to have a conversation about how the former should let go of the Duquesne case, close up shop, and join him at the D.A. office.
McDuffie rejects the offer, and Hochberg says that, in that case, they are going to meet each other again in court. As mentioned before, Hochberg knows that he’s going to win the case because he’s working with Heather to manipulate the psychological data of Duquesne. If that’s happening, there’s a pretty good chance that the judge will be compromised too. So, no matter how well-prepared McDuffie is on the day of the trial, she’s not going to win. The only way to free Duquesne is by proving that what Fisk is doing with the AVTF is unconstitutional, and the charges leveled against Duquesne are slanderous and baseless.
Matt Meets Ariana
Matt gives Cherry the lowdown on the cargo aboard the Northern Star. Thanks to Jessica, Matt knows the captain and the first mate’s names: Achilleo Kyriaco and Christofi Savva. All that Cherry has to do is find out where they went after escaping from the barge. Unfortunately, Cherry isn’t as quick as Powell and his AVTF, who locate Kyriaco at a restaurant called the Aegean Gardens. Its owner, Ariana, tries to protect Kyriaco, but she’s assaulted by Powell, who proceeds to capture Kyriaco and take them to one of Fisk’s illegal detention centers so that he can be questioned. All this is punctuated by a video of a guy cosplaying as Fisk and criticizing his politics; the irritating BB report clips; and then BB attending Blake’s party.
Going back to Ariana, Matt meets her and tells her that he knows about her “side hustle” where she smuggles undocumented Greek immigrants out of the country. That’s what she was doing for Kyriaco; he was supposed to go to Toronto, and now his dead body is lying in that aforementioned detention center. Ariana says that she doesn’t have any idea where Savva is, but during the closing moments of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 episode 1, Savva does show up at Aegean Gardens, looking for shelter and support. Now, it remains to be seen if Ariana informs Matt about this development, or if she tries to send Savva away from New York. If she chooses the second option, Matt’s act of sinking the Northern Star will amount to nothing.
Charles Will Help Fisk And Vanessa
Fisk and Vanessa sit down with Charles for a conversation on the topic of the recent Freeport debacle. Fisk says that his task force has organized a salvage team, but Charles wants his people on the ground because they are expendable and can be “disappeared” after they are done unloading the retrieved weapons at Red Hook. Fisk signs off on that, but I must remind you that the last time the CIA organized a team of expendable members and tried to have them killed, Thunderbolts happened. I hope that they have learned their lesson this time and aren’t going to make the same mistake again. The focus of the episode then shifts to BB meeting Karen; they reminisce about Foggy and Ben so that they remember who they are fighting and why they shouldn’t stop until Fisk is irrelevant or dead.
We get a very odd detail here, where it’s revealed that Blake tasks BB with getting his apartment cleaned. What?! Yes, BB hires cleaners to get the job done, but why can’t Blake hire said cleaners himself? Why does he delegate that job to BB? Is this some kind of a power move? Because it’s super weird. Anyway, Karen and Matt partake in a (romantic) debriefing session where they bring each other up to date regarding all the information they have collected so far. I understand what the show is trying to do with the lighting, but I don’t think this crew will ever be able to emulate what the Netflix show did. Fans can say, “Looking similar and not the same is the point,” but if the visuals are hazy and poorly composed, then the viewing experience is going to be bad, no matter the intent.
Bullseye Saves Daredevil
In the ending of episode 1, the AVTF barges into Cherry’s house and tortures him for looking for Kyriaco and Savva. It seems like they are about to put a bullet in Cherry’s head, but that’s when Matt arrives (as Daredevil, of course) and knocks the two out. Matt notices that Cherry is about to go into cardiac arrest, but he is unable to take him to the hospital because the rest of the AVTF soldiers that were waiting outside enter the house and attack Matt. Matt tries his best to hold them off; however, he loses focus when he senses that Cherry’s condition is deteriorating; that allows the AVTF soldiers to gain the upper hand, and they knock out Matt. Heck, they even learn that Matt is the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. That said, right when it seems like Matt’s jig is up, the AVTF soldiers are killed by an unseen sniper. In case there’s any confusion regarding who this mystery savior is, Benjamin chucks a knife into Cherry’s house, which has the words “You’re welcome” and the Bullseye symbol etched on it (could have written the message in Braille at least).
This whole scene raises 3 big questions: Is Cherry dead or alive? Why is Bullseye helping Matt? And why is the action so bad? Cherry isn’t an important character. So, it doesn’t really matter if he lives or dies. The show wants us to believe that Matt and Cherry are tight, but nobody cares about him. As for Benjamin, well, I suppose he has come to the realization that he has been used by Vanessa and Fisk, and he knows that they’d like to have him killed because he knows too much. So, it’s possible that he’s trying to become Matt’s ally for his own protection. That plan might work but only if Benjamin agrees to testify against Vanessa and Fisk; if he doesn’t do that, then Matt is going to make Benjamin suffer for killing Foggy. Lastly, the action choreography, the cinematography, and the editing continue to be atrocious. I know that the Netflix show has set a really high bar, but is it really that difficult to make competent fight scenes? Man, this season is going to be as insufferable as the previous one, right? Let me know in the comments section below.
