Isle of Joy
Fisk and Vanessa reconcile after he reveals Adam’s location to her. Matt and Heather’s foundation cracks with her viewing Daredevil in the same light as Muse. And Bullseye asserts himself as an expert marksman with multiple enemies.
Fisk and Vanessa
Fisk talks to Vanessa about a project he’s been working on as mayor while bringing her to an undisclosed location. This turns out to be his Kingpin-cave where he lets out everything in his nature that makes him a criminal, so he can keep the proper political demeanor to be mayor. Vanessa sees some of her old artwork that he’s kept and finds Adam, the man with whom she had an affair, locked in a cell. Fisk reveals he kept his word to her to not kill him but has still been torching Adam. He did both due to his love for her.
©Disney
Fisk leaves a gun and a key for Vanessa. He tells her he won’t kill Adam but she had to make a choice. She can let Adam go and Fisk will be a ruined man. Or she can side with Fisk and not let this secret out. He tells her if “he can’t be with her, he can’t be.” It’s an excellent line that would win over many women. Vanessa kills Adam herself and they prepare for the Mayor’s ball as a united couple.
Matt and Heather
While Fisk and Vanessa are healing, Matt and Heather are cracking. She’s clearly experiencing PTSD following her run-in with Muse. She’s struggling with pulling the trigger for the shot that killed him despite the fact that he was going to kill her. Matt is trying to help her, but she expresses that both Muse and Daredevil were in it for themselves and Daredevil wasn’t actually trying to save her; she clearly doesn’t know yet that Matt is Daredevil and was trying to save her.
©Disney
While arguing, the Mayor’s assistant, Buck, arrives to drop off an invitation to the ball for Heather. Matt is in a tizzy over this for a multitude of reasons: his long standing feud with Fisk, the fact that Fisk knew Heather was staying at his place, and the fact that he didn’t know Buck was at the door until he heard the knock when he can usually hear people approaching due to his super-hearing. This leads to a big fight and Heather reveals the invitation is for her and a guest to attend. Matt walks out angry over everything and Heather believes she’s attending the ball alone even though Matt hasn’t told her anything.
Bullseye
Meanwhile, Benjamin Poindexter remains in prison following his murder of Foggy Nelson in the first episode. Mayor Fisk moves him from protective custody to the prison’s general population. It’s clear that Fisk is trying to kill him for some reason. Matt goes to the prison to meet with him and has a hard time controlling himself around the man who killed his friend. Matt snaps and slams Bullseye’s head into the table before calling the guards in claiming Bullseye started beating himself up. Bullseye gives him a “thanks counselor” that’s oddly telling.
While the prison doctor is tending to Bullseye, it becomes clear that he has a loose tooth and has shaped it in a way to be used as a weapon. He spits it into a guard’s eye, killing him before killing the doctor. Bullseye escapes and now is on the hunt for someone at the Mayor’s ball. But is it Mayor Fisk, Matt Murdock or someone else?
Mayor’s Ball
Things come to a head at the Mayor’s Ball. Fisk uses his power to manipulate some of the rich donors into supporting his whims. It appears one woman’s husband has gone missing and while it hasn’t been revealed, it’s heavily implied Fisk is involved. Fisk confronts The Swordsman and tells Jack Duquesne to support his initiatives or be hunted by the anti-vigilante task force. Fisk is basically in Kingpin mode while keeping up the appearances of the mayor.
Meanwhile, he has promoted his superfan, Daniel, to Deputy Mayor for his handling of BB Urich. BB keeps Daniel close, hinting they are still friends, but she also speaks with the police commissioner and they both reveal they have some dirt on Fisk. Meanwhile both use thinly veiled Nazi accusations as the commissioner calls her the Minister of Propaganda while she calls him the leader of the SS. They aren’t holding back in how much they want to take down the mayor with both revealing they know that Fisk was implicated in BB’s uncle Ben’s murder.
©Disney
Matt arrives and dances with Heather while Fisk talks to Vanessa. Fisk uses Matt’s super hearing against him by calling out some of the things he’s known Fisk to do. But Matt’s hearing also reveals to him that Vanessa is the one who ordered Bullseye to kill Foggy. Matt starts dancing with Vanessa while Fisk dances with Heather. Matt is prepared to stop Vanessa when his hearing picks up that Bullseye is there and has aimed a gun right at Mayor Fisk. Matt jumps in front of a bullet and saves his worst enemy from death as the episode ends with Matt bleeding on the dance floor in a shot that would be the perfect way to end a comic book issue.
Rating
The penultimate episode of season one is the best episode of the season so far. After moving the pieces into place with Daredevil, Kingpin, Vanessa and Heather, we get to see them all come together. While Muse felt a bit wasted with how quickly he was dispatched, it was clear it was meant to fill time until Bullseye could be brought back. Poindexter has issues with both Kingpin and Daredevil and he’s going to take it out on one or both of them.
The real question is how much of a monster is Vanessa at this point? She’s brought back the Kingpin, although she seems to be a more effective crime boss than Fisk was and he was incredibly effective. This is setting up for a strong ending.
Check out Daredevil: Born Again streaming exclusively on Disney Plus.
Article Written By: Jeremy Brown for Stelmach Brown Media 2025
Add comment
Comments