With their respective backs to the wall, Daredevil has to take a drastic step to bring down Mayor Fisk’s corrupt regime once and for all.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN SEASON 2, EPISODE 8
MAKE SURE YOU’VE WATCHED BEFORE PROCEEDING
Previously in DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, a riot at Gracie Mansion preceded Karen Page’s (Deborah Ann Woll) first trial appearance, where Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) showed up as co-counsel for the defense. He survived an attack by Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) Anti-Vigilante Task Force, with Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) finding him in church and offering to help.
As Fisk gets news from his enforcer Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan) that Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini) proved unwilling to give up his troublesome friend BB Urich (Genneya Walton)—and that Daniel won’t exactly be returning to work—Matt considers a desperate plan to get Karen out of prison.
While the unstable Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) gives a damning and dishonest evaluation of Karen on the stand, Matt returns to court. He takes a bold step by calling Wilson Fisk to the stand, after his cross-examination lets Glenn know he’s on to her corruption. Fisk accepts the challenge, blustering about how his Safer Streets initiative has improved the lives of New Yorkers. Matt dismantles Fisk’s talking points one by one, until he accuses him of weapon smuggling and sinking the freighter Northern Star to hide the evidence. He says that there was one witness who was there and can provide firsthand testimony… then reveals that he is Daredevil.
Outside, a small team of cops set up a sniper rifle aimed at the front of the courthouse. It seems Fisk has a backup plan to deal with Matt after all. But the cops are brutally killed by Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), who takes position behind the rifle.
With Matt’s admission, the court erupts in chaos. The case against Karen is dismissed. With Matt close behind, Fisk and his team hurry to leave, only to be confronted by Gov. McCaffrey (Lily Taylor), who hands him papers revoking his island’s independent status (thus ending his ability to use it to hide his smuggling and illegally detained prisoners). She also notes that his assassin survived and is willing to testify. Defiant, he says he will see her in court—even as Officer Powell (Hamish Allan-Headley) tells the sniper team to get ready.
Bullseye lets him know his sniper’s been replaced, just before he shoots into the courthouse entrance and catches Buck in the abdomen. He walks away as the cops shoot at his location, helpfully guided by Powell.
Scattered by the shooting, Fisk and his team hunker down in the court room while Matt, Karen, Jessica and the governor occupy an office. Fisk goes on television to make a pitch for his leadership of NYC, but the news then shows a mob gathering to attack the building and bring Fisk down.
The state’s attorney general tries to get Fisk on the phone to offer a deal: resign his office, leave New York permanently, and that will be that. Deputy Mayor Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara) lets him know she’s urging him to take the deal. He’s dismayed by what he sees as disloyalty, until she points out she’s loyal to the office, not the man.
Down in front of the building, Powell and a wall of AVTF thugs are confronted by Matt’s ally Cherry (Clark Johnson), who urges them to lower their guns. Officer Cole North (Jeremy Isaiah Earl) wavers, until name Angela Del Toro (Camila Rodriguez) breaks through to accuse the AVTF of murdering her uncle Hector (Kamar de Los Reyes). North realizes Powell’s lied to him… and he knocks Powell out before allowing the mob into the courthouse.
Things are getting real fast. Fisk leaves the court room to find his path blocked by angry protesters. He lashes out in a blind rage, his attacks killing one protester after another with brutal efficiency.
Daredevil and Jessica fight their way through the AVTF cops still inside, before all of them meet in the foyer of the building. (Fisk’s bloodied white suit is a potent image.) The protesters surge forward and, though many are horribly injured or killed, manage to bring down Fisk and begin kicking and beating him.
Matt intervenes. He gets Fisk to his feet and they talk. Matt says that the ONE thing they share is a love of the city—and their war is destroying it. As long as their private battle goes on, people will suffer and the city will sustain terrible collateral damage. Matt urges Fisk to take the deal. Fisk grudgingly accepts.
Jessica, later, is playing with her daughter when the door opens. Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is home; it appears that Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard), his handler, has a new guy to do his dirty work. Cut to a plane, we see Charles getting a frequent flyer reward… and Bullseye glances at him, amused.
Matt and Karen are sharing a private dinner, talking about how strange “normal” seems, when the cops arrive to arrest Matt. He’s taken away and booked into prison–where he finds Powell among the prisoners—while Fisk finds himself alone on a sunny beach, staring out at the horizon as if totally lost.
Well, if viewers were expecting a final battle royale between Daredevil and Kingpin, they didn’t get it. However, the overwhelming emotional stakes—and Matt’s giving up his secret identity to protect Karen—made this season finale a blowout.
Cox and D’Onofrio are the two strands in the show’s DNA; everything weaves between the two, with connection and conflict driving the plot. Cox is terrific in the court scenes where he is circling Fisk, who comes to realize what Matt is doing, and D’Onofrio plays the wounded, angry Fisk just as brilliantly. As his two empires—political and criminal—come crashing down, his arrogance and murderous rage propel Fisk to disaster, even as Matt cuts the Gordian knot his secret identity has tied around him.
That said, offering Fisk a “get out of jail free” card was a serious WTF?? He was finished, he was guilty of murder and other crimes–so why did he get a “leave town or else”? That undercut what could have been a more powerful resolution and reinforced a modern cynicism that the rich and powerful get away with it. Seriously–that was a bad look to end on, and I hope they redeem it next season.
Woll is also fantastic, her expressions flickering from confusion to realization to dread as Matt reveals his secret. Then, when they have a moment together, her moment of happiness gives way to grief as Matt is arrested. Her arc this season, challenging Matt’s inflexible stand against killing, has given her plenty of material as an actor and she’s used it well.
Genneya Walton got to close out strong, too, with a final City Without Fear vidcast that helped turn the tide against Fisk. Hopefully she’ll continue to be a presence in the series, now that she’s working for the Daily Bugle in her uncle’s stead.
It’s been quite a season, reflecting the real world in ways that might have been less entertainment than commentary, but the characters have gone through some real changes and are left in a new world. Fisk is no longer the Kingpin, Matt no longer has a secret identity, and Mayor Rivera will next be seen giving Spider-Man the key to the city in SPIDER-MAN: BRAVE NEW WORLD. So… this has been one heck of a show, start to finish.
It’s hard to see where series creator Dario Scardapane takes the show from here, but with a promised reunion of the Defenders and Dr. Glenn trying on Muse’s mask, there’s clearly a major threat looming. Come back next season and we’ll be recapping every week!
