In the 8th episode of Daredevil: Born Again, Mayor Fisk and Vanessa decided to throw a party to basically rope in New York’s wealthiest into doing their bidding without any hesitation or protest. Heather was invited to the event, and she requested that Matt attend it too as her plus one. Of course, Matt wasn’t interested due to his enmity with Fisk. However, after an interaction with Poindexter, Matt showed up to the party to eavesdrop on Fisk and see if he could find the connection between the mayor and Foggy’s death. While Matt, Fisk, and eventually Vanessa were busy exchanging barbs on the dance-room floor, Poindexter made his way out of the correctional facility and got his hands on a security guard’s sniper rifle. Right when Matt realized that it wasn’t Fisk but Vanessa who had hired Poindexter to kill Foggy, Poindexter pulled the trigger, thereby prompting Matt to put his body on the line to save Fisk. The final episode of Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again is all about the chaos caused by this assassination attempt. How does that set the stage for Season 2? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Vanessa’s Arrangement With Poindexter
Daredevil: Born Again’s finale opens with a conversation between Vanessa and Poindexter (who is high on prescription drugs), where the former is referring to the events of Season 3 of this IP’s Netflix run to tell Poindexter that, since he took the fall for Agent Nadeem’s investigation into the FBI’s connection with Fisk, her husband got acquitted. So, Vanessa is doing him a favor by releasing him. Of course, his freedom doesn’t exactly come for free, as he has to kill Foggy on account of him highlighting the illegal stuff that Vanessa is doing via Red Hook. Now, once Foggy was out of the picture, instead of ensuring Poindexter’s safety, Vanessa got him thrown into a correctional facility and even tried to have him killed by putting him in the general population of inmates. After suffering there for one whole year, Poindexter created an opportunity for himself to kill Fisk—because apparently he hated Fisk more than he hated Vanessa—and Matt ruined it.
Fisk Sends Buck To Kill Matt
Matt wakes up in the hospital asking for Karen and then realizes that it’s Heather who is beside him; Kirsten pathetically assures Heather that Matt’s confusion is because of the drugs. Poindexter is apparently nowhere to be found. But finding him isn’t high on Matt’s priority list since he wants to get Vanessa incarcerated for ordering the hit on Foggy. Of course, neither Heather nor Kirsten listens to Matt’s rambling and tells him to just go to sleep. Meanwhile, Fisk partakes in some heavy exposition about how he ran for mayor so that he could move billions worth of illegal goods through Red Hook (it’s the final episode, bro, we know). And then Vincent D’Onofrio proceeds to give a career-worst performance as he orders his task force to shut down the city and go after every masked vigilante out there. I don’t know the direction he got or what Vincent was going for, but the whole thing was cringeworthy. Once the task force, Gallo, Daniel, and Sheila are out of the room, Fisk orders Buck to go and kill Matt at the hospital. I guess this is supposed to come as a surprise to everyone, because how could a man kill his savior? Well, I have 3 seasons worth of stories (I’m talking about the Netflix run of the show) to tell me why this shouldn’t come as a shock to anyone.
Matt and Frank Fight the Task Force
Fisk orders Sheila to begin an internal investigation into the people in his office who are unwilling to stand beside him as he plunges New York City into chaos and violence. As Sheila runs into Gallo, he voices his concerns regarding, well, everything that Fisk is planning to do with the task force. Sheila pretends that she is on Gallo’s side and that she is going to stand by him. But later on we see her throwing Gallo to the gallows, where the chief of police gets his head crushed in Fisk’s bare hands (that’s a good practical effect right there). Since Matt is a little more paranoid than Gallo, he manages to avoid getting poisoned by Buck. When Fisk, with some help from his friend from Con Ed (which is probably Consolidated Edison Incorporated, one of the largest energy companies in NY), turns off the power to the city, Matt slips out of the hospital and magically reaches his flat. Frank is there to greet him and help him deal with all the officers that Fisk has sent to kill him. The fight with Daredevil and Punisher on one side and a bunch of corrupt cops on the other could’ve been one of the greatest action sequences that we’ve seen on the small screen. Unfortunately, it’s marred by muddy visuals, choppy editing, and bad choreography, i.e., things that the IP’s Netflix run didn’t suffer from. But, yeah, we’re apparently supposed to be glad that these characters are on the screen again instead of asking for quality content.
Frank, Matt, and Karen Reunite
After one of the worst action sequences in the history of Daredevil (yes, this one was probably worse than anything that happened in that Ben Affleck movie as well), Matt targets the cop who killed Hector Ayala and incapacitates him. Then Frank and Matt proceed to have a watered-down version of their old argument about the latter’s no-kill policy and the former’s only-kill policy. But they are forced to cut their conversation short due to a grenade thrown by one of the cops. As Matt’s flat goes up in flames, the crime-fighting duo take to the streets, where they are picked up by Karen, who just arrives out of nowhere. I can bet you any amount of money that all the stuff involving Karen, Foggy, and Frank were last-minute additions, which is why the scenes with them feel so random and haphazardly put together. Anyway, Matt, Karen, and Frank partake in yet another exposition dump since Karen and Frank need to know what Matt knows, while the viewers watching the show while scrolling on their phones need to be kept in the loop as well. Once everyone is caught up on what’s going on, Matt and Karen head out to see if they can find some concrete proof of the connection between Fisk, Vanessa, Foggy, Poindexter, and Red Hook. Frank doesn’t join them because he has plans of his own.
Frank Gets Captured
Daniel has a small sit-down with the city’s councillors to ensure that they won’t utter a word of protest as New York goes up in flames. The writing in this scene is absolutely garbage, but Michael Gandolfini seemingly channels his dad’s Tony Soprano energy to make it feel substantial and also show why he is one of the best nepo-kids in the industry. Coming back to the plot, cops are seen killing rioters and then putting masks on them to make it look like they were dealing with masked vigilantes. Meanwhile, for some godforsaken reason, all this is juxtaposed with an odd scene of Matt and Karen flirting with each other and doing a lot of nostalgia-baiting (it doesn’t work because it’s so tacky). Eventually, they get to the files from Foggy’s case, which underscore the fact that he was about to blow the lid on Red Hook and expose how the Fisks were using its free port status to transport all kinds of illegal goods. So, they decide to head over to Red Hook and see if they can find out how the Fisks intend to use it in the future. Coincidentally, Frank also gets there to deal with all the cops who have been using his logo as a symbol of fascism, but he gets captured because he is no match for, well, a bunch of cops.
Matt Promises To Reclaim The City
In Daredevil: Born Again’s ending, Karen and Foggy reach Red Hook, but then they realize that it’s pointless to take on the task force head-on. The following day, Fisk appoints Heather as the administration’s Commissioner of Mental Health, which is hilarious because, based on how erratically she has behaved throughout the show, the lady needs to get herself checked before deciding what’s best for the city. After that, Fisk addresses the city and announces his Safer Streets initiative, which basically means that it’s open season on masked vigilantes. The focus then shifts to Matt and Karen at Josie’s bar, where Karen is explaining how Matt should feel about everything that has transpired and also telling the audience how they should feel about what has happened so far. Just for good measure, they even play Radiohead’s “Everything in Its Right Place” over Matt’s monologue about reclaiming the city while we see Fisk and Vanessa walking past the cages holding New York’s elite (including Jack Duquesne, aka the Swordsman) and Frank Castle prisoner. We also get these somber shots of Buck, Daniel, BB Urich, Sheila, Angela, Heather, Kirsten, Poindexter, Karen, Angie, Cherry, Josie, and Matt, as if they are in some kind of a commercial for a modeling agency. In the mid-credits scene, we see Frank luring in the stupidest cop in existence to try and escape from Fisk’s personal jail.
Season 2 Expectations
If you are wondering whether or not Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again is happening, allow me to tell you that, yes, it has been greenlit. Filming began some time in February 2025. But based on my cursory research, I think the team had shot for 17 or 18 episodes. Then they divided it into 2 “seasons,” with 9 in the first one and 8 in the second. However, due to several creative overhauls, they’ve had to rewrite and reshoot stuff. So, if the second season of this Disney+ show ends up being as hackneyed as Season 1, I won’t be surprised at all. What are the chances of it being good? Slim to none. As for the plotlines that’ll be potentially explored in Season 2, they are as follows. Matt and Karen are going to work with Angie, Cherry, and Kirsten to take on Fisk, his fascist task force, and whatever he is about to do through Red Hook by taking him to court. After Frank’s escape, he is probably going to join forces with Daredevil and maybe some other vigilantes to confront the task force with their fists while also putting a stop to all the illegal activities happening in Red Hook by any means necessary. Poindexter is going to do some soul-searching and not a whole lot of super-villain-ing. Angela is probably going to take on the mantle of White Tiger, because that’s what happens in the comics. Daniel will become more and more corrupt. BB Urich and Sheila will probably defect and try to join Matt’s team; I can see one of them biting the dust. I have a feeling that Heather won’t be in Season 2 because what’s even the point of that character anymore? I don’t think Buck is going to have a really prominent role; he is going to stay on the sidelines and be Fisk’s attack dog. Fisk and Vanessa are going to turn New York into a living hell, thereby prompting the people of the city to see how they have erred by supporting these two villains. Also, apparently Foggy will be heavily featured in Season 2, probably through flashbacks. However, if he is resurrected through some supernatural means, this IP is going to go from mildly tolerable to outright stupid. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the finale of Daredevil: Born Again and expectations from Season 2. If you want to opine on the same, please head over to the comments section below and type away.
