When Daredevil (Charlie Cox) tossed Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) off the roof of Josie’s Bar during the premiere of Daredevil: Born Again, it felt like the last we’d see of Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter—at least until next season. In “Isle Of Joy,” Bullseye makes a violent return just as the Fisks (Vincent D’Onofrio and Ayelet Zurer) ascend to what can only be called a municipal monarchy. This very busy season of Born Again grows busier by the episode, and this week might be its busiest yet. However, the messiness evident in earlier installments has been somewhat ironed out this week. Instead of feeling convoluted, the overwhelming wave of converging subplots creates a swell of dread that should compound exponentially in next week’s season finale. Born Again has escalated its stakes. Naturally, Matt Murdock decided he’d suffer more than anyone, his hated nemesis included.
Barring the assistance of a Deus ex Punisher (Jon Bernthal), I don’t think Murdock has much chance of mounting a defense against Kingpin before the end of this season, especially with that slug in his left shoulder and Fisk’s anti-vigilante task force lording over Commissioner Gallo (Michael Gaston). Bullseye’s assassination attempt on Wilson Fisk comes at the absolute worst time for everyone, as the mayor consolidates his power, reconciles with his wife, and gets generous with his promotions. (Meet Deputy Mayor Of Communications Daniel Blake—god help us.) There’s no longer any pretense of civic duty when he sits behind Fiorello La Guardia’s desk; this week, Wilson Fisk made his public debut as Kingpin, reborn.
Before I discuss the evening’s main event, let me rewind to Bullseye. Since Foggy Nelson’s (Elden Henson) murder, Dex has enjoyed the state’s hospitality under ESH: “Enhanced Supervision.” “We used to call it cops, snitches, and psychos,” one guard says. “Which one are you, Poindexter?” Bullseye doesn’t have an answer, and it wouldn’t have mattered if he did. He is no longer ESH but SOL, a former fed who’s just been tossed into the prison’s general population—a death sentence, in theory.
With his scenes drenched in blue, an effort to explore Dex’s psychopathy carries over from the third season of Netflix’s Daredevil. He’s a federal agent no more. With his jaw clenched, he is hardly a snitch, which Murdock should probably appreciate. But what is a psycho with extraordinary abilities in a world where everyone has a gimmick? It’s clear from his appearances this week that Bullseye is reticent to go full supervillain. Still, with his move to new prison digs, fate has forced his lethal hands, which, for now, remain bound in those jail mittens of his.
That is, fate and his former mentor and benefactor, Kingpin, who spends the first moments of “Isle Of Joy” rekindling some magic in his marriage. Both public and private funding for his ambitious Red Hook project is a go, which has the mayor of New York feeling sentimental. “I know that I haven’t probably acknowledged all that you’ve done,” he tells his wife, who sighs. With upstart gangster Luca (Patrick Murney) now dead, Kingpin’s criminal operations can work in tandem with the next phase of his mayorship, whatever shape that may ultimately take (probably not a good one).
Red Hook will keep. In the meantime, we learn what Fisk has planned for Vanessa as a form of apology, which, wildly enough, is to show her that he didn’t have Adam (Lou Taylor Pucci), her offscreen lover, killed. Wilson simply caged Adam and beat him (growth). Cuckolding Kingpin happened at both the best and worst time for Adam. Had he and Vanessa fooled around back in those gnarly Netflix days, Fisk may have tortured him some, sure, but he would have put him out of his misery. Instead, Adam has become a demented therapy tool for an estranged couple who also happen to be among the deadliest people in New York City. “If I cannot be with you, Vanessa…I cannot be,” Wilson tells his wife. She decides Adam’s fate for everyone.
It’s amusing that as the Fisks reconcile, Murdock and Dr. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) hit the rocks. Heather’s still reeling from last week’s Muse debacle, which resulted in the shooting death of her former patient. “I think I’m starting to understand how that violence transfers from Daredevil to Muse to me,” she says, processing her trauma in the practical ways a professional therapist might. Her boyfriend, meanwhile, feels slighted by the comparison made between a serial killer graffiti guy and the Devil Of Hell’s Kitchen. As this late-season rush toward the finale accelerates, Matt and Heather’s relationship, for dramatic reasons, seems doomed to die: Clock that sullen look on Murdock’s mug when she describes Daredevil and Muse as “underdeveloped boys hiding behind masks trying to make it look [sophisticated].” Is that disgust? “Daredevil saved you!” he protests. Heather’s response: “I saved me.”
Let’s examine Matt’s return as Daredevil from Dr. Glenn’s perspective, as her assertion that Daredevil is simply out there for himself is insightful. Why did Matt choose to don the horns again, now, to stop a random nerd like Muse and not, say, the cop who killed White Tiger? Matt’s lust for justice is nothing new in either Daredevil series; in fact, his need to go out at night and pummel criminals into paste has been a source of profound guilt for him throughout his vigilante career. It creates a social tunneling effect that prevents him from appreciating the good things in his life, including the troubled girlfriend in front of him. His justifiable hatred for Fisk has warped his judgment many times in the past. And while Foggy’s death drives his latest fall from grace, his fury allows Fisk to exploit this wedge between Matt and Heather later in the episode. Who is Daredevil? A crusader for justice or an empty vessel for Matt Murdock’s rage?
Now to the offices of Murdock & McDuffie, where Matt expresses some of these frustrations simmering within him since the White Tiger case went awry. “We’re babysitting chaos,” he tells his partner, Kristen (Nikki M. James). “What we do? It feels useless.” This sentiment accompanies him to Josie’s, where he shares a drink with the proprietor (Susan Varon) and, while hashing things out with Cherry (Clark Johnson), gets a big clue about why Bullseye murdered Foggy. Sipping on the O’Melveny’s that Foggy and Matt used to enjoy after winning a case, he recalls that Fog ordered the same whiskey the night he died—but can that be right? “How many oceans of Irish do you think I serve here? I know what my people drink,” Josie insists. If Foggy believed he was about to win his case—which involved Red Hook, as you’ll recall—it can’t be a coincidence that Bullseye would kill him the night before the trial. Cui bono? Do I have to ask?
Let me explore Matt and Dex’s little chat. When Foggy’s name is mentioned, Bullseye looks away and changes the subject. He evades responsibility for Foggy’s death, but he isn’t bragging about the deed, either. Whatever evil lurks in Bullseye’s heart, it has nothing to do with destroying Daredevil. By the end of Daredevil season three, he’d already done that. “In another life, you might be defending me,” Bullseye says. “‘Cause that’s what good men do, right? Defend their worst enemies?” Murdock, who’s been tottering over the edge all season, responds by smashing Dex’s face on the table before them. Little does Matt realize that his tantrum will soon cost him big. (Who knew that a loose tooth spat just so from Bullseye’s mouth would free the maniac to kill again?)
Now we arrive at the night’s main event: the Fisk ball, featuring a tracking shot that assembles all the players in tonight’s sordid melodrama. There’s Blake, brimming with optimism after his promotion, flexing to Fisk advisor Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara) and BB Urich (Genneya Walton), both of whom appear justifiably terrified that this smarmy prick now wields power he absolutely should not have. Then come the Fisks, dressed in bold whites and reds, the monarchs of New York.
From here, events unfold rapidly. Bullseye bee-lines for Fisk’s ball and is narrowly beaten by Murdock, who, I suppose, went straight from bashing Dex’s mush to putting on a tux for the ball. (The man keeps a funny schedule this week.) As he arrives in time for Heather to accuse him of checking out on their relationship, his superhearing comically drifts to Fisk’s latest meeting with Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton), where the Swordsman is extorted for additional Red Hook funding out of fear of being detained by Fisk’s task force. Kingpin, taking in one petitioner at a time to have them kiss the ring, is feeling cocky, and so do his men, a fact that Gallo discovers to his woe. Watching Officer Powell (Hamish Allan-Headley) deep fry a reporter’s hand for sneaking into the ball is a sobering moment for the commissioner, who realizes he’s ceded control of his officers to the worst man alive. “This is a dereliction of duty!” he protests. Powell’s chilling response: “Go have a fuckin’ canapé.”
This prompts a chance meeting between the police and the press, as Gallo and BB engage in a dangerous conversation about the mayor’s misdeeds amid his garden of snakes. Initially, they test each other, with Gallo pointing out that BB spun the Muse killing to make it seem like the task force was responsible. “When did you become Fisk’s minister of propaganda?” he asks. BB has a zinger for him: “Right around the time you became the head of his SS, I figure.” Next comes trust, and he asks the young reporter if she knew the mayor as a primary suspect in her uncle’s death back in Daredevil season one. “Yeah. Why do you think I’m here?” Thus begins the resistance.
As for Matt, he gets his Godfather II moment, cutting in on the Fisks’ dance to accuse Vanessa of orchestrating Foggy’s death. This revelation doesn’t seem to faze her much (“Does Heather know you’re Daredevil?” she asks, tweaking his tie), but Matt looks hellbent on ruffling Kingpin’s feathers during his triumphant moment, just as Kingpin feels compelled to inform Heather about her demented boyfriend’s nightlife. Both might have succeeded, too, had Bullseye not taken his shot. The parallelism in this week’s ending is worth noting, with Bullseye shooting Matt, his wound mirroring Foggy’s, and Heather looming over him as Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) once did for her fallen friend. Then there’s the inverted final shot, where all is red, and Matt’s perspective is upside-down—staring, perhaps, into Hell. All that remains is the question: Why did Matt take a bullet for Kingpin? Because that’s what good men do?
Stray observations
- • It is also worth noting that Matt, in his manic state, might have thrown his body in front of Kingpin because he couldn’t do it for Foggy.
- • Buck tells us that vigilante crime has decreased 30 percent since the Task Force was deployed. Who have they deterred? Is Spider-Man hiding in his tiny apartment? Did Punisher sleep in for once?
- • Poor Kristen McDuffie has been demoted to Exposition Partner at her firm all season. This week, she updated Matt on the Bullseye developments and then disappeared.
- • “Sir, I will burn for you,” Blake tells his boss. Fisk: “I know you will.” Grim bit of foreshadowing?
- • Note the thirsty look sober Cherry gives the bottle from which Matt keeps pouring shots. It’s a nice, subtle, revealing character moment from a most gifted character actor.
- • “He didn’t use his cane!” “I didn’t notice.”
- • Why did the reporter have his flash on? Does he not know his Apple phone can’t illuminate an entire dance hall?
- • Josie’s jukebox: Hanne Kolsto’s “Stillness And Panic,” The Velvet Note’s “December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night),” Whitney Shay’s “Ain’t No Weak Woman,” Hal Leonard Band’s “Manhattan,” and Kiril Dzajkovski’s “Brothel Tango.”
- • “It’s very fancy on ol’ Delancey Street…” It wouldn’t have hurt to change the lyric to “ol’ Yancy Street.” I’m just saying.
