This want for Vanessa’s gun, of course, stems from the resurfacing of Benjamin Poindexter (Wilson Bethel). Last week, he saved Daredevil from the Anti-Vigilante Task Force; now, he’s gunning for the AVTF with a zeal that has the Fisk administration shook and Vanessa having nightmares cast in Bullseye blue. In an appropriately twisted sort of way, he represents a theme that permeates the episode—the idea of ghosts and how they haunt the just and unjust alike. Take the opening church scene where Ben asks a seminarian for absolution. Look at his face: what is left for anyone to save? Is there a person still in there? Is this slaughter of Fisk’s private army just a means to destroy the man who took everything from him, or is there something else lurking inside him screaming to be free? How many ways can Bullseye make Fisk suffer before the end? And will Daredevil step between them again?
Another ghost appears this week in the form of Hector Ayala, a.k.a. White Tiger (Kamar de los Reyes), whose memory empowers his niece, Angela (Camila Rodriguez), after she witnesses her mother being forcibly taken by the AVTF. Furious, she goes to the offices of Murdock & McDuffie to collect her uncle’s belongings—including the medallion believed to give him his strength. It remains to be seen which battles this new White Tiger will choose, but it’s notable that the motivation behind Angela’s rise as a vigilante deliberately echoes the violence seen on the streets of Minneapolis and Chicago. The way this sequence is framed, from the aggressiveness of the AVTF to her neighborhood’s righteous anger, is a parallel impossible to miss. “It’s hard to be a hero these days, huh?” Angela asks Karen McDuffie (Nikki M. James).
It’s a question that Murdock isn’t quite prepared to answer in “The Scales & The Sword.” The explosion that finally put the Northern Star at the bottom of the East River, primed by Powell (Hamish Allan-Headley) and ordered by Kingpin, is the latest example of the “ten-dimensional chess” Fisk is playing. For him, the deaths of all the people clearing the freighter are theater—shock and awe for his constituency, to whom he’ll declare that Daredevil and the “vigilantes” he released from Red Hook are guilty of the blast. Obfuscation, spin, and the legitimacy of his office are Fisk’s tools of control, bestowed by a system that Murdock still adheres to. His plan was to share evidence of the freighter’s illicit cache with the public. Instead, by following his outdated rules of right and wrong, Daredevil played into Kingpin’s hand.
It’s interesting how the start of the episode highlights how obsolete Murdock’s modus operandi has become since Fisk expanded his power. As we saw during last week’s finale, Karen escalated matters by dragging the AVTF agent she knocked out into the resistance’s hideout—one of “the good ones,” she suggests in not so many words. Her plan bears fruit: Their hostage has a Red Hook keycard and claims allegiance with the resistance. With the next phase of their plan in place, Karen obsessively scans her conspiracy board, behavior that Murdock observes as reminiscent of Frank Castle/Punisher (Jon Bernthal) with flickers of concern and, maybe, a smidge of jealousy. (It might explain why he argues his points with his abs out.)
If little else, this evocation of Castle provides some nice dramatic tension between Murdock and Karen. “You’re turning into [him,]” he tells her, and she doesn’t deny it. Karen’s time with Frank during Netflix’s Punisher series, coupled with the death of Ben Urich (Vondie Curtis-Hall) and her killing of Fisk’s former right-hand, James Wesley (Toby Leonard Moore), has shifted her view on how justice is done. She doesn’t say it directly, but what Karen has planned for Fisk is more about revenge than justice. “Murder is not how we win this,” Murdock says. There is still a system to protect, he insists, even if—especially if—Fisk is currently running roughshod all over it.
Spend any time thinking about Murdock and Karen’s differing philosophies and you’ll start poking big, fat holes in the logic of Born Again. That’s the trouble with superhero shows that dabble in gritty realism. Their characters’ values must inevitably align with the MCU’s right/wrong binary, which makes their darker, more complex impulses often feel contrived. Take this episode’s confusing case of Matt Murdock, who oscillates from “the system works” to referring to the televised Swordsman trial as a “mockery of the justice system.” Without those visits to the confessional from Daredevil season one, Matt’s inner turmoil doesn’t read as a man at war with his violent instincts but rather a big dummy whose unfocused belligerence usually just makes matters worse. Is he supposed to be seen as rational compared to Karen?
Here’s a question for our counselor: If the system still works, flawed though it may be, then why must there be a Daredevil? He doesn’t fight genocidal madmen from the stars or mutated lizard-men or even bank robbers tottering around on titanium stilts. He fights corruption and upholds laws—and he once accomplished all this as an attorney. Murdock’s nightlife—fighting ninjas, punching cops—wouldn’t exist if he didn’t believe on some level that the city needs maniac do-gooders like him and even worse ones like Frank Castle. Without personal introspection, his single-mindedness recalls those circuitous arguments with Frank, which underscore that the Punisher knows exactly who he is, while Daredevil has yet to figure that out. From where Karen stands, only one of them makes sense.
Stray observations
- • I was noticing this during the premiere, but there’s something choppy about the edits so far this season. There’s little artistry or flow to certain scenes, among them that opening bit with Fisk and his trainer. Ironically, considering what happens to the guy, the moment lacks punch.
- • BB Urich (Genneya Walton) is revealed as the culprit behind those bizarre videos criticizing the mayor.
- • Nice to hear that Sister Maggie (Joanne Whalley) is alive and well—and in Rome to boot. But it’s frustrating that the first person to set foot in a Catholic church this season is Bullseye, not Matt Murdock.
- • As to letting the system do its work, Karen sends that ancient Red Hook charter Fisk tried to bury last season to the state governor, Marge McCaffrey (Lili Taylor), who swings by city hall for a tense back-and-forth with the mayor.
- • Speaking of which, if you’re looking for a solid double-feature as counterprogramming to this week’s episode, I recommend Mystic Pizza and Household Saints, both co-starring Vincent D’Onofrio and Lili Taylor.
- • The ongoing disintegration of Dr. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) continued apace this week, with her traumatic obsession with the serial killer Muse taking a disturbing turn. Where did she get that mask? Did the mayor give it to her as a “welcome aboard” gift? Is she…um…gonna wear it?
- • McDuffie has one on Murdock: She can practice law blindfolded and in high heels.
- • The idea that Punisher is still bombing around New York feels off. Everything we see the AVTF do seems concentrated in or around Red Hook. With all the violence at play, you’d think Frank would be in the thick of it, especially considering Fisk’s goons still brandish his logo. Frank must be chopping up Fisk subordinates over in Coney Island or something. We’ll find out soon—just not on Born Again. Don’t get me started on the conspicuously absent Spider-Man.
- • Terrific scenes with Buck this week. The hot-dog bit with Blake suggests a connection that practically begs to be severed with extreme prejudice, given the BB situation.
- • Also, Michael Gandolfini is doing incredible work this season.
- • Buck is very Fassbender-esque.
- • Fisk is preparing for his big fight—and I caught a very quick glimpse at a promotional poster for the match, which might be the most on-the-nose echo of real-world horseradish from Born Again yet.
- • Josie’s jukebox: Barbara Acklin’s “Love Makes A Woman.” So much stock music this week!
Jarrod Jones is a contributor to The A.V. Club.
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