'Daredevil: Born Again' Episode 9 Review

Marvel

Apr 16

It has all come down to this. The finale for Season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again had to pay off setup from across this whole season, a carefully built slow burn of mystery, relationships and choices. We think many of these have been handled well, and there is still more story to come in a sure-to-be dramatic second season to the show. Let’s now explore Episode 9, “Straight to Hell,” more closely.

WARNING: This review will contain MAJOR spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again.

Let’s start by tackling the immediate aftermath of Episode 8. With Matthew Murdoch having stepped in the way to prevent Benjamin Pointdexter, aka Bullseye’s, shot from hitting Mayor Wilson Fisk, we pick up with our two leads mere hours on from the incident. On Matt’s side, he remains dead focused on Foggy’s case from the start of this season to the continued detriment of his relationship with Heather. But on Fisk’s side, we get a shocking revelation: he knew Vanessa ordered the hit on Foggy. And he’s never changed. His front, all season long, was a falsehood. He’d had criminal intentions since day one.

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The following scene calls back to some of the history of New York City discussed early on this season regarding Mayor Fiorello La Guardia. A man who fought the corruption of Tammany Hall, Fisk notes his father had respect for La Guardia, and Fisk’s office desk in the show is meant to be the same one used by that public figure. But now, Fisk has fully subverted and corrupted the office, a twisted version of La Guardia’s energetic tackling of issues to instead push a secret criminal agenda. Fisk has now more openly embraced his positions as both mayor and mob boss, and the city is all the worse off for it.

At the same time, Matt’s world has crumbled. The past year of his life has been revealed to have been built on a misunderstanding of that violent night when he, Foggy, and Karen were separated from each other by death and grief. His attempt to be normal, to live in rejection of the past, has fully failed. But, he cannot rise to the role of Daredevil anymore, not without greater complications to his personal life.

The contrasts between Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdoch across this season have truly been an excellent narrative device for this show. Both have been born again, Matt through Foggy’s death, and Fisk after the events of shows like Hawkeye. After a year of struggle and work, Fisk has now combined his roles, and Matt has found a renewed conviction in his mission after having witnessed the suffering his departure caused, and the failures of the system he tried to fully devote himself to for a year.

Now, this episode is not perfect. But to discuss the small elements that don’t work would truly be picking apart small details of the overall episode, and some contain larger spoilers. The one big element that doesn’t work, and might even be considered an active troll by Marvel, is also a spoiler and can be saved for discussion at a later time. As it stands, this particular finale episode hits many great notes and has elements that are sadly deeply connected to very recent political events that make the episodes immensely relatable. The characters have reached a dramatic crescendo, and it will be interesting to see where the storytelling takes them in the years to come.

Review: 9/10

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