RECAP: ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 Episode 1 – “The Northern Star”

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1, “The Northern Star,” has a lot riding on it. The episode, directed by Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson and written by showrunner Dario Scardapane, follows a first season that was salvaged via reshoots from an ill-fated first attempt to soft-reboot the Daredevil character in live action while keeping its ties to the beloved Netflix series vague. The show was reconfigured as a direct continuation, which felt compromised by its patchwork nature. Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1 feels like it’s the first true continuation of the Netflix series. So, how does it stack up?

Following the explosive events of the Season 1 finale, the opening scene of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1 has not missed a beat. As a ship known as “The Northern Star” carrying weapons pulls into the freeport in Red Hook, where Mayor Wilson Fisk/The Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) is running his illicit operations, someone is waiting for them. This someone happens to be none other than Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox), boasting a sleek new black suit with two pronounced red ‘D’s on the front. Daredevil begins to lay waste to the crew of the ship. It registers awkwardly.

For as much as I appreciate the work of Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson, particularly their support for independent filmmakers whose work they often produce, the action in the episodes of Daredevil: Born Again that they’ve directed has been consistently sloppy compared to the original Netflix series. Moreover, the hyper-violent flourishes, like Matt Murdock snapping a man’s arm, feel out of place for the character. Still, the spectacle of it all is quite exciting, especially whenever the ship’s crew decide to sink the ship to prevent their manifest from being discovered. Daredevil narrowly escapes with his life.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1 starts off roughly where we left off.

The sinking of the Northern Star turns out to be a major victory against Fisk. As he stands on the port, looking on to the wreckage, he’s flanked by his team, including protege Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini), campaign director Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara), right-hand man Buck (Arty Froushan), and member of the newly-created Anti-Vigilante Task Force Connor Powell (Hamish Allan-Headley). Wilson Fisk bemoans that the ship wreckage will now cause trade to his freeport to be halted. He orders that the ship’s captain and first mate be found.

Matt clearly got the memo, as he goes to his secret hideout to embrace none other than Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) in a kiss. It looks as if these two are finally in a committed relationship. The fandom can breathe a sigh of relief. Despite their victory, they remain deeply cautious, realizing the walls are closing in on them and that they need to locate the boat’s captain and first mate before Fisk does. 

Speaking of The Kingpin, he holds a meeting with the Attorney General and the Lieutenant Governor of New York. As expected, they want to place some oversight on Fisk’s operations. The conversation is more or less ended by the arrival of a man known only as “Mr. Charles,” played by Matthew Lillard. A CIA operative and true weirdo, Lillard clearly relishes playing this role.

The sinking of the Northern Star has Fisk scrambling, yet he still keeps control of the city for now.

The moment where he tells the Attorney General that his plans for Fisk aren’t going to work, only for the Attorney General to receive a call from none other than Thunderbolts* antagonist Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, leaving Mr. Charles smirking, is a delicious arc moment. A further scene in which Mr. Charles offers his help to Fisk in maintaining the port’s stability while guaranteeing his employers’ free use of the port is just as great.

The way Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1 is building up Fisk’s circle of goons frequently borders on enthralling. Really, the show is doing a lot, perhaps too much at times, with its supporting cast. An example involves Jack Duquesne/Swordsman (Tony Dalton), who appeared in the Hawkeye miniseries, only to be revealed as a Fisk prisoner. Already, that’s a lot of info to take in. Now, Matt’s former love interest and current employee of Fisk, Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), is giving him a psych evaluation while also being haunted by visions of the man who tried to kill her, Muse. 

That’s already a lot, but when you throw in that Matt’s lawyer buddy Kirstin McDuffie (Nikki M. James) is apparently Duquesne’s lawyer as well, this goes beyond intricate plotting to be just plain overstuffed. Let’s take it one step further and have Kirstin’s lawyer adversary intimidate Heather into doctoring Duquesne’s psych eval as she slips further into madness over Muse. Now, Kudos to the Daredevil Born Again team for making better use of its supporting cast. A lot of these plot threads are interesting in isolation. Combined, there is simply too much going on, especially here in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1.

Multiple plot threads end up doing more than needed in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1.

One of the subplots that fares a bit better in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1, due to being given appropriate breathing room, is that of BB Urich (Genneya Walton). Urich has an interesting dynamic this season: she is making propaganda videos for the Fisk administration while also aiding the resistance. Despite this, and the fact that she’s using him, she still seems to have an affinity for Daniel Blake, which will no doubt lead to a dramatically interesting dissolution or perhaps strengthening of their relationship.

Of course, the meat of this episode is Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF), who use The Punisher’s iconic skull as their own symbol. After capturing and murdering one of The Northern Star’s crewmen, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1 wraps up in spectacular fashion, hinting at exciting prospects for the rest of the season. Cherry (Clark Johnson) is sitting at home when the AVTF breaks in. Questioning him as to why he’s investigating the Northern Star’s missing crew members, they appear ready to kill Cherry, only for Daredevil to bust in and start laying waste to them. 

The inclusion of Mr. Charlie adds an intriguing wild card to the mix.

Here, Aaron Moorhead & Justin Benson really lock in on the action. This closing fight is everything the opening fight wasn’t: desperate, perfectly choreographed to look like it’s a rough and tumble, on-the-fly scuffle, and featuring some of the best use of Daredevil’s iconic billy clubs in live action thus far. Unfortunately, too many of the AVTF who manage to unmask Matt Murdock are looking on in shock.

As the jig appears to be up, all the AVTF present are seemingly killed by little pieces of metal that come flying through the window. The last thing to come in is a knife, featuring the message “You’re Welcome” and a Bullseye symbol.

Could it be that Matt is about to collaborate with one of his greatest foes? Either way, I’m fully invested in the ride. Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1 suffers from trying to do way too much at once. Although it needs to let these storylines breathe, there’s a palpable sense of urgency and excitement here that’s hard not to fall in love with. There are a lot of kinks that need to be worked out, and I think that showrunner Dario Scardapane can do it. Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 clearly has a vision. Whether it’s worth seeing through, only time will tell.

Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 1 is now streaming on Disney+

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