Storytime with Rachel F Hundred

A tapestry with many threads as the show delivers great storytelling.

Spoiler Warning for Daredevil: Born Again, Season 2

The second season of Daredevil: Born Again (2025-) is without doubt an improvement over the first season in its narrative cohesion. Supported by a continuing brilliant production where everything from cast to crew, costumes to set design, score to make-up, cinematography to stunt choreography is done to a high standard, the series really shines in building a tapestry for its storytelling which balances the characters beautifully. That’s not to say that there are not flaws but there are few and far between.

Let’s stick with the major flaws first. For me, the first flaw is unfortunately with the finale. It just did not land for me as a whole. There are elements of it which are very good in isolation but there are too many things which lack realism in a way which takes me out of the story and lessens my overall enjoyment. Normally the show is good at keeping a gritty realism while still being a comic book story. Here, the courtroom aspects are just too unrealistic to allow me to suspend my disbelief. The idea of trapping Wilson Fisk with his crimes on the stand in a courtroom showdown is definitely a concept I can get behind, but ultimately it fails in its execution for me.

The show has struggled with its fictional courtroom scenes in both seasons. The White Tiger scenes last season, the last couple of episodes here. The trial of the Swordsman was better, but it had a clear narrative that the courtroom was rigged and therefore usual courtroom process was always going to be disregarded. As someone who loves legal dramas and who counts A Few Good Men (1992) among their favourite films, the lack of good legal drama writing jars. While the ending suggests we won’t be seeing Matt Murdock in a courtroom for a while, I really hope that they improve this aspect if they show do set scenes in the courtroom again.

The sheer violence of Kingpin towards civilians in that final showdown makes his exile feel too light a punishment and it is an unsatisfying conclusion for me. I would have preferred that both Matt and Wilson went to prison at the end (maybe different prisons, maybe the same one, but prison) – both of them paying for their past crimes, regardless of how much they might have believed in the righteousness of their actions. I think the symmetry of that would have felt better to me than where we leave it in the show – even if the theme of them both losing New York, both of them losing their loved ones, and having some consequence to their actions is in that denouement.

The final flaw for me is what they do with the character of Heather Glenn. The slide of Heather into Fisk’s circle during season one is continued here as she slides further into corruption with her testimony on the Swordsman. Her further mental decline into Muse 2.0 is well-shown, it just all feels a little too like a repetition of Harley Quinn, and it distorts the original comic story of Muse 2.0 too much out of its frame for me. I think Heather sticking around as one of Fisk’s entourage and her budding relationship with Fisk’s very competent enforcer Buck would have been sufficient, but I appreciate they are laying the seeds for season three even if I’d preferred not to have the story go in this direction. I also found Margarita Levieva’s performance didn’t land as well for me this season. In the courtroom scene she barely reacts when Matt declares himself to be Daredevil.

On the minor flaw front, I would have liked more thought given to the realism of locking people into cages in their same clothes. Many of the people rescued looked too healthy, their clothes (the same ones they wore when arrested) looked too clean, etc. Putting them into jumpsuits, showing more of a prison-like existence with meal times, etc. might have helped offset this. Additionally, the Karen-Matt romance aspect felt very underdeveloped; it was fine but that is all it was – fine. And it is hard to be fine when in all other respects the show was excellent.

Last season, they managed to patchwork the season’s narrative together post a change in direction, helped by a spine of Matt and Wilson slowly descending back into their alter egos and being born again as Daredevil and Kingpin. This season they did not have to contend with changing creative direction mid-way, having to make the most of storylines already filmed, and trying to meld different tones and characters. Here everything was woven into a well-embroidered tapestry.

There are the minor threads from season one which are picked back up for the second – the disillusioned AVT cop who turns on the AVT, Cole North and Officer Powell, Cherry and the other good cops, the legacy of the White Tiger passing to his niece, and the Swordsman. These threads are woven together in a way which makes them a small but meaningful part of the story without taking over the main plot or subplots.

The best subplot for me was the story of BB, Daniel and Buck. Having left the first season with the sense that BB wasn’t really well-used, here the story builds on the relationship between Daniel played by Michael Gandolfini and BB played by Genneya Walton. The dynamic was one of the best things about the characters and here they get to continue the push-pull of friends who use each other vs friends who actually care and who might feel a little more about each other.

Daniel’s arc is the central thread. His love for Fisk, his descent into corruption for the sake of his own power was already well-drawn. The expectation of the audience is that he will continue sliding into corruption, with the threat of Buck, played by Arty Froushan, helping him along the way. Yet there is also a developing working relationship between Buck and Daniel where it is clear that Buck is growing fond of Daniel. The finale of the subplot at the end of episode seven when Daniel saves BB and goes to Buck knowing that he will likely die is tremendously well done. There is tension first in whether Daniel will truly handover BB to Buck (and he doesn’t which plays against expectation); there is tension then in whether Daniel will simply receive the beating of his life, whether Buck is fond enough to save him, and there is shock when Buck does ultimately shoot him.

In interviews since the episode aired, it has come to light that Buck originally did not kill Daniel, but that the showrunner Dario Scardapane changed his mind. I think Daniel dying was the right call. It was a perfect redemption arc for the character; a perfect end for him. It was shocking and played against expectation. I loved it. The performances from all three actors were wonderful right across the season.

The second subplot which really worked was the addition of Jessica Jones, with Krysten Ritter reprising the role, to support Matt. Her presence answers the question of ‘where are the other Defenders?’ and, more broadly, provides another superhero to balance out the complaint of the more general ‘where are the other superheroes when this is going down?’ – because there is a wider MCU backdrop to Daredevil, even more so now than with the Netflix version.

The show takes the opportunity to show what has happened to Jessica since – a romance with Luke Cage, a daughter Danielle, and her powers going a little wonky post childbirth. A family is a good reason to have gotten out of the city and away from Fisk and the madness, and an attack on her and her daughter is a good excuse to bring her back to help Matt and to resolve her own predicament of being pulled into the mess.

I think there was just enough of a sprinkling of Jessica that it works overall. She doesn’t become front and centre in a way that Punisher did in the finale of the first season. She complemented Matt, supported Matt, challenged him at times, and always remained ‘supporting character’ rather than lead. It was well judged.

The third subplot which was well-judged was the continuing tale of Bullseye, played with aplomb by Wilson Bethel. While his return is set-up early in the season when he helps rescue Matt from the ATV, “Gloves Off” reintroduces him back into the narrative more fully as he goes after Vanessa. The continuing tale in “The Grand Design” with Matt saving him, leaning into mercy despite Bullseye killing Foggy is just wonderful. I loved that particular episode with the flashbacks to Matt and Foggy (reprised again by Elden Henson).

The subplot also works because it is not a redemption arc. Bullseye is not a good guy. It is framed as him doing one good thing to balance the books in some small way. Ultimately that Bullseye ends up going with Mister Charles, the shady government fixer (played fantastically by Matthew Lillard) is a satisfying resolution. Bullseye will continue to occupy the grey space of morality doing shady things.

While the main plot did not have such a satisfying resolution for me, the continuing spine of the toxic push-pull of Daredevil and Kingpin is one which works well for the show and season. I loved their confrontation at the end of “The Grand Design” where Matt makes explicit that they need to disengage if New York is to win. In many ways, it helps to sell the finale ending where Matt begs Wilson to take the exile deal and leave. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio continue to do outstanding performances.

It also helps the main plot that both Matt and Wilson are ably supported by strong women with their own agency who are challenge them. Karen is more than a love interest for Matt, she’s running the rebellion. Vanessa is Wilson’s heart but also his partner in crime, and her storyline which ends in her death is poignant and destabilises Wilson in a wonderfully natural way. Deborah Woll and Ayelet Zurer also turn in brilliant performances.

Indeed, all the cast and crew are clearly putting their best foot forward for the show and the quality of the performances and production is shown and felt in the execution of the story. It is a joy to watch this season and see everything beautifully woven together without the seams of the patchwork job they’d had to create in the first season.

Finally, I have to note that the wider societal themes of the ATV being lawless and disappearing people, the authoritarian Fisk and his regime, it all hits hard with the current state of the American government and the recent deaths of civilians because of confrontations with American immigration enforcement agencies. It speaks very much to the current news cycle.

In conclusion

The second season is a definite step up from the first, and it provides a good clean slate for the already commissioned third season. I’m excited to see where they will take the characters and to see a continuing quality show with a well-woven story.  

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