Recap: New York City Descends Into Chaos in Season Finale of "Daredevil: Born Again"
After a shocking ending to last week’s episode of Marvel’s Daredevil: Born Again, we have reached the season finale. Matt Murdock just took a bullet for his greatest enemy, Wilson Fisk. But before he did, he learned a disturbing truth about the murder of his friend. Now, with the city on the brink of disaster, he has to find answers before it’s too late.
The episode opens with a flashback to a meeting between Vanessa and Bullseye in the institution where he has been committed. We learn here that Fisk was acquitted because of the FBI scandal after the events of the third season of Netflix’s Daredevil. This is the first explanation we have gotten as to why Fisk was free the next time we saw him. Vanessa says she can get Bullseye out as well, so long as he agrees to kill someone for her - Foggy Nelson and the client he is representing. Bullseye reluctantly agrees. We then see him shoot at Fisk again before Matt dives in front of him, taking the bullet.
After the title sequence, Matt wakes up in the hospital. Heather rushes to his side and Matt asks for Karen. Kirsten tells her it was just because of the drugs. Matt immediately begins explaining that Vanessa ordered the hit on Foggy and tries going right to work before Kirsten stops him.
Vanessa tries to tell Fisk about the ordered hit, but he tells her he already knows. Matt continues to explain what he knows but Kirsten and Heather keep trying to talk him down. Kirsten does tell him Foggy was going to be filing a motion to dismiss the case he was working on and Matt tries again to go and see it before Kirsten stops him again. Heather eventually leaves and Kirsten stays behind.
Fisk riles up his team in a meeting with Gallo, saying his task force will be encouraged to use lethal force against all vigilantes in a hunt for Bullseys. He says he is going to seal off the city and shut down the power for the night as they hunt down the man who shot at him. Sheila tries to talk some sense into him but he brushes her off. Fisk dismisses everyone except Buck and he asks him about Matt. When he learns Matt is alive he sends Buck to finish the job, giving the narrative a dead hero rather than a live vigilante.
Kirsten tells Matt they are going to have to have a serious conversation when this is all over before she leaves him alone in his hospital room. Meanwhile, Fisk meets with Sheila again. He orders her to clear the building of everyone who is not totally on board with his plan. Sheila bumps into Gallo in the halls and he tells her he is going to the governor in an attempt to stop Fisk. Sheila says she will beck him up.
Buck gets to the hospital and waits outside Matt’s door. Matt hears him coming and gets up out of his bed. Buck waits for the power to cut out and goes in to find an empty room. We see Matt get away before Buck pursues.
Matt gets back to his apartment and smiles before lying on the couch. He calls out to a mystery guest before we see that Frank Castle is waiting for him. Frank tells him he got a phone call asking him to go and help Matt survive the coming attack. Matt is aware the task force is coming for them and Frank tells him he is going to kill them when they come.
The task force gets to Matt’s apartment, led by Cole North. They breach the apartment and are eventually ambushed by Daredevil and the Punisher. Daredevil uses his usual non-lethal tactics while Frank is more than happy to violently kill every single person in his path. Daredevil asks him to stop but we then get an extraordinarily gruesome series of kills from the Punisher. Eventually, the entire task force is down, with North being the last one alive. Frank takes North’s radio and tries to convince Daredevil to kill him but he refuses. When Frank points his gun at North, Daredevil steps in front. They begin their typical morality debate but are interrupted when someone throws a grenade into the apartment. It appears we won’t be seeing more of Cole North’s story. Daredevil and Frank get away before a car pulls up behind them. Karen steps out and tells them both to get in.
Back at Frank’s bunker, he stitches himself up while Karen tends to Matt. She tells him when she heard Bullseye escaped, she called Frank and flew to New York. She and Frank has a brief, somewhat romantically-charged moment, playing off of their history from the Netflix series. Matt tells Karen about the hit on Foggy and they decide to go investigate the case he was working on. Frank refuses to go with them and stays behind, leading to some more tension between him and Karen.
Daniel and Buck meet with the New York City council to discuss Fisk’s safer street initiative. Daniel takes note of their negative feedback and points out that they are aware of some of their illegal dealings. He informs them Fisk will be addressing the city in a matter of hours to enact the initiative and hopes they support it.
The BB Report shows complete chaos in the city and we see a kid looting. Police officers stop him and shoot him before pulling his hat over his eyes in an attempt to say he was a masked vigilante.
Matt and Karen search a storage unit for Foggy’s case files. There’s another romantically-charged moment between the two of them. It’s a very confusing triangle going on here. Karen eventually finds the file and they see that Red Hook is a free port, exempt from any jurisdiction or law. Matt realizes the Fisks are trying to fortify a stronghold there so they can operate without law. Karen assumes Foggy stumbled on this but Matt thinks he may have been trying to point this out on purpose. They decide to investigate what Fisk is hiding at Red Hook.
Frank sits in his bunker and listens to North’s radio, hearing that the task force is meeting at Red Hook and decides to do something about it. Wearing his iconic skull, Frank marches right up to dozens of members of the task force and violently takes out several of them before they finally manage to put him down.
Sheila gives Fisk a recording of Gallo telling her his plan to go to the governor and stop Fisk. She is clearly uncomfortable with her own decision to do so, likely fearing for the consequences Gallo will face. Gallo gets into a car and asks to be driven home but sees that the driver is an officer he met as a rookie. He also notices a fresh Punisher tattoo on his neck.
The driver brings Gallo to Red Hook, where we see Frank is tied to chair. Powell sits down in front of him as a dozen or so more members of the task force stand behind him. Powell essentially offers Frank a job with them. Meanwhile, Buck brings Gallo to Fisk and a group of officers. Frank refuses the offer and Powell has another officer begin beating on him. Fisk begins beating Gallo himself and the commissioner drops to his knees. As Frank takes punch after punch, Fisk crushes Gallo’s head with his bare hands in what has to be the most gruesome moment ever made for Disney+.
Karen and Daredevil get to Red Hook and see that it is essentially a fortress, filled with task force officers. Daredevil tells Karen to stay down as he goes in but she talks him out of it. He eventually decides that in order to beat Fisk, they’re going to need an army.
The next morning, the power finally comes back on and Fisk meets with Heather in his office. He offers her a position as the administration's commissioner of mental health and she agrees.
Fisk delivers and address to the city, informing them of his safer streets initiative, which is now in effect. This means all of New York is subject to a curfew and the city is under martial law, which armed task force soldiers scattered throughout the city.
Matt and Karen talk in a back room at Josie’s about what happened the night Foggy died. Karen tells him Foggy knew him and she does too, reassuring Matt that what he’s doing is right. They step out into the bar to find Josie, a group of officers, detective Kim and Cherry. The Fisks walk through an underground prison they’ve constructed in Red Hook, they are keeping a number of the wealthy elite we’ve met recently, as well as Jack Duquesne. We also see Frank Castle in one of the cells. They make their way down to the room where Adam was being kept, and enjoy a fancy meal.
Daredevil talks to his new army, instilling hope as he gets them ready for a fight against Fisk to take the city back. We see that Kirsten has Foggy’s file on Red Hook, likely ready to pick up his work. We also see that Bullseye has returned to his old apartment. Daredevil stands in the bar with his new army as the season comes to a close.
We do get a mid-credits scene though. Frank manages to convince one of the guards to shake his hand. Of course, that doesn’t end well for the guard as Frank brutally breaks his arm in an attempt to escape his cell.
While this finale reached a new level of intensity in more ways than one, it does feel as though it fell a bit flat in the end. Daredevil saying he needs an army is sure to have the minds of Marvel fans racing as they consider who he might recruit. When that answer ends up being just a few police officers and a bar owner, there’s a level of disappointment that comes with that. Still, this first season of Daredevil: Born Again lived up to its Netflix predecessor and there is still a stage set for more exciting Marvel team-ups in the future. Come on, with all of this happening in New York City, some other super heroes are bound to take notice.