Movies & TV Daredevil: Born Again Nothing to Fear and Nothing to Doubt: The Daredevil: Born Again Finale Pays it All Off Come on, Wilson, tell Matt he’s your hero! By Leah Schnelbach | Published on May 6, 2026 Credit: Marvel Studios Comment 0 Share New Share Credit: Marvel Studios Season two of Daredevil: Born Again stuck the landing in its finale! For all that I’ve had many issues with this season (I’m sure you’ve noticed all the CAPSLOCK and all the !!!!s) “The Southern Cross”, written by Dario Scardapane & Jesse Wigutow, and directed by Iain B. MacDonald, brought all the storylines together and delivered both an excellent ending and an excellent set up for the third season, which is already filming. A Spoilery Recap We open in the courthouse where Kirsten says they can start even though Matt is late. Karen is very obviously bruised from her encounter with Heather Glenn. Meanwhile, Jess is patching Matt up, and he seems to have an epiphany about being in Fisk’s crosshairs. At Gracie Mansion, Buck informs Fisk that Daniel’s dead via a sad but stoic expression. This causes Fisk to wax philosophical. “I think I’m only just now understanding the responsibility of someone who’s elected by millions—chosen by millions of New Yorkers.” DUDE. You really needed to think this all through better in that after-credits sequence of Echo. Come on. Over in the courthouse, Heather Glenn is gleefully telling Hochberg that Karen has “antisocial personality disorder”—“what we used to refer to as a sociopath,” Hochberg adds. Just then the door opens, and Matt limps in, covered in bruises and full of apologies for his tardiness. The judge asks if he’s all right, and he replies, “I am outstanding.” To Kirsten and Karen he says “I’m OK, just… shot in the leg.” In a building across from the courthouse, men in masks run up stairs. Hochberg has Heather read from her book about vigilantism, and, look, I’m sorry, but what she reads is not insightful enough to be published. Like, oh, does the mask reveal a person’s true character? You mean the point Oscar Wilde made like 140 fucking years ago? Matt questions her, and also raises the idea that Karen was assaulted by somebody, she’s covered in bruises, whomever was alone in a room with her for a while? Hochberg screams “Objection!” every five seconds, and the judge sustains him each time. Across the street, a man in a blue mask men sets up a sniper rifle. Is that…? But back in the courtroom, Matt barely contains his glee as he pivots and calls a new witness. “The Defense calls Mayor Wilson Fisk!” Oh SHIT. The doors swing open, and we hear Omen-esque chanting on the soundtrack, and Fisk’s booming footfalls, and then he taking the oath and Matt is smiling to himself when they get to “So help you God” as he listens to Fisk’s steady, booming heartbeat. The AVTF file in and line the whole back of the room. Not ominous at all. No one’s asked him anything yet, but Wilson tells the court, “When I was a boy, I was taught to find the biggest boy and bring him down,” and just as I’m hoping he’s about to break into a spoken word rendition of “Black Parade” he pivots by saying that “no man stands as tall as this courthouse. This institution.” Across the street, another man walks into the room and takes everyone down by throwing daggers, including the masked sniper. “Poser,” Bullseye snickers as he steps behind the gun. Back in court, Fisk just goes off about the Safer Streets Initiative for a while, and they let him talk himself out. He’s finally gotten big enough that he doesn’t see the trap in front of him. Credit: Marvel Studios Then they brings in the testimony from the late Christofi Savva, and they go into the judges’ chambers to discuss it. Matt hears Wilson murmuring threats at him, and he murmurs back “I could say the same thing,” apparently forgetting that Fisk does not have super-hearing. The Judges hear him though, and he spins it into a commentary on Hochberg and the case, and when someone mentions a possible appeal, Hochberg snaps “There’s not going be an appeal!” Matt lights up like it’s Christmas morning—or wait, sorry, this is Matt we’re talking about, he lights up like it’s Ash Wednesday morning—and says “You’re saying that out loud??? In front of the judges???” He turns to the judges, who do look pretty annoyed. “You want to just hand Fisk the robes and gown???” They tell him he can play the footage of Saava. This, naturally, breaks everything open. Matt goes on the offensive, and grills Fisk about his criminal dealings as Fisk mutters and seems just about to out him. Except, of course, if Fisk admits that he knows he’s Daredevil, well, he himself was aiding and abetting a vigilante, no? So he’s kind of done this to himself. Matt asks about the Safer Streets Initiative, what if means if the public think Daredevil is a hero, and then: “I took a bullet for you. Am I a hero?” Fisk balks at replying, and Matt pivots again. He asks Fisk directly abut the Northern Star, about running weapons through the freeport, and asks whether he ordered the ship scuttled if the plan was exposed. Hochberg, who is so far out of his depth he’s in fucking Antarctica, sputters at Fisk not to answer.   Fisk melts down and screams that “You don’t get to know what comes through our port!” Matt reminds Fisk and the room that as long as there’s another living witness to the scuttling they can corroborate Saava’s testimony, and hammers home the idea that Daredevil was on the boat. Fisk finally understands what’s about to happen and stares at Matt. He’s impressed, really really angry, and I think at least a little in love. “You are a fool.” “No, I’m not. I am Daredevil,” Matt says. The crowd goes bananas. Hochberg yells “Objection!!!” which makes no damn sense. What are you objecting to, sir? This isn’t about you, shut up. The judge agrees with me, tells Hochberg to can it, and allows Matt to point out that the court isn’t a real court, and is unfit to rule on the Safer Streets Initiative, since it was set up by a man who has now just admitted to committing a list of crimes longer than the goddamn Cheesecake Factory menu. The judge finally says, “Daredevil or not, Mr. Murdock is right.” Matt, almost in tears, says, “I move for a dismissal,” and the judge dismisses the case against Karen. Karen cries, Matt cries, they kiss, Fisk is vibrating with fury, it’s all pretty great. As they pour our of the room, the Governor tells Fisk he needs to resign, but he pushes back of course, and all of them move together toward the front door, even though that’s a terrible idea and half the people in this room should know to stay away from him cause he’s now a cornered bull. Jessica says “Watch yourself, kingpin,” for some reason, even though that doesn’t really sound like something she’s say. Except then in a mad rush of chaos, Matt hears Powell give an order, realizes he’s been set up and they have a sniper waiting for him, but also that now Bullseye is up there instead, and tries to stop Wilson from walking into a bullet. Bullseye shoots and hits Buck, some of the AVTF thugs hustle Fisk, Buck, and Heather Glenn back into the courtroom; Matt, Karen, Jess, the Governor, and Kirsten all hole up in a different office, and a bunch more thugs line up out front. The Good Guys turn a TV on, and see a reporter announce that Mayor Fisk has locked the building. Except—isn’t the Governor of the whole ass state in there??? Could she please hire some fucking security??? I mean, they do point out that calling the National Guard in will take too long, and create even more chaos, but why did the Governor walk into this shitshow without at least a bodyguard? Jess, meanwhile, keeps her eyes on the prize. “God bless jurisprudence,” she says, as she finds a hidden bottle of whiskey. But then a new broadcast starts on the TV, and it’s Fisk, telling people Buck was attacked, and, further, that masked people are swarming the building and trying to take the City down. “I will not abandon you. I will stand and fight. Will you?” They all stare at the TV in horror, as though this is somehow unexpected. “He’s asking for a war,” Karen says. Well, yeah. Isn’t that what this type leader always does, in one way or another? The system can only function if people are divided into an endless array of USes and THEMs that can be taken apart and reassembled in whatever shape works for the latest crisis that keeps them in power. I’m annoyed at the episode for acting like they’d be shocked at this point rather than exhausted. But before anyone can get duped by Fisk’s bullshit, BB breaks into a lot of newsfeeds with a Phisk blip, except this time she’s speaking in her own voice and reveals her face—she ends with “It’s our City not his. It’s time to take it back.” Crowds of people gather and march to the courthouse, many of them in homemade Daredevil masks. Jessica throws Matt his suit, and Matt tells the room that the Task Force is coming as Jess slugs her whiskey. “Ready?” Matt asks her. “Finally,” she snaps, and it’s the first time she’s sounded like herself all season. The crowd reaches the courthouse steps, Cherry, Brett Mahoney, Angela, and Soledad step to the front because they’re the characters we’ll recognize, and demand to be let in. Powell yells bullshit at them, they argue about the murder of Hector Ayala, and Powell orders Norton to shoot Cherry. When he refuses, Powell says he’ll just do it himself. Norton remembers he has a spine in his back and coldcocks Powell with the butt of his gun. “Let ’em in!” he yells, and luckily, the other AVTF thugs don’t just bash him in the head. Maybe they’re realizing they should back a different horse. The protesters pour into the building. In the courthouse, Buck is bleeding badly from his gunshot wound, and Heather asks Hochberg for his jacket to try to ward off shock. “It’s a Canali,” he says, flabbergasted. After handing the jacket over, Hochberg decides that this is the perfect moment to ask Heather out on a date, and… pets? Her head? She responds pretty much the way I would, by punching him in the throat so hard he doubles over and collapses. Credit: Marvel Studios “Don’t you ever touch me,” she says. Every time I’m done with this woman, she pulls me back in. Sheila finally remembers there’s a spine in her back and accepts a call from the State Attorney General, who offers Wilson an incredible deal if he would just resign and leave, but instead he roars at his AVTF thugs to let the protesters in. As the people he claims to love and protect crowd the door, Fisk swaggers out like a gunfighter. He punches, grabs people, throws them around like confetti, and absolutely for sure 100% murders a lot of them. We cut between him decimating people, and Matt and Jessica fighting their way through other hallways. Fisk is covered in blood by the time he makes it to the main mezzanine above the entrance, while Daredevil and the crowd pack into the lobby below. Angela finally fights briefly! And Karen takes a dude down by clocking him with his own gun. Wilson looms above them on the staircase balcony like an Outer Boroughs Eva Peron. “I have done everything for you!” he screams. “I have given you my heart and my soul! I just wanted a better New York!” Well sure, all of us want that, but you don’t see me setting up a port with no legal guidelines and running guns in and out of my City while I lock innocent people in cages! When I want a better New York I do the sensible thing and vote for Zohran Mamdani. More citizens stream up the stairs and finally surround Wilson and bring him down like the fire ants in that one super fucked up episode of MacGyver. Matt, obviously, is upset, and parkours up the wall to intercede. Jessica also superjumps up there, and I notice Karen clams up with a distinct air of, “Let them eat Fisk.” Credit: Marvel Studios “You’re better than this!” Matt yells at the Good People of New York, who are absolutely not better than this, and will kill and eat a Mayor when the occasion calls for it. “Stay down!” he yells at Fisk, realizing, perhaps, that the good people of New York will happily kill and eat a Mayor. Matt tells Fisk, “Its over for both of us. Take the deal!” Look I hate to rain on this attempt at reconciliation, Matty, but you do know that Fisk fully straight up murdered people just now, right? He broke a dude’s back, he crushed at least three heads, he’s covered in blood. The fucking hallways are littered with corpses??? Is the deal still on the table after that??? “You go to prison, locked away from her memory…” Matt says, trying to play the VANESSA card, and then, more rationally, says that the two of them will just keep fighting and “this whole thing starts all over again!” When Fisk bellows that none of that means anything to him, Matt comes in with his version of a punch to the windpipe. “What about grace?” “You are  not allowed to offer that to me!” Fisk roars, as I laugh nervously and wonders how I’d look in a white-on-white suit. “We have opportunity to give this city peace, even if we have none!” Matt gasps. “That’s grace.” Wilson makes Angry Fisk Noises. “Please.” Matt says. Fisk makes more Angry Fisk noises, then finally, finally: “I… accept. You’ll understand if I don’t shake your hand.” “I understand,” Matt replies. Credit: Marvel Studios We cut to black for a moment, but then after a brief montage of empty streets, empty AVTF headquarters, and a still-shuttered Josie’s, we rejoin Karen and Matt at their favorite Indian restaurant again. “It’s hard to believe its really over.” They talk about how weird it feels not to be hiding and/or on the run, and wonder why a normal life is so difficult. “Cause we’re really messed up!” Karen says, and they laugh together as the cops pull up outside. “I thought we’d have more time,” Karen says Did you? Why? Actually, how the heck did you two lovebirds even get all the way to this Indian restaurant with all the vigilantes and corpses of people Fisk murdered with his bare hands cluttering up the hallways? How much time has passed??? He and Karen exchange “I love yous” and then Karen ruins the moment by saying “But you know, the Punisher has some points about killing peop—” no, no I’m kidding, it’s actually sweet, and Charlie Cox and Deborah Ann Woll act the hell out of it. He kneels, hands behind his head, smiles at the cop reading his rights, and waves the advisement of, not the rights. Oh and now they’re… oh for fucks sake they’re playing “Pyramid Song”. Did someone google “Leah’s Kryptonite” and then wade through paragraphs of AI bullshit to get to the answer that yes, in fact, this song is Leah’s Kryptonite? Credit: Marvel Studios Jess and Danielle are together in a large room, obviously not their house upstate. And there’s Luke suddenly, standing in the doorway. Danielle runs up and hugs her dad, Jess takes a sec before she goes over and grabs him in a hug that would probably crush most peoples’ ribs into a fine powder. BB gets a job at the Bulletin, and there’s Ellison, yayyyy! Continuing his tradition of hiring very underqualified people and giving them giant offices! …yayyyy? But I guess BB’s earned it. She has a picture of her and Daniel on her desk.  Jess asks Luke a complicated question. “Are you OK?” “Work was… different over there.” “And you’re done?” Luke tells her they’ve found someone else, and we cut to Mr. Charles, using a different name of course, who’s super excited by how many miles he’s accumulated with this airline. He’s seated next to a bemused Bullseye. Oh no. Jess walks over and closes the front door of, you guessed it, Alias Investigations. So I guess the suburban idyll is over. Then we cut between Matt in prison, walking past Powell; Heather putting on the Muse mask and seeing herself smiling, without a mask, in her mirror, Fisk standing alone on a beach in his white suit, and then Matt again sitting with his hands laced together, as a guard closes his cell door. I’ll remind you that “Pyramid Song” has been playing through ALL OF THIS. UGH. And then we cut to black until Season Three. Grace Credit: Marvel Studios OK after really disliking a huge amount of this season, this episode did a lot of what I’ve wanted them to do the whole time. Matt in the courtroom is a whole other Matt—the dialogue is sharper, his banter with Fisk is snappy and sharp, his inherent bitchiness rises to the top, the emotions work, the way he asks relentless questions until Fisk is backed into a corner. Fisk going full Darth Vader in the hallway, finally becoming the bull he’s wanted to be, plowing through innocent protesters who can’t possibly defend themselves until his suit is dripping with other peoples’ blood—chef’s kiss. Heather Glenn finally snapping the tether, Karen getting to be hardbitten and levelheaded, Jessica chugging whiskey—it all felt like things had snapped into place. I just wish all the various threads had played off each other better in the lead up to this finale. And really, the courtroom scene was amazing, and getting to hear Matt pull an Iron Man and announce that he’s Daredevil was amazing—as was the fact that, unlike Tony Stark, Matt isn’t a billionaire above the law. He’s carted off to jail while all the other, wayyyyy worse people walk free. And again, “Pyramid Song” goes a long way with me, but the scene of Bullseye flying off into the sunset, Luke coming home from a government job, Fisk free on a beach, all while Matt sits silent and alone in a prison cell, paying for the crime of being a hero??? The soundtrack wouldn’t matter, that kind of angst is exactly what I want from my Daredevil show. After flirting with the idea of mob rule and autocracy, the show comes down on the idea that the rule of law will prevail, that morally grey people will eventually find the courage to stand up to bullies, that a judge will stop allowing objections from a lawyer who works for the Mayor. Rather than letting New Yorkers physically tear their Mayor apart for his crimes, the show has them listen to Matt, stand down, and allow the man to take the plea deal and leave. Rather than staying on the run, Matt allows the cops to take him in for his years of vigilantism—you know, his years of assaults on people without due process, the very thing he raged about in the courtroom. He goes to jail to prove that the system works, that law applies to everyone. And I love that the show has done that, even as it undercuts it by showing us literally every other character—except Powell—remaining free.   But you know some part of Matt is happy he’s in jail, the guilt-loving freak. (Complimentary) Retribution Credit: Marvel Studios OK BUT WHY WAS LUKE WORKING FOR THE GOVERNMENT????? And yes, yes, I know Hero for Hire, and in the comics he does all kinds of stuff. But this is the sequel to the Netflix-era show, just like this version of Jessica, and I can’t really believe that he’s do that kind of work, and I can’t believe that Jess’ powers just blip in and out sometimes now. Come up with better stuff to do with them next season, show, or so help me… Fiorello’s Desk WHY THE HELL DOESN’T THE GOVERNOR HAVE A SECURITY DETAIL???????? I did like the way the episode gave time over to breaking down all of Fisk’s crimes, working through them methodically until the judge had to listen, before Daredevil finally did his big reveal. Quotes! Credit: Marvel Studios “Dutiful boyfriend, responsible boss, the loyal son.”—Heather Glenn outlines the “masks” a vigilante might wear, as their mask is their true face. “She didn’t need a mask. She hid behind Daredevil’s.”“The same way you’re hiding behind the Fisk administration?”—Heather and Matt spar over Karen’s “vigilantism” versus Heather’s “law-abiding citizen” status. “There are things I can say in here that will ruin your life.”“I could say the same about you.”—Matt and Wilson flirt in an undertone. “You’ve won nothing, Mr. Murdock”—Wilson protests too much. “Boo!” (punch)—Wilson confronts a disappointed voter. “Waive the advisement not the rights. I used to be a lawyer.”—Matt, to the cop arresting him, and Karen, who’s watching him get arrested. Closing Arguments Credit: Marvel Studios As I think everyone can tell from most of the reviews these past seven weeks, I was not a fan of this season. While all the ideas were solid, I thought the structural choices the writers made undercut the tension and depth we could have had. Daniel and BB’s friendship needed to grow more slowly, and have a lot more push/pull in it as she tried to hide her dual lives—basically we needed time just with her, rather than only ever seeing her with Daniel or under a mask in Phisk Blips. After the reveal, we needed to see her practice the voice and the sound editing, filming, uploading, anything to give a sense, from her POV, of her own fear. Because instead we get a scene where she seems incredulous that Buck Cashman is a threat, and that doesn’t make sense. We also needed to see her and Daniel hanging out casually rather than every conversation being fraught. I thought the decision to retrofit Buck into the Netflix Era was silly. Heather Glenn was infuriating, but she was supposed to be; her conversations about vigilantism needed more nuance all along to set up her villain turn. Why bring Mr. Charles in if you’re not going to give him anything to do? Credit: Marvel Studios Killing Vanessa off was probably necessary for the other love story, which I’ll get into below, but I think it needed to happen earlier to leave Wilson bereft for more of the season. Really ride the wave of sympathy for his grief, and then curdle it into the point where the citizen of his City literally try to murder him with their hands. A lot of Matt and Karen’s dialogue about morality was just wayyyyy too on-the-nose, and almost all of Jessica’s lines were expository. What we needed, again, was time to breathe. Time for these characters to make fun of each other, to have perfectly normal conversations that suddenly turned into arguments. Because here in this last episode, Matt and Karen seemed like themselves again, and Jess was finally getting there. But like case in point: Why not stay with Matt and Jess in the church last week? Or open back there this week? Surely Jess would have some level of commentary on walking in and finding her extremely square friend bleeding from a gunshot wound and appealing to St. Jude? Surely she would have had something to say about being the hilarious answer to a prayer? Surely the two of them could have been sniping at each other about that while she was patching him up? Something to bring back the sparkiness the two of them have. But the big thing was just that I wanted New York to feel a lot more lived in. More small interactions, more buildup of a resistance movement, more people on the sidewalks, more noise—more of a sense that growing faction of the City is trying to prepare for what happens here in the finale, that there are pro-vigilante people, and people who think all of them, from Hector Ayala all the way up to Steve Rogers, are literal criminals. We have real protest marches in our streets all the time. They fill the streets for blocks upon blocks, they shut down traffic, they make un-ignorable noise. I needed to feel like the City was going to explode, not just be told it was. And maybe it seems like harping, but this season really was a sort of love triangle, not between Matt, Karen, and them memory of Frank Castle, or Matt, Karen, and Heather, but between Matt, Wilson, and the beautiful City of New York. Daredevil and Kingpin are in a battle over what New York is, what its future should look like, and, most interestingly, who it loves more. Not who loves IT more, but who IT loves more. And that is a fucking fascinating thing to make a TV show about! Especially to build on their Netflix-era battle for the City’s soul, when they were both self-appointed protectors. Here Wilson is, as he says, chosen by millions of New Yorkers—as a write-in candidate. That’s bonkers! So the idea that he really was given this role by his City, who then turn on him in favor of Daredevil again in the end, was a really cool and unique plotline. But to really make that come alive we needed more of the City itself. This season has been A LOT, and I have talked A LOT about it. What did y’all think? Am I wrong about everything? Are we excited for Season Three? Could we maybe get Ghost Daniel, please?[end-mark] The post Nothing to Fear and Nothing to Doubt: The <em>Daredevil: Born Again</em> Finale Pays it All Off appeared first on Reactor.