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This article contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again season 2.
It had to end this way. Even more than the three seasons of the Netflix show, Daredevil: Born Again has been devoted to the idea that Daredevil and the Kingpin are inextricably linked, to the point that they play as co-leads. But as much as their showdown seems predetermined, showrunner Dario Scardapane pulls a neat trick in the finale. The two meet one last time, not as Daredevil and Kingpin, but as Matt Murdock, esquire, and Mayor Wilson Fisk, combatants in a court of law.
Ending on courtroom drama instead of supheroics comes with significant risks for Born Again, if only because it forces us to once again recall the show’s tortured first season. Before Scardapane came aboard, the original showrunners imagined Born Again as more of a legal and political thriller, one that significantly downplayed the costumed adventures. A lot of the blame for any shortcomings in the finished product was directed at those showrunners, who shot a lot of footage in offices and courts that Scardapane couldn’t just throw away.
Thus far, much of Born Again has felt like Scardapane running away from those intentions to make a superhero show. Matt has spent little of the previous eight episodes out of costume, and although Fisk remains the mayor, he’s grown increasingly unhinged, first participating in a charity boxing match and then duking it out with Daredevil. Additionally, Dex has completely metamorphosed from the troubled FBI agent he was in season three of the Netflix show to become a proper supervillain, complete with a mask and the moniker Bullseye.
Yet, in the finale, Fisk is just a witness on the stand, Bullseye gets whisked away to go on black ops missions with Mr. Charles, and Daredevil limits his superpowers to a demonstration in front of the judge. Jessica Jones goes back home to Danielle, where she gets to reunite with the heretofore missing Luke Cage. So does the finale, “The Southern Cross,” directed by Iain B. MacDonald and written by Scardapane & Jesse Wigutow, deliver a satisfying end?
Yes, but only if you understand Born Again as the story of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk trying, and failing, to go straight.
We saw in the penultimate episode Matt Murdock emerge from hiding to take his place as co-councillor with Kirsten McDuffie, defending Karen Page’s against charges that she’s a vigilante. Fisk observed those proceedings from his office, but now he’s ready to face his enemy in the open.
The tension of the episode comes from the way Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio play off of each other. By this point, the two actors have not only honed their characters and established a rapport with one another, but they feel a certain ownership over the show. During the Born Again press tour, they’ve both been vocal about their concerns with the previous showrunners and have claimed that they drove Disney to change the direction of the series.
Thus, it falls on the two actors to make the climax of “The Southern Cross” worthwhile as a piece of superhero television, and they mostly succeed. D’Onofrio’s “baby in a big man’s body” approach means that Fisk initially seems bored by Murdock’s questions, even though he thinks he holds sway over his opponent. He allows a spark of excitement to enter Fisk’s eyes when it becomes clear that Murdock may implicate himself in his interrogation. When Fisk tells Murdock that he’s willing “to go down that road” with him, D’Onofrio plays the character as if he’s finally shaking off the pretense of mayor, and getting to be his true self, the Kingpin, once again, and he loves it.
Cox imbues Matt with the same energy. Matt Murdock has always been a guy so mired in guilt that he cannot make a good, smart decision. His interrogation of Fisk offers him the greatest chance to indulge that tendency. He gets to make himself a martyr by revealing to everyone that he’s Daredevil, utterly destroying his life and endangering the lives of his friends, and he gets to feel like he’s doing the right thing because he takes down Fisk with him. Cox’s charming grin turns dangerous in these moments, his blood rising as he and Fisk egg each other on.
Even if you you’ve read the Brian Michael Bendis and Ed Brubaker comics that reveal Matt’s identity and send him to jail, it’s still thrilling to see the two actors try to outdo each other. Moreover, the resolution feels like a fitting end to Born Again‘s first two seasons. By the time the two men get taken away, there’s no doubt that Kingpin and Daredevil, Matt Murdock and Fisk, are mirror images, equally driven, powerful, and self-destructive.
It will be interesting to see if the climax gives Scardapane a reason to step away from Fisk as the big bad and explore some other parts of Daredevil’s rogues gallery. Season 3 is already primed to be a full Defenders reunion, which might mean the return of the Hand (especially since they’re in Spider-Man: Brand New Day), and Heather Glenn is the new Muse now, apparently (no offense to Margarita Levieva, who did what was asked of her, but Heather has been misjudged from the start, and her becoming a serial killer won’t help things).
If season 3 can move on from the Fisk/Murdock pairing, then season 2 will be remembered as a fine conclusion to a superhero epic. But if it sticks with the same dynamic for another season, then Daredevil: Born Again runs the risk of diluting its greatest strength.
Daredevil: Born Again season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.
The post Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 8 Review – The Southern Cross appeared first on Den of Geek.
