In its first season, Daredevil: Born Again has been a series of two minds, pulled in different directions by the disparate approaches to its construction. It has switched between being former head writers Chris Ord and Matt Corman’s case-of-the-week legal procedural, which largely ignored the revival series’ muddled past, and showrunner Dario Scardapane’s more explicit extension of Netflix’s Daredevil. In last week’s installment and Tuesday’s season finale, Born Again has returned to Scardapane’s approach to conclude the show’s first nine-episode run, embracing Netflix’s Daredevil—and its characters—more than ever. These final two episodes might not make up for all of the inconsistencies across the season, but the larger narrative has coalesced in a way that demonstrates where Born Again is heading—and what kind of series it wants to be.
Written by Heather Bellson and Scardapane and directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, “Straight to Hell” further delays the long-awaited rematch between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. Born Again bides its time by appeasing its audience with a nostalgic team-up out of Marvel TV’s Netflix era, as Murdock reunites with Frank Castle. However, the first season still ends by making good on the promise in the title of the series: Murdock and Fisk fully embrace their true, violent natures, born again as Daredevil and Kingpin.
In our final piece of the season, we’ll follow our standard recap section with closer looks at Castle’s return (and what might be next for the character in the MCU) and the introduction of the team that Murdock has assembled to fight back against Mayor Fisk in Season 2.
The Brief
From its opening scene, “Straight to Hell” is steeped in the history of Netflix’s Daredevil. The season finale begins by replaying the incident that capped off last week’s episode (Bullseye shooting Murdock at the Black and White Ball) before transitioning into a flashback set a year earlier, days before the events depicted at the start of the series premiere. The scene reveals how Vanessa met with Benjamin Poindexter and made a deal with him to silence both Foggy Nelson and his key witness in a trial that could damage the Fisk family business. In return, Vanessa arranged for Poindexter’s release.
“The whole FBI corruption scandal, Agent Nadeem, all that … it’s why my husband was acquitted,” Vanessa tells Poindexter. “It’s only fair it should benefit you, too.”
Vanessa directly references events from the third and final season of Netflix’s Daredevil, providing some context on where these characters are in Born Again and what their relationships with each other look like. In Season 3, Fisk manipulated the FBI—including Agent Nadeem—into working for him and eliminating his competition in the criminal underworld. But Nadeem tried to speak out against Fisk once he realized his own complicity, and, in turn, Vanessa ordered that he be killed. Still, thanks in part to Nadeem’s confession, the FBI’s corruption came to light, apparently allowing for Fisk to be acquitted sometime thereafter.
More From Hell’s Kitchen
Although Vanessa has been on the sidelines for much of Born Again’s first season, scenes like this illustrate how she’s evolved into a villain in her own right. She ordered the hit on Nadeem in Daredevil, and here she’s doing the same for Foggy, without her husband’s approval this time. Poindexter and Fisk were not exactly on good terms after Poindexter discovered that Kingpin had ordered a hit on Julie—the woman Poindexter cared for (and stalked)—near the end of Season 3. And yet Vanessa convinces him that she’s making this request independent of her absent husband while also manipulating Poindexter just as Fisk did in Daredevil.
Back in the present, Vanessa prepares to confess her role in Foggy’s death, which effectively broke Fisk’s promise to never harm Foggy or Karen Page. But her husband already knows the truth and isn’t all that bothered by it. Instead of lashing out, Fisk finally clues her in on his master plan to move their business operations through his Red Hook port project, using his mayoral power to optimize his dealings as Kingpin again. What was once millions of dollars moving through Red Hook can now be billions. “I ran to save the city,” Fisk says. “But opportunities present themselves.”
For Fisk, everything he’s been building toward in this season is coming together, as he casts aside any effort to conceal who he really is and always has been: the Kingpin of Crime. He gathers his faithful advisers, his anti-vigilante task force, and even Commissioner Gallo in his office at City Hall to enact his plan to seal off the city and hunt down Poindexter and every vigilante by any means necessary. In a separate conversation with his political adviser Sheila, Fisk lectures her on the significance of this moment for New York and its citizens.
“In business, there’s always a tipping point in a negotiation,” he says. “We are in that place with this city. It just needs a little push, and they’ll come to us with open arms.”
Meanwhile, Murdock wakes in the hospital to find two of the most important people in his new life in Born Again: Heather and Kirsten. (As Heather sits by his side, Murdock initially calls out to Karen instead of her. I wonder what Heather would have to say about this Freudian slip.) It’s painfully clear that the gulf between Matt and his two partners—romantic and business, respectively—is too great for these relationships to work as long as Heather and Kirsten are left in the dark about his secret life as Daredevil, which neither of them would approve of. Daredevil is too much a part of Murdock’s identity for him to exist without it, and this episode is all about Murdock rediscovering that about himself and finally accepting it.
When Buck Cashman arrives at the hospital to kill Murdock on Fisk’s orders, Matt sneaks out of the hospital and returns home to find an unexpected guest waiting for him: Frank Castle. Together, they fight Fisk’s anti-vigilante task force when it raids Murdock’s apartment soon after. Much like the Murdock-Castle reunion in Episode 4, this scene injects new life into the series, as Charlie Cox and Jon Bernthal recapture the magic of their contrasting characters’ chemistry.
Castle and Murdock meet the task force member, Cole North, who was responsible for murdering Hector Ayala, and Murdock finally focuses on the vigilante he effectively got killed after revealing Hector’s secret identity to the public. Castle is like the (dare)devil on Murdock’s shoulder, urging him to deliver justice himself and kill North, which renews the ethical debate these characters have been having since they first met in the second season of Daredevil. As Murdock thinks back to his run-in with Poindexter in the series premiere, this decision ties together the emotional arc that he’s been on all season, as he continues to grapple with his inner darkness after temporarily retiring from his superhero life following his attempt to kill Poindexter.
Murdock ultimately sticks to his morals, sparing North’s life as Castle tries to finish off the crooked cop himself. Murdock and Castle’s perpetual bickering ends only when a grenade is hurled through a window and they’re forced to jump off the balcony. Daredevil braces their fall with his grappling hook, and on the street, they’re met by yet another ghost of Netflix past, Karen Page, who brings the duo safely back to Castle’s hideout.
With Karen back in the picture, Murdock seems whole again. If Matt’s slipup at the hospital didn’t make it obvious enough, it becomes increasingly clear that his feelings for his former flame never went away—and Castle still has a soft spot for her from their past encounters in Daredevil and The Punisher as well. Murdock doesn’t need to hide any part of himself with Karen, and unlike Heather and Kirsten, she doesn’t question anything he tells her about the Fisks and their involvement in Foggy’s death. The on-screen chemistry and bond that Murdock and Karen have is so strong—and full of history—that it only reinforces how weak the dynamics are between Murdock and his new friends in Born Again. The Disney+ series hasn’t taken the time or effort to develop Kirsten, Cherry, or even Heather as fully fleshed-out characters compared to what the Netflix series did with its supporting players.
Without hesitation, Karen agrees to help Murdock search for Foggy’s case files, and they leave Frank behind as they head to the storage unit. The scene that follows is something of a remembrance of their relationship and Murdock’s friendship with Foggy, as they look through Foggy’s possessions, including a desk nameplate that references their inside joke of being “avocados at law.” But more integral to the plot, Karen finds Foggy’s intended motion to dismiss his last trial and the discovery he had stumbled upon while litigating what he believed was a simple truck robbery. The Red Hook port where the incident occurred—and where Fisk has concentrated all of his revitalization efforts—is technically a free port, meaning that it exists outside of the state’s, and country’s, jurisdiction.
“Vanessa has used the port to store art for years now,” Murdock explains. “I mean, if it’s a free port, she’s doing it without customs, without taxation, without fear of seizures.”
“She could launder money legally,” Karen adds.
“Right, and now our mayor is building a new complex there,” Murdock continues. “This charter would make it untouchable. Gambling, smuggling, you name it. All of it legal. … This is about the Fisks building their own city-state.”
Murdock and Page decide to see the port for themselves, but while all of this is happening, looting and riots have spread across the streets thanks to Fisk’s vendetta against Poindexter and vigilantes. After hearing from Sheila that Commissioner Gallo has plans to fight back against Fisk’s tyranny, Fisk takes advantage of the chaos and arranges for Gallo to be personally delivered to him. With his bare hands, Fisk crushes Gallo’s head like a grape in front of his task force, but not before Gallo verbalizes one of the core messages “Straight to Hell” delivers regarding the show’s central antagonist.
“You never stopped being Kingpin,” Gallo says to Fisk. “You can’t.”
As this gruesome execution occurs, Frank arrives in Red Hook before his friends do, having listened to chatter on a police scanner. He foolishly takes on the anti-vigilante task force on his own, killing a bunch of the bad cops before getting captured. With Officer Powell leading them, the task force—which worships the ground Frank walks on—offers the Punisher a spot in the crew, which Castle rejects as passionately and colorfully as one would imagine. (“I won’t fuckin’ piss on you if you were on fire,” he says to Powell, among other things.)
When Murdock and Karen finally reach the Red Hook port, it doesn’t take them long to realize they’ve lost this round against Fisk. They’re unaware that Frank has been captured, but the port is swarming with Fisk’s lackeys, and Murdock is still injured from, uh, being shot less than 24 hours ago. Born Again settles for the Daredevil-Punisher team-up as the lone action sequence in the finale, opting instead to end the first season with Murdock accepting defeat in the battle but not the war. While that narrative choice ultimately makes the conclusion of this episode somewhat anticlimactic, it allows Born Again to raise the stakes for the conflict to come in Season 2.
After Fisk issues a statement the following morning, in which he unveils a Safer Streets initiative that features a new citywide curfew, the outlawing of vigilantes, and the declaration of martial law, “Straight to Hell” winds down with a montage featuring just about every (living) notable character who appeared across the season. Kirsten is seen holding the document that reveals the Red Hook port’s status as a free port, which hints at her being brought into the fight against Fisk. Poindexter is still at large. Heather—who accepted Fisk’s offer to be his commissioner of mental health without hesitation—seems to be moving on from a life with Murdock. BB Urich has embedded herself in City Hall, seemingly to monitor Fisk’s activities from the inside. Angela del Toro has her eye on Fisk’s task force and maybe even a future as the next White Tiger. The Fisks walk through the hidden cellar where Wilson once held Adam prisoner, now filled with more than a dozen or so of their enemies—including Castle and Jacques Duquesne—as they dine together to celebrate their victory.
Karen seems to be back for good: She stays in New York to help Murdock raise his army to take on Fisk. After she delivers a little pep talk to remind him of who he is, and how Foggy believed in him too, Murdock narrates a closing speech to end the season. “I can’t see my city, but I can feel it,” he says, his words drawn out in a voice-over to accompany the montage. “The system isn’t working. It’s rotten. Corrupt. But this is our city, not his. And we can take it back together. The weak, the strong. All of us. Resist. Rebel. Rebuild. Because we are the city without fear.”
Before the end credits roll, Murdock steps in front of the (very small) army they’ve assembled in Josie’s Bar. Just as the series premiere ended with a flickering stoplight reflecting onto Murdock in his street clothes, the finale ends with another red light cast upon him. Except this time, Murdock is wearing his full Daredevil costume, having accepted that this fight against Fisk can’t be won without his true self—including his darker half—leading the way.
Antihero Spotlight: Frank Castle
Castle’s triumphant return in Born Again ends with him locked away in Fisk’s cellar, but the first post-credits scene of the series teases his impending escape. Ever the charmer, Frank introduces himself to some gullible guard on duty—likely another one of his many “bullshit fanboys”—and tricks him into bringing his arm in for a handshake. Frank deftly snaps the guard’s arm through the bars of his cage before the scene’s conclusion, potentially setting up where his story will pick up in the upcoming Marvel Studios Special Presentation centered on the Punisher.
Details surrounding the TV special, which I briefly mentioned in my recap of Episode 4, are scarce beyond the creative team: Bernthal will serve as a cowriter alongside Reinaldo Marcus Green, who’s directing as well. The project is expected to be released sometime in 2026 alongside the second season of Born Again, which means it’s possible that Castle will return in another supporting role before starring on his own again. Given Scardapane’s continued status as Born Again’s showrunner and his history working with Bernthal on Netflix’s The Punisher, it seems highly likely that Castle will return again in Season 2. After all, Frank isn’t the type to let Fisk off easily after what he’s done, and judging by our first look at it, Daredevil’s army could certainly use some reinforcements.
Speaking of which …
The Devil’s Army
When Murdock decided not to raid the Red Hook port, he told Karen that the first thing they needed to do to take back the city from Fisk was raise an army. Unfortunately, a team featuring a handful of cops, a bartender, and Karen doesn’t exactly instill much confidence in terms of their chances of winning the battles to come.
In Josie’s Bar, which has become something of a symbol to represent this series’ past life on Netflix, we see a number of familiar faces alongside Karen: Cherry, Detective Kim, and Josie. (Josie is almost certainly there just to provide refreshments and a secretive meeting place, but still.) There are at least two more police officers present, as well as another person or two obscured in the background, but this isn’t exactly an “army,” per se. However, this might not be the final version of the team we’ll see in Season 2, as “Straight to Hell” appears to be setting up Born Again to adapt a 2021 Marvel Comics crossover event called Devil’s Reign.
Devil’s Reign, written by Chip Zdarsky and illustrated by Marco Checchetto, is set in New York City after Mayor Fisk has established the Powers Act, which outlaws all vigilantism in the city. (It serves the same purpose as Fisk’s Safer Streets policy in Born Again, just with a less subtle name.) Fisk hires and manipulates a wide variety of villains and (supposedly) reformed criminals, from Doctor Octopus to the Thunderbolts to the sort of specialized officers that inspired the anti-vigilante task force that appears in the Disney+ series. In turn, Daredevil works with a stacked cast of superheroes to reclaim the city from Fisk: Captain America, two Spider-Men (Miles Morales and Ben Reilly), Moon Knight, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, Elektra, Danny Rand, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones.
Of course, Marvel Studios and Disney won’t be assembling an Avengers-level cast for the second season of Born Again—but that doesn’t mean that it won’t use some budget version of it. It may be wishful thinking, but Born Again has created the perfect opportunity to revive its Defenders crew from the Netflix era—and maybe even Elektra and Colleen Wing, for good measure. If the likes of Mike Colter’s Luke Cage and Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones (along with Finn Jones’s Danny Rand, if we must) are ever to return to the MCU, as Marvel is “very much exploring,” now might be as good a time as any.
Eschewing major crossovers may be more in line with the grounded approach that Born Again has taken in its first season, even if the series, which has now joined the MCU, may raise inevitable questions about what other New York City superheroes like Spider-Man are doing if not fighting Fisk. At the same time, Marvel Studios is deep in its nostalgia era, and the reunions with Castle worked well in the show’s opening season.
Wherever Born Again goes next, Murdock has reunited with Karen Page to take down Wilson Fisk, just like in the good old days. Except now, the Kingpin is more powerful than ever, with an entire city—and all of its resources—under his control. The stakes have been raised heading into Season 2, and it’s safe to say that Scardapane will be leaving behind the case-of-the-week structure that this season employed in the middle batch of episodes left over from Ord and Corman’s original blueprint for the series. (We probably won’t be seeing much of Murdock in his legal capacity anytime soon, given that Fisk knows about his alter ego. That may be for the best considering how Matt handled the Ayala trial.)
Born Again ended its first season strong, and with Benson and Moorhead returning to direct in Season 2, there’s hope that the series—and MCU TV at large—can flourish from here.
