Disney Plus has dropped Daredevil: Born Again season 2 and Episode 1 wastes no time making life miserable for Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox). If you liked subtlety before, you will love that it is now officially gone. Mayor Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) runs the city with a tight fist and an even tighter set of rules, while his Anti-Vigilante Task Force hunts anyone who speaks against him.
Matt fights to stop a shipment tied to Kingpin's Freeport
The episode begins with pro-Fisk coverage on the BB Report and then cuts to Matt boarding the cargo ship Northern Star. The vessel is headed for Kingpin's new Freeport, a legal loophole that lets him import whatever he wants into the city without oversight. Surprise, that includes military grade weaponry.
Matt brawls through the crew and learns the ship will be scuttled. Using his heightened senses he overhears the crew and manages to slip a tracking watch into one of the weapons crates before the Northern Star sinks in the Hudson, blocking access to the Freeport.
That sinking creates a headache for the CIA operative Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard), who bluntly calls the situation a cluster-f**k while badgering Fisk about the submerged weapons. The CIA has its own designs on the Freeport, and Mr. Charles eventually agrees to help the mayor clear the blockage using "disposable" workers.
Heather and the "superhero trials" get weirder
Fisk's superhero trials put vigilantes under a microscope. Psychiatrist Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) is back, tasked with interrogating those on the stand and justifying their detention.
Heather has not recovered from being held by serial killer Muse (Hunter Doohan) last season. During an evaluation of Swordsman (Tony Dalton) she hallucinates Muse standing behind him in prison. She snaps out of it but becomes noticeably harsher in her assessment, which raises a question about whether her trauma will push her toward a darker path.
Meanwhile Matt's legal colleague Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James) learns from District Attorney Hochburg (John Benjamin Hickey) what everyone already suspects: the trials are performative. The verdicts are a foregone conclusion and the court is being used as a tool to lock people up.
Bullseye shows up at the worst possible moment
Back on the streets, former detective Cherry (Clark Johnson) and Matt try to help the Cypriot crew tied to the sinking. The AVTF raids Cherry's apartment and subjects him to rough treatment. Daredevil arrives and fights the agents, but Cherry suffers a heart attack during the struggle.
When Matt hears Cherry's heart racing he is briefly pulled out of the fight by thoughts of Foggy's death from season 1. That distraction gives the agents a chance to overpower him and they pull his mask off. They instantly recognize Matt Murdock.
Then Bullseye appears across the way and snipes the agents. He follows that up by throwing a knife into the room with the words "You're welcome" and his target symbol carved into it. It is chaotic, violent, and very on-brand for him.
Episodes 2 and 3 are scheduled to arrive together next week, so viewers will get a quick follow-up to this cliffhanger. Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) is confirmed to appear later in the season, but for now it is mostly Matt and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) trying to hold the city together.
Bottom line
Episode 1 sets the tone: Fisk is using government power to protect his criminal interests, the legal system has been weaponized, and Daredevil is running out of obvious allies. The show moves fast and hits hard, and the early episodes promise a season where the stakes are literally about who controls the city.
