#221 – Daredevil: Born Again (S2, Ep4) Gloves Off… and All Hell Breaks Loose

Welcome back to Marvel Maniac and MCU After Show. This is your host Eric Cicada, aka Mr. Honest and Wow. I just finished wrapping up watching Daredevil Season two, episode four of Born Again. Maybe the most action packed episode of the series so far. So much happens in the short time. This episode felt like a blur and it. And I'm just taken aback by the crazy ending. But we got to go through the whole show so thank for being here. Daredevil is something that is like kind of like a dream come true. Daredevil born again. Because about 10 years ago right now we were watching these this hero on the a Netflix screen and they always nodded towards the mcu. And now all of this is happening in the MCU and I couldn't be happier that it's thriving. This show, it. It could be in competitor with Loki and Wandavision to be one of the best MCU shows, if not the best ever made. It depends on where they go with it. Some people I've seen, they've been trying to tie it in with real politics. I don't see it that way. I'm fully escaped into this world. I've been following these characters arcs since the Netflix series, which is a total win if you haven't seen them yet because they're very good and you would definitely like them if you like this show. This show has a higher pace though. It goes faster. So the episode's called Gloves off, episode four already and we're seeing Blood. Last week I said we're halfway once we reach this point. But last season was nine episodes, so I'm not positive if this is going to be eight, nine or ten episodes this season. So we might not even be halfway through the season, but I don't know. That felt a little bit like a mid season finale to me. So Bullseye is starting our episode wonderfully. He starts and ends. He really does take aim in this episode to disturb Wilson Fisk and his affairs. He thinks he's kind of like Daredevil. He thinks he's one of the good guys when in all reality he is just a loose cannon spreading damage and carnage everywhere he goes. This episode we get to see his humble little morning routine. He has a relationship with his neighbor who later that. I mean, that's kind of ruined eventually this sweet old lady. I love the creative ways he has. They have him destroying people and the task force just takes some casualties. This episode, I mean this probably has a lot of guys, but I don't know if I'm gonna estimate like the whole episode. I want to say, like, maybe at least between the beginning and the end, he took out at least a dozen dudes of the task force, at least. And one giant casualty that could possibly turn Fisk into the biggest raging monster we've ever seen. Him. Skinny fist, by the way. I mean, like, they've been trying to kind of COVID it with the clothes, but he's lost weight. The actor looks great, honestly. He's got the presence. He's got the. He's got the whole look about him still. And I don't mind that he's not chubby Kingpin. He's muscular and strong and still gigantic and threatening. Kingpin. Almost. Maybe just a little bit scar. Scarier. The way that Vincent Denafo plays this is just. He was born to play this role. And I. I mean, I hope we get to see more of him. If he doesn't finish off his arc in the MCU before they rebooted in Secret Wars. Always got to bring up Secret Wars. Furthest thing along the line. There's so much to come. But that being said, we. We get to see bull, like, mess some stuff up at the beginning at this diner. And this sweet old lady makes him. The diner waitress makes him the banana milkshake, and he still drinks it, and he leaves his mark, and he kills a bunch of people there. And he's just trying to get the task force. He uses Frank Punish, the. Frank Castle's name, the Punisher, to trick the task force into rushing there. And I thought that was pretty smart on his end. And at the same time, showing all the vulnerabilities and fist defense system. And there's a lot of vulnerabilities in general, especially with the Northern Star, the ship sinking, and then, I don't know, like, getting threatened on multiple levels by Bullseye. I mean, there's a lot of people who don't want to see Fisk do well. And the visual antes and even people in the city are starting to get sus of him. So I. I like seeing him take on the world of all at once. We also get to see that Karen and Matt are hosting a lot of the prisoners that were saved from Red Hook. And I gotta say, Swordsman, he's such a great actor. I forget the actor's name. But I just want to say, in this constant stream of thought, to be honest with you, Swordsman's such a great character. He. He gives Daredevil access to his bank account. He. Before he leaves, he calls Daredevil a symbol which he Is. I don't know if anybody else noticed this, but the black suit is starting to get run down a little bit. And where it is run down, there is red under it. So it's almost like metaphorically, Matt is coming undone. Same thing with Fisk. There's a metaphor towards the end. There's this at the boxing ring. We're going jump ahead for a minute. The boxing match. There's these. Well, there's a lot of Fisk merchandise available. Bobbleheads. I would. I'd love to get my hand on one of those bobbleheads. I would love to have that. And there's Al. Also these glass statues of Fisk standing in the middle of New York. Very symbolic of, like, him taking over. But the more symbolic thing was that being thrown and broken, a sign of Fisk losing control, coming undone. Him and Matt's stories always mirroring each other's in one way or another. And the culmination of both their stories center around Bullseye. By the end of this episode, honestly, one of the most beautifully constructed episodes of Born Again and maybe all of Daredevil that I've seen. It was. This was a phenomenal episode. Again, Swordsman, he leaves. He's got to burn his clothes. Apparently, the prisoners were in there for six months, some of them. I mean, that is insane. To be held as, like, a prisoner against your own will in your own city because of some loop in the law system. And, I mean, even if the real law outside of New York found out about this, wouldn't they act on it? I mean, that's just crazy. All these missing people. He is. Fisk is. He's gonna go full kingpin next week or for the rest of the series. I'm not. I'm afraid of him. I'm definitely a little bit afraid of him. Kristoff is the first mate on the Northern Star. He comes to visit Matt and Karen, and I almost said in Foggy, good Lord, please, Foggy, be alive. We need that twist. We need to see he's okay. It'll fully complete Matt's spirit, give him the strength to fight. I just got a scared feeling about Karen putting herself in harm's way. But it seems like Karen's, like, pretty damn good at taking care of herself these days. And she's playing everything very smart. So, I don't know. She's no longer really like the damsel in distress that we met in the first season. She's totally taken on her own Persona and her own bravery, I guess I'd say Kristoff tells everybody on camera, everybody tells whoever's listening on camera that Kingpin owned the Northern Star. And they did get that video recording proof before the end in which we think that he's safe getting escorted away from the. The compound that he's staying at. I don't think it's a compound. It's just where Matt and Karen are. And he gets taken to Fist. Right Hand Man, I don't know his name. He shoots the people that were escorting him. And all of a sudden, Kristoff is again in deep, deep, which sucks, honestly, because he seems like a good guy, just in the wrong spot, doing the wrong job. Fist just wants to send Vanessa away before this fight. He has some sort of gut feeling, some sort of intellect, something telling him to just get her away from this thing. So he sends her away before the fight. We find out that the fight will be at Fog Wells, and we've seen this location, and Matt even says that's where his dad trained. He spent a lot of his. Him and his dad's last days together at that very gym. Very symbolic. We get a flashback just like all of young Matt and his dad from the original series. Good to see that connective tissue. Showrunners are on point this season. I'm going to be repeating myself in that sense a bit now. The Fist task force is going rampant looking for the Swordsman. He. He goes to. They go to Kirsten, Matt's former attorney and partner, her office. They trash the place, thinking that maybe she's harboring him or something like that. I don't know what Swordsman will be doing first once he gets this freedom that he just got. However, they just totally wreck her office. It pisses me off. Makes me mad, man. It makes me mad for her. Makes me mad at the brutality of the task force and how they abuse their power and. And you know what we see most of. We get to see them die a lot this episode. So it makes you feel a little less sorry for them. When Bullseye is committing all this carnage. It's almost like Deadpool level murders. But I. I'd say. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Bullseye is a little bit more harsh than Deadpool, I'd say. I mean, what do you think? You got any thoughts on the sanity of Bullseye? Compare him to Deadpool as well, or other Marvel characters like the Punisher. Is Bullseye the most unhinged, most dangerous? Because Deadpool is dangerous in some ways, but he has a moral code, even if it. It doesn't stop at killing. You know, he. He kills, but he kills. Strategic, not strategically. He kills. I don't know. It's hard for me to explain because it's hard to rationalize killing. And that's why some superheroes have a no go on the killing. Like Matt. He doesn't want to kill his enemies. He wants to give them justice and put them in prison, put them away. We see Fisk show up at Red Hook talking to his associate, whose name I failed to get after all of these episodes. And. And we get a little visit from Charles, who is definitely got some big kahunas. The way he talks to and treats Fisk and the way it seems like he's connected to Val from the Thunderbolts and all the other projects. Thunderbolt slash. New Avengers, by the way, I think. I think the fans have came together to decide that that movie is still just called the Thunderbolts. To be honest, when you're waiting for a movie for months, years maybe, and then it comes out, and then they try to change the name on you, which is a really cool thing. Little Easter egg, right? I don't. I don't agree. I don't disagree that they became the New Avengers, but Thunderbolts is the name of that movie. I got the poster on my wall displayed. One of these days, I'm going to be giving you guys advertisements, and that's why I'm gonna tell you why there aren't any with my own advertisement. I need you to rate this show, give it five stars, give me a heartfelt review, and it would go a long way because we want to keep putting the show on the map. We're getting more and more listeners every week, and I want to thank each and every one of you for being here, downloading, listening, and all I need is a little bit of some ratings to get us put further on the algorithm. And that's all I ask of you. This has been a Mr. Honest promotional hour. I will try and to get. I'll try and get a creator code or something from display because they're really nice metal posters. And I have this. I don't know how many huge collection on my wall of 18 Marvel posters. Oh, my gosh. Come join our discord in the notes. You can access it. I'll send. If any of you show up in there after this episode, I will post a picture of my wall of Marvel posters. It's beautiful. It's honestly something to behold. But back to the episode. We are definitely seeing Kirsten play a bigger part this season. And she's being forced and dragged along into this violence. So I do believe she still has a bigger part to play in the overall story and the rest of the season, which I kind of like because she's a fun character. I, I appreciate her a lot now. I love. One of my favorite things about this episode is when Matt wears the task force uniform to inspect what happened at the diner with Bullseye. He's super duper undercover. He doesn't seem blind at all. I still wonder if he sees the world in fire or flames. We don't get a direct perspective of what he sees because it's all up to our imagination. But what I do love is those moments where we can hear the heartbeats and we could hear kind of what he's hearing and honing in through all the things he can hear and singling noises out. That's very cool. I really, really like that. So Matt also goes to the church where he figures out where Bullseye lives. And then we just cut to this giant fight in Bullseye's apartment. Lots of great action this season so far. Bullseye really wants revenge for what he was manipulated to do in killing Foggy. He wants the Fisk that. So he sees himself as sort of this anti hero in his own right, getting revenge, taking out the bad guys, the people who lied to him and betrayed him to killing people. Ironically killing so many to get to Fisk. I don't know what he's doing. Trying to save Fisk for last or something, because, man, he is one of the most devastating villains I've seen. I mean, I think he'd be a tough fight for, like, Spidey. Most of the Defenders already obviously hope they come back. I mean, Jessica Jones. Where the hell is this Jessica Jones? They made a big deal about her coming back. I don't want it to be just an episode. I mean, like, it's a big deal that she's coming back. Maybe they'll all show up, all the, the Defenders. And I just started watching Jessica Jones Season three, by the way. You know, there's no shame in going back and trying to fill in some of the gaps between then and now. Jessica Jones is such a good show. Look up the order, the watch order of the Netflix shows, if you're interested. You don't have to watch all of them. Like, I'm not watching Iron Fist Season two. I, I, I just don't want to. And that's okay. You don't need to watch it. I'm going to be watching what I haven't finished though of those series. Except for that. Except for Iron Fist. I'm going to be watching Jessica Jones season three and after that I'm going to start Punisher season two. I did start all these series months ago, maybe years ago, but I'm not going back to rewatch everything. Sometimes rewatches a big series can get a little daunting. So a recap does just fine and just enjoy the ride. The season should usually tell you the story that it wants to tell you. And I am curious if I can get through Jessica Jones before hopefully her appearance next week. I mean, I'm just gonna assume it's gotten to happen soon. So hopefully next week. And yeah, I highly recommend any of those shows. They're all on Disney plus and if you got free time, you're not watching anything. Give him a go. We may have lost the guy from the Northern Star who sunk the ship under Kingpin's orders. They got him. We don't know if they killed him, but they got him. But we also got his confession on tape, so that's pretty important. Daniel and B.B. this story is going somewhere interesting and I just think she's completely going to screw him over in a way that maybe even gets him killed. And she's going to have to live with this type of guilt that she used someone that. Well, let's just say he's really attracted to her. Her. He's not. You know, he's not shy in making it known that he likes her in that way. But she sort of uses that to her advantage a lot. So I am worried for Daniel. I'm worried for B.B. i'm almost worried. More worried for Daniel than I am for Karen at this point. Especially if. Oh my God, let's just say it. If Vanessa is actually dead, Fisk and everyone in his world will feel the rage of an anger coming from Fisk. Daniel will be on the front line of this unhinged mayor slash dictator slash monster. And one mistake too many. He's made mistakes. One more mistake, he might just get it. He might just get his ass killed by Kingpin. I don't. I would not be surprised. Maybe a little surprised. He's a young guy. But nothing is off the table in this show, as you could tell and as I can definitely tell during the boxing match at the end, which is great setup, a good mid season finale. Even if it's gonna be 10 episodes, I don't know yet. I won't be disappointed if it's that long, but I have a feeling it's going to be eight. I don't know why, but we'll. We'll definitely see. Fisk just brutalizes his opponent in the ring. This whole situation with him in the fight is totally used as a distraction from what's about to happen. You really think that actually Fisk might have killed this guy in front of everybody? Everybody was shocked because what happens is Vanessa shows up at the match, and Fisk gets so thrown by that, and it lets the other guy get a hit in. So Fish just, like, uppercuts this guy to death. I mean, like, he might have sentenced him into a coma for all we know. The whole room was quiet, but then it goes from quiet to scared and screaming and chaos. And that is Bullseye arriving, killing task force members. I like Bullseye Suit as a villain. I don't like what he does, but as a villain, Slash want to be anti hero. I think he's so badass. And such a good clash right between good and evil, where Daredevil is fighting on one end, Fisk on the other, and he's just this chaotic factor in the middle of everything, Especially in this episode. Ironically, the center point of the season, the Bullseye is sitting right here in this episode, causing extreme mayhem. And you know, Vanessa, she tries to shoot him, but fist breaks this symbol. Like I said, this little statue is like a symbol of. Of who he is. And it just shatters when he's trying to protect Vanessa from it. Now you think of it shattering, and then you realize, like me, maybe in this moment, that that's the exact thing that got stuck on her neck. It wasn't even Bullseye directly killing her. It was him smashing this thing. And then it went into her neck. She started bleeding. Oh, my goodness. So Daredevil soups in at just the right moment before anyone else can get killed, and takes Bullseye out of the glass. I mean, Daredevil is more acrobatic than I've ever seen him in this season. I freaking love it. And like I said, the black wearing away over the red suit. It's interesting in a lot of ways. Like, is the same guy still making his new suits? Did he figure out. Does he know he's wearing a black suit? The. The look of the black coming off and the red coming to light definitely is a metaphor, definitely on purpose. And I just love when shows do those minor details. I wouldn't go along and connect it to real world politics. I think for me, this is like an escape from all that. So I never really talk about that, but I've seen some comparisons. I think Vincent d' Onofrio was getting a little upset on X about a lot of comparisons being made. And, you know, everyone could say what they want to say and it's a free country. But I'd say personally for me, not here. I'm just watching this show as a fan of Daredevil and a fan of the amazing villain Wilson Fisk is. And now honestly, a greater appreciation for Point Dexter, AKA Bullseye. What episode? Honestly, Vanessa, she looks super injured, super hurt, and honestly, she's in a full puddle of blood. It's very quick. It's likely she dies here. There's a chance she'll survive. He will fight for her. Kingpin will fight to get people to save her life. Likely she could end up in a coma or be fully dead. The amount of blood she's losing, it really does seem like she's about to die. And I, I kind of don't want the care, the actress to be gone, but the character dying, I mean, that could be the thing that just triggers Kingpin into full on super villain. Honestly. I mean, he fights for Vanessa. He, Vanessa is the center of his world, right alongside his empire. I'd say he puts her even just a step above his empire. And then the screen cuts the black and I mean, that's the episode. It was fast, it was awesome, it was fun. I truly enjoyed it. The last few weeks we've been going to Reddit.com r marvel studios to see what the fans are saying directly after the episode aired. These are immediate reactions. So if you head over there when you're listening, you know, by the time you get there, there might be a lot more comments and sorted out by popularity and whatnot. We're just getting the raw feed, so let's take a look. First comment I'm reading is from Rusketeer34. He says, I don't know why I watched that Bullseye clip before they were. When they released it early. I didn't know about that. But goddamn Dex is a savage. Part of my French. Honestly, one of my favorite villains in the mcu. I was just kind of saying that wasn't. I got Rusketeer. I know what you mean. Combat Chemist replies, really sick to see Disney plus not pulling any punches with the gore. Couldn't agree more. There were at least seven forks and eyes from that one scene. I mean, yeah, that was, that was some. That was some messy stuff. That's what I'm curious in, how they're gonna bring the world of Spider man and the world of Daredevil together, along with Punisher, one of the most gory villains of them all. I call him a villain, but he is totally anti hero. You would call Point Dexter slash Bullseye a villain, but way before you call Punisher a villain villain. It's about their moral code. So we got Nando Movies, Nando V movies. He comments. On one hand, Bullseye killed a lot of people. On the other hand, he was nice to the Kent. This is the kind of moral gray area that the show deals with really well. That's very good. Webhead says let the dog go too. I don't even remember the dog part. This shows I'm about to go back and watch. Watch that moment. Downtown Agent 3323 says bullseye killing AVTF soldiers in the cafe while the New York State of Mind by Billy Joel continues to play in the background is now one of my favorite MCU fights of all time. Same. I mean, as of right now, I feel like that's one of the biggest MCU moments I've seen in a long time. And I can't believe it just happened in the middle of this Daredevil run. Showing us that anything can happen, really in any of these upcoming episodes. And, and it's only going to amp up from here. This is where I'm going to stop the podcast. I feel like I let everything out. I want to circle back and talk about everything all over again. Maybe we'll try and do another after after show like we used to in the good old days with Dustin and tj. Oh my goodness. That would be a classic bra. That would be a nostalgic episode right there. The after after show. We'll talk about it. We will get into it and this is where we'll stop today. I'm Eric Cicada, aka Mr. Honest, your host. Remember to rate the show. Give it a nice little review. It would go the furthest, longest way for me and I'm basically begging you at this point, which I don't want to come off as a beggar and I don't want you to feel like you have to do this, but you have to do this. Join our discord in the notes of this episode and we are going to be flying into the following episode next week. Just like this one. It'll be here in no time. I can't wait to talk about it with you. Thanks for joining me today and thank you for all, all the new listeners. I know we have a lot of listeners. Thank you, thank you, thank you. We'll talk to you next week. And until then, Avengers disassemble.