Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3
"The Hollow of His Hand"
Writers: Jill Blankenship
Directors: Michael Cuesta
Cast: Charlie Cox, Vincent D'Onofrio, Margarita Levieva, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki M. James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, Kamar de los Reyes, Ayelet Zurer
"It's the right thing to do."
If one line of dialogue, supercharged by its context, stops me cold every week, then Daredevil: Born Again is doing its job. And that line, the only answer Hector Ayala (Kamar de Los Reyes) has to give during his turn on the witness stand, hit like — it feels like it would be in bad taste to say it hits like a speeding subway train? It hits hard. I'll leave it there.
Episode 3 of Born Again continues — and pretty much wraps up — the season's White Tiger story arc. This is major progress considering that the Netflix/Marvel shows would spend entire seasons on one case/conflict. So kudos, mama, for balancing episodic and serialized storytelling.
The series remains bifurcated between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk's storylines, with the two veering further apart before resuming their collision course by episode's end. On the Kingpin front, he's having a hard time balancing his old hobbies with his new responsibilities. His ascension to mayor, and Vanessa's ascension-by-marriage, has left the underworld without a reigning kingpin or an interim queenpin. Thus, all the rival gangs are being messy, petty bitches and killing each other during basic 18-wheeler-jackings.
Vanessa and Wilson are already engaging in marriage counseling spurred on partly by Vanessa's infidelity (that's that Adam she mentions) during Wilson's "I'm going to wear Hawaiian shirts and get shot in the face" phase. Hey, midlife crises look like many a different thing. Vanessa thinks that she needs to tighten her grip on the crime families, even if she has to do so by proxy. The proxy is Buck Cashman, played by Carnival Row's Arty Froushan, who so far bears zero resemblance to his comic counterpart and instead feels like Diet Wesley — which no one can convince me is as good as Wesley.
Wilson, however, takes Vanessa perceiving and solving this problem as a possible ... betrayal is too strong a word. He wants Vanessa to be a picture-perfect, conforming Laura Bush type, but she wants to be a ceiling-breaking, inspirational, iconoclastic Michelle Obama type ... but of, like, mob stuff. He believes that chaos should reign a little, let the violence escalate some, so that the public will thirst for his order. But to get to the theme of the episode, Vanessa is doing what she thinks is right and Wilson is doing what he wants. Which methodology will win out?
And then there's Matt Murdock with the A storyline — which immediately deflates all of the "oh shit" tension created by the end of Episode 2. Y'know, that end where it appeared as though Matt had murdered two cops in the apartment of his star witness??? Yeah, turns out that getting flipped headfirst into the floor, neck cracking at a 90-degree angle, is one of those "two aspirins and sleep it off" things. That cop is back at the courthouse the next day, fully walking, talking, and treating his fight with Matt as if the two of them took a few swings at each other in a bar fight. My guy, this blind lawyer rammed you into a fridge twice and then tried to shove you six feet deep into a parquet floor. But sure, moving on!
That whole thing aside, the courtroom drama that unfolds is some good TV, with the misdirects and twists that come from, well, good courtroom dramas. The defense has their star witness, a police informant, who they have to get to the courthouse without being killed. There's a nice fake out, with the cops being distracted by a very conspicuous van when in reality, the witness was just in a cab. But when the witness gets on the stand, he is absolutely intimidated by a courtroom full of blue and he backs out. With his only witness pulled, Matt's left with one right thing to do: reveal that Hector Ayala would never knowingly attack the defenseless, let alone chuck someone in front of a train, because he is the White Tiger. Matt holds up the mask and everything. He's blind, but he knows the importance of visuals. We love a dramatic man.
This leads to what was I thought was the most enjoyable scene of the episode, starting with the, "Welp, what are ya gonna do?" eye roll/shrug from Cherry (Clark Johnson) to Kirsten (Nikki M. James).
Johnson is, without a doubt, the standout of the new cast. He's giving Commissioner Gordon, but if Gordon was retired and doing all the work that's not dangerous enough for Batman. Every superhero story needs someone who is, indeed, too old for this shit. And then watching the judge and prosecutor lose their minds over this, literally days after Matt fought so hard to keep all the White Tiger stuff out of it? Love that. These kind of quick-thinking, slipshod manipulation tactics makes me wonder how Matt Murdock would fare as a Traitor on The Traitors.
This turns out to be the right call, because with Hector's extracurricular tiger play now admissible, the jury gets to hear character witnesses from all of the people — including numerous cops! — that White Tiger has saved. And when Hector is put on the stand, he only has one answer to give: "It's the right thing to do."
The jury does the right thing and finds him not guilty. This enrages Fisk, whose pet issue is the eradication of vigilantism. To issue a reaction to the verdict, Fisk turns to the fantastically greasy, troll-in-Men's-Wearhouse, Gen Z aide Daniel Blake (Michael Gandolfini). He sets up a meeting with news vlogger BB Urich (Genneya Walton), and comes down hard against this ruling.
And quickly, about BB Urich: Do those man-on-the-street interviews feel completely incongruous with every visual signifier of a YouTube or TikTok influencer's content? Like, distractingly so? They take me out every time, like they're being spliced in from '90s Homicide: Life on the Street episodes. Also, I need some indication that this show remembers that Wilson Fisk killed Ben Urich. How that's not something BB already knows, or why it hasn't been teased that she's going to find out ... I'm dying over here.
Cut to Hector Ayala, donning his White Tiger amulet and suit to patrol and do what's right. And he's shot in the head, point-blank, by a guy in a tactical vest emblazoned with the Punisher logo.
Now, considering that there's a whole club of cops with Punisher tattoos lurking in these episodes, I think it's very safe to assume that we're dealing with a copycat here. And I think we are absolutely heading towards an episode wherein the actual Punisher denounces all cops who use his imagery, which is a very real thing that cops do. I am absolutely sure that everyone will remain completely chill about this, especially on Twitter X.
Now, it wouldn't be a Daredevil: Born Again recap of mine if it didn't dive into some diary-level introspection, so — I have feelings, especially since I've had a week to reflect on the two-episode premiere.
Daredevil is a character burdened by this ethos, a desire to do the "right thing" no matter the cost to himself or others. It's incredibly telling that this is the case that kicks off the season, one where Matt Murdock is once again trying his damnedest to not be Daredevil. But every time he talks to Hector, telling him that he has to give up the White Tiger persona should he walk free, he's not trying to convince Hector; he's still trying to convince himself. And when Hector's reply is, essentially, I can't quit because I am White Tiger, Matt Murdock absolutely takes that personally.
And that's a character quirk of Matt's that I'm just now realizing truly separates himself from all of his peers. Our guy makes everything about himself — and not in a bad way. In an honest way. It's his biggest weakness. He can turn anyone into a mirror of himself, from White Tiger to Punisher. He can boil an ancient ninja dynasty's conquest of our realm into a fight with his girlfriend. He can look at Karen Page and be hurt by her not soothing his grief, ignoring that she's also grieving just as hard.
So when Matt took it upon himself to out White Tiger, without consulting Hector, what are we to make of that? On the one hand, it was the "right thing to do," considering that his only witness was intimidated into silence by a courtroom full of cops. But knowing that Matt Murdock is skilled at shoving everything into his internalized, pity party myth-making, and knowing that Matt absolutely sees himself in Hector, is this Matt doing for Hector what he wishes he could do for himself ... even if, uh, Hector doesn't want this? And, as the last shot of the episode proves, the "right thing to do" frequently leads to bad outcomes.
I also can't watch this show without thinking about all of the behind-the-scenes scuttlebutt. I wish I could, but it was too public a halt and too extreme a do-over. This episode comes from the initial six which, if Episodes 2-3 are an indication, come from a perfectly fine legal drama. The acting is top notch, especially from the late and absolutely great Kamar de los Reyes. I can't imagine Charlie Cox not feeling immensely moved by those scenes with de los Reyes. Those are meaty, rich scenes. The writing is impactful. The plotting is tight; Michael Gandolfini, who's at the heart of a plot thread that shows so much potential right now, was cast for the original version of the show. The series seemed to have something to say, since all of the Punisher cops are in these two episodes. Like, you don't introduce a bunch of cops with Punisher tattoos in the Year of Our Lord 2025 unless you are up for taking a lot of heat.
So, what was wrong with Daredevil: Born Again 1.0? And what caused Charlie Cox, Vincent D'Onofrio, and Kevin Feige to "do the right thing" and hit the reset button? I see it, and it's a hole that not even a do-over could fill: there's a hole in the heart of this show. There is Charlie Cox's Matt Murdock, and then there's ... nothing. There's solid plotting, interesting ideas, great acting, but ... there's no Foggy Nelson and there's no Karen Page.
Say what you will about Elden Henson's Foggy Nelson — and as a Foggy superfan, I hear all of you!!! — but, especially by Season 3, he had really leveled up to being the doofy, lovable, smart, brave character that he's always been in the comics. And then there's Deborah Ann Woll's Karen Page, who — hot take? — is the best character on the show. Her stare down with Fisk in Season 3? One of the greatest moments in Marvel TV history. Maybe even MCU history. She's just, like, a brick wall with big, glassy eyes, snotty nose, and clenched fists. She's everything. And this show doesn't have anything that comes close to replacing her, replacing Henson, and replacing what the two of them had with Cox. And that's a bummer.
Instead, there's Cherry and Kirsten — but the show does not, yet, seem interested in their dynamic with Matt.
We got a tease of one between Cherry and Matt last week, but we're now three episodes in and we don't really have an understanding of who these characters are to each other. The White Tiger case may as well be their very first case together, that's how little their chemistry plays into the plot.
I'll even add that D'Onofrio's performance feels uncharacteristically muted in these episodes, and I wonder how much of that is due to the original iteration recasting Vanessa. How many of these scenes are of D'Onofrio performing opposite Sandrine Holt, and not Ayelet Zurer? It feels off.
The decision to halt production and add those characters back in, as much as possible considering two-thirds of the season was filmed, was the right one. But even if it was the right thing to do, we still have to live — or, in this case, watch — the consequences.
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