Daredevil: Born Again Episode 9
"Straight to Hell"
Writers: Dario Scardapane, Heather Bellson
Directors: Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
Cast: Charlie Cox, Vincent D'Onofrio, Deborah Ann Woll, Tony Dalton, Margarita Levieva, Wilson Bethel, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki M. James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, Ayelet Zurer
Daredevil is woke. The Punisher is woke. Marvel, Disney, whatever — it's all gone woke (although, honestly, I'd argue your point, re: Disney). Please, YouTube grifters, make your videos. Get your views. Stoke fires that could never warm your cold heart. Waste time screaming into an iPhone about how your "childhood has been ruined," and remain oblivious to the truth, a truth whose credits are rolling before your eyes: This ain't for you.
Superheroes are not for you. Space rebellions are not for you. Even garishly colored super soldiers are not for you. Because you have chosen to grow up to be the villain in your childhood stories. If you find yourself freaking out over Daredevil or Punisher having gone "woke," ask yourself why it bothers you so much to see superheroes. You know who else hates watching superheroes? Supervillains.
If my own rage isn't an indicator, Daredevil: Born Again stuck the landing after a truly rough middle section. And I would say, "Maybe I shouldn't have watched this episode after seeing photos from America's detainment camp in El Salvador," but consuming fun pop culture in a frictionless reality is no longer a luxury we can afford. We live in Hell, one created by our very own Dumbass Kingpin (no disrespect to Kingpin, who is somehow a man with integrity compared to everyone in the Republican Party). It would be irresponsible to watch Daredevil in any other context, because this is the context that you know the showrunners knew this episode of television would be consumed under. Because it was clear, even when the creators were crafting this episode a year or more ago, that this was the path that America was rampaging down if we made the wrong choice. And we fumbled the bag.
So here it is, Wilson Fisk's grand plan laid bare: use the attempt on his life as the perfect excuse to shore up support for his "Safer Streets" initiative (barf) and his Anti-Vigilante Task Force. (I'd put money on Fisk hiring Bullseye to stage the assassination, too.) Plunge New York City into utter darkness, literally, and let his Thin Blue Gestapo run amuck. Crush all resistance in his own ranks, which includes the head of Commissioner Gallo in the most gruesome moment in MCU history. And then round 'em all up, all the vigilantes. Put them in cages. Declare martial law.
And, like, Fisk wants an 8PM curfew? In New York City?? Good luck, babe.
But let's talk about the detainment of those who stand in political opposition to the party in power, and let's point out what should be startlingly obvious to anyone with eyes and a brain capable of rational thought: conservative politics are evil.
If you call yourself a Republican or even conservative, and you disagree with the detainment and deportation of American citizens who have committed no crime and had no trial, you are not a Republican or a conservative. Your party is a fascist party.
Daredevil: Born Again is saying that. The villains are the ones rounding up dissenters. They are the ones assassinating looters and then pulling a mask down over their face, to pass them off as vigilantes. These are bloodthirsty liars who don't need to grasp for power. It's already in their hands, and they're stroking that power vigorously.
I'm sorry that "politics" or "woke" got in your Marvel. The very first Marvel comics featured Captain America, Namor, and a robot named Human Torch beating the shit out of Nazis. Superhero comics have always been political, on both sides of the aisle (and by that I mean Marvel and DC). Daredevil: Born Again is not saying anything new here. It has always been wrong to throw people into cages without even a whiff of due process. It has always been wrong to put multiple bullets into those who are willfully surrendering. It has always been wrong to rat out your peers, potentially sentencing them to death, just to save your own ass (Sheila, oh Sheila ... sigh). This is the kind of shit that movies depicted as evil in all kinds of '80s action movies. This is the kind of shit that Jean-Claude Van Damme would spin-kick into crates. If you didn't mind it then, but now clock all of that same stuff as "woke politics," what the hell does that tell you about yourself?
And regarding The Punisher. I cannot believe that these are words that I am typing, considering that I'm aware of my lifetime of side-eye at anything with that skull logo on it: this Frank Castle is your modern masculinity. Have it, men. Embrace it. Love it. It's fine. Hell, in the grand scheme of things, it's great. If this Punisher is "woke," in a pejorative sense, then what the hell do you want from the character?
What Jon Bernthal has embodied — with heaps of support from Dario Scardapane, who ran the Netflix show and now Born Again — is so much more complicated than the "I'm the tough guy who murders criminals" that a lot of "fans" want the Punisher to be. By giving Frank Castle a cadre of cops who have learned all the wrong lessons based on surface-level reads, who use that skull as an excuse to just do whatever the hell they want, the show is able to directly point a finger at our world — at some viewers — and say, "Uh, you got it wrong!"
Frank, beaten and bloodied by men bearing his logo (some of which look very dopey, TBH — the cops need art lessons), refuses to join Fisk's AVTM. He sees through every single one of them. He laughs at them. How could they know his pain, and why would they want to? These cops are 100% the kind of men who would pay a year's salary to go to the woods and have some 'roided up muscle man run them through a weekend boot camp just so they could feel "like a real man." These are men who are so insecure in their masculinity that they need to put on a skull vest and kill teenagers so they can feel a fraction of what they think society is telling them they should want.
No one has the right to kill people indiscriminately, but Frank Castle has his own internal motive, at least. And look at Castle's life: he doesn't have one. His family was gunned down, and now he lives in a hole and spends all his time hunting down the worst of the worst. He's not killing anyone for personal gain. And to be honest, I actually don't think he enjoys killing people. Listen to the guttural noises he makes during every one of this episode's brutal, over-the-top bloody fight scenes. He sounds inhuman, and I think Frank sees himself that way. The ends always justify the means, and he has deconstructed his life accordingly.
These cops, though? Everyone has hardships, but do any come close to Frank's, honestly? And if they do, how have those hardships reshaped their lives? Because I bet that all of these cops think that they can go around playing cowboy and still go home and have a normal life, that all of their sacrifices are in the past. Frank Castle is a walking example: the sacrifices don't stop if this is the life you choose. Maybe you get to feel a rush of affection when you see someone (Karen Page), but you're not going to be with her. You're not going to act on that. Doing that would be human — it would be playing by our human code in our human world, a code and world wherein putting bullets into strangers is generally frowned upon. So Frank stifles everything, and does what he believes needs to be done — and he suffers every minute of it. These cops are having fun. They are chumps.
So the idea that Punisher has "gone woke" is absolutely wild, because the ethos that Born Again just re-established for him is some badass shit for a fictional character. Men can love Frank Castle because he has a code (he keeps his promises, Karen!), and because he respects it and doesn't skimp when it comes to paying the toll it takes on his soul. Underneath all the evisceration, there is a moral there: being aware of your life's mission and not taking the easy way out. If your life's mission is being a father, then it's that Homer Simpson "Do It For Her" grind. And it's absolutely not being envious of the men who have been called to serve and ponying up dollars so you can go play soldier man at a beach resort. Be the man that you are, and strive to be the best version of it.
And I want to talk about Karen Page, because Deborah Ann Woll is absolutely the missing piece of this series. Thank god it looks like she's back full-time in Season 2 (currently in production, hallelujah). Her return underlines a truth of the human condition: we each carry parts of each other with us at all times. We are each other's context. And this isn't a weakness. It's not like we're less of ourselves when we are alone, in isolation. But being with others, feeling the way they push our buttons, lift our spirits, challenge our thoughts, encourage our passions, fortify our weak spots — that's life. And as Matt says, he's spent the last year — a year without Karen or Foggy (and with a supporting cast that the old showrunners routinely forgot to develop) not being himself. Because Matt is the best version of himself when he had Foggy around to lift his spirits and call him out, and when he had Karen to push him to go further and try harder.
There's also the through line of grief, one pulled taut now that it's in the hands of Matt and Karen. They both carry pieces of Foggy with them. And this is why — when you're surrounded by people sharing the same grief, for the same person, it's like those chunks of pain assemble and become something not complete, but more whole. They can, briefly, make it feel like that person is there. When Matt's alone, he just has his piece of Foggy. But with Karen there, carrying her piece of her dead friend, she can look him in the eyes (not that that matters, I guess?) and tell him how much Foggy believed in him, in all of him, light and dark — it's hard to argue that that isn't coming from Foggy himself.
Oh, uh, there actually is a plot to this episode — but I'd argue that the plot isn't the point. I wrote last week that the last-minute takeover by the new creative team felt a bit like hastily rearranging furniture — to breathtaking results. This week, the plot — Daredevil and Queen Karen Page uncover Fisk's plan to exploit a centuries-old loophole and set up a lawless domain in Red Hook wherein he can just go wild — feels more like the team settling on the ideal configuration than anything else. All of the chess pieces were moved around — Daredevil has his own scrappy army, ready to fight the long, hard fight against Fisk's fascist army of pretend Punisher cops — so they could get to Daredevil's final speech:
I can't see my city, but I can feel it. 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.
Hell yeah.
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