In the series premiere of Daredevil: Born Again, Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock meet at a diner over coffee and tea. With Fisk on the verge of becoming the next mayor of New York City, Murdock wants to check in on him and ensure that his old rival isn’t gaming the system. He warns him to stay in line in his fledgling political career, and Fisk offers his own warning to the retired vigilante in return.
“I’m going to be mayor of this town, and when I am, I will not tolerate people running around in silly costumes,” Fisk says. “The rule of law will prevail. And should you go back to any of your old activities, there will be consequences.”
After dusting off his silly costume and resuming his old “activities” as Daredevil in Episode 6, Matt is already starting to see some of those consequences emerge in Episode 7. His girlfriend, Heather, is growing increasingly concerned about his physical and emotional well-being as he consistently comes home late, covered in bruises and acting more emotionally distant. He’s jeopardizing his professional relationships—and friendships—with his legal partner, Kirsten McDuffie, and private investigator, Cherry. And when Fisk hears the news that Daredevil has resurfaced, he begins to take even more drastic measures to reshape his mayoral power in the image of his criminal empire, emboldened by his nemesis’s return.
As Muse’s story line reaches its climax this week, Born Again continues to dial up the action it withheld for much of the season. The show’s first season has struggled thus far to find the kind of balance that the original Netflix series struck between its fight sequences and its more grounded focus on the legal system. Seven episodes in, Born Again now seeks to inject more superhero elements into a series approach that prioritizes realism, as Murdock and Fisk further entrench themselves in their nasty old habits.
The Brief
After Murdock donned his Daredevil suit again in last week’s installment, he quickly eased back into his double life as if he’d never left it. When Heather discovers new bruises on Matt’s back as they shower together, her subsequent questioning turns into an impromptu therapy session. She says that he’s been avoiding the process of confronting his trauma and grief after losing Foggy and his old life. In what feels like a warning, Heather also says that Matt is putting all the good things that he’s built in his life since then—including his job and his relationship with her—at risk. And she’s right.
As Matt returns to his office, the consequences of his recent actions are already starting to manifest around him. Word of Daredevil’s return has spread quickly, and Cherry isn’t too pleased to hear that Matt is putting his life and career in jeopardy again. Murdock dismisses Cherry’s concerns and asks him to find out what he can about Muse’s whereabouts so that Daredevil can put a stop to him once and for all. Cherry refuses to enable Matt’s clear desire to pick up where he left off as a vigilante. However, Cherry still lies to Kirsten when she later airs her own frustrations about being left out of his private conversations with Murdock, as Matt is walling himself off from her as well.
In Netflix’s Daredevil, Murdock always struggled to balance the duality of his life fighting for justice. His superhero alter ego and the lies he had to tell to maintain its secrecy caused all sorts of rifts with his friends and loved ones. When someone like Foggy discovered the truth about him, it created a domino effect: Foggy would then have to tell more lies on Matt’s behalf, perpetuating the cycle of resentment and mistrust that developed over time among those who were pulled into Matt’s orbit. All this time later, Murdock is starting to do the same thing to Cherry, Heather, and Kirsten, as the cost of being Daredevil adds a tax to his secondary life once more.
Meanwhile, Fisk deals with the news of Daredevil’s return in his own way. Although Fisk initially dwells on how much the vigilante took from him over the years, his right-hand man, Buck, reminds him that he’s mayor now and that Fisk should leave his resentment in the past. But Fisk forms a different conclusion: His new public position of power provides an opportunity to use his authority in ways he never could when he was forced to operate in the shadows as Kingpin.
Wilson isn’t the only Fisk who’s conspiring in Episode 7. Vanessa, who has reluctantly given up her responsibilities running the Fisk criminal empire as her husband pursues his political career, agrees to meet with Luca. The Tracksuit Mafia leader is preparing to follow through on the threats he made to the mayor in the previous episode, and he offers to let Vanessa help him eliminate Wilson, whom he believes is their mutual problem, so that business can go back to how it was before Fisk returned from his hiatus.
“Art for Art’s Sake” spends much of its time extending the journeys that Murdock and Fisk have been on as they blend their past methods as Daredevil and Kingpin, respectively, into the new lifestyles that they’ve tried to create for themselves. But it all leads back to Muse, as Born Again brings the serial killer’s story line to its explosive conclusion.
In Episode 2, a troubled young man approached Heather at an event for the release of her new book, asking her whether she’d be able to slot him in for an appointment sometime. Five episodes later, that therapy session finally takes place, and it doesn’t take long for Heather to understand just how troubled he is. While Heather’s new client tells her about himself, Fisk receives a visit from Detective Kim, who provides the mayor with all the background the police have compiled on their lead suspect in the Muse case: Bastion Cooper. It quickly becomes clear that Heather’s client and Muse are the same person.
As Born Again transitions between these two conversations, we learn everything about Muse and his origins: how Bastion’s parents put pressure on him when he was a child, how they forced him to learn tae kwon do, and how he was trained by an elite tae kwon do instructor who was mysteriously found dead on the Coopers’ family property one day, with no subsequent investigation into his death.
Although Heather notices all sorts of concerning signs in Bastion’s demeanor during their conversation, she maintains her professionalism and continues to ask him questions about himself. But when Bastion starts to mention his art, Heather’s concerns begin to snowball.
“All I ever wanted to be was an artist,” Bastion says. “To be the person that I am now, and that’s all thanks to you.”
“That is kind of you to say,” Heather replies. “But I’m just a conduit—”
“No, you’re the key,” Bastion interjects. “Don’t you see that? I mean, you’ve unlocked something in me, Dr. Glenn. This is something I didn’t know was missing. You’ve allowed my creativity to flourish, to soar to heights I never even imagined.”
Bastion grows increasingly violent and menacing, and the final straw comes when his nose starts bleeding. Instead of wiping the blood away, he uses it to create a quick finger painting. And let’s be honest, it isn’t Muse’s best work:
As deeply silly as this painting is within the context of this solemn moment, it serves as Bastion’s way of revealing himself to be Muse—and Heather understands immediately. She tries to escape, but Bastion throws her head into the wall, knocking her out as he prepares to make her his next victim.
Elsewhere, Daredevil returns to Muse’s subway lair to search for clues about his next move. He comes across sketches that Angela del Toro told him about and recognizes a familiar face in them:
This might be the single most ridiculous moment that Born Again has offered so far. Daredevil may have heightened senses, including touch, but apparently his gifts now extend to artistic interpretation? As Murdock feels the face of the woman in one of the portraits, Born Again cuts away to a moment earlier in the episode when he felt Heather’s face, realizing that she’s the recurring subject of multiple paintings. (Muse’s art seems to be more of writer-artist David Mack’s handiwork, and it is indeed very good, but this feels like quite the stretch.) Maybe I just don’t have a keen eye for art, but this woman could be any number of people in the world (or in New York City).
At any rate, Daredevil knows exactly whom Muse is targeting next. Officer Powell is able to use some miraculous technology to confidently identify Heather Glenn as the paintings’ subject as well. And so Daredevil and Fisk’s anti-vigilante task force race to save her.
When Daredevil arrives at Heather’s office, Muse has changed into his full costume and has laid a tarp across the floor to use as the canvas for his final piece of art. Daredevil breaks in through a window as Muse is strangling Heather, while the police arrive on the scene but are remarkably slow to move in. Their fight is pretty brutal, with Daredevil firing his billy club through Muse’s shoulder and dragging his body to paint streaks of blood across the canvas. However, it’s Heather who brings an end to the action when she shoots Muse with his own gun, killing him before she collapses because of her loss of blood.
In the aftermath, the police finally reach Heather’s office to find Muse’s corpse and Heather unconscious but stabilized. Fisk later arrives at the crime scene and is told by Sergeant North that Daredevil beat them to the punch, but the mayor corrects him, intending to take full credit for Muse’s killing.
After the series set up Muse as a major villain, his demise feels a bit anticlimactic. Bastion was certainly a creepy character, but he spoke long enough in this lone episode only to explain his origins—and no words were even exchanged between him and Daredevil. It feels like a bit of a waste to kill off the villain just as he’s being properly introduced, and Born Again continues to be uneven in its approach to its action-infused conflicts.
Even so, “Art for Art’s Sake” has a strong ending: Fisk claims victory, calling a press conference where he and his anti-vigilante task force raise Muse’s mask in front of reporters as they announce that they’ve successfully taken down the serial killer. And in another win for the Fisks, Vanessa follows through with her plan with Luca—except she turns the tables on him. She leads Luca to Bamonte’s restaurant in Williamsburg, where her husband is supposedly dining alone, but when he arrives to kill Fisk, Buck is there to shoot him first.
Fisk maintains a balance between being the new mayor of New York City and the Kingpin of Crime, making calculated decisions to turn the public against vigilantes while quietly eliminating emergent threats like Luca. All the while, Vanessa continues to come into her own as she becomes less a bystander than an active participant in her husband’s criminal enterprise. Although she has still been sidelined for much of the season as Fisk pursues his political career, Vanessa has become a fiercer and more threatening character in her own right after being empowered to run her husband’s empire in his absence. Born Again made it seem as if Vanessa might betray Wilson to reclaim control for herself, yet she ends Episode 7 by passing a true test of loyalty.
Consequences are already making their way to Murdock following his return to vigilantism, but Wilson Fisk’s power and corruption only grow.
Character Spotlight: Heather Glenn
With Heather serving a central role in Episode 7, let’s take this opportunity to explore her roots in the comic books.
Marvel Studios has had a history of making significant changes to characters it adapts for the screen, often for good reason. That’s definitely the case for Heather Glenn in Born Again. The character first appeared in 1975’s Daredevil no. 126, which was written by Marv Wolfman and illustrated by Bob Brown. Heather meets Murdock under bizarre circumstances, entering his apartment one day by using a spare key she had from her ex-boyfriend, who lived in Matt’s apartment before him.
Things only get stranger from there. Charmed by Murdock in their encounter, Heather proceeds to low-key stalk Matt in the days to come. She’s persistent enough in her courtship that it eventually pays off. We don’t have to get too deep into the outrageous details of their very messy relationship, but here are some of the highlights (or lowlights, really) of Heather’s story:
- Heather and Matt break up and get back together many times, and she eventually discovers the truth about his identity as Daredevil.
- Heather’s father gets caught up in embezzlement, which Murdock investigates both as Daredevil and as a lawyer. They later discover that her father was under the mind control of the villainous Purple Man (of Jessica Jones fame).
- Heather takes over her father’s company after he dies by suicide in prison.
- Matt uses the legal system to essentially intimidate and coerce Heather into marrying him, which plays a role in turning her to alcoholism.
- Foggy Nelson and Black Widow (!) prevent their marriage by manipulating her into falsely believing that Matt is breaking up with her.
- Heather becomes drinking buddies with Tony Stark.
That list ranges from reading like a game of Marvel Mad Libs to being incredibly dark for no good reason—and that pretty much sums up the absurdity of this tragic character in Daredevil lore. Heather ultimately dies by suicide, like her father did, in Daredevil no. 220, after existing for just under 100 Daredevil issues, many of which she didn’t even appear in.
In Born Again, we’ve seen almost no trace of Heather’s comic book past, which is for the best. Heather’s role as the marriage counselor for the Fisks—without Murdock knowing about it—sounds like a setup for the sort of high jinks you’d usually find in a romantic comedy. (To say nothing of her growing interest in writing a book about masked personas while she unwittingly dates a vigilante.) Yet Heather’s therapy sessions with the Fisks provide some interesting insight into the gap that has formed between Wilson and Vanessa and the evolution of their characters as the series re-creates them years after the conclusion of Netflix’s Daredevil.
Heather is growing even more disillusioned with masked individuals after her run-in with Muse and Daredevil, the latter of whom she believes helped her only out of self-interest. How she responds to the traumatic incident may affect Matt’s decision to complete his return as Daredevil.
The Art of Muse
In honor of “Art for Art’s Sake” and the end of Muse’s time on Born Again, let’s close this recap by highlighting some of Muse’s artwork in lieu of our usual Easter eggs. Muse’s murals have appeared throughout the season, with Muse sometimes shown creating them:
As previously noted, these murals are the actual work of writer-artist David Mack, who’s illustrated titles including Daredevil and Echo. Aside from the fact that Muse’s murals are made with human blood from his victims, it’s fun to see Born Again incorporate Mack’s talent, and it’s a shame that we won’t get to see more of his illustrations on the show. But hey, at least Muse gave us the gift of one last finger painting before leaving us for good.
