TV Review — The Tide Turns In ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Episode “The Hateful Darkness”

After the previous episode‘s quick speed-run through the fallout from Vanessa’s (Ayelet Zurer) death and the escalation of the anti-Fisk resistance, “The Hateful Darkness” slows down considerably. While there are some notable and not inconsiderable things happening on the margins, the episode is built around singular event: the trial of Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll). Using this as the center around which much of the episode’s plot, thematic and character developments swirl give it a tightness and immediacy that elevates the entire endeavor.

While it wasn’t clear (to me, at least), if the cliffhanger ending of the previous episode was meant to be “uh oh, Karen is caught” or “uh oh, Karen’s gonna get a bullet in the head,” it turns out it’s the former, and that Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) intends to turn her trial into a media circus. This, in turn, gives Matt Murdoch (Charlie Cox) the idea to use the attention to their benefit. By stepping in as defending co-counsel, he can take advantage of Fisk’s earlier decision to trap Matt by venerating his civilian identity while vilifying his vigilante persona. We’ll see where it’s all going (it sure feels like a public outing of Matt’s dual identities is coming…), but in the meantime, it’s a fun way to make what seems like a desperate situation for the heroes into an opportunity for a strategic win — or at least, a notable counterstrike.

It also does that thing good TV does where it retroactively elevates earlier episodes. The build-up to the trial of the Swordsman (Tony Dalton) could feel a bit ponderous, with bits and bobs woven around other plot points before his day in court. Now, the important service of that plotline becomes clear: by giving us a more methodical presentation of a trial then, we can move more dramatically and expediently through Karen’s. We already know, for example, the pretense that Heather (Margarita Levieva) is using to visit Karen in jail so she can pick a fight with her, because we saw a “normal” session between Heather and the Swordsman earlier in the season.

Centering the episode on Karen’s trial also gives Woll the chance to have a standout episode of her own — similar to the Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) showcase in Episode 5 — and she rises to the challenge with aplomb. The scene between her and Fisk is electric, with Woll managing to convey a complex mix of fear and defiance. The brief reunion with Matt outside the police station is one of the best scenes between the two all season in terms of them seeming like a couple genuinely in love with each other. And her confrontation with Heather not only manages to tap into the tension between Karen being a prisoner yet having the upper hand throughout most of the scene, but also stands as arguably the best scene for Heather all year.

One of the downsides to centering so much in and around Karen’s trial with just one episode to go, though, is that it feels like there’s a lot of ground to left to cover. Which means at least some threads and characters will most likely not appear again until Season 3. I suspect this is likely the last we’ll see of Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan) for the moment; it may also have been the last we see of Heather. It’s definitely a Season 2 wrap for Bullseye. It also means we get a weird sequence of events in which Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) peaces out from the narrative early on in the episode, only to make a big dramatic (re-)entrance at the end. What led her to come back? Who knows! Maybe we’ll find out next time, but even if we do, it’ll likely be a case of telling vs. showing with everything else that needs to happen.

Finding of Facts

• Speaking of Dollar Dollarman, this episode marks the end of Daniel’s (Michael Gandolfini) arc, as he is tragically beaten and killed for refusing to give up BB (Genneya Walton). According to reports, originally Daniel’s plea to Buck was meant to work, with the scene playing out exactly as we saw, only without the gunshot. Then somewhere along the way, it was decided to kill off Daniel, so the gunshot was added in post-production.
• Daniel going out protecting BB is an appreciated end for a character who, somewhat inexplicably, grew on me and became one of the highlights of this season. That said, I would have liked his face turn to have required a bit more soul searching. As is, it basically goes down like this:

BB: Daniel, you have to save me!
Daniel: I can’t! Fisk is too powerful!
BB: Come on….
Daniel: Eh, okay.

• Chief of Detectives Brett Mahoney (Royce Johnson) previously appeared in the Netflix series as a recurring cop who helped out Nelson and Murdock.
• Mister Charles’ (Matthew Lillard) whole plotline sure fizzled out, huh? I guess maybe he’s being setup for more next season, but it sure feels like he’s been dropped in from another series that doesn’t actually exist.
• Relatedly, it turns out Luke Cage (Mike Colter in the Netflix era) is working for him in whatever shifty superhero CIA ops he’s running, which definitely feels like a reference to a series that doesn’t exist … unless that is going to somehow factor into Born Again Season 3.
• It turns out the way to make Heather interesting is to make her go full heel turn and become Lady Muse.
• I totally thought Matt was going to ask Bullseye to do that old superhero staple where he dresses up as Daredevil and shows up at Karen’s trial alongside Matt to help sell the idea that they’re different people.
• This episode has another big “Daredevil may not kill, but Matt Murdock sure seems to” moment when Matt hurls his cane at the driver of the AVTF van and more or less impales him through the chest with it (to say nothing of any people who may have died after the van crashed).