Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Season 1, Episode 6.Despite the plethora of fantastic characters seen throughout Netflix’sDaredevilandDaredevil: Born Again, thetwo best will always beMatt Murdock (Charlie Cox)andWilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). Their conflict is the throughline of both shows, and their scenes together are some of the best-written. However, what makes them so great is how they contrast each other in crucial ways. This means that, even if you enjoy watching both, you know that Matt is the character you should be rooting for.
This is where the latest and sixth episode ofBorn Again, “Excessive Force,” took a bit of a misstep. This episode structured itself around the parallel between Matt and Fisk. Throughout, we see cuts between the two as they deal with ideas surrounding the masks they put on to hide or reveal their true selves. This was amistake asNetflix’sDaredevilalready did this with a more effective comparison:Matt and Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal). This comparison made more sense as the two had more in common when it came to their end goal, whereas framing Matt and Fisk as overly similar has glaring holes in it when we consider their motives and desires.
‘Daredevil: Born Again’s Latest Episode Compares Fisk and Matt’s Desire To Reveal Their True Selves
“Excessive Force” immediately makes it clear that we should be focusing on the similarities between our protagonist and antagonist. At the start of the episode, after Matt is praying,Heather (Margarita Levieva)describes her new book about vigilantes, and we cut between Fisk and Matt. Fisk’s meeting with Luca (Patrick Murney) and Matt’s conversation with Heathercreates the comparison that both of them are hiding their true selves.Fisk cannot brutalize an arrogant Luca because he must keep the appearance of a clean politician, and Matt cannot tell his lover the inner conflict he feels over not being able to go out and help people.
Over the course of the episode, we see the two come closer and closer to shedding their disguises. Before the benefit Fisk andVanessa (Ayelet Zurer)attend, Fisk bursts out of his suit. We could relate this to the hearty meals we have seen him secretly eating in front ofAdam (Lou Taylor Pucci)and that Fisk’s secrets are literally forcing their way out. However, the fact we see this rip from behind, not the front, frames Fisk as a beast that cannot be chained to society’s niceties. It is also more directly linked to Matt changing into his Daredevil suit in the third act of the episode and shows that they are both letting out the monsters within them. It is a neat comparison, butone that ultimately falls down when we think about a more apt parallel between Frank and Matt that the Netflix original show presented.
Netflix’s ‘Daredevil’ Was a Far More Effective Parallel for Two Vigilantes
Simply put, the use of Matt and Frank was more effective becausethey are two sides of the same coin. When the two debate on the rooftop inDaredevilSeason 2, Episode 3, “New York’s Finest,” we see that there are fundamental differences in their approaches to being vigilantes, but they still have the same end goal: defeat the bad guys and make the world a better place.Both characters had valid points about how the other was failing in that mission, and they got to debate this face-to-face.
Frank is correct that the people Matt puts in prison are “back out on the street” not long after, creating an almost never-ending cycle of violence that, arguably, only death can stop. Yet, Matt’s retort that the people Frank kills are “human beings” and that no one has a right to kill someone because there is a chance they can become good is equally correct. Rather thancutting between scenes like inBorn Again, which doesn’t allow the characters to actually show why the other is right or wrong, Daredevil andThe Punisherhave to simply walk away from each other, as they can’t agree to disagree, nor can they make the other change their mind. We get to see them show their belief in their cause and use their wit to try and outsmart the other, whereas theBorn Againcomparison is slightly surface-level.
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When I was a boy…
Matt and Fisk Are Too Different in Their Goals To Equate in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’
Even if you enjoyed the exploration of Matt and Wilson Fisk’s similar inner conflict about hiding their true selves, it fails to work as a parallel because they are not so. They are contradictions or contrasting characters, and this is the biggest issue with the Fisk and Matt comparison: the fundamental differences in their characters are much larger and directed at their end goal. When Fisk and Matt fight their antagonists at the end of the episode, while they are both releasing their violent sides,Fisk is doing it out of jealousy, and Matt is doing it to save someone,Hector’s (Kamar de los Reyes)niece, Angela Del Toro (Camila Rodriguez).
This creates an inevitability in how they won’t be comparable as the show goes on,lessening the impact of how the show tries to tease some kind of “who will fall to the other’s side?”mystery. We know that Matt won’t run against Fisk for Mayor or lose his morality, and we know Fisk won’t become a vigilante or a law-abiding citizen. However, we weren’t entirely sure if Frank or Matt would come around to the other’s point of view.
In the end, if you enjoyed the way this latest episode framed Fisk and Matt, that is entirely valid. Yet, you cannot deny that the parallel is not as effective as the one between Frank and Matt in Netflix’sDaredevil. In that one, we felt like these were two characters coming from and heading towards the same place, whereas we know this won’t happen inBorn Again.
New episodes of Daredevil: Born Again are released weekly on Disney+.
