Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 ends with a Kingpin and Daredevil face-off, but it’s not what we expected. Charlie Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio have been working together since filming the original Daredevil series in 2014, and they’ve built up a stunning dynamic. We’ve seen Daredevil and Kingpin go head-to-head so many times, and each confrontation felt so very different. Born Again Season 2 faced the ultimate challenge, because it somehow had to cap Daredevil Season 3.
Most viewers expected a no-holds barred brawl. Oddly enough, previous episodes had already delivered on that; Daredevil paid Kingpin a house call after Vanessa’s death, and they went through the motions in a brutal fight that seems to have ended in a draw. The problem, Matt realized, was that neither was willing to back down and walk away. Each desperately wanted to win, to define New York. The end of Born Again Season 2 took things in a very different direction, though.
The final battle between Daredevil and Mayor Fisk starts in a courtroom, the perfect way of resolving Kingpin and Daredevil’s dynamic. Murdock calls Fisk in as a witness, and the Kingpin can’t resist agreeing. Karen Page is technically the one who’s on trial, but Matt instead wants to put Kingpin’s entire mayoralty on trial in the court of public opinion. He presents Daredevil as a vigilante defending New York from a mayor who risks it, and the Kingpin goes too far from the start, insisting the public don’t have the right to know what he’s shipping through Red Hook – tantamount to a confession.
Matt may have a video testimony to the sinking of the Northern Star, but he lacks a corroborative witness. In an incredible twist, he does the only thing he could possibly do to destroy the Fisk administration. He commits himself to mutual self-destruction, outing himself to the world as Daredevil and therefore becoming a witness against Fisk. Neither could walk away from the battle, so Matt turns it into one where both of them lose. He will face punishment for Daredevil’s crimes, while the Kingpin’s reign will be over.
The people of New York choose their side, and storm the courtroom. Daredevil and Kingpin have their own hallway scenes, culminating in a confrontation where the people attack Wilson Fisk. As dangerous as Kingpin may be, even he can’t fight off so many attackers at once, and he would likely be killed if not for Daredevil’s intervention. Matt insists there’s another way, and presents an offer to the Kingpin. This is the moment when he can walk away.
The Attorney General has offered Fisk a deal: if he steps down as mayor, he will be allowed to walk away. Matt tells Kingpin to accept it, in a conversation that deliberately echoes Season 1’s discussion between them about grace and retribution. Kingpin is unmoved by retribution, but he is absolutely furious at the idea of grace – at being allowed to away. Born Again therefore moves Matt’s Catholic faith to the center-stage, and it’s all the more significant because Matt knows he will still have to pay the price for Daredevil’s crimes.
The Catholic and Christian imagery here is absolutely stunning. Kingpin is the truly guilty one, yet he is given amnesty and gets to leave for what seems to be a paradise. Matt is the hero, but he pays the price for the villain’s defeat. And yet, for all that’s the case, Kingpin still lives with the consequences of his sins. Vanessa had asked him to abandon New York and live on the coast with her, but he’d refused to do so. Now, he is utterly alone as he stands on the beach.
In Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Matt Murdock is secretly offering both grace and retribution at the same time. He knows the consequences of Kingpin’s sins are perhaps worse than punishment would ever be; as Genesis 2: 18 puts it, “It is not good for a man to be alone.” Kingpin is totally alone now, having lost the “helper” he loved with all his heart, and he stands on the beach stripped of all his power. This beach, perhaps, is more of a Hell for Fisk than prison could ever be.
In thematic terms, this “final” confrontation between Kingpin and Daredevil seems perfect. Unfortunately, it still has notable flaws – some baked into the episode itself, others that ripple on into Daredevil: Born Again Season 3. The main problem lies in the hallway fight itself, added as something of a “rule of cool” moment that honors a Daredevil tradition running back to the Netflix days. It is, however, impossible to imagine a scenario where the Attorney General’s offer was still on the table after Fisk has killed a couple of dozen protesters with his bare hands. This strains believability to breaking point.
The second problem is that we know Fisk’s story is not over. That scene from the beach riffs on the comics, where it became setup for an arc called “Return of the King” in which the Kingpin returned to New York. We already know Kingpin is appearing in Born Again Season 3, meaning we’re probably going to move straight to that. This context means Season 2’s Kingpin and Daredevil face-off isn’t final at all, which completely undermines the imagery. Marvel should really have left Kingpin on the shelf for a few years after this (and, frankly, would have been wiser to set him aside for good).
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