Summary
The late Kamar de los Reyes shines in Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3, which features another tragic development and actually allows Matt Murdock to practice law for once.
It’s sometimes easy to forget that Matt Murdock is a lawyer since most of the justice he dispenses comes via his fists. But Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3 is a nice reminder since it’s devoted almost entirely to the trial of Hector Ayala and features basically no punching whatsoever. This is not a criticism.
“The Hollow of His Hand” is great in multiple smart ways, and it’s clearly going to be integral to the season’s overall shape, since it very much helps to determine New York’s attitude to vigilantism while also, through a tragic last-minute development, pushes both Matt and Wilson Fisk in inevitably opposing directions; the latter back towards the criminal kingpin persona he’s trying to keep under wraps as mayor, and the former back towards the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. But it’s anchored most capably and affectingly by Kamar de los Reyes, who passed away in 2023 (the second half of the premiere was dedicated to him.)
De Los Reyes understands what his character is supposed to bring to this show, and it isn’t one-take action sequences. It was a very deliberate choice to be introduced to him out of costume after only having heard second-hand of his White Tiger exploits, and a magical amulet that gives him his powers notwithstanding – this comes up in the trial as a crucial detail that is very funny because this is quite a serious show that sometimes has to take a po-faced approach to comic-book-y ridiculousness – Born Again isn’t really interested in him as a costumed crimefighter. It’s interested in the man beneath all that.
Hector makes an interesting counterpoint to Matt because he’s very much not having an internal crisis; he sees his vigilantism as a calling, the White Tiger not as an alter ego but as another facet of who he is. He repeatedly justifies his actions in extremely simple terms: Because it was the right thing to do. This is almost the exact opposite of how Matt sees things. To him, Daredevil is a necessary evil, but an evil nonetheless, a failure of the system to perform as advertised. Matt longs for the day New York doesn’t need Daredevil; Hector has come to terms with the idea that the day when it no longer needs White Tiger will never come, so he must be there in the meantime to protect every innocent he can.
This is an important distinction, and thanks to some shenanigans involving Nicky Torres, whom Cherry manages to get to the courtroom thanks to a slick ruse to outsmart Officer Powell, only for Torres to commit perjury anyway, it becomes a central facet of the case. Out of star witnesses, Matt decides to reveal Hector’s secret identity in court, using the well-documented heroic actions of White Tiger to speak to his client’s essential character. Powell and the nodding cops in the gallery are trying to paint a picture of a madman who just attacked the cops for no reason, but surely nobody who would risk their lives to do the right thing every night would be capable of that?
Hector’s clarity of mind forces Matt to reconsider his own reticence to don the cowl, even if he doesn’t say it out loud. How can he not? Matt takes it upon himself to reveal Hector’s secret identity and then decides to lecture him against being a vigilante, projecting all of his own hangups about Daredevil onto a man who can smell the hypocrisy a mile away. Hector is steadfast in his belief that White Tiger is necessary – that what he’s doing is the right thing to do.
Charlie Cox in Daredevil: Born Again | Image via Disney+
Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3 is designed for Matt to learn this the hard way, I think. Hector makes him re-examine his own nightlife, and in all his arguments in his defense, he reiterates ideas that could quite easily apply to himself. Hector is a hero. And if that’s true, why can’t Matt be a hero? As if to reinforce this conclusion, the jury finds Hector innocent. Matt’s words ring true for most of New York. Now he just needs to apply them to himself.
But even though Matt wins the battle in “The Hollow of His Hand”, the war is still ongoing. Despite advice to the contrary, the first thing Hector does after being exonerated is head out into the streets as White Tiger, turning a keen ear to those in need. And he’s shot in the head by someone who is heavily implied to be the Punisher, although I suspect that’s a red herring. When Matt learns of this, and sees how the wheels of justice remain gummed up by corruption, he’ll be donning a mask sooner rather than later.
Of course, Hector’s assassin wasn’t acting of his own volition. Through Kingpin’s voice, we hear him tell BB that the outcome of the trial was a miscarriage of justice, one that must be rectified, so it’s safe to assume that his claims of going straight aren’t to be taken all that seriously. This is reiterated by a few shots of his torn knuckles, implying he hasn’t been spending his downtime within the bounds of the law.
Not that he’s doing anything within the bounds of the law, but he and Vanessa are at least maintaining a veneer of legitimacy, which is causing substantial friction between them (this and an affair with a guy named Adam) and a turf war in the resulting vacuum. Fisk seems quite happy to let the lower-level thugs wipe themselves out, but something tells me if he’s willing to take the step of having Hector assassinated, he’ll be wresting control of his empire back sooner rather than later.
A final thing – as the closing credits of Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3 roll, all we hear is the sound of waves lapping against the shore, and a musical song from a tree frog native to Puerto Rico, which Hector had earlier described to Matt as the song of the homeland to which he one day hoped to return. This subtle note implies that perhaps he has, which is a lovely touch.
