‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2, Episode 3 Recap – Now We’re Talking

If “Shoot the Moon” was a deliberately slower-paced episode of Daredevil: Born Again, Episode 3, “The Scales & the Sword”, is the payoff for sitting through it. Easily the best instalment of Season 2 thus far, not to mention a great justification for Disney+ releasing these two episodes at once, this is the knockout blow of the week’s one-two punch of vigilantism.

And it isn’t cheap about it, either. Several of the subplots we were reminded of in the previous episode reveal some ripe fruit here, coming together in a big climactic scene that is way up there with the best fight sequences this show has produced (even if it’s a step behind Matt’s team-up with the Punisher in the first season finale, and, obviously, those brilliant oners from the Netflix series.)

Either way, this season is definitely beginning to heat up and make its point. There are now several compelling angles all playing out at once, a war on multiple fronts against Wilson Fisk and his bought-and-paid-for legal system. But the Kingpin is willing to keep going further than even his adversaries expect, as we’ll see.

Unlikely Allies

We begin where we left off, largely, with Matt and Karen disagreeing on what to do with the member of the AVTF that Karen captured in the previous episode. She’s adamant that this is the way forward – part of a darkening arc that we’ll see more of later – and Matt has no choice but to reluctantly agree, even if kidnapping and torture aren’t necessarily in his wheelhouse.

Luckily, the episode lets the pair off the hook slightly, since it turns out this particular agent is Alan Saunders, who has actually seen the light and wants to help them in their crusade against Fisk. That funny detail of Daredevil being able to determine whether someone is lying or not based on their heartbeat is deployed here to reassure us that Saunders is telling the truth, though the fact that he gives them a keycard to sabotage Fisk’s Red Hook operation proves his point capably as well.

Matt knocks Saunders out to create the illusion that he was overpowered and sends him back to where he came from, but I suspect this guy will crop up again down the line.

Show Trial

One of the key threads of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 3 is the sham trial of Jack Duquesne, aka the Swordsman. He’s being represented by Kirsten, who recognises pretty quickly that the normal processes of law and order aren’t being applied here, and Duquesne isn’t being given the fair trial he’s legally entitled to. His sentencing is a foregone conclusion, a way for Fisk to punish Duquesne for not investing in the port project.

There’s no evidence proving that Duquesne is the Swordsman – which is ironic, considering he is the Swordsman, but that’s not really the point – and the case is reliant on Heather Glenn’s damning psychological profile, which we saw her freestyling on the fly back in the premiere. This excuses a couple of decent scenes between her and Kirsten, but Heather seems too far gone to care, still clearly haunted by her encounter with Muse.

Kirsten does everything she can and is sure to draw attention to the ridiculousness of the trial, but Duquesne is nonetheless found guilty on all charges and returned to the detention centre where Fisk is keeping all of his political enemies (though not, notably, Frank Castle, who we know escaped and is mentioned briefly here by Karen and Matt).

Prison Break

With Kirsten having realised that the Fisk mayoralty is impossible to work against in the confines of the law, she helps Matt to understand the layout of the detention facility so he’s able to sneak inside as Daredevil. Once there, when he discovers all the prisoners, he does the only thing he can do, morally speaking, and lets them all out.

Matt and Duquesne fighting off the AVTF is a great scene, made better by Karen and Angela del Toro, now having donned the White Tiger gear, coordinating with them from outside. The escape attempt is pretty successful, with Daredevil and Swordsman able to protect the vast majority of the prisoners without any major casualties, though Karen does shoot someone, which Matt notices but doesn’t comment on.

This frees not only a lot of political enemies of Fisk, but also many willing allies for Matt and Karen, so you can clearly feel the tables turning a bit. But Fisk isn’t planning on taking it lying down.

Fisk Crosses A Line

Even though he has most of the state in his pocket, Fisk still hasn’t won over Governor McCaffrey, who is skeptical about his shipments and his deliberate swerving of legal oversight. Since the Governor is the only person who can rescind Red Hook’s status as a freeport, Fisk has to keep her onside, which means ensuring that no evidence of shady dealings at the port reaches her ears.

Naturally, given the prison break, that’s likely to happen, so Fisk orders the Northern Star to be sunk, killing everyone on board and, obviously, sinking any evidence that there was ever anything shady going on to begin with.

Even though this kills Matt’s potential angle of exposing Fisk’s weapons trafficking, and obviously upsets his Catholic values, it doesn’t quite ruin the good progress that Matt made by freeing the prisoners. And Fisk will have to answer for what happened to the ship to both the Governor and, more worryingly for him, the CIA.