‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2, Episode 4 Recap – Taking Some Big Swings

Fittingly for an hour titled “Gloves Off”, Daredevil: Born Again is taking some pretty big narrative swings in Episode 4. I don’t think anybody expected Season 2 to kill off a major villain at this juncture, certainly not by at least partially redeeming another villain, although the extent to which that is accurate is probably open for debate. There isn’t a great deal of Daredevil in this instalment, granted, but I think that’s probably okay if the supporting players remain this compelling.

There’s some Daredevil, though, and some cool action; the kind of stuff you’d expect. But it’s the developments that feel noteworthy because they’re the kind of thing you don’t expect, at least not right now. It’s impossible to watch this episode and not wonder, somewhat excitedly, where all this might be going if we’re already at this point. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

A Bullseye Breakfast

“Gloves Off” deploys a familiar trick in its opening by wheeling out the lonely single supervillain montage that was once used to depict Wilson Fisk’s oddly peaceful, perfectionist morning routine. This time, though, it’s Benjamin Poindexter, aka Bullseye, who’s the focus, although the tone is much the same. A man of obvious precision, he does a little stretching routine and fries a couple of eggs for himself and his kindly neighbor’s cat before setting out on his day, which takes him straight to a classic New York diner for a supposedly famous milkshake.

Bullseye believes himself to be somewhat redeemed, or at least in the process of redemption. He’s all about happy greetings and good deeds now. But because he’s still slightly off-kilter, his version of a good deed is calling in a false sighting of an armed Frank Castle so that the AVTF responds mob-handed and he can murder them all with whatever’s lying around. Bullseye is a great Daredevil rogue because you can give him a gun and a knife and play him pretty straight, or you can have him do the whole Jackie Chan improvisational thing and play up the absurdity. This scene chooses the latter, but it does embellish it with some pretty nasty gore for good measure.

So, good guy, or bad guy? It doesn’t really matter, all told, since the outcome is the same either way. When he – or at least his knife – reappeared in the premiere, it was to save Daredevil, or at least annoy Fisk, which is basically the same thing. That objective hasn’t changed. And it’s important to know that since Bullseye’s personal revenge mission – or atonement path, depending on your perspective – is only taking him in one, inevitable direction.

Grace Notes

Since we know how Matt Murdock typically feels about vigilante justice – even his own – he realises it’s incumbent that he finds Bullseye before he makes a martyr of Fisk. After freeing all the Red Hook prisoners last week and parting ways with Swordsman, who clearly has better places to be, Daredevil gets on Bullseye’s trail by cosplaying as an AVTF agent and sniffing around the diner crime scene.

The diner leads Daredevil to his old stomping ground, which is a nearby church, where the seminarian approaches him after hearing him invoke St. Lucia. This guy gives Matt an important clue, which is that Bullseye claimed to wake to the church bells and be able to see the building from his apartment window, but he’s reluctant to provide it at first, lest any harm come to Bullseye as a result. He, at least, believes that Poindexter is capable and deserving of redemption. Matt is more pragmatic. He just needs to find him.

I’m reminded of Daredevil’s staunch morality, of the idea that he refuses to kill or inflict any permanent harm on the criminals he hunts, which often comes back to bite him in deeply personal ways. Every season of his show, from Netflix to Disney+, has been some variation of this theme, and Matt is never able to reconcile the reality with his beliefs. He’s an idealist who’s reminded constantly – and at great cost – that idealism doesn’t work. It’s no wonder he’s always annoyed.

Anyway, he manages to find Bullseye in his apartment, and there’s a cool fight during which Bullseye explains his motives – he thinks killing Fisk will balance the books after killing Foggy at Vanessa’s behest – and manages to get away by taking his nice neighbour hostage. I like to think he probably wouldn’t have hurt her, but the fact that he might have done so is his advantage. It’s another lesson for Matt that his unwillingness to go as far as his enemies – and even some of his allies – is consistently his greatest weakness.

White Collar

A lot of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 4 revolves around a silly boxing match between Fisk and a heavyweight named Mike “Matterhorn” Melendez, a spectacle dubbed “Scrapping’ in the Kitchen” designed to raise money for some political initiative or another. It’s mostly a televised bloodbath, a way for Kingpin to make some scratch while working off some of the tension of dealing with Governor McCaffrey and, more to the point, Mr. Charles.

But there’s an ulterior motive. He’s trying to bait Daredevil by staging the fight at Fogwell’s, the gym Matt’s journeyman father fought out of. But with Bullseye still on the loose, he’s making a needless target of himself, which is why he insists that Vanessa hides out with McCaffrey rather than putting herself in the firing line. Naturally, she ignores him, which proves to be her undoing.

Bullseye arrives only a couple of minutes before Matt, but that’s enough time to sling around some knives and branded glass merchandise, taking down several more of the AVTF – it’s a wonder Fisk still has any to deploy – before Daredevil finally disarms him and drags him out of a window. Bullseye takes a bullet from Vanessa’s gun, though I assume it won’t be fatal. Vanessa, though, takes a shard of glass in the temple, which I assume will be. As she collapses to the ground with blood soaking her lovely white dress, D’Onofrio sells the immense pain of Kingpin’s loss. If you thought he was unstable before, I dread to think what he’s going to be like now.