Review: Daredevil: Born Again, “Gloves Off” | Season 2, Episode 4

Sometimes TV miracles happen. So when an episode of Daredevil: Born Again features a cool cold open for Bullseye, a big boxing match for Fisk, and an honest-to-god scene of Matt Murdock finally visiting a church? Well, that’s practically the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. After three episodes of slightly awkward table setting, Born Again finds its rhythm this week. That’s largely because it embraces a heightened comic book tone that feels like an ideal blend between the intensity of the Netflix show and the splashier touch of the Disney+ era.

Take that great extended opening for Dex. The overhead egg cooking shot obviously calls to mind Fisk’s famed omelets from the original series, and Wilson Bethel does a tremendous job recapturing Dex’s uncanny sense of faux friendliness—especially considering he only played the character for a single season eight years ago before returning for Born Again. Yet the darkly comedic touch of the Billy Joel-scored diner massacre is much more in keeping with the Disney+ era of Marvel TV. While the Netflix shows could be stylish and funny, they were rarely fun in the way the diner battle is aiming for. In a season as grim as Daredevil’s third outing, you couldn’t have gotten away with something like Bullseye killing someone with a lobster tail. Yet it somehow feels right here.

Indeed, Dex used to be a bit of a question mark for me in the second half of season three and the first season of Born Again. I could never quite get a handle on whether the show wanted to hold him accountable for his violent villainy or if it was trying to depict him in a semi-sympathetic light as a mentally ill man who was manipulated into being a weapon. The blankness of his demeanor could make his motivations hard to track.