Review: Daredevil: Born Again, "Straight to Hell" | Season 1, Episode 9

Daredevil: Born Again’s premiere began by bringing back some fan favorite characters only to quickly wipe them off the board and reset the show’s status quo. Now the finale brings back our favorite faces in a more permanent way only to chuck the entire board off the table instead. “Straight to Hell” is an absolutely gonzo episode that blows up the show’s status quo in a major way—both in comparison to the original Netflix show and especially in comparison to the lighter episodic series we were sometimes watching this season.

Once upon a time, the idea of Fisk keeping a guy in a basement prison cell felt like a crazy reveal. Here he declares martial law in New York City, speeds up his plan to create a lawless city-state in the “free port” of Red Hook, and SQUISHES A MAN’S HEAD LIKE A GRAPE. I’ve been on the fence about whether this Disney+ era of the show is more violent than the original Netflix one, which, to be fair, did feature a man impaling his own head of a rusty spike. But I think Fisk’s murder of Commissioner Gallo officially tips the scales in Disney’s favor, which is a pretty wild state of affairs.

Is that what we want from a Daredevil show, though? “Straight to Hell” is such an Empire Strikes Back-style low-point cliffhanger for our heroes that it’s hard to judge it as its own thing. Whether it succeeds at what it’s trying to do will largely depend on how season two pans out. Thankfully, the show is currently in production so we shouldn’t have to wait too long to find out, which feels like a luxury in an era where shows often take years between seasons.

For now, all I can really say is that “Straight to Hell” is a somewhat jarring tonal shift that also does a surprisingly solid job tying up this season’s dangling plot threads. On the villain side of things, Dex’s assassination attempt inspires Fisk to complete his full-circle return to Kingpin mafioso—going so far as to decide that Matt would serve him better as a martyred mayor-saving lawyer than a scapegoat vigilante. (So much for gratitude.) And on the hero side, the episode’s big ace in the hole is that it brings back two of Matt’s old allies in a meaningful way after their brief appearances earlier in season. That means whether or not this episode works for you will probably hinge on how much nostalgic investment you have in Frank Castle and Karen Page—both as individuals and as a duo. And since I, in fact, have an infinite amount of investment in both of those things, a lot of that stuff worked like absolute gangbusters for me.