Review: Daredevil: Born Again, “The Hateful Darkness” | Season 2, Episode 7

Given how much this season of Born Again relies on nostalgia, I hope you’ll indulge my own brief trip down memory lane. I spent a huge chunk of my early TV recapping career doing what The A.V. Club dubbed “binge reviews” of the Netflix Defenders universe. When a new season dropped, I would watch and review all 13 episodes in a weekend sprint, often with limited screener access—a project I took on for all three seasons of Jessica Jones, the first seasons of Iron Fist and Luke Cage, both seasons of The Punisher, and the final two seasons of Daredevil. It was, frankly, an insane assignment, and I think I might be just a little bit trauma bonded to this corner of the MCU because of it.

So when I say that I cried when (Chief!) Detective Brett Mahoney sauntered up to Karen’s jail cell, I don’t mean that I was happy to see him or that I did the Leo pointing meme. I mean that I genuinely cried actual tears of nostalgic joy. Because the thing is, when it comes to bringing back characters like Daredevil or Kingpin or Jessica Jones or even Foggy, it’s clear that Marvel is hoping to get something in return—to win back folks who fell off the MCU or lure in fans who were only ever in it for Krysten Ritter.

But bringing back Matt and Foggy’s old detective pal is such a pure, love-of-the-game move that it proves to me that the people creating Born Again really do care about respecting the old Netflix universe. There’s not a soul alive who cares about Detective Mahoney that wasn’t already watching Born Again; there’s no audience who’s going to join just for Royce Johnson. Yet he was a key part of what made the texture of the Netflix Defenders-verse work, and it’s incredibly sweet to watch Born Again go out of its way to acknowledge that.

It's the sort of grace note that makes this a strong hour of television even though it’s largely a transitional episode to send us into the finale. The point here is to put pieces on the board (and tragically take one off it) in a way that will let Born Again hit the ground running next week. Yet while that could leave a lesser episode feeling unfinished, there’s an elegance to how this penultimate installment fits into the larger season.