“Does a mask allow us to be our true selves, or does it strip away our identity and allow us to act like animals?,” Heather (Margarita Levieva) asks Matt (Charlie Cox) in “Daredevil: Born Again” Episode 6. The question’s existential nature has been defended and debated by countless superheroes and vigilantes over the years, as has “Born Again”s signaling that there are different kinds of masks. Daredevil has a mask, Matt has a mask, and newly-minted Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) has his masks.
So, is the mask the true self, or is the man behind it? Does the line even exist?
This episode, directed by David Boyd and written by Thomas Wong, finally depicts the inevitable, with both Matt and Fisk embracing their old ways in displays of violence against perceived enemies. Matt finally dons the Daredevil suit to go after serial killer Muse while Fisk descends into his own basement with axe-to-face hostage Adam (Lou Taylor Pucci).
As always, they differ in motivation. Fisk has every desire to kill Adam, but indulges in the proverbial playing with his food before he eats it; Matt wants to save Angela (Camila Rodriguez) from the chilling fate of Muse’s victims, and his rage stems from the number of innocent lives lost both to the killer and elsewhere in his life. This was always a character whose wounds left scars, and the guilt fueling him in Episode 6 comes from a perceived failure to protect Foggy (Elden Henson), Hector (Kamar de los Reyes), and more — as evidenced in a stirring cold open where he prays for retribution.
Good intentions or not, Matt is as vulnerable to his impulses as Fisk is. Cox has always conveyed Matt’s emotions superbly through physical combat, and takes him right to the edge here where he’s ready to kill Muse. He has to remind himself to save Angela, and it’s moral duty that prevents the murder — not a disinclination to the act.
The mask is on, the flood gates are open, and Daredevil — Angela can hardly believe her eyes — is back.
IW on the Street
- Hats off to Jimmy Palumbo for the line reading on “Right, it’s blood. The mural, it’s painted with blood.”
- I love when Vanessa speaks in art terms, e.g. “It’s like selling a Basquiat to a billionaire” to Fisk about rubbing elbows, or what she said about Adam in Episode 4 (“It was like finding a Klee at a garage sale”). Girl, we get it, can you focus?!
- Taking “every bad apple in the barrel” to start an anti-vigilance task force within the NYPD, with Fisk at the helm, is absolutely terrifying. “Born Again” hasn’t sympathized with crooked cops so far, but will more task force backstory change that?
Grade: B
New episodes of “Daredevil: Born Again” air weekly on Disney+.
