Daredevil: Born Again’s showrunners are clearly going for a grimdark vibe in their version of New York City, but they’ve chosen to balance such a choice with some of the strangest scenes I’ve ever witnessed in a piece of Marvel media. The juxtaposition of such darkness with such weirdness gives me glimpses of the Tim Burton-directed Batman flicks from the '90s, which I love. But these moments are so off-brand for Marvel, so fleeting, and so discordant that I’m still not fully sure how I feel about them as a whole. A big takeaway after watching Born Again’s fourth episode, though, is that this kind of strangeness isn’t going away. In fact, from this reviewer’s perspective, it appears that as things get darker and darker, they’re also only going to get weirder. This is both promising and frightening to me.
There will be SPOILERS from here on out. You’ve been warned.
“Sic Semper Systema”
The title of this episode is a play on “Sic Semper Tyrannis,” which means "thus always to tyrants." It’s supposedly what Brutus said after he assassinated Julius Caesar, and what John Wilkes Booth said before assassinating Abraham Lincoln. Therefore, if we’re to take Born Again’s play on the phrase to heart, “thus always to justice” is uttered right before Matt Murdock puts the mask on again to take justice into his own hands. The episode sets up Murdock’s return to the streets as Daredevil while also moving Wilson Fisk’s plot forward in some serious and quirky ways.
The episode begins in the coroner’s office. The coroner tells Murdock that nobody found the bullet casing that killed Hector Ayala. Then Hector's niece enters and demands to see what they did to her uncle. Murdock stops her, and they exchange a tearful series of words about how the system is broken. The show continues to be about how the justice system hurts people, how most cops suck, and how the political and legal system are broken, broken enough that they either contribute to (ex. Mayor Fisk’s corruption) or are unable to help at all with (ex. Murdock saving Hector from jail but getting him murdered) the whole big mess.
Most of the dialogue in Born Again, I realize, is “meh” at best. In some scenes, Murdock and friends really get cooking, but a lot of it’s stilted enough to notice, which is never good.
In another therapy scene between the Fisks, Vanessa Fisk, when asked to open up, immediately mentions sex and daddy issues. The scene doesn’t play much like a real therapy session due to its reliance on cliches. This frustrated me because depictions of therapy in our media should help guide people toward the normalization of therapy and a celebration of neurodivergence. This mostly just reinforced stereotypes.
Later, Murdock represents a man who makes fun of him for being blind, which admittedly does suck. The man, Bradford, is going to jail for stealing kettle corn from a bodega. Bradford’s scenes are humanizing because we’re like: “Hey, man, why do you have to be mean to a blind lawyer who is trying to help you?” But then he describes his life of being jerked around by the system as a poor black man in New York, and things become a whole lot more textured. Born Again is actually pretty good at showing the humanity trapped within a justice system that doesn’t care. This is something that the show has going for it in a big way. It challenges me to think. Bradford’s most impactful quote comes after Murdock tells him that he lawyered his jail time down to 10 days instead of 30. Bradford, still frustrated, says: “They’re willing to spend five times more to lock me up than it takes to feed me, and you’re telling me I should thank you?” That’s real. That’s sad. That’s a message that Born Again should continue to explore if they know what’s good for them.
Now, a hard pivot:
The best gag I’ve seen on a show in while also crops up in this episode, when Mayor Fisk is forced to do public engagements, suffering through a rendition of “We Built This City on Rock and Roll” by a bunch of first-graders only to then be surprised with another version of the same song (this time in Latvian) at the Latvian Embassy.
Young, ass-kissing political worker Daniel and Fisk have an extremely strange scene where Fisk compliments him for his loyalty and then delivers a death threat if he leaks any more information when he’s out drinking. Then, Murdock finds the Punisher bullet casing that killed Hector and goes to pay his fellow vigilante a visit. Frank Castle, AKA Punisher, lives in a run-down parking garage. He can tell that Murdock’s shame over Foggy’s death is eating him alive. Castle then gives Murdock “permission” to hurt the people that he wants to hurt. The two physically and mentally grapple over vigilantism from two distinct perspectives: Daredevil wants to try and do right by people while the Punisher wants to enact violence to distract himself from past trauma.
The message appears to have gotten through to Murdock, who practices with his Daredevil club and chain weapon up on the roof for the first time since Foggy’s death.
Then we see a scene of Wilson Fisk eating a large pasta dinner next to his wife’s former lover, Adam, who he has trapped in a secret cage. This is one of those Tim Burton moments that I couldn’t help but smile upon with glee.
Then, for extra flavor, at the very end of the episode we’re given a scene of Muse, a serial killer wearing a white mask with bloody eye holes. He carries a victim through an abandoned train yard and sucks the blood out of them with a syringe. We glimpse other victims hanging from the ceiling, and the episode cuts out. A murderous street artist clown and Daredevil primed to hop back into his suit while Kingpin eats meaty pasta next to the man who had sex with his wife while he was away? Sounds like the recipe for a banger of a next episode. Stay tuned!
My thoughts
For most of “Sic Semper Systema,” I thought that its predecessor had it beat. It seemed like a Hector-sized hole had formed in the show even only a couple episodes after meeting the now-deceased White Tiger. Things were slipping out of control.
But then the pasta happened, and Murdock trained with his chain. Punisher and Muse made an appearance. And, just like that, the clouds cleared to let the sun shine brightly down upon this dark-as-a-dungeon mess of a scenario. It’s still not great TV, but it’s fun. I can’t wait for the next episode.
Episode Grade: B
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