‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Episode 2 Recap: ‘Optics’

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This story contains full and heavy spoilers for “Daredevil: Born Again.”

Wilson Fisk looks troubled as Episode 2 opens, waving away his makeup girl. His speech broadcasts over Times Square on New Year’s Eve. Along with the usual platitudes he invokes Punisher, Spider-Man, and Daredevil as examples of heroes the city does not need to make it through troubled times. Matt listens angrily to the speech, alone.

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At the 168 Street subway station, Hector Ayala is on the phone with his wife when he sees two men on the platform beating on a third. He tries to intervene and the two men attack him. The beating victim, Nicky, runs when the melee starts. One of the men takes a swing at Hector, trips, and falls right into the pathway of an oncoming train.

It turns out the attackers were cops. The survivor pulls his gun on Hector and arrests him as the opening credits roll.

We go from the opening credits to the mayor’s office where Fisk’s campaign manager Sheila is giving him some news he’s loathe to handle. On one hand, there’s a series of boring meet-and-greets Fisk is obligated to make. On the other, she warns him that his wife’s visible absence in the campaign is hurting him with more traditional voters.

At the 15th Precinct, Matt is handling a DUI case when he hears Hector being beaten by cops in one of the interview rooms. Once the cops have left, Matt enters the room and asks him about what happened. He listens to Hector’s story and his heartbeat, realizing he’s innocent. At the same time, when he asks Hector if there’s anything he’s not telling him that’s important, the beaten man is clearly lying. Regardless, Matt promises to take on his case for free.

Fisk and his campaign staff are stuck in traffic on their way to Brooklyn because of a huge hole in the middle of the road. Against everyone’s advice, Fisk gets out of the car and finds the nearby construction foreman. The foreman says they’re waiting for permit approval, and Fisk answers, “Consider it approved.” Fisk makes a quick photo-op of the moment and Sheila seems impressed.

Back at Murdock & McDuffie, Kirsten is angry at Matt for taking on the case and Cherry warns the NYPD will see it as Matt siding with a cop killer. Regardless, Matt is able to talk Kirsten down and he asks Cherry to talk to Hector’s wife and to look into any dirt he can dig up on him.

At Hector’s arraignment, things go badly for the defense across the board. District Attorney Hochberg – who Kirsten and Matt call “The Hawk” – shows up and doesn’t even bother to put down his coat. He asks for Hector to be held without bail and before Matt can even respond, the judge approves. Matt tries to rally, but the judge brushes off his protests.

In the mayor’s office, BB Urich of “The BB Report” has landed a brief interview with Fisk by flirting with Daniel Blake, but Blake makes her hand over her phone before entering Fisk’s office. When Fisk asks BB about her name, he finds out Ben Urich was her uncle. He talks about Ben, saying he was a “good journalist.” BB’s response suggests she knows or strongly suspects it was Fisk who murdered her uncle.

There isn’t much of an interview. BB asks Fisk about Commissioner Gallo who she has heard will resign in protest of Fisk being elected and that plenty of cops are poised to follow. This, and just the mention of Fisk’s wife, upsets Kingpin and he ends the interview.

Matt’s new girlfriend, therapist Dr. Heather Glenn, appears at a book signing and she attracts some interesting readers. One is a nervous young man insisting he needs her help, and another is Buck – Fisk’s righthand man.

At the funeral for the cop who died fighting Hector, Fisk arrives to speak to Commissioner Gallo. The latter doesn’t mince words. He tells Fisk his mission is to make sure Fisk’s mayoral career lasts less than a month. He ends their conversation with, “Once a thug, always a thug. See you around, Kingpin.”

At Hector’s apartment, his wife Soledad talks to Kirsten. Under the pretense of getting a suit Hector can wear in court, Cherry snoops around their bedroom. Eventually, he finds a case underneath the bed including a costume and an amulet.

Matt and Heather are out at dinner and things are getting hot and heavy until Matt gets a call from Cherry.

We cut to Rikers Island where Matt is furious at Hector for not revealing that he’s the White Tiger. Hector eventually apologizes and reveals he’s taking a lot of beatings from the guards and the prisoners.

Commissioner Gallo arrives at the mayor’s office seeming just tickled to turn in his resignation, but Fisk has a very Kingpin kind of surprise for him. He’s eating a cheesesteak sandwich when Gallo walks in, and after he announces his resignation, Fisk talks about how the commissioner is originally from Philadelphia.

He mentions a sandwich shop in King of Prussia and lifts up the sandwich wrapper to reveal a picture of a woman and a young boy. We learn later the boy is his son and the woman is a current or former lover.

Before Commissioner Gallo leaves, Fisk informs him he will stay on and get nothing he asked for: no pay raise, no new overtime minimums, no expanded cadet class.

In the judge’s chambers, miraculously, Matt manages to successfully argue that Hector’s moonlighting as the White Tiger should be thrown out of evidence.

Matt meets Cherry by the water while fingering the mask horn Karen gave him in the premiere episode. Cherry insists he can’t find Nicky, the man the cops were beating on the subway platform. The pair argue about whether or not Matt is too close to the case because of his past as Daredevil.

Matt finds himself outside a church where he does some soul-searching about whether or not he can continue to keep Daredevil out of action. Afterward, he goes to the 15th Precinct and follows home Officer Powell – the surviving attacking cop from the subway station.

At Dr. Heather Glenn’s office, we learn that it wasn’t Buck himself who wanted treatment from the therapist. Both Wilson and Vanessa Fisk arrive and begin a couples therapy session.

We return to Matt at night, outside Officer Powell’s apartment. He hears Powell make a call – the cop has found Nicky and he and another unidentified cop are going after him. Matt hurries to Nicky’s apartment, and on the way calls Cherry and tells him to drive to Fort Tryon Park.

At the apartment, Matt convinces Nicky to let him in. He’s trying to convince Nicky to help him exonerate Hector when he hears the cops arrive downstairs. He warns Nicky off, telling him to head to Fort Tryon Park. Once Nicky is gone, Matt opens the door and lets the cops in.

Powell shoves Matt against the wall and we see he has a Punisher skull tattoo on his forearm. The other cop returns from searching the apartment and says Nicky isn’t there. When Matt only has snark in response, the cops start beating him.

The unnamed cop is about to shoot Matt in the head when he unleashes on them both. He breaks the unnamed cop’s arm at the elbow and slams him on a table. Powell doesn’t last much longer. Matt starts breathing heavy and fast, and finally the episode ends with him letting out a savage scream.

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