Entertainment
One of Marvel’s Best Heroes Finally Returns on ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ With a Major Twist
Editor’s note: The below recap contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 6.When Netflix and Marvel Studios partnered to bring the comic giant’s vast array of street-level heroes to life in the MCU, the plan was always to expand beyond Daredevil. Matt Murdock’s (Charlie Cox) debut was just the beginning of a sort of miniature version of the MCU, one that solely focused on New York’s mightiest heroes in a grittier, TV-MA format, which was a big departure from the more family-friendly MCU movies at the time. After Daredevil‘s first season but long before Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Punisher, Marvel’s second Defender entered the fray with Krysten Ritter‘s Jessica Jones.
With a detective-mystery vibe, a likable anti-hero, and one of the scariest villains in MCU history in David Tennant‘s Kilgrave, Netflix’s Jessica Jones was quickly able to catch the same lightning in a bottle as Daredevil. Ritter’s snarky, foul-mouthed private investigator with a hidden heart of gold quickly became a fan-favorite, which is why it was surprising when it initially looked like Disney‘s approach to the previous Netflix continuity was going to be ignoring it at best and outright decanonizing it at worst, despite Cox and Vincent D’Onofrio reprising their beloved roles. Thankfully, that decision was reversed before Daredevil: Born Again Season 1, and now, fans have finally been reunited with the character they’ve been waiting to see back on their screens.
Jessica Jones Officially Returns in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 Episode 6
Before Marvel’s greatest detective returns, there’s one pretty important thing that Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 needs to address first — the death of Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer). Yes, any hope that Wilson Fisk’s better half somehow pulled through after being caught in the crossfire between Fisk and Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) is quickly dashed when her doctor confirmsshe didn’t survive her injury. It’s a shocking development for the Kingpin, as Vanessa has been a part of Fisk’s journey since the very beginning of Daredevil Season 1. Fisk is responding about as well as one would expect, as shown when he crushes the doctor’s spine before attending Vanessa’s funeral, setting the groundwork for an unpredictable future for the grieving Marvel villain.
After the doom and gloom comes the moment fans have been eagerly anticipating since Ritter was announced to be joining Daredevil: Born Again‘s cast, as well as a pretty big surprise. In a quaint suburb outside the hustle and bustle of New York, a crew of armed thugs descends upon a particular home, only to be thrown around like ragdolls by an unseen force. Meanwhile, a young girl is inside, gleefully unaware of what’s going on until her mom, who is none other than our beloved Jessica, checks on her after dealing with the gang of thugs. If the reveal that Jessica Jones has left her life as a PI to raise a daughter wasn’t already huge enough, the young girl’s name, Danielle, also drops a major bombshell for comic fans. In the original Earth-616 comicsverse, Danielle is the daughter of Jessica Jones and Luke Cage (played in the Netflix shows by Mike Colter, already confirmed to reprise his fan-favorite role in Daredevil: Born Again Season 3), so her appearance here all but confirms that Jessica and Luke rekindled their romance at some point during the Defender saga’s hiatus.
The actress also reveals what she definitely won’t miss about playing Vanessa.
Mom or not, armed mercenaries showing up where Jessica and her daughter live isn’t ideal, and she dusts off her signature leather jacket to find out who’s responsible, reuniting with Daredevil for the first time in almost 10 years. Jessica doesn’t seem too surprised to see her one-time teammate, even though the last time she saw him (as far as we know), he sacrificed himself to stop a sinister plot from The Hand, but with Danielle’s safety at risk, she has bigger things on her mind. Thus, Daredevil and Jessica team up to track down and beat up some thugs while Fisk’s empire begins to fall apart at the seams. It’s a reunion that’s bound to please the fans, though right now Jessica’s return continues last episode’s problem of feeling more like a fun cameo than a necessary plot development.
Fisk’s Empire Starts To Crumble and Karen Almost Makes a Colossal Decision in ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 2 Episode 6
Things aren’t looking good for Fisk, who has been largely keeping himself out of the public eye since Vanessa’s funeral. He’s not the only one having a hard time, either, as Matt’s worst-ever love interest-turned-worst-ever therapist, Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), is devastated by the loss of the woman she grew to admire and respect. Fisk’s right-hand man, Buck (Arty Froushan), even goes to comfort Heather, only for her to start violently choking him in a moment that both furthers her progression toward becoming Muse’s (Hunter Doohan) successor and her weirdly charged tension with Buck. Speaking of will-they-won’t-they romances, Buck’s protégé, Daniel (Michael Gandolfini), is getting closer and closer to figuring out that BB Urich (Genneya Walton) is the one making those anti-Fisk propaganda videos, but still trusts her enough to drop a bombshell reveal — Fisk is not seeking re-election as mayor.
Back at Daredevil HQ, Bullseye is now in Matt and Karen’s (Deborah Ann Woll) custody after the boxing match massacre. It’s the first time Karen has been face-to-face with the serial killer known as Benjamin Poindexter, and the torment of looking Foggy Nelson’s (Elden Henson) murderer in the eye is almost too much to bear. Karen may be in love with Daredevil, but in some ways, she does have more in common with the Punisher (Jon Bernthal), since she knows what it’s like to take a life. She almost does that very thing again with Poindexter before Matt stops her, leading to a fierce confrontation between the couple.
Matt and Karen have to put their trouble in paradise on hold, as City Hall currently has hundreds of protesters dressed in Daredevil gear waiting outside. As the AVTF predictably prepares to violate the protesters’ civil rights, Daredevil has his first face-to-face confrontation with Fisk this season, the latter of whom was just given even more bad news in the form of the New York governor pulling her support for him. Even after everything Fisk has done, Matt still tries to give his archnemesis the chance to do the right thing and shut the protest down himself. Of course, Fisk chooses the hard way, leading to another impressive scuffle between the foes that even damages Fisk’s beloved blank white painting, which he bought from Vanessa many years ago. Daredevil survives the encounter in what seems to be another sign that Fisk is losing control, but there’s just one problem: Karen was at the protest at City Hall, and she’s now been taken into custody by the AVTF.
The first six episodes of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 are streaming now on Disney+.
- Release Date
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March 4, 2025
- Network
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Disney+
- Showrunner
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Dario Scardapane
- Directors
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Aaron Moorhead, Justin Benson, David Boyd, Jeffrey Nachmanoff
- Writers
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Jesse Wigutow, Jill Blankenship, Thomas Wong, David Feige, Grainne Godfree
- Krysten Ritter makes it feel like she never left with a dynamite performance as Jessica Jones.
- Matt and Karen’s argument introduces an interesting dynamic to their relationship.
- Fisk’s unpredictable behavior after Vanessa’s death makes him even scarier.
- Jessica’s role in the plot doesn’t feel super relevant to Matt’s story (yet).
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