Main cast: Charlie Cox (Matt Murdock/Daredevil), Vincent D’Onofrio (Wilson Fisk/Kingpin), Tony Dalton (Jack Duquesne), Margarita Levieva (Heather Glenn), Wilson Bethel (Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye), Genneya Walton (BB Urich), Arty Froushan (Buck Cashman), Clark Johnson (Cherry), Michael Gandolfini (Daniel Blake), and Ayelet Zurer (Vanessa Fisk)
Directors: Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead
So, surprise! Remember how last episode ended with a juicy setup—Vanessa plotting Fisk’s murder with Arty, a sexy betrayal straight out of a telenovela? Yeah, forget that ever happened. Turns out it was a narrative mirage, a plot twist that got swept under the rug faster than Marvel’s tax receipts for VFX labor.
Instead, in Isle of Joy, Fisk and Vanessa are being all #PowerCoupleGoals, looking like they’re starring in an ad for Gwyneth Paltrow’s very exclusive GOOP funeral services. “YASSS KWEEN,” says Kingpin as he spends the whole episode simping over his wife like he’s auditioning for The Bachelor: Hell’s Kitchen Edition.
Gone is the terrifying Kingpin who decapitated Russians with car doors. In his place is a man nervously twirling in circles on the dance floor while Vanessa plots war crimes in her head. It’s like watching a lion get neutered in real time.
And oh hey, remember Bullseye? He’s back! You know, the guy who killed Matt’s BFF in episode one? No, we don’t really remember either—this show’s memory is like Swiss cheese soaked in amnesia.
Vanessa hired him because… reasons. She knows Matt is Daredevil because… uh… intuition? Tarot cards? WitchTok? It’s all very “don’t question it, we needed a twist!”
Speaking of Matt, he’s finally decided that maybe, just maybe, he shouldn’t let people be murdered in front of him. Character development, baby!
So, when he attends the Black and White Ball, where the Kingpin and Queenpin are lit like they’re about to perform a Swan Lake duet, he throws himself in the path of Bullseye’s bullet to save his mortal enemy. Why? Because moral ambiguity or guilt or maybe the writers just thought it’d be poetic or something.
Cue the slow-mo fall, the shocked faces, the dramatic lighting… and viewers collectively squinting at the screen asking, “Is this the climax? Or just indigestion?”
We now reach the penultimate conclusion: this show is somehow both overcooked and underbaked. It’s like someone made a lasagna with no cheese and forgot to preheat the oven. This is supposed to be part of the “rebooted to be better” half of Daredevil: Born Again, but the episode is choppy, with key scenes that could have provided some answers or reasons to care missing. The jigsaw puzzle analogy is spot-on—except here, someone threw out the box with the reference picture, ate a few pieces, and used the rest as coasters.
Only one episode to go. May it be swift. And may Matt finally get therapy. Or a hug. Or at least some consistent writing.
