Born Again’ Episode 8 Is The Show It Always Should Have Been

Last night, Episode 8 of Daredevil: Born Again was so good I’m actually a little mad about it.

Why? Because it’s a glimpse of what season 1 could have been, if the majority of the middle was not some chopped up, weirdly-edited version of the original script that was supposed to be thrown out completely. That clearly didn’t happen.

For starters, it immediately brought back Bullseye, responsible for what was the best fight scene in the season in literally its opening moments, and that has not been topped since. Over the course of the night he escaped by shooting his own extracted tooth into the eye of a guard, and ended the night taking aim at Kingpin.

The entire ball sequence was a thing of beauty, Kingpin back in white and unleashed as mayor, blackmailing the city’s most powerful figures out of millions. He threatens to out one as a vigilante. He has apparently kidnapped the husband of another. This is the man we’ve wanted to see, tired of political red tape and about to barrel his way through the corridors of power on his own, criminal terms (I mean it’s certainly not a first for a New York Mayor, after all).

The evening is a whirling dance (at one point literally) between Matt, Heather, Fisk and Vanessa, culminating in a reveal that it was actually Vanessa who had Foggy killed, confirming Bullseye’s spree was not a random quest for revenge. But now that they’ve attempted to kill him in prison, he’s about to kill the Fisk except…Matt takes a bullet for him, of all people, a direct reference to an earlier conversation with Poindexter about how since he’s such a good man, he’d defend his worst enemy. And there we are.

It’s a stunning episode, up there with anything in the excellent third season of the show, and easily the best full episode we’ve seen in Born Again. It’s frustrating because this episode, and the one that follows with the return of Frank Castle and Karen, are the two that were crafted fully outside the old draft. Even if the original plot may have been edited to be less bad than it was at first, clearly pieces of it remained and it felt disjointed as a result. Now? Everything is humming, and it’s a great sign for the already-filming season 2, as that will be an all-original creation like these last two episodes are (and supposedly the premiere, as well). Last night didn’t even need Matt in the suit to be great.

It’s just a bit frustrating is all. I don’t think the previous stretch of episodes have been outright bad, but they have been underwhelming overall. That changed tonight, and I expect that to be cemented by next week’s finale. It’s what these actors and these characters deserve.

Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Bluesky

Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.