To any of my regular readers who were wondering whether I had a stroke over that scene, the good news is that I did not. (You all know which one I'm talking about, ha ha.) I do, however, have a video coming out about it that I hope to post tomorrow, before the next episode comes out. And so, I will leave the part where the blind guy touches textured paint that in no way, shape, or form "looks" like the felt shape of his girlfriend's face out of this review entirely from this point forward, because the rest of the episode is not a disaster. In fact, I quite liked everything else about it.
This is really Heather's episode to shine. After being left mostly unexplored as a character following her strong introduction in episode one, we really get to see her as a whole person here. Someone to empathize with when Matt, in a moment of honesty, talks about how life with her feels fake – "but it's not her!" – and whose visceral terror at realizing she's sitting across from a serial killer shakes us to our core. I hadn't seen the actress who plays her, Margarita Levieva, in anything before Daredevil: Born Again, but I don't have enough positive things to say about her here. What a performance.
Her vulnerability brings out another side in Matt too, that I find quite interesting. He wants to make it work with Heather, and even though I'm not convinced he means it when he replies in kind to her "I love you" at the start of the episode, I somehow think he means it more by the end. Becuase there's something with this guy and bonding over shared trauma. Heather, of course, doesn't know it's been shared, although I strongly suspect she's already putting the pieces together. Whether she figures it out first, or he tells her about Daredevil, we are clearly headed in that direction. I'm hoping for the latter.
I'm also not sure this is the last we'll see of Muse. Because comic book shows tend to treat death like comic books do. Though I can understand where the people are coming from who felt this part of the story got wrapped up too quickly. While the piecing together of pre and post overhaul material has been impressively smooth overall, I think the less than seamless handling of Muse's story may be an unavoidable casualty of the merging of the two different visions. It seems that what Muse is leaving room for (for now?), may be we worth it, and he at least got that extremely tense scene with Heather.
Wilson Fisk has a scene early in the episode where he delivers a very entertaining rant about Daredevil that clearly demonstrates why Matt finds himself at the top of the Kingpin shit list. Fisk was the creator of blue collar millionaires, after all. What a hero!
Wilson and Vanessa also have some interesting things happening between them this episode. I like how it's left open (ever so slightly) whether Vanessa arranged a hit on her husband, or whether she was merely setting a trap for troublemaker Luca. I'm 90 percent sure it's the latter though, in part because even someone like Fisk probably doesn't bring that level of security when eating out unless he expects an assassination attempt (and Daniel also mentioned to BB Urich that Fisk was dealing with a personal matter that evening). If I'm wrong though, he may be the rare kind of man who probably finds it hot that his wife would try to arrange his murder. And I'm also still wondering what kind of state poor Adam is in.
I will have to leave this review short. Between co-hosting and editing an episode of TalkDaredevil to go up tomorrow, recording a video for YouTube to also go up tomorrow, and trying to get these review posts out, Daredevil: Born Again has been like having a second job! I'm also getting ready to go on vacation on Wednesday, so I can't make any promises for when the final two episode reviews will be up. But, I'd be remiss to not direct you to another very exciting thing I got to do a couple of days ago, along with fellow SavedDaredevil team member Phyllis. Allow me to present the TalkDaredevil exclusive interview with showrunner Dario Scardapane, and executive producer Sana Amanat!
With how episode 8 has gone, I think that Matt is going to tell Heather he’s Daredevil sometime soon, and that leads to them breaking up, and some distrust between them, because of both Heather’s stance on vigilantes, as well as comments she’s made about them, and specifically Daredevil.
I think you should address the touch and how he felt Heather’s face in the drawings, because the exploration of Daredevil’s powers and how it works, is something that Born Again is honestly doing better than the 2015 show. Anyways, Daredevil’s powers are, or at least seem to be, your area of expertise, and I got your book two or three years ago and it was really entertaining.