Episode Review: Daredevil: Born Again 1x5 - "With Interest"

Welcome back to the blog readers. For someone who has not seen Daredevil (2015-18) at all, I am absolutely hooked on Daredevil: Born Again (2025-). The characters are all fascinating as hell, the action (while not much of it) is out of this world, and I am loving the story they are throwing down at us right now. We have another double-episode drop, so what would I think of episode one of the drop, also known as the fifth episode, titled "With Interest," written by Grainne Godfree, and directed by Jeffrey Nachmanoff? Stick around to find out.

NOTE: I will be using spoilers for my thoughts, so DO NOT read ahead if you have not seen the episode.

---

I have to say that I am surprised at how much I have loved this show so far. This world of New York feels lived in and alive, almost like it is a character in of itself in the show. And when I learned that this was basically going to be a bubble episode that took place primarily in one location, I was a bit nervous to be honest with you. Oh, my fears were dashed because while this episode is not as good as last week's brilliance, I still absolutely enjoyed myself with it. The addition of Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan was brilliant and I loved the chemistry between him and Charlie Cox, plus the story that will be leading to Matt Murdock's return as Daredevil is getting better and better every week.

I do want to start by talking about the performance of Mohan Kapur as Yusuf Khan. I barely got to talk about him in Ms. Marvel (2022) (a show that if you have not watched it, do yourself a favor and get on it), but him playing this character just oozes warmth and charisma and everything I love in a father character. And the bastard did it again in his appearance in this episode. I had a big, fat smile on my face whenever he was on screen because while Kamala may not have been anywhere to be seen, the "proud papa" vibes were all too prevalent. I loved seeing him on screen and even though we probably will not see him again, a guy can hope.

I do want to talk about the story for a bit because while it is brief, it does say a whole lot about what we can expect going forward in my eyes. We start at a bank called New York Mutual on St. Patrick's Day, where Matt Murdock was looking to take out a loan for his new law firm with a Steven Aldrich, but he had to take a half-day due to an emergency so the loan was handed down to the assistant manager, Yusuf Khan (the father of Ms. Marvel Kamala Khan). While getting to know Matt, Yusuf brags about Kamala being Jersey City's favorite hero Ms. Marvel and how she is in California visiting friends. He leaves empty-handed due to the loan not being approved and overhears the bank in the beginning stages of being robbed. He rushes back to the bank and walks in like a confused patron, and is held hostage along with the rest of the employees and customers.

Matt alerted Kirsten before he went into the bank to call the police. Detective Angie Kim is on the hostage situation and tries to bargain with the lead robber Devlin. Devlin is clearly trying to assert control over the situation and he gets Kim to agree to his terms of leaving with an armored escort. While huddled up in the bank lobby, the robbers learn that Yusuf knows the combination to open the bank vault, a fact that he privately tells Matt is not true, so Matt tells him to stall as long as possible. In exchange for the armored escort, Devlin agrees to let two hostages go: a woman and Matt. Matt convinces them to allow her husband to take his place and he gets downstairs by saying he needs to use the restroom. He uses this opportunity to take one of the henchmen out without making a single sound. He is able to knock out the one pressuring Yusuf to open the vault.

Matt reunites with Yusuf and uses his hearing to crack the combination of the vault, learning the robbers were after something in one of the safe deposit boxes and they had the key for one of them. After a bunch of trial and error, the two are able to locate the box being used and find nothing but a rare diamond in a jewelry pouch. Eventually, the police decide that they are no longer willing to cater to the demands and bust into the bank. Matt and Yusuf rush back upstairs and try to reason with the robbers, willing to exchange the diamond for the safe release of the hostages. When they do not play ball, the police burst into the scene, Devlin gives the pouch to one of the hostages (revealing she was in on it the while time), and Matt knocks out one more of the robbers, before Devlin leaves in a police uniform. Matt is able to track him down, using the masks of one of the other robbers and beat the crap out of Devlin. Meanwhile, the "hostage" opens the pouch revealing a butterscotch candy, revealing that Matt switched out the diamond before Devlin got his hands on the pouch. Sometime afterwards, Matt returns to Yusuf and Yusuf invites Matt to dinner with his family (including Kamala) and offers to help him make his law firm more profitable. When he leaves, Yusuf finds the diamond in his candy bowl.

Before I let you go, I do want to talk about the end of this episode really quickly, when we learn that Matt has decided to go after Devlin and take him out after the fact. I can understand him taking out the first two robbers downstairs but he did not have to go after Devlin after the fact. What I can equate this to was that darker half Matt has taking over and controlling his impulses. In that moment, Matt did not need to brandish his own form of justice. He desperately wanted to. Daredevil was clawing out and he finally let it out. I absolutely think that sometime in the next two episodes we will see him in the suit again, and I cannot wait to see this.

Daredevil: Born Again is living up to its title with the ferocious title character looking to burst its way out and take center stage once again. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.