Episode Review: Daredevil: Born Again 1x6 - "Excessive Force"

Welcome back to the blog readers. While somewhat of a departure from the standard Daredevil experience we have gotten over the last month, last episode of Daredevil: Born Again (2025-) was so much fucking fun. I love Yusuf Khan as a character and Mohan Kapur's chemistry with Charlie Cox was awesome. Now getting back to our regularly scheduled programming, what would the results of this episode, titled "Excessive Force," written by Thomas Wong, and directed by David Boyd, be? 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.

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Since we got word that we would be getting serial killer Muse in this season, I was a little disheartened to learn we have barely gotten him over these first five episodes. But this is a Muse episode, and the darkness is creeping up on all of our characters right now. Ultimately I do think this episode was not as good as the fourth episode, I still thought this episode was fantastic. The performance of Vincent D'Onofrio was stunning, and the action feels warranted and flows great. Plus, I am loving the story we are getting between Matt and Wilson.

I want to start this review by talking about the performance of Vincent D'Onofrio as Wilson Fisk / Kingpin. I have mentioned how great he has been in this show so far in previous episode reviews, but that all came to a head in this episode. To be honest with you, I personally think that he gives my favorite performance so far this year in this episode. Over the last few episodes, you have seen the facade start to fade for Wilson Fisk, and the rage that he feels over being shot down, scorned, and belittled by his own gang members leads to a payoff that left me reeling. D'Onofrio plays these emotions extremely well, and I can feel the rage seeping through the screen. I almost felt second-hand embarrassment for any character that gets in Wilson's way as the facade fully falls and he shows his true colors. Give him an Emmy nomination right now.

Now I want to talk about the story of this episode because while it feels like two distinct storylines going on, the two main characters are clearly following the same path and it all comes to a head in this episode. We start with interchanging cuts between the stories of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk as Murdock is spoken to by his therapist girlfriend Heather after praying for forgiveness about her interest in writing about vigilantes, and asks Matt to set her up with Frank Castle or Daredevil through his connection to both. This line of questioning makes Matt uncomfortable. Meanwhile, Fisk is approached in his office by an unsuspecting Luca, who authorized the botched bank heist in last episode to pay his restitution, but he bad-mouths Fisk, who increases his debt with Viktor to $2.8 million and gives him a week. And while all of this is happening, serial killer Muse uses the blood of his victim from the fourth episode to paint a mural as the victim's body is found by a sanitation worker.

This information is brought to the attention of Fisk by this sanitation worker, whose name is Johnny Santini, and Fisk convenes with police commissioner Gallo. He announces that he will be putting together a task force to hunt Muse down, and later charges corrupt cops like Powell and detective Cole North to lead this Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF). Meanwhile, while doing research on the decrepit subway systems, Matt is confronted by Hector Ayala's niece Angela. Angela tells Matt that she believes Hector was trying to investigate Muse before his death and begs Matt to do something. He is hesitant and tells her to trust in the system (something he clearly is not doing right now) and she leaves in frustration, leading her to investigate for herself. Wilson then holds a banquet where he is attempting to reveal his plans for the port and gauges opinions from the socialites who attend. All of the socialites, including vigilante Jack Duquesne, talk down to Wilson and he leaves when Daniel shows him something disturbing: Muse has taken two more female victims and used their blood to paint a new mural in a public display.

Angela is investigating the subway system when she is taken by Muse, and Matt gets a call from her mother who says Angela has not come home. He was further researching the subway system and after the call, he says "Fuck it," while finally suiting up as Daredevil to rescue Angela. Meanwhile, Fisk has gone into the cellar where he is keeping Adam and gives him an axe to try to get him to fight him. Matt arrives at Muse's hideout and engages him in a brutal fight where he is able to save Angela at the cost of Muse getting away, while Fisk savagely beats the shit out of Adam, telling him Vanessa wanted him spared but he does not know if he can do that while dragging him back to his cell. It is clear that the story of Matt and Wilson are parallel in this situation, and seeing them get to unleash their darker halves at the same time was so satisfying to watch at the end. The cuts between Matt fighting Muse and Fisk beating the hell out of Adam highlight this point excellently. Now, I just expect the two to join forces to take down Muse in the final three episodes.

Daredevil: Born Again kills it yet again with another excellent outing that shows the benefits of indulging in your dark side a bit, with a career-best performance from Vincent D'Onofrio and a terrifying new villain in Muse. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.