‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Episode Seven Recap: “Art for Art’s Sake”

Warning: The following article contains spoilers for episode seven of Daredevil: Born Again.

Daredevil is back, and the city is on edge. Notably, mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio), who, not long ago, was promised by Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) that he had left his past life behind for good, just like Fisk wanted nothing to do with the world of criminality again after entering politics, is terrified at the prospect of seeing Murdock back to his old activities, potentially tarnishing the political empire he has now built. However, when Muse goes after Dr. Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), things become personal for Matt, and he has no choice but to continue donning the suit and exact justice his way, even if it means that drastic consequences are heading his way in the near future. 

In the second episode of Daredevil: Born Again, a disturbed patient paid a visit to Dr. Glenn, saying that he needed help and would like an appointment so they could talk about his problems. In the seventh episode, titled “Art for Art’s Sake,” we finally learn his name, Bastian Cooper (Hunter Doohan), and discover that he is indeed Muse (most unsurprising reveal ever, by the way). After Daredevil rescued Angela del Toro (Camila Rodriguez), Muse’s whereabouts were discovered by the police, leading to the NYPD investigating who the serial killer’s identity might be by targeting a piece of fabric that was left behind from his suit in his hideout. But as detective Angie Kim (Rubio Qian) tells Fisk of Cooper’s dark past, he is already in Dr. Glenn’s office discussing it, with the intent of killing her – and himself – once all is revealed. When Kim tells Fisk that they discovered drawings of Heather in his lair, with Daredevil finding the exact same thing as he investigates on his own, the mayor tells the Anti-Vigilante Task Force to use any means necessary to neutralize – and kill – Muse. 

However, before they arrive, Daredevil is already in Glenn’s office and beats Muse to a pulp in a fight scene far more violent than last week’s episode. Unfortunately, it’s also more haphazardly edited than last week’s confrontation. While the scene that precedes the fight is an excellent display of tension-building, as Heather realizes that Bastian is Muse, and by the time she puts two and two together, it’s too late, the battle leaves a lot to be desired. The quick cuts are far too jarring and have little to no intent on what rhythm to give to the action, almost as if they are random (probably so), thus breaking the flow of the impeccably-mounted choreography. As a result, when Heather is the one who shoots Muse in the stomach multiple times, killing him, the emotional impact isn’t as strong as it would be if we were able to actively see what’s happening. 

Many are pointing out that the fight scenes in the original Netflix Daredevil series also had fast editing. However, the difference between that show and Daredevil: Born Again is that we can make sense of the quick cuts, no matter how bad of a device it may be when it comes to visualizing an action sequence. There’s logic and intent behind each cut, whereas Born Again has many gritty fight scenes whose rapid editing hampers the rhythm or thrilling stuntwork that Philip Silvera likely meticulously designed. That said, most of the action we saw in the show so far (minus the incredible one-take in the first episode) was a product of the pre-creative overhaul, which might mean that there was a different approach in capturing and editing action than what Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead put forward in that pilot episode. 

I have no doubt the two cooked for episodes eight and nine, and it’s clear other directors Michael Cuesta, Jeffrey Nachmanoff and David Boyd don’t have the same sensibilities in capturing Daredevil in action the way the directorial duo did in the first episode, making for a relatively strange tonal shift that, even with its limitations, still managed to work in the end. There was some obvious retooling done to fit the previously shot material with the overhauled pilot, but it doesn’t feel as clearly Frankensteined as the horrendous Captain America: Brave New World or, worse, Secret Invasion. That climax was a nightmare. 

Better yet, while I wasn’t particularly interested in the new characters when the series introduced them, notably Cherry (Clark Johnson), BB Urich (Genneya Walton), and Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James), I eventually warmed up to them and even enjoyed the narrative arcs they had as the series progressed, though Cherry and Kirsten will never replaced the dynamic Matt had with Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll). That said, I’d be lying if I said I missed seeing Foggy and Karen in this season. Dario Scardapane was respectful enough to let us know why they wouldn’t be back, and I understood why killing Foggy like that helped improve Matt’s push-pull between his current and past life. Once that was cleared up, Daredevil’s new story still remained interesting though a push-pull between two distinct visions hampered some of its momentum slightly, but not as bad as other clearly reworked films and television series were. 

However, we will be seeing both Foggy and Karen again (according to Marvel’s Brad Winderbaum), but it was nice to see Matt finding love and a semi-stable life for a while before crawling back to Daredevil again. The one thing that I found a bit less interesting, though, was anything revolving around Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer)’s friction-heavy relationship with Fisk, minus the couples therapy sessions that peered through their vulnerabilities much deeper than I would’ve thought. In this episode, I had assumed she found out about what Fisk did to Adam (Lou Taylor Pucci) and set up one of the members of the five families to assassinate him while he is alone, but that’s not at all what the final scene implies. 

It turns out that Fisk’s assassination attempt was a trap and that the Kingpin’s right-hand man, Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan), was waiting for one of the gangsters to come into the restaurant and shoot him on sight. Many think Vanessa put out a hit on Fisk, which failed, but the concluding line from the villain reveals that they were both in on it. It’s so badly stitched together that one can absolutely think the former. Clearly, this entire plotline suffered from the overhaul, attempting to unite bits and pieces of what the previous showrunners had set up with the original actor who portrayed Vanessa, and retooling it to fit the Netflix show once the original actor returned. While Zurer’s performance is as good as ever, their relationship seems to fluctuate from mutual trust to rivalry and back to mutual trust? It’s not entirely clear, and it’s definitely the portion of the series that should’ve been reworked more after the creative overhaul. 

In any event, we are now done with the previously-shot material and are now about to see what the new chefs have been working on, without any restrictions attached from what Matt Corman and Chris Ord wanted to develop with the character. And with season two also in production, things may be looking up for Daredevil: Born Again to hit as much as the Netflix series did when it blew all of our minds just ten years ago…

The seventh episode of Daredevil: Born Again is now available to stream on Disney+.