Daredevil: Born Again – Excessive Force review S1 E6
Excessive Force is a terrific episode with the big return viewers have been awaiting all season.
A new BB Report shows a cell phone video clip of a ‘Swordsman’ taking down crooks. The MCU hasn’t shied away from designs that skewed closer to the comic book costumes so it’s disappointing that The Swordsman’s costume is so uninspired.
Meanwhile, some sanitation workers find a body with bleeding eyes reminiscent of the bleeding eye visual of the white costumed killer.
The Kingpin has a few issues to deal with in Excessive Force. First, Luca, the new head of the Tracksuit Mafia is adamant that he’s not paying the $1.8 million he owes Victor, another gang lord. Fisk decides the fee is now $2.8 million. Still, the gang activity is a minor nuisance compared to this new killer especially after the sanitation head — the same Rangers fan that Matt encountered at the bank — tells him the epoxy used for the murals that Muse has created around the city contains human blood. With 12 murals that comes out to about 60 victims. The math is all bad on that equation and damaging for Fisk’s promise to clean up the city.
Make that 62 as Muse attacks two more women.
Excessive Force also has some issues for Matt. Heather is working on a book, “Vigilantes: Why We Revere the Mask.” Further complicating things, Heather asks if maybe Matt could set her up to chat with someone like The Punisher or even Daredevil. This seems to create a serious barrier for Matt confiding his secret identity to her. Also, this kind of subplot is exactly why secret identities are still relevant to the modern superhero. It creates these complicated unintentional problems for the hero and love interests/friends/allies that aren’t possible if everyone knows their alter ego.
This also sets up a very tantalizing scenario of both masks being exposed — Fisk as a sham mayor by Luca and Matt by Heather.
Angela Ayala (Camila Rodriguez), Hector’s niece, skipped school to tell Matt that Hector was onto something. He’d been investigating the people who’d gone missing. Angela is sure Hector would want someone to finish his work. If that someone won’t be a certain devilish hero than it might be a younger female version of White Tiger. Naturally, Matt can’t react in a manner that would let Angela think he’s going to investigate, which she takes as a blow off before making the statement that Hector told her to never rely on anyone to do anything you could do for yourself. Are you listening, Matt?
Jerry relays the news to Matt about Muse, which concerns him, but does it concern Matt enough to do something?
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A mayor’s job is never done, and Fisk is busy gladhanding at another fundraiser. In a key clue, his suits aren’t fitting like they used to as someone is clearly starting to eat better. He chats with Jack Duquesne (Tony Dalton) aka The Swordsman from Hawkeye.
It’s hard not to appreciate the thoughtful work put into making Born Again very much an MCU-centric show. There’s no mistaking that Matt and his universe is fully integrated into the happenings of what else is playing out in the MCU now instead of the fringes like the Netflix series.
Fisk is over with playing nice. He assembles Powell and other officers loyal to him to head up an anti-vigilante task force. This isn’t going to end well with the likely high number of excessive force this crew is about to tally. A police force gunning for the hero can feel borderline cliche at this point, but Born Again has successfully managed to avoid underwhelming takes on these types of scenarios. A Kingpin-run task force sounds very compelling storyline-wise.
Angela starts investigating Hector’s findings and runs into Muse, who promptly knocks her out and sets up an IV to take her blood. Hector’s widow contacts Matt as she’s nervous after not hearing from her. Matt considers calling the cops, but he’s not sure they would help. Finally, Matt has had enough. He goes to his rooftop bunker and suits up. That’s right. Daredevil is officially back.
Meanwhile, Fisk goes back to visit Adam. He gives him an axe, presumably to make it a fairer fight. Adam tries, but Fisk beats him all the way down. This goes a long way to explain the bloody and bruised knuckles. Mayor Fisk is using some seriously excessive force against a prisoner unlawfully held in his custody.
Daredevil tracks down Muse and the two have a brutal fight. The fight choreography on Excessive Force and Born Again as a whole has been outstanding truly providing a sense of the toll these battles take on Matt. It’s hard to blame him for wanting to take months and a year off to recover. While Daredevil has Muse beat and in position to no longer be a threat to anyone, Matt lets up in order to save Angela. She’s barely conscious but manages a weak “Daredevil?”
“Yeah, it’s ok. I’m here,” which might have been just as much for the viewers as it was for Angela.
Excessive Force marks the official return of Daredevil in Daredevil: Born Again. The pacing of this moment felt right as it didn’t take until the season finale to see Matt back in costume. With Angela in trouble in many ways representing the Foggys and Hectors he was unable to save, Matt finally could take matters into his own hands and fully embrace the idea that Daredevil can accomplish some things Matt Murdock cannot.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
Photo Credit: Disney
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