The first episode of Daredevil: Born Again deftly set the scene for what's to come over the course of the season, and episode 2 throws new elements into the mix for some courtroom based drama and a bone-crunching action scene.
Spoilers follow.
"Optics" begins with the newly-elected Mayor Fisk addressing the citizens of New York, as a clearly anxious Matt Murdock watches on TV. We then see a man, Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes), making his way down to the subway station, where he witnesses two men roughing up a third.
Ayala intervenes, and one of the men ends up tripping and falling into the path of an oncoming train. The other identifies himself as a police officer and places Hector under arrest.
Fisk has assembled a team, including veteran spin-artist Sheila Rivera (Zabryna Guevara) and the inexperienced but loyal Daniel Blade (Michael Gandolfini), to help him ease into his new role as Mayor. He begins to get frustrated with how slowly any progress is made, and we see him start to slip back into Kingpin mode when he blackmails the Police Commissioner into remaining in his current position.
Sheila suggests that Vanessa's reluctance to be "part of the narrative" could be hurting Fisk's popularity with older voters, so they agree to go to couple's counselling - and their therapist just so happens to be Matt's new love-interest, Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva).
Prior to this, we saw Heather agree to treat a nervous young man (Hunter Doohan) who approached her at a book signing.
Back at the police station, Matt hears the cops attempting to beat a confession out of Hector. After realizing that Ayala is telling the truth about what happened on the subway platform, he decides to take him on as a client - even though he knows Hector isn't telling him everything.
The judge denies Ayala bail, so Matt sends his investigator, former NYPD Officer Cherry (Clark Jonson), to do some digging. After paying a visit to Hector's wife, Cherry finds the White Tiger costume and mystical amulet in a box under the bed. Matt confronts Hector, who is now being held at Riker's Island, about his secret, and he admits that he should have been honest about his costumed alter-ego.
Murdock manages to convince the judge to keep the White Tiger reveal out of the trial, and sets out to search for the confidential informant that was being assaulted by the cops at the subway. Matt finds Nicky Torres just seconds before the cops arrive, telling him to meet Cherry at a nearby car park. When Matt refuses to talk, the two officers attack him.
Murdock is prepared to take the beating, but when one of the cops pulls a gun to finish the job, the Devil is let loose for a brutal fight sequence which leaves his foes broken and battered, but still breathing.
The episode concludes with Matt allowing the adrenaline to flow through him while letting out an anguished(?) scream. It seems Fisk was right: coming to terms with a violent nature is not an easy thing to do.
This episode is dedicated to Kamar de los Reyes, who passed way in 2023 after a battle with cancer.
In Marvel Television's Daredevil: Born Again, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox), a blind lawyer with heightened abilities is fighting for justice through his bustling law firm, while former mob boss Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) pursues his own political endeavors in New York. When their past identities begin to emerge, both men find themselves on an inevitable collision course.
The show also stars Margarita Levieva, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson, Zabryna Guevara, Nikki James, Genneya Walton, Arty Froushan, Clark Johnson, Michael Gandolfini, with Ayelet Zurer and Jon Bernthal. Dario Scardapane is on board as showrunner.
Episodes are directed by Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead, Michael Cuesta, Jeffrey Nachmanoff, and David Boyd; and executive producers are Kevin Feige, Louis D’Esposito, Brad Winderbaum, Sana Amanat, Chris Gary, Dario Scardapane, Christopher Ord & Matthew Corman, and Justin Benson & Aaron Moorhead.