Warning. Today's episode canad spoilers for the first two episodes of Daredevil Born Again be warned.
Hello and nam is Jason Tepsi.
Owed he I'm Mosey Night and welcome back to X Revision, the podcast where we dive into your favorite shows, movies, comics of pop culture. Coming from IRAW podcast where we'll bring you three episodes a week Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, plus news on Saturday.
And in today's episode, we've been waiting for it. We've been prepping for it.
It's the first two episodes of Dad Evil Born Again, Episodes one and two, and oh my goodness, what episodes they are.
What's Wilson Fisk been up to? What's Matt doing? How's Old folk Worth, How's Old Foggy folk Worth? How's Karen? Who's Hector Ryalla.
We're gonna be on all these questions and more and generally freaking out.
And before we get to that, thank you so much for the great response to our first book club episode. It was wonderful to see everyone reading along and get such great feedback. Our next book club title is a short story from the Ted Chang Excellations collection, and it's called The Magicians and the Alchemist's Gate and it is just absolutely wonderful. And as one of our discord members pointed out, there is a lover a Lovar Burton podcast.
Where you can listen to him reading the story.
So if you want to experience it that way, go for it, and make sure to read and join our discord so you can join in with a book club chat.
But next episodes one and two of Daredevil Board Again. Okay, episode one of Daredevil Born Again. We open in Hell's kitchen. It's been some years since we last saw our friends, and they look great. They look out, they look.
Yeah.
They are leaving Nelson Murdock and Page Fogg. He's got a great new haircut.
He looks finally good.
Finally they're discussing all the changes.
That have been going on in the neighborhood.
We discover that there's kind of a crisis of personnel power over at the NYPD. We're a large percentage of the forces set to retire soon and they are currently heading to a retirement party for Detective Cherry at a local bar where we meet some other casts cast some of the other caster characters from the show, Detective Kim etc. Matt's future law partner Kristen McDuffie changes generally in the air.
We also learned that vigilantes are very hot at the moment, White Tiger is out in the streets, and of course Spider Man and others. We see that Matt and Karen have big chemistry at this particular party.
But Matt's trying to be like, we should keep it friends.
I don't know, but there's definitely but it's that it literally says to him, let's get out of here, and he's like, oh, that might break the friend code, like but that basically things are going great, and immediately the show kind of warms you into this like fun, celebratory space where it really does feel like changes on the edge for New York, and it seems like Nelson, Murdock and Page are a big part of it.
Foggy is flirting with McDuffie when he gets a call, which of course Matt fucking listens to.
And this, I swear to god, this man has never, ever, ever, ever allowed somebody to have privacy in that entire life.
It was it worked out kind of but still.
Because actually a little bit late this time, so it's tense and maybe that's what draws Matt's attention. Something has happened in Red Hook. This that Foggy is talking to Benny. People are outside of his apartment and they're they're coming for him, and Foggy is telling him, Okay, you know, wait there, I'm gonna come over. Foggy apparently kept this from Matt. He tells him to keep him from getting
involved in basically becoming garrettevil all again. Matt whatever overhearing this, goes, puts on the suit and rushes to, you know, back to the bar. He hears the sound of like a rifle. He hears a rifle somewhere. It is Bullseye. Bullseye shoots Foggy outside of the bar and all hell breaks. He's shooting other people outside of the bar. He swings down, he throws smoke grenades into the bar. He's about to
kill Karen, who's pulling out a gun. She's got a concealed carry permit apparently in New York City, which just getting hurt again by the way, And just as she is about to you know, engage with Bullseye, Matt swings in and we get a huge fight scene in the bar, people running back and forth, Cherry and Kim call the police and they're helping people evacuate. All this is happening while.
Just lots of people and also.
Killing, stabbing, like throwing knives into people's necks.
I say, if you are.
An injured Matt Murdoch lover, and I know you're out there girls. I know you're out there boys. I know that people love to see Matt Murdoch fighting his way through a dangerous injury and looking.
Very sad about it. He is riddled with blades.
Here, I think is pretty good. It doesn't all the way through, but yeah, it looks bad.
It's a great comic book moment where you kind of realize again, like this man is just human. It's just his willpower and a great armor and of course his secret superheroic blindness non blindness.
But I love this fight with Bullseye.
It immediately just throws you straight back into the best of what Dad Evil was.
And they do not.
It is such a great opening to this episode. But Matt is really concerned with fighting Bullseye and not necessarily concerned with like his best friend being shot.
Well, he's got to get give this guy's a psychopathic killer. He's got to get him off the streets, and the fight goes to the roof. They basically limp to the roof. Both guys are absolutely spent by the time they get up there.
Love the Matt.
Beats Bullseye and then is hanging him off the roof as he hears Foggy basically take his last breaths. Bullseye laughs about it, thinks it's hilarious. So Matt drops him off the roof onto his face. And yet the guy, and yet, much to Rosie's delight, he lives.
My sweet assassin son. Never know. He's a terrible, terrible, terrible, terribly murderer. But I think that the season three representation of him, as you can, it's for the best talk about it.
He's so engaging and interesting and intriguing and such a great foil for Matt that I felt like, Okay, if we lose Foggy and Ben in the first like five minutes, then are they just doing these people coming back? Was that just stunt casting? Is it actually going to play into the rest of the series. But he somehow survives being thrown onto his face, insane because it was like a really gnary like ten story fall. Yes, I am happy he survived for the story. Sadly, Foggy did not.
Foggy Shockingly, Foggy is gone. He's gone the first eight minutes of the show. He got a nice trim too, he looked great track game. Matt drops the Daredevil mask and we go right and see the opening credits.
Fast new opening credits, new marble kind of characters.
They're made out of stone rather.
Than the famous kind of blood wax motif from the first season. Gets see all your favor characters Wilson, etc. And then boom, time jump.
One year later, New York City is in the midst of a mayoral election. There's been a recalling. Now it's just like an open run to the Mayor's office. Man is getting ready for work at his new firm, McDuffie and Murdoch. Meanwhile, Wilson Fisk the Kingpin, is eating a healthy, healthy portion breakfast in his mansion. Elsewhere at a meeting of the various mobs, presided over by Vanessa, who is
wearing all Kingpin white. And you see that Vanessa is basically like the referee, kind of like the CEO of the Mafia families, making sure that everybody is getting paid, and that territory disputes are being adjudicated without violence. The room. By the way, there's the famous painting by Ilia Repin of Ivan the terrible cradling son who he had just murdered.
Love that.
I love that moment because it really also evokes just what we've seen with the Devil and Bullseye. There's a lot to it. I love them bringing the art side of Vanessa in. Also, I love that this rumor was true. I love that what she's that she really is running these gangs like and I also love like you said, she's running them like a CEO, and that is going to become very important as the series goes on.
For sure.
Wilson arrives, the gangsters are like, let's give them some privacy. Wilson is like, I'm very impressed with your management of the gangs. By the way, I love you still. I'm the biggest wife guy around. I will stick around, you know, as long as you want me around.
But he also has been she hasn't really seen him for a while. It sounds she.
Hasn't seen him in a couple of years and know what he was doing when he was out with Echo.
She didn't know what he was doing when he was recovering from the last time face.
The last time she really saw him was when he was in the hospital, and it was either four when Echo shot him in the face or when he got his ass thoroughly beat at the end of Hawkeye. One of those times, she was at his hospital bed and he's like, you know, I love you so much and I really believe that together, like we can change New York City for the better.
We can make your grade again.
And he's like, by the way, I'm.
Running for mayor.
I think I I think I can win. We do some research into I think.
But he's also like he he also says very importantly because I think this is a huge choice that they made. That moves this away from the comics a little bit is he immediately says that you can keep.
Doing the crosses, you do the crime, I'll do it proof.
That's right. So it has to be a complete Chinese wall between the two, like no, no barrier. The barrier must be very.
Strong between the two. And he said, hey, I've made it bulletproof. There's nothing they can catch me out on. But this is a huge deal because we were kind of wondering if it would be more of a mystery whether Wilson had really changed, or if they'd try and play into that idea that he had. I think it's really smart to do this because we know who Wilson
Fisk is. And also I think it sets up a potential conflict for Wilson and Vanessa in the future if he does start to really believe his own rehetoric about, you know, making New York great again and Fisk can fix it.
We see some video footage from the bb Report, which is a video news series kind of like a street level view of New Yorker's takes on various topics, and it's produced by Ben's daughter, excuse me, Ben's niece, bb Urick. And these are intercut all throughout the series. And are these, you know, really cool like chapter dividers where you kind of get the feel for what New York is feeling.
And I think this is one of the smartest storytelling devices that they put into the show to really ground this in New York and make you feel like, oh, I understand, like what what the temperature of the city is, because this is a city. Listen Chaitari Invasion, Fanos invasion that was upstate, but still you know, the Hope destoring Harlem people getting snapped, the Infinity Hawkey running around, the Infinity War fight. Like shit is going like haywire in
New York City like all the time. So it's no surprise that the citizens of the city are kind of like, hey, what's going on, Like we can stop this.
Yeah.
Matt meets with his partner, ex assistant Da Kristin McDuffie at their law offices. He is getting ready to testify at Bullseye sentencing, and of course Christen is worried that like it's very traumatic and you can be okay, and he's like, yeah, I'm fine, totally, he says. He goes to the sentencing and at the sentencing he basically says, listen, whatever you whatever you throw at dex it is not enough because of what he has taken from the world, my good friend, you know, my law partner of the
wonderful human being known as Foggy. We see Karen enter the courtroom from the back. Oh, she's just standing and she looks fiss. She looks furious. It's clear that they haven't seen each other in a while. He asks Matt asks the court to throw the book at Decks, and Dex does indeed get multiple life sentences.
I got to ask your question here, though, does he go to get out? Does he want? Does does New York have the death penalty? No? Okay, that I was interested in Matt's reaction because even.
When Dex gets the life sentences, Matt looks like angry, and I wonder if that's because he just can't fulfill, like it's still not going to ff fill the whole that Foggy leaps.
Because I was like, did he want him to get the death sentence? Doesn't seem very catholic of him? Does New York have it? There was something like a loss that he felt.
Well, I will say that I think that I agree with you that there was a conflict there in Matt. But I think what's so wonderful about Daredevil, the show, and what they're really blowing out here, at least to me thus far, is the catholicness, which is that conflict.
Matt wants to do the right thing, but he also wants to fucking kill this guy, and he wants to see him by, and he wants to fight crime, but he wants to do it legally, but he does it illegally every night, like, so he's got these incredible conflicts going on inside of him. Karen and Matt catch up and obviously very tough day. She's living in San Francisco now she has been avoiding Matt's calls.
This is a great scene, really really good, and also.
It tells us so much about how Foggy was the glue that helped them together because he died. Karen says, Matt, you just ignored me for like months, so I had to leave.
There was nothing I could do.
And it's just such a good scene without really any exposition. It's much more of an emotional scene that tells you where these characters are at.
And it's very interesting because Matt.
Has almost like it feels like he's left Karen behind and now he's this super really successful lawyer.
His law office is a fancy as far really nice.
He's with Krista McDuffie, who seems great like as a law partner, and you know, yeah he's not on the street, but at what costs because Karen is probably the only person who really understands him and what he lost with Foggy.
So he is he basically tells Karen, listen, I'm not that guy anymore. I'm not Daredevil anymore. I'm not ever doing that again. And she leaves. He doesn't want her to leave, but she leaves, and she leaves him like a little broken off piece of his like devil horn mask. That night, as Matt is making dinner, he hears just on TVs and radios around the neighborhood that Fisk has announced as Kennedy's for mayor. At Fisk headquarters, the energy
is amazing. The slogan is Fisk can fix it. We meet his staff, Buck Cashman aka Bullet from the comics, which is not how I expected to get this.
I'm saying this whole thing is so funny because they could go the MCU route of these are just names that don't mean anything, but it's so fun to see who they chose and whatnot.
They chose all comics people. Yeah, Sheila Rivera, who is his campaign manager, and an energetic and very dedicated young staffer named Dan Blake.
Who is in the comics like uh an Astronaut slash Martian, which were obviously not getting here, but a big deal that I also visit Alien though, how cool would that be.
I just want to say, like, maybe it could happen. Yeah, possible, It's possible.
But also I want to say, I think this is very brave choice of them to not go the obvious route, which everyone thought my called Gandefini would be playing young Wilson Fisk, and I love that they instead went to make him the kind of social media kind of young right wing drinking an energy Jed liked it really hits.
Rogan listening, Sean Ryan, that podcast listening kind of guy.
And I think that they they couldn't have seen just how prescient that would feel right now in twenty twenty five.
But it was like a gut punch.
I was like, oh, okay, this feels like a good character yesterday.
It's a great.
Character, and it's much more interesting than the kind of idea that people he was just going to play young Wilson Facer. So I'm very happy with this, very interested to see where that character goes.
Matt gets set up with a prospective client by Kristin McDuffie, a woman by the name of Heather Glenn, and he meets her at a coffee shop. But then we realized that actually Kirstin had set Matt up and Heather up, like as a matchmaker, and the Heather is a therapist, not a potential client. And Kirsten definitely thinks the two would hit it off and that they should date, and both of them are like, I can't believe she did
this. This is fucking terrible, how annoying, Like I'm sorry, I'll pick up your coffee, like I'm sorry to waste sure, and then like immediately after that they began hitting it off, like immediately after that.
Because what's one truth about dad evil that they get right in this show, Jason, The ladies love Matt.
The ladies absolutely fall for Matt Murdoch. And not only that, Matt he knows when that post quickens, like, oh baby, all the time, everything I got him, got him. He's like she said to me back at the office, Matt is like, what are you doing to Kirsten, Like, don't do that, but also, yeah, we hit it off.
Then give me a number.
He meets with a detective former Detective Cherry, who is now working as an investigator for McDuffie and Murdoch.
Cherry says he had.
Apparently been looking into the Fisk campaign. For Matt and probably for his own interest, and he says, like, no, it's completely clean on the up and up, like money is all accounted for. There's nothing there, Okay, so let it go. They both decide, Okay, we're gonna let it go, and like this is when fighting Wilson Fisk is not what we do anymore. And he's running. It's clean, it's clean. It's up to the it's up to the citizens of New York now to decide whether they want to vote
for this guy. At night, Matt listens as the city watches Fisk in the mayoral debate. Fisk is running on in part of a platform that says, we're going to bring law back to law and order back to New York City, and that means no more vigilantes, vigil antes. We're going to crack down on the White Tigers and the daredevils on this spider man.
I gotta say, that's what we were right. You can ring that we were right, Bell.
Because that is exactly what you predicted when we were watching Dad.
Obviously, when we were doing our recaps, and I think.
That I was surprised by how much I could feel the impact. It was already having like, Yeah, when Wilson Fisk says it, you start to believe, Okay, this is a world where by the end of this season, vigilantes are not something that is normal, he says, or superheroes are not something that's normal.
Yeah.
He says something that I think is very I thought was really cutting and could be important for the MC going forward, which is, you know, we've we've tried registration. I'm not doing registration. I'm doing like solutions or whatever. It is, like, I'm not looking for I'm not looking to register vigilantes. He's basically looking to stop wipe them out.
Yeah, and he's he can do it because he's like, I had an incident with a vigilante. Yeah, you're right, I was shot assassin.
Okayitch Like, come on, give me a fucking break, give me a bucket break. Matt basically goes to Fisk's headquarters and meets him outside, is like, let's go have a chat. They're like, okay, Kingpin. It's actually quite warm. Considering the history of the past interactions between the two. Kingpin mentions, you know, I tried to mentor someone but it didn't work out.
It's Echo who shot him in the face. She shot in the face. Is that right?
Yeah?
Like, and Fisk's like, oh, you've been keeping tabs on me, Like, yeah, you know, like I read the news.
I also love He goes, he goes the younger generation, what are you gonna do with them?
Yeah? What are you gonna do? Correct?
Kingpin notes that they've both come up in the world. Matt is dressing really well. He's got this nice law office. Now. Matt is like, yeah, I'm done with my Daredevil days. Just to let you know, Fisk lets Matt know, like the stuff with Bullseye and Foggy, I had not thing to do with that. And then Matt issues a warning listen, good luck on your mayor one. Uh, good luck on
basically becoming You're going to become mayor. It seems like, don't step out of line though, don't go back to your old stuff, or I'll be there.
Yeah.
So great line, because he's like, I believe in the second chances because that's how I was raised.
And then he's like, and I also believe attribution.
It's okay, Like.
Matt, you're such a drama queen, just like chill out, no, And that's why we love.
Him, and Fisk is like, okay, is that mad or Daredevil who's talking to me? And Fisk says, okay, well, here's my warning to you. Stay in your lane, do the lawyer shit. That's great, but don't put the suit back on, because I promise I will crack down on you, as I have promised to do publicly, most recently.
At this debate.
And Matt's like, yeah, I'm not going to do that, and Fisk makes a what I think is basically the ideological.
Croux of this series.
He says, I love a man who rises above his nature about Matt, but yeah, I think this is also about himself. Clearly, Ken Fisk goes straight and can Matt not put on the suit? Like that is the question of this entire series.
I also love that the way Dinofrio, who we all know I'm a huge Dinofrio stan.
I love him. I watch Criminal Intent all the time. He's amazing, the.
Only person to play both Thour and Kingpin in his well not great adventures, and Baby saying yeah, well I'm not really Thor, but they you know, he.
Kind of thought I thought he was Thord.
I was a kid, but yeah, Like I love the way he delivers this line, because there is so much in it where you can tell he means it, like he does love a man who rises, but who can rise above his nature. But he also doesn't you can tell he doesn't believe that either for them can do it. There's like a cynicism and a sarcasm to the delivery that's so powerful.
But you're absolutely right.
That is the crux of this series and will come into the first two episodes.
I think he always do. I think he thinks he's doing it right now.
He's like, yeah, I'm I'm rising above. See if you can do it. So madd and Heather go on a date, and on the date, Matt hears that Fisk has has won.
Yeah, and he feels like you can see people celebrating in the street.
Yeah, people are. People are celebrating. Which is the which is the one nobody celebrates the mayor electric New.
York anyway, I think. But I think what they're trying to I think they're trying.
To let you know, how in day of New York right now, this populist idea of like we we can blame everything on superheroes and this guy was a crook. But now isn't like he is going to take over and people just want to celebrate about anything. And there's a great moment here because Matt, by the way, I'm sorry, you're not doing a good job at hiding this ship from Heather because he here's in the middle of the street.
The fisk won just and then he's like, oh, I heard a TV in a bar. I heard believe She's like, wait, he does this. There's this really great moment that does sum up why ladies love Matt Murdock.
Where there's a huge rush of a crowd and he thinks that there's something wrong, so he just lifts her onto a step like immediately, and it's very like romantic and protective. But he's not doing a good job at hiding this from Heather. And if you've read the comics, we talked about the Glen in the lead up to this. So let's hope that her fate changes from from the comics.
I hope. So at HQ, it's a party, Vanessa is very proud of Wilson. They go to the roof to talk. He tells her that he knows that she had messed around with a guy named Adam.
That's the guest, right, it's like unless My other question was like did they secretly have a kid, which I was like, but I don't think so, because she says, don't kill him and he says, I promise I won't.
I think it was an affair. Yeah, I think so too. I mean he was gone, yes, she's just had a relationship. Yeah, give me a break.
So, uh, Vanessa does ask Fisk, like, don't kill him, and then Fisk is like, I'm not that guy anymore.
The same thing Dad Evil said to Karen. I love this duality. Great, great writing on this first episode.
Matt and Heather kiss is a major chemistry again, which I love. The streets are celebrating and we watch someone probably Muse, painting a mural of Fisk as both Kingpin and Mayor, which is interesting. Muse probably the villain that we're gonna see later.
Yeah, and they had been talking about how these murals had been popping up. I also will say I had been worried because in the Dead of a Born Again trailer that was kind of this weird It was like a Punisher logo where it's a triggered and.
I was like, Okay, I don't know if they've got the chops for this.
But if they're bringing mus in and that's going to be part of a villain a storyline, that is going to be so interesting.
I'll say this, I think they have the chops.
I think they have the chops.
I like what they're doing with with the Punisher logo and the different kind of resonance it's taken on in the world all that stuff. As that Matt is walking home, he hears like a crime taking place and assault and will he suit up? He doesn't, He just he.
Just stabs there as a red light flashes on his face and Wilson Fisk is getting this kind of bright white I have to say I was impressed as well. We complained about how the first you know, three seasons of Dead Levil they have a little bit of fat to them. I didn't feel like this episode, how do
they fat? But what I loved about the end of this episode was like they have like that's like a minute long silent sequence where it's Wilson Fisk and there's this white light on him, kind of reminding you of his Kingpin suit and Matt with this red light flashing on and off his face and just these two men on the cusp of making a decision about the rest of their lives and kind of how it will shape New York.
What like what a first episode? Just I agree, so so good.
It's like they both want to stay out of each other's way, and they both want to not be in conflict with each other.
But it's also so very clear.
That, like like magnets, they are just going to end up on a collision course and there's almost nothing they can do about it because of the natures of these two men. And let's take a quick break and come back and recap episode.
Two, and we're back.
Episode two, Mayor Fisk makes his first address to the city. Matt is listening at home. Fisk, you know, basically goes off about vigilantes, the Punisher, Spider Man, White Tiger, everybody. He promises, rule of law. We're cracking down on these vigil antes. In the subway later that night, we see a man named Hector Ayala who's carrying some flowers for his partner. He is the White Tiger, but this is in street clothes. Yes, he sees a mugging taking place.
He goes and breaks it up. One of the muggers gets run over by a train, and that's when the other mugger pulls a gun and a badge on Hector. That's when we learned that these guys mugging this guy were cumps.
We victim, am I doing something bad? Illegal? I can't believe that.
The victim, by the way, has ran away and Hector is under arrest. Fisk's first day on the job, Sheila, his campaign manager's laying out his schedule. Now chief of staff is laying out his schedule. Fisk has this wonderful little monologue about the desk that he's sitting at. Did fear did Mayor Laguaria sit at this?
Ask?
Who else sat at this desk? We also see that his knuckles have been bruised, so he's been punching something. Sheila keeps Fisk on track about all the meetings he has to do, which he kind of doesn't want to do, but she's like, this is important because a lot of your constituents hate and distrust you, so you have to go and shake hands right now and make people feel like this is all normal.
I also felt this was when I started to realize that they have the chops right, because there are just little I love the first episode, great first episode of the Devil, but there are little choices here, like this acknowledgement that really what matters when you're a politician is like the first hundred days.
Yeah, you have to be serious about this.
And otherwise, like you can probably just coast, but you're Wilson Fisk and you need to go and shake hands and like kiss babies.
And let people know you're not a bad guy.
And I just think there's something so honest about it, and especially obviously feels very resonant right now. But yeah, I just I started to realize, like there's great writing on this show.
Yeah, but there is a great understanding.
And I have to say Benson and moorehead just absolutely came through because this feels so timely, even though this is a show that has been in production for years, and that is a skill.
Shila tells Wilson mayor Fisk that listen, the fact that your wife is not like at your side at some of these events is kind of hurting you with the more traditional voters in New York and so like, can we figure out how to include Vanessa Moore and physical is like, well, we're working through some stuff right now.
So I'll get back to you on that. Matt is at a police is at a police station, like I guess, working, you know, looking into some prospective clients cases or whatever, and he hears the cops beating up a suspect and trying to get him to confess. So Matt wanders into that interview room and finds Hector, and Matt's like, I'm
going to take your case. He asks him, like what happened, and Hector tells him what happened, and Matt senses that Hector's telling the truth, but also that Hector's like hiding something, which is that he's the fucking white tiger. Fisk is very I love this detail because this is very New York accurate. Fisk is apparently very popular in Brooklyn and Staten Island, which are the most conservative and right wing
areas of New York. Very Italian, any of the Italian strongholds are very very much like conservative bastions.
They did a great job with like contemporary segregation in New York, and you're right anywhere with Italians. Also shocking to people outside of New York and America because obviously Wu Tan comes from Staten Island, so you would just never write, but a.
Very particular area of Staten Island. Yeah, Fisk's like, suv is stuck in traffic because of like a hole in the street. So Fisk turns this into a whole like press moment where he gets out and he's like.
What's going on?
Fill this hole in the construction workers like we're waiting for the whatever, the city permit people or whatever. He is like, just fucking do it. I'm saying it's okay, and just do it. And everybody's like.
Wow, may Or Fisk, he's getting stuffne mad and that he can fix it. Whats it?
And that is so crazy to me because we are currently in a situation in LA where there are council members trying to push through unregulated builds for the new Olympics, and I when this moment happened, I was just like, Wow, they just had the finger on the pulse of like how politicians perceive getting things done. It's so good, such a good moment.
When Matt comes back to the office, his law partner McDuffie is like, what the fuck you were supposed to do? Like a dui and you come back with a murderer and cherry is like, this guy's story is bullshit. He killed a cop, like one hundred percent he did it. Man is like, well, I think he's telling the truth. And Cherry, you know why you know that. I know that he is telling the truth. Wink wink wink, because
you know about me. And everybody's like, well, the n webs is going to turn against you because like this is a cop killer case and you're going to defend this guy. And Matt tells Cherry, well, listen, here's what we do. Find the guy who ran away, find the mugging victim, and maybe he's the key to all this. And then also looking to Hector's he's not telling me because he's hiding something.
Matt knows because he's been playing Human Light Attected listening to his little heart beating.
But obviously he's hiding something.
We know what it is because we read the comics, but Matt currently doesn't.
Bbe Urick meets with Dan Blake, Blake gets the BB meeting. Blake gets BB A meeting with Fisk, and Fisk is like, oh, your uncle Ben, Yeah, I knew him. I killed him. He died at my right hands, great giant murdered. He was a great journalist who I murdered myself personally. I killed that man at the end of season one of Netflix's Daredevil.
Sooner and Karen Page played a big part in that.
Yeah, Bibi wants to know why Commissioner Gallo, a very popular commissioner of the NYPD, refuses to talk about Fisk. Commissioner Gallo is set to leave the job. He is again very popular with the rank and file. Fisk needs the NYPD on his side, which is why he is so interested in the hector Iala case. He wants to make the cops happy. And Bibi also wants to know why, you know, Vanessa is not around, Like what's going on with Vanessa? And that's when Fisk is like end of interview.
That's it.
Heather is apparently has is writing a book called has written a book called Live Without Fear, And so she is at her book event and where she announces that her next book is going to be about vigilantes and people wire masks. A fan comes up and asks for help, who's seems very insistent in a weird way.
Yes, put a note on that, like a major player coming.
Up, and then she gives him her card and then Fisk's assistant, Buck Cashman aka Bullet, comes up to get his book signed. Fisk goes to the wake of the officer who died in the Hector Ayala fight, and he goes when it's over, basically to meet with Commissioner Gallo. Gallo fucking hates Fisk, knows Fisk is a criminal, doesn't believe that his intentions as mayor or benign, and basically is like, I'm going to make sure that you're the shortest you have the shortest run as mayor ever in
the history of New York. Like I want you out. Okay, that's a strong opening statement. Kristen and Cherry meet with Hector's wife, Sola Dad. She thinks Hector has no shot at ever getting out of prison. Cherry is like, let me go get Hector's suit from the bedroom and then swoops around and then finds the white tiger suit in the mystical amulet. That's what Hector is hiding at the jail. Matt is like, mystical Ambula, very happy that that's coming into play. I love that it's in it.
At the jail.
Matt's like, why don't you tell me you're fucking white tiger, and Hector's like, well, that was my secret and that's it.
Like, and also, I wasn't white tiger when I beat this guy up.
I was just a guy. I Ala, yeah, I was just a guy.
Matt is like, from now and you have to tell me everything. And also we learned that Hector has been going through like he's clearly fighting for his life in right.
Here and right a little bit, he's beat up a little bit.
Gallo comes to see the mare and he's like, I'm resigning. And also, you're gonna have problem with the cops because a lot of cops are going to take early retirement because they don't want to work for you, and so you've got a problem. Fisk then threatens Gallo by showing him under which he is hidden under a Hogy sandwich.
I was gonna say to talk about the fact that this is like the way.
Fisk does this is he's eating a cheese steak in New York. He's talking about the only good cheese steaks are obviously in Philly, and he's talking about who's our favorite cheese steak, and Buck is like Ginos and then he's like, well, actually I like this one by King of Prussia called DeAngelo's. And as soon as he says that, you realize that he's threatening, Gallows saying, I know you have something that So he shows him a picture and he shows him of his little secret son.
Probably what I get.
The way he was talking about it was like, this is a secret son, I guess with his mistress. Well, I think generally they threatening their lives.
Yeah, he was basically just like, I'm going to kill this person.
Yeah, so don't don't even try it, and so Fisk says, so here's your options. You can leave, and then I'm threatening your family. And also no, here's what happens to the cops. They get no pay rises, they get no additional overtime, and no expanded cadet class unless you stay on.
Do we have an agreement? And Galla decides okay, I'll stay on.
Matt and Ben Hockberg, the Hawk who is the prosecutor in the Iola case, discuss the case with Matt, where Matt basically says, listen, my client is white tiger, but he wasn't wearing a mystical amulet and he wasn't in his suit. Therefore, yeah, no, we cannot disclose the information that he was white tiger because it would prejudice the jury. It's not involved in this. And the judge is like, okay, fine, no mention a way, say.
Rag good lawyering for Mattam By the way, guys, we rally, we rally get to see him doing some good lawyering. But this is actually good lawyering. And the judge agrees, he's correct to agree. Yeah, and you're like, wow, maybe Matt really is going to make a difference as a lawyer in this town.
Maybe he is. Maybe he was never need to be that of all.
Again, Cherry tells Matt that he can't find the witness and also that he thinks Matt is too close to this case because it's a case of out of vigilante and you know Matt what's going.
Cherry knows because he saw him take off his mosque after he tried to kill Benjamin poindex The aka Bullseye.
That's right.
Matt uh follows one of the cops who is beating up Hector and follows him to his house. And we also see during this kind of like intercut series of scenes that Buck Cashman has is at Heather's office to introduce her to her new clients, mister Fisk mat full right to start working with Wilson and Vanessa because they need to go through their issues. Meanwhile, Matt hears from the street, here's the the dirty cop planning to kill this witness, the the mugging victim who fled, and they
know where he's at and they're heading there now. Matt calls Cherry to tell him what's going on. He arrives at the apartment telling the guy Nikki that listen, the cops are coming right now to kill you. They want to rub you out for because of whatever you're involved in. He's like, go flee down the fire escape because he can hear that. He can hear them rushing up, and the cops come to the door. Matt lets them in and he's like, Hi, I know you were trying to see Nikki, but guess what, I'm here.
I'm his lawyer, and he's not here. The cops have punish your tattoos, which is.
Very in a lot of ways, and they're like, oh, yeah, well, well watch this and they start beating the ship out of Matt. And then one of the cops is like, let's fucking just kill this guy. And the other one is like, yeah, but he's a lawyer. He's like, nah, just do it.
I don't please the dove do this because you don't want to.
And then Matt goes absolutely fucking nuclear and absolutely murks these fucking yeah, like, I'm guys are knapping arms in souallyes. This guy in the kitchens, these guys have traumatic brain injury. Like sorry to Nicky, but when you come back to your apartment, you're gonna find a crying Catholic man and two fucked up.
Cops and it's gonna be good for you. I'm like, these men, I would be survived. I would be surprised if they survived. I also found the Punisher Tato's thing really interesting because I feel like, even though this is more of a from what we know about, this is more of an LA problem, but like it feels like the show is gonna touch on like police gangs or sheriff gangs.
Like we have had, you know, exposed recently in the well in the last decade in LA. But obviously with this twist of the Punisher, which we know that logo in real life has been taken and repurposed as an image for cops and I just thought that this scene was like so so good, and then of course the end of the scene, which really sells it.
It. Matt It's just so fucking.
Angry that he had to do this, Like he doesn't want to be Daredevil. He's made this promise we get what Aaron normal, you know, basically predicted correctly. It was almost like an Anakin no, and we are probably going to get one of those in this series. I mean, wow, what what a first couple of episodes.
Let's sick a break and then come back for our quick thoughts on the first two episodes of Dared obil
Bourne and we are back. I think two very strong episodes, and it's clear that what the idea is is to take the stuff that worked, the violence, the action, the wonderful work of of Charlie Cox as Matthew Murdoch, Vincent Genofrio as Wilson Fisk, and then give them the dramatic scenes, the writing, the character development around that to really almost elevate this to to attempt to elevate it almost to like a prestige drama, like like what we've seen with
the Penguin. Essentially, this is like answer to the Pengin.
A feeling like that.
I think that it is more akin to the Penguin because of the surprising choices they're making and the interesting no plot armor for certain characters.
This show is letting you know anything.
I couldn't I mean, I couldn't believe it when they.
Have to say, guys, look, I was actually kind of like no. I was just enjoying his aircut.
And and also everybody you know was happy to see the trio brought back together. But I gotta say, guys, it was Karen or Foggy, and they need to fix Karen from the first three seasons, so you know what. It's occasionally a man must die, a man must be fridged, and this time it was Foggy ipe.
To that man.
But I love that they are not afraid to just absolutely shake things up. I also am very interested because I think the courtroom aspect and the potential of that as it is in the comics is some of my favorite stuff.
So I was kind of worried when they said, well.
The first show had too much courtroom and not enough dared Evil. And actually, I feel like the this blend of the two is working really well. I'm excited, you know, We were talking Jason before about you know you you keenly spotted that the Hector Ayala stuff is very Brian Michael bendis like they're deftly taking that stuff from the comics. Obviously we have like Kristin McDuffie, she is from the Mark Wade Palla Rivera stuff like they're taking from.
There's obviously some Charles saul In here as well.
They're really taken from the best of Dead level and in the thanks there are thanks to many many creators, including Annie Nascenti in the second episode. We get so many polls from the comics here in a way that doesn't feel distracting or you know, as somebody who I know guys, I'm aware of my role in the Easter eggification. I love to find an Easter egg. It was my job for many years to find an Easter egg. But these don't feel like random Easter eggs. This is a
show that, like you said, is response. It feels like a response to the penguin of Oh, we see that you can make an Emmy winning show. And we know Disney has you know, Disney has been in the awards contention occasionally for Wonder Vision, for and Or. They're obviously going big for and Or this year to get it into awards contention. But this feels like a really great blend of what macOS does well. And I have to say, I love you know, I love wonder vision that's up
there for me. But I will say those first three episodes of Division that they dropped if you were not an emcuviewer, they were quite inexplicable until you got further in and understood a little bit more about what.
Was going on.
And I did have even though there was a lot of great TV references and kind of it was quite abstract. I think that this might be the best, or is up there with the best of the first two episodes of an MCU show.
I think the reason that the courtroom stuff felt like it dragged in the Daredevil Netflix series is because it was I'm not saying the writing was bad on the Daredevil Netflix series, but through two episodes, the average writing level is better. Like they've really taken their time to make stuff feel both real world and possible in the
comic context as well. They've grappled, I think really well with the idea that New York is a real place with real people who live in it, who are dealing with, uh, crazy things happening, chaotic things happening all the time, Vigilantes fighting in the streets, superhero battles, destroying buildings, alien invasions.
Et cetera.
Like there's a moment where, uh, Matt, when Matt is arguing that the White Tiger evidence should be kept out of the trial, and he says, listen, he wasn't wearing his mystical amulet, and Hackburg like rolls his eyes and makes like this gesture like his fucking mystic Are you serious with the mystical Amulya?
And I loved that because because they're like, I'm sick of.
This ship, Like I'm sick of this ship, and they're just playing, and they're playing it so straight, like to just have a regular lawyer be like, well, he wasn't wearing his mystical amulet, judge. That's the kind of stuff that the previous the Netflix stuff didn't deal with. It was very, very separate, very you knew that this was a post Battle of New York World, but like none of that's other than knowing that it happened and seeing
like some pressings of the fact that it happened. You didn't get the sense that it it impacted people or the people felt a type of way about it, whereas now with the BB Report intercuts and like that little moment with the Hawk where he's like rolling his eyes at Mistglama, like all of that stuff is letting is like that classic Marvel Comics thing of real people dealing with insane, wild sci fi fantasy circumstances. And I think elevating that to basically like Prestige TV is what the
show is trying to do. And I think through two episodes, has done successfully.
Yeah, I think so too.
And I also think that now there is a non zero chance that we actually will get shee Halt or maybe more likely Jen, because I have to say I did not expect references to Echo. I did not think that. I thought they were going to use this not to soft recon. I love Echo, we all know that. I think she's fantastic. I love the actress who brings that to life. I love it disabled superhero, that's my jam. But I wasn't one hundred percent sure if they were gonna kind of even reference it. And I loved how
casually they did it. I loved how much fun there was in that kind.
Of like kids, what do you do with them? I thought that was hilarious.
I also liked how it kind of leaned into the acknowledgement that there is a younger class of heroes coming up, both heroes and anti heroes. And I think that the mention of the Mystical Amulet is very sheehowk Like we are in a world where Shee Hulk was introducing mutants and like completely random deep cup characters. She's breaking the fourth wall. I love how this is kind of comboing
all of this. Also, I did find it very interesting that they, you know, red Hook is such a key location here obviously like a real New York location, but it does have like after people found out Steve Rodgers was Captain America when he revealed that his civilian identity, like that's where he went to live, Like there are big Marvel connotations in Red Hook too, So I feel it they're doing a good job again of balancing the reality, but also the kind of moments like X Men ninety
six from the bloom In seventy five, that's the first place that they ever mentioned Red Hook in the MCU.
Hydra had a base in Red Hook.
During like that, and I just think it's cool that they're kind of they're managing to balance again the reality of New York, but along with the hints of what could come from.
Maybe we'll do I'll do an omnibus. If they continue to be Red Hook stuff in here, we'll do it.
That would be about brilliant.
Because it's a It is an interesting area of New York that is always kind of like left out of People have been trying to develop it. Cruise ships do dock there now, but because of the geography and the way it kind of spits out into the into the bay, it's not serviced easily by mass transit, and so it is this kind of like out of the way, different place where a diverse crew of people live there, including artists, including just regular working class folks. So it's an interesting place.
We'll talk about it maybe later.
Yeah. I love that. Also.
Okay, I'm going to ask you as if I am to be Eric as a New Yorker, how did you feel about the New York representation within this show.
I thought it was good. I thought it felt you know, the BB Report is like something that you would see on a screen in the back of a cab or like on New York One, which is like the local cable news channel, and it felt very real to me, Like I thought that was one of the strongest storytelling
choices that they made here, So I'm excited. We're going to continue to cover dared Evil Born Again on a week to week basis in the next few episodes of X ray Vision were of course also diving into bomju Hun's Bomb who Knows latest film Mickey seventeen, And of course our continuing coverage of Severance will roll on with episodes episode two A Weight of Severance.
That's it for this episode. Thanks for listening, Bye.
X ray Vision is hosted by Jason Concepcion and Rosie Knight and is a production of iHeart Podcasts.
Our executive producers are Joel Monique and Aaron Kaufman.
Our supervising producer is Abuzafar.
Our producers are Common Laurent, Dean Jonathan and Bay Wag.
Our theme song is by Brian Vasquez, with alternate theme songs by Aaron Kaufman.
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