Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Finale Ending Explained: How It Sets Up Season 3

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This article contains spoilers for "Daredevil: Born Again" Season 2.

Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox) has been a fugitive in "Daredevil: Born Again" Season 2, due to crime boss-turned-New York mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) cracking down on vigilantes as he tries making NYC into his own kingdom. But in the penultimate episode, "The Hateful Darkness," Matt came out of hiding because a situation arose requiring his skills as a lawyer — namely, defending his arrested and charged girlfriend Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) from Fisk's kangaroo court.

We gave "Daredevil: Born Again" Season 2 some grief for skipping over legal drama earlier this season, but the season finale, "The Southern Cross," rectifies that. The climactic battle between our central nemeses, Matt and Fisk, is waged in the halls of justice.

Ultimately, Matt gets Karen's case dismissed by exposing how even as mayor, Fisk is still the Kingpin of Crime, and that his "Safer Streets" law was just a furtherance of a criminal agenda. Ergo, Matt argues, the tribunal convened under that initiative has "neither the ability nor the mandate to decide justice." Justice Waters (Deirdre Lovejoy), who hasn't enjoyed being Fisk's puppet, rules in Matt's favor.

But how did Matt get the damning evidence on Fisk that the mayor was smuggling illegal weapons into NYC? Because Matt testified to how he witnessed this as Daredevil, admitting his secret identity to act as his own corroborating witness. For his actions as Daredevil, Matt is disbarred and sentenced to prison himself.

We now have a good reason why Daredevil isn't joining his frenemy the Punisher (Jon Bernthal) in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day," because when the events of that movie happen, he's sitting in a cell. But since "Daredevil: Born Again" is confirmed for Season 3, Matt won't stay there forever.

Like in the "Daredevil" comics, Wilson Fisk has long known Matt's secret identity as Daredevil. He first gleaned the knowledge back in Season 2 of the Netflix "Daredevil" series, and he's since used it to inconvenience Matt several times. Back in episode 2 of this season, Fisk's button man Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan) suggested publicly revealing Daredevil's secret identity, but Fisk decided against it. 

During the courtroom sequence in "The Southern Cross," Fisk whispers (knowing Matt will pick it up with his super hearing) that he knows things which can ruin Matt Murdock. Matt instead uses his enhanced senses to convince everyone a blind lawyer is Daredevil; he throws his cane, bounces it off a wall, and catches it in the courtroom for everyone to see. 

Matt has now neutralized one of Fisk's advantages over him, but doing it by revealing his identity himself is a Pyrrhic victory. As for how Matt defeats Fisk? Following the revelation of his continued criminal activities, Fisk is pressured to resign as mayor by New York Governor Marge McCaffrey (Lili Taylor), who Fisk tried and failed to have assassinated in the previous episode.

Instead, Fisk barricades himself in the courthouse, surrounded by his Anti-Vigilante Task Force. When a crowd of New Yorkers (all clad in red paying homage to Daredevil) storm the hall to get to Fisk, he charges through them. When the mob grows too big for even the Kingpin to fight back, Daredevil calls them off. He convinces Fisk to take a plea deal — resign, renounce his U.S. citizenship, and leave New York. That will give Matt and Fisk's shared hometown "grace," Matt says, instead of priming them to resume their personal, city-enveloping cycle of violence again.

Matt Murdock admitting he is Daredevil is a weighty decision, because Daredevil was one of the few Marvel Cinematic Universe characters who actually had a secret identity. When Matt says "I am Daredevil" in court during "The Southern Cross," MCU fans might be thinking of the ending of "Iron Man," when Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) flippantly declared "I am Iron Man" at a press conference. (Downey himself came up with this ending and won the instant approval of Marvel's Kevin Feige.)

However, comic fans will know this moment comes from Mark Waid and Chris Samnee's issues of "Daredevil" #35-36. This story arc saw the Sons of the Serpent, a white supremacist group, discover Daredevil's secret identity and try to blackmail him into defending one of their members from an arson charge. When Matt got to court, he instead testified and revealed his own identity. When Sons of the Serpent stormed the courthouse, Matt suited up as Daredevil to fight them with the whole courtroom watching.

Marvel Comics

In "Born Again," the dialogue differs (for instance, in the comic, Matt takes the witness stand, whereas in the show he admits his identity while questioning Fisk), and of course Kingpin is the villain rather than the Serpents. But the essence of the scene is pretty intact. What's really different is what comes after; in the comic, Matt is merely disbarred in New York state, so he moves to San Francisco to practice law in California instead. In the show, the consequences are much more severe.

Let's run through how "Daredevil: Born Again" has been cribbing story beats from many different "Daredevil" comics to tell a streamlined story. That way, we can make educated guesses about where it will go next.

The broad story arcs of Season 1 and 2 mostly pull from "Daredevil" comic runs by writers Charles Soule (who wrote the series from 2015-2018) and Chip Zdarsky (2019-2023). These are the runs where Wilson Fisk was mayor of NYC and cracked down on vigilantes. The black costume Daredevil has been wearing this season is also one he wore for much of the Soule run. 

The one exception is the arc in "Born Again" Season 1 when Matt defends Hector Ayala/White Tiger (Kamar de los Reyes) from a manslaughter charge, which adapted the comic arc "Trial of the Century" by writer Brian Michael Bendis. Matt revealed to the court that his client was the White Tiger vigilante, which serves as foreshadowing for Matt repeating that bombshell tactic with his own secret identity.

Bendis, mostly working with artist Alex Maleev, wrote "Daredevil" through 2001 to 2006. This run also featured the FBI leaking Daredevil's secret identity to the press; Matt publicly denied he was Daredevil for years after, and him admitting the truth on the witness stand was the culmination of that.

The Bendis and Maleev "Daredevil" concluded with Matt going to prison. The next run, by writer Ed Brubaker and artist Michael Lark, was basically a sequel. Lark's dark art style mimicked Maleev's gritty pencilling, and the story resumed with Matt locked up. Based on how "Born Again" Season 2 ends, it appears Season 3 will start where the Brubaker/Lark run did: "The Devil in Cell Block D."

During "The Devil in Cell Block D," Matt is locked up with several of his enemies: Kingpin, as well as other super-villain gangsters like the Owl and Hammerhead. The one friend he has on the inside is the Punisher. "Born Again" Season 3 appears to be featuring different inmates.

While Fisk himself takes the plea deal and is last seen standing on a beach somewhere, the jackboots of his Anti-Vigilante Task Force are locked up; they're last seen walking in a line parallel to Matt as he's escorted to his cell. The loathsome Connor Powell (Hamish Allan-Headley) is clearly looking for some payback, but Cole North (Jeremy Earl), who let the mob into the courthouse earlier in the finale, gives Matt a respectful nod.

Cole North first appeared in the Chip Zdarsky "Daredevil" comic run. He was introduced as a police officer distrustful of vigilantes who was hunting Daredevil after Matt accidentally committed manslaughter on a petty crook. Over time, he and Daredevil became allies, and they might go the same direction in the show.

It's worth noting that during the Zdarsky run, Matt went to prison again for that manslaughter as Daredevil, during sequential story arcs "Doing Time" and "Lockdown." It's likely that "Born Again" will combine the two different comic storylines about Daredevil in prison. At least in theory, that would make complete sense as a writing decision. (We'll soon see the execution of that decision.)

This also presents a perfect opportunity to bring in a classic "Daredevil" character who has thus far been totally absent in "Born Again": Matt's assassin lover, Elektra Natchios (Elodie Yung).

Both of the "Daredevil in prison" arcs feature someone filling in as Daredevil while Matt is locked up. During "The Devil in Cell Block D," it was Danny Rand/Iron Fist, to help Matt protect his compromised secret identity. In "Doing Time," Elektra became a new Daredevil in an attempt to show Matt she could be a hero like him (one deserving of his love). In the current "Daredevil" comics, Matt and Elektra are sharing the identity.

I could see either Iron Fist or Elektra (or both!) becoming Daredevil while Matt is locked up during "Born Again" Season 3. Finn Jones' Iron Fist is the only Defender yet to return to the MCU, after "The Southern Cross" reunited Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) and Luke Cage (Mike Colter). This finale suggests that even with Matt and Kingpin gone, Hell's Kitchen is going to need a protector.

As set photos from "Born Again" Season 3's production showed, the serial killer villain Muse is back. Back in Season 1, therapist Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) was stalked and almost killed by Muse. Throughout Season 2, she's been having hallucinations of her attempted murderer. Heather is last seen in Season 2 looking in a mirror and putting on Muse's mask, embracing an evil alter ego.

What about other bad guys? Given the evident Ed Brubaker "Daredevil" influence, I have a feeling Fisk's arc in Season 3 might adapt Brubaker and David Aja's finale arc, "Return of the King," in which Fisk goes overseas to Europe and tries to start anew. Meanwhile, Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) has signed up with CIA operative Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard), a dangerous pairing considering Bullseye has deluded himself into believing he's a hero. But as long as there are criminals, there must also be a Daredevil.

"Daredevil: Born Again" is streaming on Disney+.