Ryan Kirksey
The following recap contains spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again S2E6, “Requiem” (written by Devon Kliger & Jesse Wigutow and directed by Angela Barnes). Spoilers also include information from Daredevil: Born Again Season 1.
It’s been six years since we have seen Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter) on our screens, but after six episodes of Daredevil: Born Again this season, she has finally joined the MCU. Her return was loudly and frequently telegraphed by Marvel and Disney+, and there is speculation (and spoilers) that her return paves the way for The Defenders to return in Season 3 of Daredevil: Born Again, likely coming in 2027.
After her show was cancelled at Netflix in 2019, along with the other Marvel properties they showcased, it was unclear if or when Jessica Jones would ever return. Her return comes at a good time for the show, as this second season has been largely choppy and slow at various points. She joins Daredevil (Charlie Cox) for a classic bad-guy battle at a weapons storage facility, and assuming she is utilized more in the last two episodes, we should start to pave the stones for how the other Defenders characters will return.
The most interesting Easter egg in this episode is the reveal that Jones has a daughter. They seem to be enjoying a pleasant suburban life until Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard) sends CIA agents to their home to capture Jones. While her daughter pretends a grenade they tossed in the house is a wand, Jessica dispatches the agents off-screen.
This leads Jessica Jones to track down Matthew Murdock/Daredevil to figure out what is going on with the Mr. Charles/Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio) relationship. He explains the weapons they are running out of Red Hook port, which leads them to go cause some “trouble” by blowing up the cache of weapons, crippling Wilson Fisk’s operation.
But their team-up is not where the story ends. We also get some information about what has happened in the years since these two last teamed up. She first says her powers have been drifting in and out since Danielle (presumably her daughter) came around. Jones has been struggling with this and has stayed away from anything that would get her in trouble.
Also, she makes reference to “not everyone I know” when she says someone from the government called around asking about superheroes in the past. Jones told them to get lost, but the “everyone” she knows must be a reference to her comics-canon husband Luke Cage (Mike Colter), who is likely Danielle’s father. This is an interesting development that hints at Cage turning himself over to authorities at some point. Daredevil and Jessica Jones need to go find Cage so he can help them take down Fisk’s empire? Sounds like a great way to begin the third season to me.
Jones does not appear in the episode after the warehouse battle, but I’m willing to bet she will be back in the next two episodes. She is part of the resistance now, and Daredevil needs all the help he can get. The remainder of the episode focuses on Fisk’s vendetta against vigilantes and how it is reaching its boiling point after Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) killed AVTF agents in the last episode, and was eventually rescued by Daredevil.
While Bullseye is locked up in their hideout above Josie’s bar, Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) comes close to killing him, only to be stopped by Daredevil again. This leads to another argument between Page and Murdock about the morality of taking Bullseye’s life and the vengeance they are owed after he killed Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) in Season 1. The constant riff between Murdock and Page isn’t really working for me this season, and I don’t quite understand it.
Perhaps it’s because Page doesn’t have much to do this season other than work out on the punching bag, wear wigs, sneak around to see what’s going on with various people, and gather the random piece of information for Matt.
All of her sneaking around gets her in trouble at the end of Episode 6 when she is captured at an anti-AVTF rally as she leads a group stirring up the crowd and projecting videos onto City Hall. Beginning with the next episode, Daredevil will likely have a new mission: rescuing Karen Page. But before he can do that, he confronts Kingpin, who is still mourning the death of his wife Vanessa, while on the side killing the doctor who operated on her because he didn’t do a better job.
Kingpin and Daredevil engage in another epic battle, with Kingpin looking to kill and Daredevil, once again, committed to trying to bring Kingpin to justice. Daredevil actually wants to know what it would take for Kingpin to leave New York, especially if it meant Daredevil would stop hunting him. Blinded by the rage of his dead wife, Fisk attacks, and we are treated to not just a well-choreographed fight, but also a unique experience that only comic book movies and shows can pull off.
This battle, and this shot in particular, is a real-life facsimile of the Devil’s Reign #1 Variant Cover from 2022. Just some fun fan service for us comic book nerds, having the time of our lives.
Elsewhere, Daniel (Michael Gandolfini) finally confronts BB Urich (Genneya Walton) for leaking information from the mayor’s office. That confrontation is sure to come to a head as the season winds down as well, especially since Urich has been such an asset for the resistance with her dissemination of anti-Kingpin information.
With just two episodes left, I feel this is headed down a path of setting up the final season of Daredevil: Born Again, rather than securing resolutions for some of the conflicts this season. But if that path leads us to more Jessica Jones and Defenders, I’ll feel comfortable traveling down it a little bit longer.
