SPOILER ALERT: This article contains major spoilers from the Season 1 finale of “Daredevil: Born Again,” now streaming on Disney+.
After ending with a bang (literally) in the penultimate episode, “Daredevil: Born Again” ups the violence, with one of the most violent scenes in Marvel history — and puts New York City entirely under Mayor Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) control.
The episode starts with a flashback that reveals how Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer) convinced Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) to kill Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) prior to the tragic series premiere. In the present, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) wakes up in the hospital after he saved Kingpin from being shot by Bullseye at his political gala, and took the bullet himself in the last episode. Matt survives, but Kingpin still wants him dead, so he cuts power to the city and sends his enforcer Buck Cashman (Arty Froushan) to kill Matt under the cover of the darkness. Luckily, Matt has enough strength to escape to the Punisher’s (Jon Bernthal) hideout, but Wilson Fisk’s police are on their way.
After getting a brief reunion earlier in the season, Daredevil and the Punisher are finally back in action together. While Matt refuses to kill anyone, Frank Castle has no qualms about unleashing his bloody rage upon Kingpin’s goons. Just as Matt realizes one of the officers killed White Tiger (Kamar de los Reyes), a grenade is launched through the window, and the two vigilantes painfully jump down to the street. In another surprise appearance, Matt’s old flame Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) is there to patch them up and drive them to safety.
With the power grid down, chaos erupts on the New York streets as Fisk’s police officers start shooting innocent civilians and planting masks on them so they look like illegal vigilantes. Finally, Vanessa and Wilson’s master plan with their Red Hook project becomes clear: They want to establish a city-state within New York’s borders free of customs and taxes. In the most stomach-churning moment of the series (and possibly the entire MCU’s history) Fisk demonstrates his power by smashing in Commissioner Gallo’s (Michael Gaston) head with his bare hands in front of his supporters.
Daredevil and Punisher go after Kingpin in their own unique ways: Daredevil assembles his forces while Punisher runs in guns blazing. Kingpin’s cops overwhelm Punisher and they take him hostage, but not before trying to entice him to join their cause by showing him their tattoos of his skull logo. Disgusted by them, Punisher refuses and is locked in a cage (for now) alongside Kingpin’s other political enemies. With Karen’s help, Matt finally comes to terms with Foggy’s death, and recruits his own allies to help take down Kingpin and take back the city — which is now under martial law. In a post-credits scene, it’s also revealed that Punisher escapes his cage — setting up his upcoming Marvel Special Presentation and possibly a return in the second season of “Daredevil: Born Again.”
Speaking with Variety, D’Onofrio breaks down Kingpin’s bloody moment in the finale, his ultimate political goals and how the popular “Daredevil” comic storyline “Shadowland” may influence Season 2.
Before the season, you teased that there was a scene in “Born Again” that was more gruesome than Kingpin’s infamous car door kill in Season 1 of Netflix’s “Daredevil.” No doubt that was your head-smash moment in the finale. What was your first reaction to reading that scene?
To be honest, my first reaction was, how are we going to do it? How are we going to make it different than other scenes that I’ve done? How can we make ours different than other violent scenes that have depicted the same kind of thing? I immediately started discussing ways with our producers and special effects crew that we could block the scene so that it helped execute the way I was thinking about physically making it happen. We figured it out: We did do something that feels different than what people have seen before when it comes to stuff like that. It’s pretty brutal. It’s kind of crazy as an actor to have to talk about things like that, but we want this show to be different.
To kill the commissioner in front of other people was so bold, but Kingpin basically has all the power to himself. Will he face any consequences for that?
He’s definitely in power all by himself. He still has to keep his position as mayor somehow. The killing of Commissioner Gallo is done in front of his task force, so he wants them to be as nasty as he is. Nobody has seen that killing, and it will, I’m sure, eventually be covered up.
Plus, he has all his opponents locked up in cages. What’s his grand plan?
His grand plan is martial law, and while he can hold the city in martial law, to complete as many crimes as he can and get rid of the vigilantes. That would be included in his mindset of being able, at some point, to expand his reach beyond New York.
So he has bigger plans than just New York City?
I would say bigger plans than just New York City, but first New York.
The line that really stuck out to me what when he looked at the camera and said, “I love New York” in an almost threatening way. What did you want that line to mean?
He considers the city his, and so he loves it because of that. Even though not everybody believes the same thing he does, he believes it. He really, truly believes that New York is his city, and that it’s his platform and he loves it because of that.
How high can he climb? Could he go all the way to the Oval Office?
I don’t think so. I don’t really think of him as a political person; I think of him as a corrupt person. I guess that could happen. I doubt seriously that he’ll take that path. I guess you’re saying that because of what’s going on in real life, and we’re not attaching the show to anything that’s going on in real life. So I don’t think that path is going to be taken. But it is dangerous. It’s very dangerous with what my character is doing. As a New Yorker — I was born in Brooklyn, but I’ve been living in and around the city since my late teens — it’s the idea of New York being under martial law. When I thought about it in reality, it’s such a scary thing. Imagine the bridges being closed off and only being able to get in and out with IDs and proof of why we’re going in the city. It’s kind of insane. I remember the feeling of right after 9/11, riding the streets of New York with my bike and feeling that dread of what had happened. I can’t imagine what it would be like to live in New York City under martial law. It would be crazy.
I’m a fan of the “Daredevil” comics, especially the “Shadowland” storyline. We’ve seen photos of Charlie Cox in the black costume from “Shadowland.” Is that something we’d see in Season 2?
That’s a very good question. I don’t know if I can answer that question. But it’s a good one. You’re obviously following the story in a good way.
I’ll give you another one. Does Kingpin know that Punisher escapes from his cage in the post-credits scene? Should Kingpin be afraid?
I don’t think Kingpin would be Kingpin if he was afraid of Punisher, and vice versa. I don’t think Punisher would be Punisher if he was afraid of Kingpin. A meeting of those two has gone down before in the original Netflix series. I’m sure it will happen again at some point. I don’t know when, though. I think that he does know that he’s gone. Eventually, he knows that he’s not there anymore. So far it’s a small part of the second season. We have to see what the one-off thing that they’re planning on doing with the Punisher, that should be interesting to see. I don’t know if it’s a “What If…?” film or if it’s connected to our series or not, but it’ll be interesting to see. I love Jon’s Punisher. I think he does a great job on it.
So no Kingpin in the Punisher one-shot?
If there is, nobody’s told me.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
