SPOILER WARNING! The following contains slight spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Episode 4. Do not proceed if you wish to avoid spoilers!
MAJOR POINTS
- Matt is on his way back to being Daredevil
- Fisk is torturing the man Vanessa had an affair with
- Matt found Punisher, who can tell he needs to keep being Daredevil
Matt meets Hector’s niece Angela, who suspects corrupt cops killed her uncle. Matt consoles her, saying they don’t know that. Later, he finds a Punisher logo on the casing of the bullet that killed Hector. He seeks out Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, over these copycat killer cops. Frank can tell Matt needs to be Daredevil because he knows the death of Foggy haunts him. Matt comes home to Heather but slips out to train again.
Fisk reveals his plans to renovate Red Hook into a bustling shopping district. His staff tells him it would take years to get permits and prep the area before they could even begin the renovation. They also tell him somebody in his staff leaked these plans to the press. Fisk is furious at first, but he shows mercy when Daniel takes responsibility and fesses up.
Later, Fisk and Vanessa have another counseling session. Fisk says that he confronted Adam over the affair with Vanessa and told him he could not imagine life without her. Later, we learn that Fisk is holding Adam prisoner in his basement. Clearly, Fisk has been beating and torturing Adam for some time.
The final scene shows Muse carrying one of his victims to his lair, where he draws blood out of him to use for his paintings. We also see several other victims hanging from hooks like in a slaughterhouse.
MAJOR QUESTIONS
- How long will Adam last as Fisk’s prisoner?
- Will Punisher confront these copycat killer cops?
- Will Angela become the next White Tiger?
OVERALL GRADE: A-
This was the best episode yet. The reunion of Matt and Frank alone made it that. It was a perfect example of how well these two know and understand each other. The title “Sic Semper Systema” is Latin for “thus always the system”, and the episode shows multiple examples of how the legal system is broken. Corruption can run amok in law enforcement, and the criminal underground can flourish, while simple concepts such as renovating a city area for the better is bogged down in useless red tape.
I still think these “Punisher Cops” may be what the announced Punisher Special Presentation deals with when it’s released. It will also be interesting to see if Fisk crosses paths with Punisher again now that he is Mayor.