Season 1, Episode 4 Review
(Note: Spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Episode 4)
I knew there would be dips in quality for Daredevil: Born Again. Reshoots are not always indicators of a troubled production but Sic Semper Systema feels this way. It’s unfortunate when any episode in a season of television feels like a waste. Especially when said season is only nine episodes in length. How does Sic Semper Systema feel like a waste? Well, Born Again mishandled how the death of Whitetiger should shake up the show.
Sic Semper Systema is an episode which shows us a day in the life of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. Matt is informed very early about the death of Hector Ayala without any time to mourn. After viewing the body he must move on to defending Leroy Bradford who had been arrested after shoplifting caramel corn.
Matt displays disinterest in his client Bradford due to his argumentation and dismissal of Matt’s suggestions to the case. Matt negotiates the jail sentence to just ten days believing he had done right by his client. Bradford explains his pain of being in and out of the system to Matt. How it limits his ability to get his life together outside of jail. Matt is clearly affected by this man’s plight and the lack of compassion within the system. As he is leaving he has a run in with Officer Powell. After Matt makes some jabs at Powell’s retaliation to Hector, he leaves with a sense that Powell had nothing to do with this killing.
Our hero moves on to the scene of the crime to track down the missing bullet casing. On it, a familiar skull. After tracking down Frank Castle, they have a confrontation. A rather aimless series of insults and musings that leave Matt and the audience unsatisfied with the midseason cameo.
Later that evening, after spending it with Heather, Matt retires to his roof to practice with the weapons of Daredevil.
Parallel to these events, Wilson Fisk is making rounds to places where his appearance is important. Unknown to him, Daniel Blake’s leaking of their plans to go around a union have wrecked his plans. In Fisk’s office, far away from any cameras or reporters, he threatens to find whoever leaked these plans. Only for Daniel to step up to reveal that he made the drunken mistake. Blake reinforces his allegiance to Fisk’s cause as a result. Later that evening Fisk retires to dinner with Venessa. Even later, Fisk indulges in a grand meal before Vanessa’s captured lover.
Execution aside, Sic Semper Systema is an excellent episode of displaying the parallels between Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. Matt struggles to keep the Daredevil inside with witnessing injustice after injustice then to only be egged on by Frank Castle. Instead of giving in, he practices on the roof. On the opposite end, we see that Fisk has done an excellent job of crafting a mask for the rest of the world to see. Unfortunately, it is beginning to slip. He feasts in decadence over his imprisonment of a man whose only crime is loving Vanessa.
Perhaps I would be much fonder of Sic Semper Systema if the messaging was clearer and absent of actions that continue to delay the inevitable. Over a third of the way into the season, the expectation would be to further delve into the tension arising within Matt. His greatest foe now holds the most powerful position in his city. His client, whose case was representative of something beyond a murder trial, was gunned down after being found innocent. Many signs point to this being done by the very people intended to uphold the rule of law.
Instead, Born Again spends time displaying a day in the life of the antagonist and protagonist. A concept far more suited within the first arc of the season. When we should be settling in to see where Born Again will be heading, characters are stuck repeating themselves. Wrapping around this, is a tease for a sinister figure which lasts for less than a minute in total.
ChapHazard 