SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Episode 4 of “Daredevil: Born Again,” now streaming on Disney+.
Jon Bernthal‘s Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, is finally back in the MCU.
Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) comes face-to-face with his old acquaintance and violent vigilante as he searches for White Tiger’s (Kamar de los Reyes) killer in the latest episode of “Daredevil: Born Again.”
In the final moments of last week’s episode, Hector Ayala, aka the hero White Tiger, was found innocent in his trial against the NYPD then shot and killed on the street by an unknown murderer. Now, Matt searches for the culprit, and he originally thinks the corrupt cop Powell (Hamish Allan-Headley) is the shooter. He corners Powell in the courthouse and interrogates him, but the trail goes cold as Matt listens to Powell’s steady heartbeat with his super-senses and determines he’s innocent.
The search for the killer brings Matt back to the scene of the crime. As he listens to his surroundings, he realizes the street is sloped and the bullet casing rolled into a drain cover. After smelling the bullet, Matt’s hunt brings him to the Punisher, who is taking shelter in a secret hideout.
The reunion between the one-time allies and diametrically-opposed vigilantes is…tense, to say the least. Frank rushes at Matt after he breaks into the Punisher lair and immediately begins questioning him. The two catch up, with Matt saying that Frank could actually help people if he stopped thinking of himself as a victim (“Punisher” fans will remember that Frank’s wife and kids were brutally murdered, and he’s been haunted by their deaths and on the quest for violent vengeance ever since). Calling him a “victim” infuriates Frank, who can sense that Matt is still carrying the grief from Foggy’s (Elden Henson) murder. Frank tears into Matt, who can’t even bring himself to utter Foggy’s name, and says it’s unfair that Foggy is dead while his killer Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) is alive in jail. This pushes Matt over the edge, and he punches Frank before quickly apologizing. The two reconcile and part ways, with Frank revealing that he still hears his family’s voices in his head and telling Matt that Bullseye deserves to die.
Executive producers Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead praised Bernthal’s performance in “Daredevil: Born Again” and gave a special nod to his heartbreaking scene in Netflix’s “The Punisher” when Frank visited his wife’s grave.
“The strength of ‘Daredevil: Born Again,’ and the masterpiece three seasons at Netflix, at its best is so human and sad. It’s Frank Castle’s monologue on that gravestone in the graveyard. It’s that,” Benson said. “People keep using the phrase, ‘he’s like a bull in china shop.’ It’s exciting, but it should also be known that Jon Bernthal’s work in this show is something very, very special.”
“And very nuanced. Much more nuanced than that,” Moorhead added.
So who killed White Tiger? It could’ve been the mysterious serial killer Muse, who seems to be connected to the new murals popping up around New York — and there was a White Tiger painting on exterior of the club in the beginning of the episode. There’s also the possibility it was a hit orchestrated by Mayor Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin (Vincent D’Onofrio). We see him and his wife Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer) in couple’s therapy unpacking their complicated relationship and avoiding any mention of their criminal empire. Vanessa discusses how she had an affair with a man named Adam, but neither of the Fisks reveal whatever happened to the suitor — until the end of the episode. In a shocking reveal, Adam is chained up in a secret basement as Kingpin cruelly watches over him. Despite being the new mayor of New York, it’s finally clear that Wilson Fisk is up to his Kingpin ways.
