Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 Finale Explained: How Kingpin Took New York and What the Punisher's Midcredits Scene Set Up

The season 1 finale of Daredevil: Born Again ends with Wilson Fisk openly back as Kingpin, ruling New York as both mayor and crime boss under martial law. The only things left in his way are Matt Murdock and the army he starts gathering, while a midcredits scene shows Frank Castle breaking out of Fisk's cage. I loved season 1, and this finale gave me a lot to break down, starting with how Bullseye got out in the first place.

Vanessa freed Bullseye the same way Kingpin escaped jail

The episode opens by revisiting what we learned last time: Vanessa Fisk was the one who got Benjamin Poindexter, aka Bullseye, out of a mental hospital. In the process we finally find out why Kingpin never went to jail after Daredevil season 3 on Netflix. That season set up Agent Nadeem of the FBI as the fall guy, making him look like a corrupt agent. In truth he was only borderline corrupt, because Kingpin forced him into it, and he did try to do the right thing at the end before he died.

Vanessa explains that this FBI corruption is how Kingpin was acquitted, and it is how Poindexter was able to get out too. His release was conditional, pending appeal, so he could have gone back, not that it would ultimately matter. Vanessa hired him to kill Foggy and another person she called a thief, whom Foggy was going to represent.

We also learn that Poindexter was being drugged all day, every day, until he could barely function. When Vanessa takes the pills away, he reaches for them and can barely move his hands. He was essentially incapacitated, which is why her offer appeals to him so much. She tells him, "I can get you your mind back." From there he kills Foggy, and Daredevil pushes him off a building. He somehow survived, and the show still has not told us anything about his spine, including whether it is adamantium, which I doubt we will get an answer on. He ended up back in prison, Kingpin tried to have him killed by putting him in general population, he broke out, and he came for revenge. Matt jumped in front of the bullet, saving Kingpin and badly hurting himself.

Matt wakes up asking about work, and Heather walks away

Saving Kingpin did Matt no good at all. Matt wakes in the hospital with Heather and Kirsten beside him, but the first name he calls out is his ex girlfriend Karen, and Heather notices. He asks whether Kingpin and Bullseye are alive. Both are, and Bullseye is still at large. Then Matt goes straight to Foggy and the case he was building against Vanessa Fisk, the reason she had him killed.

Heather hates this. He almost died, and the first thing he talks about is not her, not himself, not gratitude that he is alive and she is there. It is work once again. The two were already drifting apart because she thought he was keeping secrets and working too much, and this proves it to her. She leaves, and the next time we see her, she is taking a job with Kingpin despite every warning Matt gave her.

Kirsten realizes something is up too. She tells him that once he is better, they need to talk about what is going on in his life, because he is not the same person and she needs a better partner and friend.

Wilson Fisk tells Vanessa he is back as Kingpin through Red Hook

As Matt and Heather fall apart, Vanessa and Fisk are closer than ever. Vanessa tries to confess that she hired Bullseye to kill Foggy and that she is the reason he was out, but Fisk already knows. I think the episode does a really great job of showing that Kingpin has eyes everywhere. Even while he was gone, he heard about it. He still told Matt the truth when he said he had nothing to do with it, although he definitely could have intervened and chose not to.

Here Fisk reveals to Vanessa that he is back as Kingpin, and it is all about Red Hook. He originally ran to be a good, clean mayor, but opportunities presented themselves. Vanessa set Red Hook up well and ran millions of dollars through it; with Kingpin's power, they can run billions. As mayor and crime boss, he now runs the crime, the police and the city. Red Hook is structured almost as its own city, so they make the rules there and nobody can really touch them legally.

Because of that, Kingpin knows the only people who can take him down are vigilantes, who operate outside the law: Daredevil, Bullseye, the Punisher, the Defenders, and, now that these characters are in the MCU, people like Spider-Man, who has been mentioned. Kingpin is a classic Spider-Man villain, and I was crossing my fingers for that matchup. He wants his task force to go after every vigilante and to shut the city down and block the bridges. Sheila tells him that legally, as mayor, he cannot shut the city down unless there is a threat to the public. So he decides to create that threat himself.

Kingpin orders Matt's death and makes Sheila pick a side

First, he tells Buck to kill Matt Murdock. Just as I predicted after the last episode, Matt saving his life means nothing to Kingpin or to Vanessa. He knows he could spin Matt's death to make him a hero, and he also knows Matt is Daredevil, so this would take Daredevil out of the equation. He cares about nothing except Vanessa and removing anyone who could stand in his way.

That includes people inside his own circle. He tells Sheila that he knows people talk to her, and that anyone not on board should be sent home. He is really saying it to her as well: you are with me or against me. Sheila gives up Gallo, who suffers an absolutely terrible fate. In the scene where Gallo comes to talk to her, you can see her quickly glance at her phone to make sure it is capturing the conversation, because she has made up her mind. She is with Kingpin now, most likely because she knows nothing will stand in his way, and going against him carries a high probability of ending up dead.

That fear is how a lot of people end up siding with Kingpin, and to be fair, he does kill people more often than not. Even the driver who picks up Gallo clearly knew him; he was a rookie Gallo helped, and he probably looked up to him. When Gallo spots his Punisher tattoo, the driver says he is just trying to survive. Meanwhile, the person Sheila sends in after her is coerced, we can infer, into cutting power to the entire city. That kills the security cameras and triggers riots and looting, which gives Kingpin his reason to enact martial law.

The Punisher keeps his promise to Karen, his way

At the hospital, Matt's heightened senses pick up Buck's exact footsteps, and he knows the only reason Buck is likely there is to kill him. He escapes and makes it home, and notice his little smirk and head shake as he walks in. He senses Frank is already in his apartment. Frank says someone called in a favor and he promised to get Matt out alive. He does not say who, but we later learn it is Karen Page.

A van full of people is waiting outside, and both of them caught it. Frank makes it clear that if they come up, he is killing them. He calls them fanboys because they wear his logo, and he says it specifically because he knows Matt does not believe in killing. Frank sees himself as judge, jury and executioner and goes only after criminals, never innocent people. Matt believes people can be redeemed or dealt with by the justice system. Matt tells him, "That's not the kind of help I'm looking for," and Frank's answer is essentially that this is the help he gets.

Frank also asks why Matt would take a bullet for Kingpin. I think at the time Matt probably did it because he still believed in redemption. He knew Vanessa, not Fisk, had Foggy killed, so perhaps he hoped Fisk really was trying to be good. After Buck in the hospital and the task force outside, he realizes there probably is no redemption for Kingpin, and he admits he does not know why he did it. He suits up on the roof, where his suit is kept, and drops through the roof window into the fight.

Matt spares Cole North, the man who shot Hector Ayala

Frank instantly starts shooting people in the head, keeping his word. Matt shouts at him to stop, and right after, Frank puts about five bullets into one man. Cole North interrupts by shooting Frank, who turns and hits him in the arm. When North grabs a gun to shoot Daredevil, Frank throws a knife through North's arm and pins him to the wall.

Frank then sees a shell casing with the Punisher logo, a callback to when Matt showed him a shell with his logo. He knows Matt was looking for this exact person, and Matt realizes North is the one who shot Hector Ayala, the White Tiger. North radios that Frank Castle is there, which ties into a later scene. Frank takes the radio so he can hunt down the rest of these fanboys.

Matt confronts North about killing Hector, feels the pain of losing Hector and Foggy, and contemplates killing him. Then he remembers who he is. He tells Frank, "It's not worth it," even as Frank urges, "Do it, Red." I read that as his conscience and his Catholic beliefs: even if this person cannot be redeemed, there is no reason to put a life on your soul. Frank does not care and kills another badly wounded man. They are arguing when Matt hears a grenade land, and they leap out the window, with Matt grabbing Frank midair and using his grappling hook to get them to safety.

Karen, Frank and Matt form a love triangle Matt can hear

Karen arrives and takes them to Frank's place, revealing she is the one who called him. Frank stitches himself up, something he is used to if you have seen the Punisher series. The last time we saw Karen and Frank together was The Punisher season 2, where they were really close and the connection was probably not platonic. Karen told him he cannot keep loving people in his dreams and could love someone else instead of another war, implying it could be her. Frank chose to keep killing and told her to stay away.

We presume this is their first meeting since, and some romance is clearly still there. She checks that he is okay, and they are both clearly glad to see each other. Matt, her ex from the Netflix series, can hear both of their heartbeats, so there is a bit of a love triangle. Later he admits this, and when Karen asks if he is jealous, he is a little. She asks whether he heard her heartbeat when she saw him, and he says he did, so he knows she cares for him too.

Matt tells Karen that Vanessa hired Bullseye to kill Foggy, though he still does not know why. Foggy's files are in storage, and since they are most likely not in braille, he asks her, "Will you be my eyes?" Frank will not go with them, because he has fanboys to deal with. When Karen says she does not buy that he does not care, he answers in his own way: she asked for a favor and he did it, which tells her he cares about her and about Matt.

Foggy's files expose the Red Hook charter

Kingpin's corruption is barely hidden now. Daniel and Buck meet with the city council and tell them to get on board, while making clear Kingpin has dirt on all of them. This shows Buck knew who Fisk really was the whole time, and I believe power is pretty much what Daniel wanted all along. With the power still out, riots and looting rage. Cops kill a young man who did not deserve death, call him a masked vigilante, and put a mask on him that looks almost exactly like Daredevil's original Netflix outfit. Kingpin is building his case to outlaw vigilantes by blaming them for the chaos.

In storage, there is a nice callback to the flashback of Matt and Foggy as law school roommates. Foggy asked how to say lawyers in Spanish, Matt said avocados, and Foggy made it avocados at law, an inside joke Karen never got because she was not with them then.

Karen finds the Red Hook charter. Its free port definition exempts customs duties, taxes and tariffs, and all goods imported or exported through the port are exempt from taxation. The administration and oversight section places appointed officials of the state of New York in charge, and that is Kingpin. He can smuggle in huge amounts of money and run illegal operations with nobody in the way, and he is building a complex there to live and operate untouched. He is about to rule New York City in its entirety.

The task force tries to recruit Frank Castle

Over North's radio, Frank hears the task force heading back to Red Hook and follows. Notice they say they just want to talk, and they are not firing live ammunition, because they want to capture him for themselves and for Kingpin. After he takes out a lot of them in a very gruesome way, they finally subdue him and ask him to join them, doing what he does in a way that could now be legitimate under Kingpin.

They do not know who Frank Castle is. They think he is some gun toting, trigger happy person who likes killing, but he kills specific criminals, doing what the law cannot. He is driven by the pain of losing his wife and two kids to corruption in government entities, so he sets out to kill corruption. He tells them essentially that they have no idea who he is, what he believes or what his pain is, and their idolizing of him proves it. They lock him in a cage alongside other powerful people and vigilantes, such as Swordsman, like trophies for Kingpin.

Kingpin declares martial law as Matt gathers his army

Matt realizes he cannot take Kingpin on alone. There are too many people with guns, so he needs what he calls an army. We had heard that Josie's would be the meeting place, and sure enough they meet there: good cops who want the city back, including Agent Kim and Cherry, plus Josie, who does not yet know Matt is Daredevil.

Kingpin addresses the city, paints the blackout as a vigilante attack, claims he survived it alongside New Yorkers, and says Gallo resigned, even though he killed him. All of this is his basis for declaring martial law. According to the US Department of Justice, martial law is the temporary substitution of military authority for civilian rule, and the military commander has unlimited authority to make and enforce laws. Here that commander is Kingpin, and his first move is to make being a vigilante illegal.

The midcredits scene sees Frank break free

In the midcredits scene, Kingpin returns to his evil lair, as I will call it, where everyone who went against him at his gala is locked in cages like animals, including the Punisher. Frank tricks a guard into shaking his hand. You would never do that, but for the sake of the story, it could have been a new guard who was nervous and felt a little bad for him. Frank pulls him in, breaks his arm and grabs the keys, so we know he is going to escape.

What did you make of Matt's choice to spare Cole North, and how would you rate season 1 of Daredevil: Born Again?