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Posted in: Disney+, Marvel, Review, TV | Tagged: daredevil: born again
Daredevil: Born Again S01E08 Review: Bethel's Bullseye Hits The Mark
Wilson Bethel and Ayelet Zurer shine alongside the usual suspects in the latest episode of Daredevil: Born Again, S01E08: "Isle of Joy."
Article Summary
- Wilson Bethel’s Bullseye and Ayelet Zurer’s Vanessa Fisk shine in Daredevil: Born Again S01E08, "Isle of Joy".
- A gripping reunion for Daredevil and Bullseye as tension between Matt Murdock and Kingpin escalates.
- The dynamic between Wilson and Vanessa Fisk evolves in a dramatic power shift, adding depth to the narrative.
- Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, "Isle of Joy" sets the stage for the season finale suspensefully.
If there was a storyline seven years in the making that the original Netflix Daredevil left us dangling, it was the intense rivalry between Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and Benjamin Poindexter/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel). As much as the focus has been between Matt and Wilson Fisk/Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio), it's been the long game with the two in the Disney+ follow-up series Daredevil: Born Again, with the latter becoming New York City mayor. As minimally as we have seen from most of the holdover auxiliary characters from the Netflix series, showrunners Dario Scardapane, Matt Croman, and Chris Ord have made the most with Ayelet Zurer's Vanessa Fisk and now, the second appearance of Bethel's Bullseye in the episode "Isle of Joy". The following contains minor spoilers.
Daredevil: Born Again: Wilson Bethel Making Case for Best MCU Villain
The third and final season of the Netflix series had "Dex" go from being an FBI expert marksman to a mercenary for Kingpin and framing Matt by dressing up as Daredevil. Matt was able to clear his name by unmasking Dex as his alter ego in their three-way fight with Kingpin. Kingpin incapacitates Bullseye after he throws him against his wall. As Daredevil beat Kingpin into mercy, the two traded threats. While Kingpin threatened to go after Foggy (Elden Henson) and Karen (Deborah Ann Woll), The Man Without Fear threatened to imprison Vanessa and give her the harshest sentence possible, to which Fisk relented.
Catching up to the season premiere of Born Again in "Heaven's Half Hour," Foggy takes a call regarding a case he's working on outside the trio's favorite establishment when Bullseye guns him down. After a visceral fight that saw Matt taking down his rival and subsequently sentenced, the two reunited in "Isle of Joy" when it's discovered that Fisk rescinded Dex's protective custody order and put him at the prison's general population, placing a giant target on Bullseye's back (sorry, not sorry on the pun). Feeling the heat, Dex reaches out to Matt, and it goes as badly as you might expect.
Things are set in motion as Matt, his girlfriend/therapist Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva), and Fisk deal with the aftermath of Muse's death in the previous episode, "Art for Art's Sake." More layers start becoming unraveled as things take a more serious turn between husband and wife, Wilson and Vanessa, not in a dysfunctional way, but how Zurer is mastering her husband's ways, becoming an Agrippina-like figure. The change to Zurer's character is probably the most welcome one from the Netflix series to Born Again.
Another key difference you'd notice here between the Netflix and Disney+ series is that you'd probably see Dex's breakout of prison in an elaborate action sequence similar to what you've seen with Cox and Jon Bernthal's Punisher done so many times during their Netflix years. Bethel does far more with his minimal screen time than most villains have in the greater MCU and is still able to exhibit the kind of memorable charisma. Bullseye is literally how I picture Joker would be without the makeup and physically altering accident, but he retains all the psychosis. Directed by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead and written by Scardapane and Jesse Wigutow, "Isle of Joy" does a wonderful job putting the final chess pieces in play as the penultimate season one episode, twisting the knife again unexpectedly as far as the series' narrative goes by the episode's climax.
The season finale of Daredevil: Born Again streams on Disney+ on April 15th.
Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 Episode 8: "Isle of Joy"
9/10
Wilson Bethel makes a triumphant return as Bullseye in the season one penultimate episode of Daredevil: Born Again. Considering it's only his second episode of the season, the performance is as cold and calculating as ever. The less-is-more approach reminds us of what we missed since that magical final season of the Netflix series in 2018. Could it have used an elaborate action sequence? Sure, but that's not what defines this particular show. Also emerging as a force is Ayelet Zurer, who makes a refreshing turn in the next phase of Vanessa Fisk's evolution. It's the kind of ascent to power similar to Cristin Milioti's Sofia Falcone in The Penguin, but this might take another season to fully realize that potential in this case.
Credits
Director
Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
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