ScreenCrush: The Podcast! - Daredevil: Born Again Episode 8 BREAKDOWN - Marvel Easter Eggs You Missed!

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Daredevil: Born again episode 3 shows the release of Bullseye, and the Kingpin at the zenith of his power. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. Is that a threat? No, of course not. It's merely a warning. Hey, welcome back to Screen Crush. I'm Ryan Erie, and this is all of the Easter eggs references

and little things you might have missed in Daredevil Born Again, Episode 8. Now, we open with the song, Stillness and Panic by Hannah Colste. And this song represents Dex at this moment in time. There's stillness in his jail cell, But in a moment, he's going to be dragged into gin pop panicking about his next move. So we begin on this image of a blue rose. Now, a blue rose is an interesting choice for this visual because they do not exist in nature. You have to cultivate them.

So blue roses often mean hope or unrequited love. So this one represents the life that Benjamin Poindexter never had. Remember, back in season three, we saw that he was in love with the woman who barely knew his name. But Fisk had her killed, leading Dex to go in a rampage to kill Kingpin. Now then the camera pulls back to first show us the out of focus, bars and then tilts up to show us the guard tower revealing that this is a prison garden and then finally zooming out to show us Poindexter. So this is actually a mirror of the shot at the end of the episode where we begin on Matt listening to the ballroom and then focusing

on the sound of Poindexter's rifle as the camera tilts up and zooms in. So this is a beautiful opening shot that is loaded with foreshadowing. We begin the episode seen from Bullseye's point of view and we end the episode hearing from Matt's point of view. Notice there's even a similarity between the bars behind Poindexter and these panels of light shown behind Matt, connecting these two scenes visually. You know, I didn't really see the old Netflix show, so here is this guy again? Sure, so in the Netflix series, Benjamin Poindexter is an FBI agent who has this uncanny ability to use any object as a weapon,

kind of like Hawkeye flipping a coin to turn off the TV. But Poindexter is also mentally unbalanced, so Kingpin is able to flip him into becoming his personal assassin. He dresses up as Daredevil and commits murders to frame him, including murdering Daredevil's Priest. But, like I said, after Poindexter discovered that Fiss killed a woman he was obsessed with, he tried to kill the Kingpin in a three-way melee in the finale of the original series. Now, that fight ended with Kingpin breaking Poindexter's spine,

but we saw him getting surgery in a post-credit scene. Then he popped up in the season one finale to murder Foggy Nelson, giving us this epic one-take fight with Daredevil, which ended with him trying to murder Bullseye. And I want to quickly shout out an Easter egg from episode one that we missed. Gaelin UFO and our free-to-join Discord server noticed that when Dex is introduced, he straightens out the light bulb, a nod to the compulsive behavior that he displayed all through season three.

After Matt's testimony put him away for good, Poindexter is being escorted like Hannibal Lecter, or, as they say here, enhanced supervision. Now, that word enhanced is one we've heard a lot in the MCU before. We haven't enhanced in the field. So enhanced is what they use to describe super individuals, who now require enhanced security.

We saw similar measures used to contain Emil Blonsky and Shehawk, and in Ross's power dampening cell in Brave New World. At least I think it was a power dampening cell. They were really vague about that. So in this scene, they are removing him from protective custody and placing him in general population or genpop. And the cops make sure to call him... Agent Poindbexter.

Now, as a rule, former law enforcement agents don't do well in prison. So this is an extra little insult so the prisoners know that they have a former cop among their own. Now, in that opening shot of the blue rose, notice that the entire shot starts off with a blue tent. But as the camera pulls back, the caller returns to normal. The blue tent represents how Dex sees the world. we keep seeing the blue tent a few times in the episode. There's the blue rose, the prisoners,

when Bullseye escapes, and the scene before he tries to kill Fisk. And the blue tent is often accompanied by this buzzing sound. Now, in the Netflix show, the buzzing sound came to decks when things weren't going his way and he felt angry with the world. Hey, do you guys sell, like, I don't know, like Meg Ryan romantic comedies? No, not really not at all. Oh, no. I got to get my mom. something nice for Mother's Day. Well, then why are you getting her a movie? What kind of son are you?

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It's made from Walnut and Marble. Or these sunglasses, the Radiant M, they're made from Walnut and antique silver. Wow, you look like Matt Murdoch. Now, what I love about Holskern is that you cannot find these items anywhere else, so this is truly a unique gift. At their workshop in Vienna, they make everything in small quantities to ensure high quality. Plus, they offer free worldwide express shipping, and they even pay the customs fees for you. So, if you want to get a gift in time for Mother's Day or just get something for yourself,

use our discount code Screencrush 15 and click the link in the description to get 15% off. This is a great deal that you don't want to miss. Now, back to what I was saying. Back at Red Hook, we find out that Wilson's ass kissing a couple episodes ago has paid off. His condo project is happening with both public and private funds. And he's reconciling with Vanessa finally acknowledging and thanking her for running the store while he was away. And she replies, That's why it's so hard to understand why you throw it all away.

But Fiske explains that he is not throwing out his empire. He wants to transform it. And this has always been his goal. In Daredevil Season 1, his end goal was to clean up the city after the Chitari attack, but he used crime to fund this dream. As usual, though, Fisk's story is closely intercut with Matt's, who is staring out of a window and thinking about the aftermath of his fight with Mews last episode. Now, like in a normal, heroic story, Matt should be elated right now.

The hero just saved the girl from the bad guy and they should be living happily ever after. But instead, Matt's double identity has created a rift between them. Heather doesn't know that Matt saved her and she is still reeling from her personal guilt. I killed him Matt. But she is unable to process the, idea that she is a murderer, so she transfers that guilt and blame onto Daredevil. That violence, it just transfers from Daredevil to muse. Now, what she's talking about here is a form of escalation.

You know, it's what Commissioner Gordon warned Batman about at the end of Batman begins. We start carrying semi-automatics. They buy automatics. We start wearing Kevlar. They buy armor-piercing rounds. But I think that Heather has a point here. Bastion started to see vigilantes on the news, people like Daredevil and White Tiger, and he realized that if they could wear another face and be called another name, then so could he. A mask does protect your identity, but it also protects you from consequences.

But Heather's guilt is so extreme, she's also twisting reality to make herself the hero. I saved me. They were both out there for themselves. Now, this is the same twisting of reality that we have seen with the kingpin this season, when he's tried to reframe his history as an honest businessman, who was being tormented by Daredevil. He had me unjustly arrested. He took down money. entire business. But Wilson keeps his real self-buried, and I loved the reveal that Adam was actually locked away in Red Hook. Now, Red Hook is the place where Wilson has chosen to be ground zero for his revitalization of New York. It's his most outward-facing legitimate enterprise. And yet,

buried beneath his shining white buildings, there is a red brick dungeon that is hiding his greatest ugliness. Now, remember that contrast of red and white because it's going to recur again and again throughout the episode. For instance, he and Vanessa walk past the painting, rabbit and snowstorm. So this painting is loaded with symbolic meaning. Vanessa sold it to Wilson when they first met, and the various shades of white reminded him of the wall his father would make him stare at while he beat his mom. How does it make you feel? It makes me feel alone. The shades of white are like Kingpin's dream of a clean city. Vanessa even compared his vision for the city to the work of an artist. Rebuilding this city, I want to carve something beautiful

out of its ugliness. You sound like an artist. And noticed that Vanessa was also wearing a white dress when they met. So Wilson's idea of purity is also tied to her. In season three, we find out that the painting was actually stolen by Nazis during the Holocaust, and Fisk allowed the original owners to keep it. But Poindexter, who was still eager to please Fisk, stole the painting back and murdered the family, putting just a tiny blotch of blood on the painting, symbolic of the violence that Fisk uses to build his clean city. In the season three finale, that symbolism blew wide open as Daredevil splatters Kingpin's blood across his white suit and the painting. Now, Kingpin has never cleaned the blood from the painting since, leaving it as a reminder of the price he has to pay

for his vision. I should also note that Wilson's idea of a clean city is racist and stupid. He wants to force people out of old buildings and create tiny condos and high rises that no one can afford, and this is a major problem in New York City right now. He has no real plan for the working class, and he simply wants to create a city that looks good from his skyscraper window. Kingpin, in reality, hates the city, just like he hates himself. And that's a lot. That's why he wants to remake it into something white, something that he likes to look at while he stares out his window. And remember, there is always a thematic connection between Matt and Wilson. Matt is also staring out of his window looking at Manhattan from a distance.

He doesn't even live in the borough that he used to love. Now, I say Matt's looking out the window, but he can't even see the view. So to him, the city is more about the people who live in it, the actual human connection than how it appears from the outside. But back to Adam. Wilson explains to Vanessa why he can't let him go. I see his hands, it's unbearable. Now it's interesting that he focused on Adam's hands, just as the camera focuses on Wilson's trembling hands.

Remember, a few episodes ago, Vanessa talked about Adam's hands being soft like an artist. It was his hands. His hands, true, beautiful sketches, I mean just. We not. Vanessa asks, Why would you keep all this from me? And when Wilson replies, you notice he kind of stammeres.

I am better than I was. He's like a kid who was just caught by his mother. This is going back to Dinoffrio's two-word description of this character, monster and child. And this moment of Revelation is interspersed with Matt discovering that Heather has Kingpin for a client. So when Matt says, Heather, you must see he's trying to use you.

We cut to Adam, who Kingpin has been using as an outlet for his rage. So here we have two scenes where couples are discovering a secret that the other is hiding. In Matt's case, this drives them apart. But in Wilson's case, this is bringing him and Vanessa close her together. Now, she kills Adam because she knows that they had no other choice that he would run off and tell the authorities what the mayor did to him. But this is also a final show of her devotion to Wilson and his dream for Red Hook. They are literally killing the past together. And our co-writer Ethan Ink pointed out that this scene is also very much like the myth of Orpheus and Eurytices,

where their love can only exist if they complete a trial. Fisk even says, If I cannot be with you, Vanessa, I cannot be. Which kind of hints that if Vanessa were to pick Adam here, then she should just shoot Fisk. In this way, he is giving her agency. He is saying that you are the boss. And after he's killed, notice how the blood splatter on the white wall also looks like the bloodstained on rabbit in a snowstorm. Speaking of that white wall, remember that Fisk also stared at his white prison wall in the season one finale to remind himself of Vanessa.

Again, it's like poetry. So if they rhyme. So afterwards, Vanessa and Wilson embraced. And as the camera rack focuses on Adam's dead body, then it not so subtly pans over to rabbit in a snowstorm, connecting that this painting, once a symbol of purity, is now stained with their mutual sin. Meanwhile, Wilson's actions have caused a schism between Matt and Heather. Now, this is all continuing the inverse that we've seen all season long. The bad guy is the mayor, the hero is branded a criminal. And as we saw in the first episode's final shot,

the sinner rules from heaven while the righteous suffers in hell. Now, just like in season two, Matt's life as Daredevil is starting to affect his legal career. Kirsten says, He looked like you just got out of some North Jersey Fight Club. Which is, of course, a reference to the movie Fight Club. Another story about a man leading to double life, office by day, and fistic cuffing and artists by night. And speaking of joining clubs, I want to remind you guys that you can now listen to Screencrush on all of your favorite podcast platforms. And we only have two more weeks to get your Daredevil parody merch, like the No Fear hallway fight, the Fisk Will Fix It, shirt, and yard sign, the Battle of New York newspaper,

emulating the New York Bulletin cover from season one, Nelson and Murdoch, Law & Order T-shirt, and Logo T's, and of course the Rabbit in a Snowstorm shirt poster and fridge magnet. We love designing these shirts for you guys, and shopping our merch store helps us make more videos like this one. Thanks for your support, the links for that, and our Discord are below. But Matt's time in the office is short as he finds out that Poindexter has been moved and he wants to talk to Matt. Now, as Matt's life is falling apart, everything is coming together for Wilson. He says, This is actually Fiorella LaGuardia's desk.

All right, here's that. Well, LaGuardia was the mayor of New York in the 30s and 40s, and he was extremely popular. Wilson even says that the mayor was one of the few people his father respected. Now remember, Bill Fisk ran for office and lost, but he always thought that winning office was the only way to get ahead in the city. Once I get on the council, this is all taken care of. As we've talked about in past videos, Wilson likely ran for mayor in part to show up his dead father, or in a weird way to earn his approval. So a few episodes ago, he asked Sheila if this was the Gordius desk. And then he said, Vanessa would know by sight.

Now, Sheila said she would look into it, but she never did. So here he says, Sheila, Vanessa checked. This is actually Fiorella LaGuardia's desk. So this is his way of undermining Sheila, of telling her, hey, you're kind of useless to me. But he's also trying to show her that he is now complete. He has his wife and the desk of New York's favorite mayor.

Now, the newspaper here is in the style of the New York Post, with a headline that reads, stopped and fisked. Now, this is showing that the kingpin is getting good press by running a private police force. But notice, this is from the New York Examiner. That is the same newspaper that reported on Captain America stopping a Nazi spy in Captain America First Avenger, and we saw the same newspaper appear in season two and three of the original Daredevil show, also in Agent Carter, the Punisher, and even here in Spider-Man No Way Home.

So we hear these incredibly silly statistics. I'm sure if you've seen the latest numbers, but vigilante crime is down 30%. Now this is exactly the kind of statistical fuzzy math that cities use all the time. Like what are they defining as vigilante crime? They can easily reclassify any crime to be vigilante, one way or the other. After all, last episode, they said that Mews was a serial killing vigilante. And then Fisk leverages the power of his celebrity popularity to promote an unqualified underling to reward his loyalty against the advice of an extremely qualified woman working in

his government. And as Daniel anyone else's favorite character, I am loving this like baby wise guy arc for him. And Michael Gandalfini is playing him as the most dangerous kind of Dufus, a young man who is aching for a role model to tell him who he is. As Wilson's career is thriving, Matt's is falling apart. So last episode, he told him, how he felt about his new life. To me, it feels like fake. And in this episode, we see why. He used to defend the downtrodden,

but now he has clients like Madison. Madison with two ins, one Y, but it's not where you think. No, not that one, this D bag. I should take a stand. Mr. Madison. Now, he wants to take the stand because, like Fisk, he cares what people think. You too, black lady, blind dude, I like the optics.

So Matt listens to his heartbeat to see if he's lying. Now, in the past, Matt has done this to represent clients who are innocent, you know, like Hector Ayala. But he doesn't use this to defend the guilty. So morally, this is one line he is just not ready to cross. He talks to Kirsten about how the system is broken. One man goes to jail for eating caramel corn while a worst criminal gets to be mayor. But I think what's really on his mind here is that a hero can save his girlfriend, but then she blames him for the attack. And then, Matt says,

We're not serving justice here, you know, we're babysitting chaos. And remember, Fisk wanted this chaos, just like he told Vanessa. Chaos must rain. It's for a moment to build a stronger order. So this gets Matt thinking about the old day, so he returns to Josie's for the first time in a year. Now, in the comics, Josie's was always more of a low-life criminal hangout, but in the show, it became the local for Matt and Foggy. And then we finally get some answers.

Like after episode one, I talked about how Dex and Foggy never really interacted and how it would have made more sense if he was going after Karen. But now we find out he was paid. paid to take out Foggy. Remember, in that episode, Foggy talked about a client, nicknamed Dumb Benny, who was caught red-handed. What about Dumb Benny? He's going to walk, you know. But Foggy insisted that his client was going to walk. He even broke open a bottle of old Melvinnie's from behind the bar. Remember, that's the fancy 20-year-old whiskey that we saw Matt and Foggy drink when they graduated from law school.

And like Matt said after Hector's case, they would always drink it after a victory. Only broke it open when we won. So, Foggy breaking out that bottle meant that he had. had a secret plea deal arranged with Benny, who was probably going to turn evidence against Vanessa. They also mentioned that Benny was busted in Red Hook, the same area that Fisk wants to revitalize. So this sends Matt off to meet with Poindexter, and notice how the bar is bathed in blue light, the color of Poindexter and his bullseye costume. Dex agrees to help, but only if Matt gets him free and says, you know, in another life, you might be defending me, because that's

what good men do. So this line has a couple of meanings. One, remember, Matt already said that he does not think that he is a good man. Guys like you and me, we can work a lifetime and never measure up to his decency. But also, the episode ends with Matt doing exactly this, defending his enemy, but we'll get into that ending a little later in the video. But Dex's real plan was actually to goad Matt into violence. Never start with the head. The victim gets all fuzzy. Afterwards, he says,

Thank you, counsel. Because Matt just knocked his tooth loose, giving him the weapon he needed to escape. And Matt then throws down the perfect comeback. Fuck you. Then we go to the Fisk Victory Lap Gala, playing in the four seasons, oh, what a night. However, the gala has an underlying violent undercurrent.

There are armed task force members everywhere, including a sniper watching them from above. Now, at the party, we again meet Jack Duquesne. Now, remember, in the show Hawkeye, he was engaged to Eleanor Bishop. And then it was revealed that she was secretly being forced to work for the kingpin. So the last time Jack saw the kingpin, he lorded his wealth and influence over Fisk. This project simply doesn't align without interests. And Artemis, the woman he's talking to, was especially rude to Fisk. You may have a seat of the table right now. For a couple of years

anyway, but the people in this room still decide who gets to eat. But at this gala, notice her husband isn't here, and she suddenly changed her attitude. But it's not to offend him. So clearly, they either kidnapped her husband, or beat him up so bad that she decided to bend the knee to the kingpin. Now, because Jack was engaged to Eleanor Bishop, he has first-hand knowledge of how Fisk uses violence and blackmail to control the wealthy and powerful, so he knows exactly what is happening here. This is part of a one-take shot that runs for about one minute, 10 seconds. We start on Daniel and BB and then see a very bored and irritated gallo,

then over to Jack and Artemis for their conversation, and then finally, the camera pushes into Heather trying to call Matt. This is a great bit of table setting for this gala to let us know who the players are. players are and where they stand. When Wilson and Vanessa entered, we are first focused on their held hands to show that they are finally together again. I mean, their entire story this season has built up to this one moment when they share the power of the city together. And then there's the spotlight shining above them, almost like a divine light shining onto Wilson. Fisk is wearing all white, like his classic suit in the comics and like his wedding tuxedo in season three. Now he

started off the show, always wearing gray suits as he tried to play the middle. But now he is in his full villainous comic book white uniform. Now, in the original wedding scene from season three, Vanessa also wore white to symbolize her purity. But now Vanessa wears a flowing red gown that almost looks like a splash of blood, showing how she is now tainted with the violence of her husband's business, and the two of them together are a living recreation of the bloodied rabbit in a snowstorm. She tells Heather, sins of the pastor dead and buried. Which is very literal since she's talking about Adam, her adulterous sin that is now buried somewhere in Red Hook. So this is intercut with Poindexter using the violence of his enemy to commit more violence.

It is a tidy metaphor for how violence is an endless cycle. And this scene, killing a doctor with his teeth, is taken from the comics. Now, he escapes dressed as a cop. After all, he knows how to carry himself like an officer, and he shrugs off his stitches as just another bad day. So he stares through the grating of the bus, calling back to the opening shot of the episode where he watched the garden through his prison window. Then Matt arrives at the party and immediately clocks the vigilante task force.

We see Cole North, Pau, and this guy with the Punisher tattoo who we saw at Hector's trial. As he pretends to listen to Heather, he instead focuses his senses on Jack and Wilson's conversation. Now, at first, they are filmed through an opaque window, a visual way to show that their conversation may be behind closed doors, but that doesn't mean that they are unseen or unheard. All through this scene, we see Wilson reflected in other surfaces. Here he is reflected in three different surfaces. Here he is inverted on the drink tray. Now, the reflections are showing the various roles he is playing.

You know, mayor, crime boss, businessman. And the inverted reflection is how we first saw him this season, showing how his position of mayor is a perversion of the natural order. And this is also another visual callback to Citizen Kane. So a few episodes ago, we pointed out how the breakfast table was an homage to the classic cane table montage, but told in reverse as the married couple gradually get closer instead of further apart. But these multiple reflections here are a callback to this iconic shot,

showing the many facets of Charles Foster Kane as he exerts control over his empire. Also, Kingpin's conversation with Jack is inverted from their last talk. Back then, Jack had the power. But now, he is sitting while Fisk looms over him, pacing like a predator about to eat his prey. So Fisk calls out that he is the swordsman. Is there here? Ah, yes, the swordsman is a random vigilante that we saw on the phone for one second three episodes ago. Oh, yeah, I love the swordsman.

Yeah, we'll talk more about the clunky reveal in our video tomorrow, where we're going to discuss the reshoots that altered this entire season. Now, as Fisk is threatening to use the task force against Jack, we see the task force actually abuse a reporter. You have the right to have a real hard time to wiping your eyes to the rest of the I'm just going to throw this out there. This is a great piece of storytelling that actually shows us how the task force is free from Gallo's bureaucratic control. I think this season has spent a lot of time telling us things. And I love how just a short little bit of the old ultraviolence is able to show us the brutality of the task force in just a couple seconds. And this is where Beebe finally steps up and hopefully becomes a central character in season two.

She tells Daniel, My uncle used to say that we should speak true to power. And those words are on her mind because she lied about Daredevil not being the one who stopped muse. So she reads the room and corners Gallo. He calls her, Become Fisk's minister of propaganda. Which is a nod to Joseph Gables, the Nazi propaganda master who controlled Hitler's press. And to hit him back, she calls the task force Fisk Gestapo, who were Hitler's secret police.

So Gallo starts to spew, first revealing that Fisks, killed her uncle. And then she gives us somewhat surprising revelation. Yeah. I did. And as our own Ethan Ink pointed out, BB is quite literally the next generation of her Uncle Ben. So at the end of Ben's arc,

he was about to start self-publishing on the internet before Fisk killed him. And here, BB reveals that she is using other names and the anonymity of the internet to get closer to Wilson's inner circle. It also echoes that one for them, one for us sentiment, that Matt is also operating under at his new law firm. And as Gallo offers to leak files to her north, North clocks their conversation. So in the comics, Cold North starts as a loyal member of the

anti-vigilante task force, but later he comes around to work with Daredevil. So I think as Wilson's tactics get more extreme, North than the show could follow a similar arc. Then, just as Matt tries to get to Fisk, a spotlight, you know, a heavenly light from above, shines down on him. It is another way of showing that in this place, Wilson is favored with godlike power. The song they dance to is called We'll Take Manhattan. And the first line is Will Take Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island, which reflects how Vanessa and Wilson view this city. It is now theirs for the taking. And I don't know if you guys remember, but the last time Vanessa and Wilson danced together back in season three, it was also interrupted by Dex.

Again, it's like poetry. It's sort of if they rhyme. This overhead shot is another example of showing the two sides of Fisk. There's his public self, and then there is his shadowed self, which of course was foreshadowed by Muse's mural all the way back in episode one. And then we get yet another reflection of Fisk in Matt's glasses. And okay, this little suave move here. lead is the opposite of Peter Parker and Spider-Man too. So Bullseye enters through the kitchen, walk