Daredevil: Born Again Episode 4 Ending Explained: What Does the Return of the Punisher Mean?

Daredevil: Born Again Episode 4 intensifies conflict in the lives of Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. As Matt investigates the murder of White Tiger and discovers that everything points to a mysterious sniper with the Punisher logo, Fisk must deal with personal and political problems. The great revelation of the chapter revolves around Adam, a character who has been mentioned in previous episodes and who has a secret connection to Vanessa, Fisk’s wife. In addition, this episode marks the expected return of Frank Castle, who makes his entry into the MCU after years of absence. Between betrayals, revelations, and tense moments, this episode makes it clear that Born Again is preparing a brutal confrontation between Daredevil and Kingpin, with the Punisher as a key piece in history.

The fourth episode of ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ and the spark has ignited what is to come. We could almost summarize what we have been asked this week in a conversation that occurs between two characters in a room. This week we have introduced three stories that plant several morals which are quite interesting and lead to the same conclusion: the system does not work and there are times when you have to act outside it. White Tiger was killed last week and everything pointed to the fact that it had been the work of ‘The Punisher’ This week we start with Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) visiting the coroner, but it is the talk that our protagonist has with Héctor’s niece that is most relevant. The young woman knows that the system is corrupt that her uncle has died to protect the people of the city and that nobody will do anything.

Daredevil: Born Again Episode 4 Ending Explained: What About Matt and Fisk?

Honestly, when I saw this beginning, I thought that this conversation would be the one that would open Matt’s eyes to return as Daredevil and face how dark it is brewing in New York. And this message indeed permeates our protagonist, but it is just another drop in the glass. Another drop that almost makes the water overflow is the case that comes to him by shift, an absurd case in which Matt himself falls into the same prejudices as other lawyers before him. How the system crushes those who are most vulnerable and how the great job Matt thinks he has done in reducing the sentence turns out to be a mistake.

When it costs more to imprison a man than to give him help, there is something wrong and that truth is a blow that ends the pride with which Matt has treated his client. But if you have to talk about the culmination of this chapter of ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ is the conversation that confronts Frank Castle in a dialogue full of moral tension where the pain of loss and the thirst for revenge collide. Not only because of what is being talked about but because of how it is carried out in an austere, dark setting with the right light so that everything has a halo of mystery. Castle’s leitmotif is revenge for a loss that he has not overcome and that has made him rabid and, at times, cruel, but he has assumed that dark side that eats away at him, but Matt has not.

Here the weight of everything is carried by Punisher rebuking our protagonist with truths that bring him down as much as he tries to overcome himself. Castle’s case may be somewhat extreme, but there is no truth behind all that pain and revenge: Foggy has lost his life and Bullseye keeps breathing even though he’s locked up and doesn’t go outside again. Foggy, a name that Matt still can’t pronounce and that weighs like a slab. And even though both characters seem opposite, they are closer than they think, and the punch Matt punches Frank is the best example. It is the sincerest thing he does.

The chapter is not perfect and I find it very ‘caught with tweezers’ like da Murdock with Castle’s whereabouts from the smell of the bullet. I see it unlikely, especially considering that Frank was not the one who killed White Tiger. It seemed to me a very unorganic way of reaching the dialectical confrontation between the two. We are halfway through the season and Dardevil’s return looks closer in the fifth and sixth chapters (both will air next week) we will see it. Wilson Fisk is still a very powerful character who steals the show in his few appearances, especially with a chapter ending that has been intense and to some extent surprising.

This chapter leaves us with several key moments:

• Frank Castle returns: Matt tracks the bullet that killed White Tiger and discovers he has the Punisher logo. This leads him to an encounter with Frank, who has been operating in the shade. Matt believes Frank might be involved in the murder, but the Punisher makes it clear that it is not him. The conversation becomes intense when Frank mentions Foggy’s death and how Matt is still haunted by his loss. In a moment of anger, Matt hits Frank but stops before going too far. The scene makes it clear that both are still men broken by their trauma, albeit on opposite sides of the law.
• The Great Revelation on Adam: After hints in previous episodes, it is finally confirmed that Adam was Vanessa’s lover, which explains the tension between her and Fisk. Although Wilson promised not to kill him, what he did was lock him in a secret cell and torture him, keeping his promise in the most twisted way possible. Fisk is still obsessed with control, and this punishment of Adam is a sign of his cruelest side.
• Fisk and his political mistake: The leak of his plans for Red Hook puts his image as mayor in check. The information was accidentally leaked by Daniel, a young member of his team who idolizes Fisk. Although Fisk doesn’t kill him, he does make it clear that if he fails again, it will be the last thing he does. The scene shows that although Fisk wants to maintain a public image as a man of power, he is still the ruthless Kingpin in the background.
• Muse enters the scene: At the end of the episode, Muse, an art-obsessed serial killer, is introduced to a den filled with macabre paintings and hanging corpses. He is a brutal villain who promises to be a threat to both Daredevil and Fisk.

What Does the Return of the Punisher Mean?

Frank Castle returns with the same intensity that characterized him in the Netflix series, but now with a different motivation. It is unclear whether he will be an ally or an enemy to Matt, but his appearance confirms that his legacy lives on and that his symbol has been appropriated by corrupt and criminal police. Matt sees Frank as a distorted version of what he could become if he crossed the line.

Leroy Franklin’s case: A Skrull Stealing Cereal?

A curious moment in the episode occurs when Matt defends a man arrested for stealing cereal boxes. Before accepting his punishment, the defendant asks if “a Skrull could have done it”, demonstrating how paranoia about these shapeshifters is still present in the MCU after the Secret Invasion events.

Conclusion of Daredevil: Born Again Episode 4

Daredevil: Born Again Episode 4 lays the foundation for an explosive conflict. Matt and Frank are on different paths but connected by their past, while Fisk continues to prove that he is a relentless villain. With Adam’s mystery solved and Muse’s arrival as a new threat, everything points to the upcoming episodes being even more intense. The fourth acclaimed episode of Daredevil: Born Again mainly unfolds on two parallel stories: on the one hand we have Wilson Fisk, aka Kingpin, aka new Mayor of New York, who is trying to resolve several bureaucratic issues related to his political office and the private problems of his marriage to Vanessa; on the other we have Matt Murdock, which instead is divided between investigating the death of White Tiger and avoiding investigating within his soul, still mourning the death of Foggy. The remote development/comparison between Daredevil and Kingpin, or rather between Matt and Wilson who try to escape in every way from their respective ‘secret identities’, is one of the fundamental traits of Daredevil: Born Again, and this episode makes it stand out like never before. Both strive to fight from within the system to assert their reasons and pursue their goals, but both struggle to maintain control.

Clarifier, in this sense, is the return of Punisher by Jon Bernthal: Matt visits him because the cartridge case of the blow that killed White Tiger had the logo of the Punisher skull imprinted on the metal. Frank confirms that these are ‘fan cops’ with whom he has nothing to do, but soon the scene between the two turns into a comparison of the philosophies that separate Daredevil and Punisher: among the best things ever written in the MCU. The bet also introduces Muse, the masked serial killer who is terrorizing New York, and ends with yet another parallelism between Wilson and Matt: on the one hand, Kingpin reveals that he has taken Alan, a former lover of Vanessa, hostage, who holds in a cage in his secret lair; on the other Matt keeps the Devil in a cage, with many Daredevil masks and various equipment hidden in a small dojo above the roof of his apartment.