Episode four of Daredevil: Born Again, titled Sic Semper Systema (“so always the system”), feels like the kind of episode that finalizes the first part of a story before a major shift in tone and direction takes place. It follows up on the fallout of the murder of Hector last week, while having Matt really challenge his stance and place in the world at that time.

The episode hinges on a few elements that serve as a means to have Matt question the very system he’s trying to uphold and justify not putting the red suit back on to take matters into his own hands. It opens up with Matt confronting Hector’s niece, whose anger and sadness are justifiable. She’s convinced that the NYPD are responsible for the death of her tío, and it doesn’t take a genius to figure that one out. But the system is protecting people in positions of power (a theme that also applies to Fisk), and there’s not much that regular people can do against such power.

In a subplot that at first felt very unneeded, Matt ends up doing some pro bono work for Leroy Bradford, who was caught on camera stealing some caramel corn, with a clerk willing to testify to that, along with the arresting officers. Bradford also seemed to have quite an attitude problem, which made it hard for us to care for him. Why should Matt be trying to get this guy probation when his 25-page-plus rap sheet suggests a pattern of deviant and criminal behaviour?

Despite not getting the probation he requested, Matt secured a ten-day stint, but ends up learning some hard truths about the system and how it’s failed someone like Bradford, who clearly needs help and rehabilitation, not punishment, as the show suggests. His tale of poverty, begging, and ultimately, theft for a dessert, causes doubt and pain for Matt, who ultimately sympathizes and agrees with his client, despite not being able to do anything more.

His pursuit of answers in the death of Hector leads him to recover the missing bullet casing, which rolled down the hill and into a storm drain. The casing had a Punisher skull engraved into it, causing Matt to seek out Frank Castle. The two must’ve had some sort of meeting prior to this show, as Castle refers to Matt as “Red”. I know Castle knows that Matt is Daredevil, but he never shared that knowledge in the Netflix run of Daredevil. Their scene was definitely the highlight of the episode, with Jon Bernthal tapping into that rage and moral grey zone of vigilantism. Seeing these two very violent men have an emotional heart-to-heart with tears and all was interesting, as Matt faces some level of guilt and shame over the death of Foggy. As Castle points out, Matt isn’t even able to say his name.

Castle does confirm that the casing isn’t his and likely came from one of his deranged fans, which means that the meeting was a dead end from an investigation perspective. Hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ve seen of Castle, that said, and how Karen has been absent from the show since the opener, I feel it is a legitimate worry. After coming home to Heather (how long has it been since they met, if they’re living together?), Matt ends up feeling the call to action and begins rooftop training to bring the Devil out once more. Elsewhere in the episode, a new threat emerges with the introduction of Muse, who opens and closes the episode by dragging a victim into his lair to drain their blood, which he then uses for ink. Fisk and Vanessa continue their therapy sessions together, and we learn that he has been keeping Adam as a prisoner as a consequence for the affair he had with Vanessa; something unbeknownst to her. Fisk continues to mirror Matt in many ways, a man in denial of his true self and feels the call to what he knows best, as illustrated by him constantly clenching his hands in moments of stress.

I feel we’ve come to the point of the show where the table has been set, and it’s time for things to really start going. I know that in the classic Born Again comic, Matt barely suits up as Daredevil (by narrative design), but in a show, I think it’s time for the Devil to return to the show properly. I have enjoyed these four episodes, don’t get me wrong, but I think the foundation has been set, and a tonal shift is needed based on what we’ve seen to date. What I find interesting, from what we know of the scrapped original cut of Born Again, was that Kevin Feige, Charlie Cox, and Vincent D’Onofrio were not happy with the original cut and reshot the first four episodes, which featured no Daredevil at all. Apart from the opener, I wonder how different the shows are, considering we’ve had no Devil since, and no Foggy or Karen really either.