REVIEW: Daredevil: Born Again – Season 1, Episode 4, “Sic Semper Systema”

Television Reviews

“Sic Semper Systema” has one great scene, one good scene, and a whole lot of boring, useless, infuriating crap. It’s maddening to see what’s become of Daredevil under Marvel’s tight control, watching Born Again sap all the soul and excitement out of what was a fantastic TV series on Netflix. But here we are, with Matt Murdock celebrating crime, Wilson Fisk humiliating himself, and both men allowing themselves to be judged by people they should be condemning, all amid a constant barrage of bad humor and annoying new characters. But that one great scene makes you wonder whether or not it’s worth all the bad… or if it will be eventually.

As he looks into Hector Ayala’s murder, Matt defends a repeat offender looking at a thirty-day lockup for robbing a convenience store. Fisk sees nothing but bureaucratic red tape when he plans to renovate the Red Hook docks; he and Vanessa continue going to counseling and face Vanessa’s affair. A mysterious figure dressed in white carries bodies around in the sewers.

“Sic Semper Systema” opens with Matt at the coroner’s office looking at Hector Ayala’s body, facing his latest failure. Most importantly, he faces it by seeing it through the eyes of Hector’s niece, who asks to see the body. As the girl cries and bemoans the injustice of Hector’s murder and the likelihood that the people who did it – almost certainly cops – will get away with it, Matt is once again presented with a tragedy that could have been averted if he were doing his job. Hector made it clear last week that he had become a vigilante because Daredevil had abandoned New York; now, Hector is dead, and countless other people will probably die because of Matt’s inaction. Meanwhile, Mayor Fisk’s plans to revitalize the docks in Red Hook (a waterfront area in Brooklyn almost directly across from Lower Manhattan, if you’re not from New York) are scuttled not just because of the usual government bureaucracy but because the crime syndicates are fighting each other for control now that the Kingpin is gone. Once more, the connection between both men is drawn, with Matt and Fisk finding their new callings halted because they refuse to be their true selves. Matt Murdock, legal defender, is just as much a mask as Mayor Wilson Fisk is, and the real hero and villain are bursting at the seams to be unleashed once again, with New York suffering while they’re contained.

***SPOILERS***

Unfortunately, most of “Sic Semper Systema” is bogged down with a bunch of diversionary nonsense. Matt must defend a chronically lawbreaking thug who was arrested for robbing a convenience store, which is the umpteenth time he’s done it. He demands probation, which Matt assures him he won’t get, and even when Matt gets his sentence reduced from thirty days to ten (which will only be seven with time served), the man still isn’t happy, and he gives Matt a sob story about how the last time he was sentenced, he lost his food stamps. And, of course, Matt ultimately agrees with him. I’m sorry, but am I supposed to feel a shred of sympathy for this ungrateful dirtbag? Not once does he acknowledge that this is all his fault for stealing. Oh, that’s right, I forgot: he wanted dessert and couldn’t get it, so he stole it. I left out the “I have a sweet tooth” clause in the criminal code that okays theft. (I live in New York, where this sort of thing is being practiced; it doesn’t work very well.) And perhaps even worse, while Matt argues against stiffer penalties as a deterrent to crime, he offers no solution in their place. So, is this guy just allowed to steal whatever he wants? I know the idea is that the system is the villain, but I fail to see how in this case. And since it amounts to nothing anyway, this entire plotline feels like a waste of time meant to do nothing but let the writers preach about legalizing crime.

Instead of the stupid robbery stuff, “Sic Semper Systema” would have been better served having Matt focus on investigating Hector’s murder, which takes up much less screen time because it’s more interesting and important to the story and characters. Matt’s first attempt is to provoke the cop who tried to kill the witness in Hector’s case (who ended up changing his statement anyway). At first, this seemed like a dumb thing for Matt to do, but he ultimately wanted to hear the cop’s heartbeat, so I get it. And from what I can tell – not being Daredevil and all – the cop really didn’t kill Hector. Matt then visits the crime scene and finds the shell casing from the bullet, which leads him to… the Punisher! This is Frank Castle’s first appearance since Netflix, and I probably don’t have to tell you that his meeting with Matt is the great scene I was talking about. Frank assures Matt that he didn’t kill Hector, and then they have another of their philosophical arguments about vigilante justice and the value of killing bad guys. But what makes this scene is how Frank is able to get Matt to face his loss more than anyone else, and it’s by being his moral counterpoint. Frank knows what Matt wants to do, and he knows how unsatisfied he is with the “justice” that was dealt out to Foggy’s killer. The title “Sic Semper Systema” translates from Latin to “Thus always to the system;” it’s a play on the phrase “Sic semper tyrannis,” or “Thus always to tyrants,” which means that tyrants will inevitably fall. So, too, will the system, and Matt realizes this by talking to Frank; sooner or later, a correction will have to arise in the form of Daredevil – and, for the criminal system, the Kingpin. When Matt starts crying, is he crying for Foggy’s life or the inevitability of Foggy’s worldview being destroyed in favor of Matt’s? Jon Bernthal and Charlie Cox are on fire here, and the scene is invigorating, exciting, satisfying, and frustrating because this is how good all of Daredevil: Born Again should be.

But will it be this way again? I don’t want to get my hopes up – after these first four episodes, I’ll be damned if I believe too hard in anything Marvel offers – but I think there’s a chance things will get better. Many have assumed that these early episodes are essentially what the show was going to be before the creative shift, that Marvel kept a lot of the garbage that was already filmed and allowed the new team to fix the rest of the show. I don’t know if that’s true, but I think it’s possible that new scenes were sprinkled into the beginning. For example, we know that Foggy, Karen, and Bullseye’s appearances in the first episode were added after the fact because new showrunner Dario Scardapane knew that we at least had to see Foggy die rather than have it happen off-screen, as was originally planned. This doesn’t excuse how bad the execution or storytelling were, but at least it’s slightly better. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Punisher scene in this episode were also added because the change in quality is so stark. Maybe… just maybe… probably not, but maybe… there’s a talentless hack bump we have to get over, and the show will improve. We’ll see.

Anyways, tangent over. Wilson Fisk has some bad scenes of his own in “Sic Semper Systema,” particularly when he’s listening to a grade school music class sing “We Built This City” by Starship, which is… odd. What the hell kind of school would have the kids singing a rock song like that? None, of course, but the show wanted a few cheap laughs. Then, inexplicably, the joke is repeated when Fisk attends a ceremony for Latvian Heritage Day when a Latvian choir sings the same song. This is what the show thinks we want to see Wilson Fisk doing: cringing at bad singing. Aside from this, he attends another marriage counseling session where Vanessa talks rapturously about her affair while he has to hear why it was all his fault. (I was amused to hear Dr. Glenn ask Vanessa if she felt safe with Fisk all of a sudden; it’s like everyone on the show has somehow forgotten Fisk is the Kingpin.) And Fisk makes sure to tell Vanessa that she’s “even more extraordinary” than she used to be now that she’s cheated on him. Aside from the fact that Vanessa is acting like a completely different character, it’s ridiculous and pathetic to see Fisk kissing her ass like this after her betrayal. Fortunately, the ending shows what he did – and is continuing to do – to her paramour, suggesting that the Kingpin is still alive and well, and the corresponding shots of Matt looking at his masks and practicing with his billy club indicates that so is the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen. Maybe we’ll see him come out sometime, along with Daredevil and the Punisher; it’s not as fascinating as marriage counseling or legal wheeling and dealing, but I wouldn’t mind if they gave superhero action a try at some point.

Let us know what you thought of “Sic Semper Systema” in the comments!

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