Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Fixes The Show's Most Underused Character

Spoilers for "Daredevil: Born Again" season 2, episode 3 follow.

"Daredevil: Born Again" season 1 opened by killing off Matt Murdock's (Charlie Cox) law partner and best friend, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson). Without Nelson, the law office of Nelson & Murdock was also no more. "Born Again" resumed after a time skip wherein Matt had found a new law partner: Kirsten McDuffie (Nikki M. James), a former New York assistant district attorney turned defense lawyer. 

Kirsten worked alongside Matt when their firm defended Hector Ayala/White Tiger (Kamar de los Reyes) for manslaughter, a story adapted from the "Daredevil" comic arc "Trial of the Century." But to say Kirsten stood in Matt's shadow would be an understatement. She was so sidelined throughout "Born Again" season 1 you started to wonder why she was even in the show. If she was meant to replace Foggy as Matt's partner, she fell short, but it's difficult to even call Kirsten a "bad" character because she got so little screentime to be judged.

"Daredevil: Born Again" season 1 overwent a so-called "creative overhaul" that recut several episodes of the first season, excising some previously-shot footage for new scenes. We still don't know all the exact details on what was changed, but watching the show with that in mind, it feels like most of Kirsten's part was cut down. It's a shame, since she's a fan-favorite comic character who has a lively dynamic with Matt. 

While the new "Born Again" creative team could've discarded Kirsten in season 2 (if she was a holdover from the old team), they've chosen not to. "Born Again" season 2 is giving Kirsten enough focus — with her own subplot defending vigilante Jack Duquesne/Swordsman (Tony Dalton) —  that she actually feels like a main character now.

Since Mayor Wilson Fisk (Vincent D'Onofrio) declared martial law in New York City last season, Matt has gone to ground and is officially a missing person. That's what you do when your archnemesis is the city's mayor and also knows your secret identity, of course. But you know who doesn't know that Matt is Daredevil? Kirsten. (In fairness, Matt was retired from Daredeviling during the year they partnered up.)

Though Kirsten is on Matt's side and is helping Daredevil resist Fisk's regime, she still has the unenviable task of keeping Murdock & McDuffie afloat alone. That'd be difficult enough in good times, but the firm is also dealing with a hostile mayoral administration.

Fisk's "Safer Streets" laws are being used to crack down on civil liberties, especially for people accused of vigilantism. (As "Daredevil: Born Again" has now shown, that charge can even mean "lightly putting your hand on a cop's arm and asking them to stop attacking someone.") Kirsten is only allowed to meet with Duquesne shortly before his trial, and she's blindfolded while being transported to Fisk and his cronies' secret prison. As a vigilante, Duquesne is not allowed a jury trial, but instead faces sentencing by a three-judge panel.

Still, Kirsten isn't backing down. Her old boss, District Attorney Benjamin Hochberg (Benjamin Hickey) shows up to offer her a job and she spurns him. Instead, she helps Daredevil and Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll) find the place where Fisk is holding Duquesne and other prisoners. Hopefully, this isn't the end of "Daredevil: Born Again" giving Kirsten time to shine.

Kirsten's comic counterpart debuted in 2011's "Daredevil" #1, created by Mark Waid and Paolo Rivera. Working as an assistant district attorney, she developed a flirtatious relationship with Matt Murdock (they hooked up before long). The Waid run on "Daredevil" was a tonal break with the most famous "Daredevil" comics; since Frank Miller's definitive 1980s run on "Daredevil," the comic has often been written as a gritty crime story. Miller defined Daredevil as a Catholic and most "Daredevil" stories told since have made Matt's self-inflicted guilt a big theme.

But not the Waid run, which brought "Daredevil" back to being a superhero comic first, with a brighter palette and a sunnier disposition. One of Matt Murdock's most consistent tragedies is his love life and his many dead girlfriends, but Kirsten was a love interest crafted for the new Daredevil. She had a spunky spirit, good humor, and wouldn't put up with Matt's BS. As a fellow lawyer (and a prosecutor), she was his equal and sometimes friendly adversary. 

Unlike the show, rumors of Matt's secret identity had been leaked to the public; a running gag was Kirsten trying to get Matt to admit he's Daredevil. She assumed Matt must be faking his blindness to be Daredevil, so she'd throw small objects at him. Matt could "see" them with his enhanced senses but he had to let Kirsten hit him to not break his cover.

Marvel Comics

I'm still puzzled why "Born Again" used Heather Glenn (Margarita Levieva) as Matt's new love interest when Kirsten was right there. It's good luck for Matt and Karen's relationship it did, because fans probably would've liked a comic-accurate Kirsten too much for her to be a petty romantic rival.

"Daredevil: Born Again" is streaming on Disney+.