DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN - Episode 8 Review "Isle Of Joy"

Episode eight of Daredevil: Born Again, Isle of Joy, is as brutal as it is operatic, peeling back the veil on the true cost of power in a city that’s already bleeding. If the last episode gave us a brief glimmer of agency—Glenn firing the shot, BB whispering truth—this chapter is about the hammer coming down in retaliation. And it's Fisk holding the handle.

We begin with Dex. Moved from solitary confinement to general population on Fisk’s orders, the implication is immediate: something is about to break. And break it does. But this is not just another Fisk chess move. This is escalation. A test. A warning. Something in Dex has always felt volatile, but here, it feels like we're watching a spark introduced to an oxygen tank.

Fisk is the conductor here, orchestrating more than just violence—he’s manipulating narrative, loyalty, and image. In one stroke, he reveals to Vanessa his long-implied imprisonment of Adam, then calmly watches as she kills him. There’s something chilling about how matter-of-fact it is. Vanessa isn’t shocked. She doesn’t hesitate. She steps into the violence like it was always waiting for her.

The symbolic rewards come quickly. Blake gets a promotion: Deputy Mayor of Communications. It’s a win not just for him, but for Fisk’s broader narrative strategy. Every move he makes now is public relations theatre. And when he invites Heather Glenn to the Black & White Ball, it doesn’t read as a gesture of goodwill. It’s a power flex. A dare.

Meanwhile, Matt is cracking at the edges. His discovery that Glenn is Fisk’s patient is not just a professional complication—it’s an emotional gut punch. She’s not just anyone to him. And now he sees her in a space he can’t reach. Their clash over the AVTF and anti-vigilante policy is no longer a philosophical debate; it’s a rupture.

At Josie’s, Matt pieces together that Foggy wasn’t just out drinking the night he died—he was celebrating. That realisation hurts. It turns grief into rage. Foggy had a win. He had joy. And someone took it from him.

So Matt turns to Dex. Not for justice. For confirmation. And when he doesn’t get what he wants, he lashes out. It’s one of the rawest Daredevil moments this season—not a man in control, but a man being swallowed by the need to make pain equal. The scene crackles with an ugliness that feels completely earned.

Of course, Dex doesn’t stay down. He kills his doctor and a guard and escapes. And just like that, another ghost is loosed into the city.

The Ball, when it comes, is drenched in symbolism. It’s not just an event. It’s a coronation. Fisk moving among the city’s elite like he already owns them. His blackmail of Jack Duquesne, now confirmed to be the vigilante Swordsman, is just the most obvious power play. Everyone at that party owes him something. Everyone is compromised.

Except BB. Still carrying the sting of Blake’s threats, she plays it quiet, but her conversation with Gallo hints at a new alliance forming. She knows Fisk killed her uncle. She knows the AVTF is a front. And unlike everyone else in the room, she doesn’t want to survive the game. She wants to flip the board.

But the true highlight is Matt confronting Vanessa. He’s figured it out: she hired Dex. Not Fisk. Her. It’s a shift that changes everything. And Vanessa doesn’t flinch. She doesn’t deny. She doesn’t gloat. She accepts it with terrifying clarity. If Fisk is the brain of this operation, Vanessa is quickly becoming its heart—cold, steady, merciless.

Then Dex crashes the party.

He shoots at Fisk. And Matt, ever the martyr, leaps in front of the bullet.

The moment plays out in slow horror. There’s no triumphant music. No cheers. Just a sickening stillness. The hero falls. The crowd gasps. And Fisk’s empire doesn’t crumble. It holds.

Heather Glenn watches, stunned. BB watches, helpless. Vanessa watches, unmoved. And Fisk? He calculates.

Isle of Joy might be the most ironic title of the season. There is no joy here. Just blood, lies, and theatre. This is the moment where everything slows to let us really see what the show has been saying all along: Power isn’t seized with violence alone. It’s sustained through performance, through narrative, through silence.

And now Daredevil is silenced.

What happens next doesn’t feel like setup for a finale. It feels like aftermath. Because if the show is bold enough to leave its hero bleeding in front of a room full of enemies, there’s no telling how much darker this can get.

One thing's for sure:

We’re not crawling toward an ending. We’re plummeting.