WARNING: SPOILERS for Daredevil: Born Again episode 8 ahead.
In a show where multiple storylines seemingly scatter throughout a season, following their own path, sometimes meeting but often diverging again, all tends to come together at an explosive end. Such is the penultimate episode of Daredevil: Born Again -- where all characters attend the mayor's ball that ends, as expected, in disaster.
We should have figured, of course, that a nine-episode run without a back-to-back finale would mean the existence of a cliffhanger so frustrating that many of us -- perhaps only myself -- may have actually yelled at the screen as the credits rolled.
Frustrating, mind you, in the way these things are meant to be felt. We're supposed to be mortified that we have to wait another week to know how all this will come to a close -- and whether or not another cliffhanger will await. The age of forced episode-binging is slowly coming to an end with a welcome return to weekly viewing. Let us not forget that shouting at the credits with seven days of waiting in front of us used to be normal. It should be celebrated.
This show's cliffhangers have been on point from the beginning -- though the two-episode premiere smudged that first one a bit, as such premieres always do. But this one in particular hit different -- understandably so -- because of the building tension throughout as every character we've encountered thus far (those of them still living) gathered in the presence of Mayor Fisk and company.
With an escaped prisoner lurking in the shadows -- the same one Matt has harbored destructive anger toward for over a year -- and the revelation that BB's motives are personal, her methods more sinister than we thought, we're only just discovering how interconnected all this really is. Heather is dangerously close to learning Matt's secret, and Vanessa is just as guilty as her husband in more ways than one. But despite Matt's attempted heroism in the episode's final moments, we still don't have all the answers. All is as it should be, even this late in the game.
And what a dangerous game it is. Fisk's task force is running wild, the city's only possible hope is seemingly down for the count (though certainly not out), and no one is safe. Not even Fisk. Not even from those he may have thought he was protecting himself from.
There's plenty still to learn in the finale. But there's a good chance we'll all finish that with more questions than we had before. As is the way with these things: Whether more episodes are in the works or not, secrets are always bound to linger just on the edges of the screen in case the demand for more does yield just that.