Daredevil: Born Again Episode 7 Puts Karen Page on Trial and Ends With Daniel Blake's Death

The penultimate episode of Daredevil: Born Again season 2 arrives packed with consequence: Karen Page is jailed and hauled into a televised public trial under Wilson Fisk's anti-vigilante crackdown, Matt Murdock steps back into a courtroom to defend her, and the episode closes with both a long-awaited hero's return and a character execution that clears the board for the finale.

The Details

Episode 7, titled 'The Hateful Darkness,' centers on Fisk using his Anti-Vigilante Task Force to arrest Karen Page and place her on public trial, according to ComicBookMovie's episode recap. Coverage from Paste Magazine characterizes Fisk's legal offensive against Karen as a calculated trap designed to draw Daredevil out of the shadows and shore up popular support for his crackdown.

The courtroom sequence produces one of the episode's defining moments. With Karen's defense in jeopardy, Matt Murdock steps forward publicly as co-counsel, according to Nexus Point News. The appearance — announced in a line attributed by ComicBookMovie to Kirsten McDuffie, who states 'Matthew Murdock, for the defense, Your Honor' — turns the televised proceeding into a direct challenge to Fisk's authority and the task force's conduct.

While the trial plays out, a separate threat emerges on the other side of the city. Jessica Jones tracks Matt down to warn him that Fisk is planning to assassinate Governor McCaffrey, the official who has been moving to suspend Fisk's power, according to Paste Magazine. The assassination attempt is real, but it is stopped by an unlikely actor: Bullseye, who intervenes and protects the governor as his promised 'one good deed,' per Paste Magazine's recap.

Matt's relationship with Bullseye is terse throughout. IGN's episode review attributes the line 'Go. Disappear. Die. I don't care.' to Matt Murdock when he sends Bullseye out to carry out the redemptive act — a directive that strips any sentimentality from the arrangement and makes clear that Bullseye's cooperation is transactional, not rehabilitative.

The episode's closing sequence delivers two major developments that multiple outlets identify as the critical setup for the season finale. IGN reports that Matt is shot in the leg during the episode's climax and is found in a church by Jessica Jones, whose return to his side marks her definitive re-entry into the story.

Simultaneously, Buck executes Daniel Blake after Blake refuses to hand over BB Urich, according to IGN. Recap coverage from Bam Smack Pow frames Daniel Blake's death and Jessica Jones' return as the episode's two pivotal finale-setting twists — a read shared across multiple outlets that covered the episode.

Context

Season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again has positioned Wilson Fisk's anti-vigilante legislation as the central mechanism through which he consolidates institutional power, with Karen Page's arrest functioning as one visible front in that campaign, according to Paste Magazine's recap analysis. Coverage from ComicBookMovie and IGN consistently presents the Karen trial not as a straightforward prosecution but as a staged public spectacle intended to produce political outcomes for Fisk.

Matt Murdock's willingness to appear in open court as Karen's co-counsel carries obvious risk within that framing — it is a public identification, putting the man and the hero on the same side of the same table in front of cameras, per Nexus Point News. The show has spent much of the season building toward what that exposure costs him.

Jessica Jones' movements this episode position her as both an intelligence conduit — the person who connects Fisk's assassination plan to Matt — and, by the end, as Matt's most immediate ally. IGN's recap notes her return to Matt's side in the church as a closing image, suggesting her role in the finale will be direct rather than peripheral.

What's Next

IGN identifies 'The Hateful Darkness' as the penultimate episode of season 2, with Daniel Blake's death and Jessica Jones' confirmed return to Matt's orbit functioning as the structural setup for the finale. Bam Smack Pow's recap similarly frames Blake's execution as a deliberate clearing of a major secondary antagonist ahead of the season's final episode.

With Bullseye having performed his promised act, Governor McCaffrey alive and still positioned against Fisk, and Matt now exposed both professionally and physically — shot and sheltered in a church — the finale arrives with its central conflicts in place, according to coverage across ComicBookMovie, Paste Magazine, and IGN.