#daredevil born again 1.02

[marvelous-bamf]

its still so fucking funny that those two cops got their shit absolutely demolished by a lawyer with no light perception and they just shrugged and went

[ceterisparibus116]

More detailed thoughts:

N, M, & P (plus Kirsten!) had adorable dialogue and I was so happy just watching them all together.

Opening fight scene didn't feel very real; the hits didn't seem to land despite Matt getting stabbed multiple times.

Yep. That Thing happened.

Matt giving a victim impact statement. Oh my gosh. Matt, a defense attorney, giving a victim impact statement and asking for the judge to sentence Dex to the fullest extent of the law.

Seriously I cannot overstate the power of that. Matt, who is devoted to the belief in redemption even for people who have done horrible things, having to sit in the chair (perhaps the same chair in which victims have sat while he cross-examined them) and testify about what it's like to be one of the people to whom a horrible thing has been done.

Matt's reaction when the judge sentenced Dex to multiple life sentences. Consecutive. CONSECUTIVE.

Matt and Karen. Oh, that was heartbreaking. But I get it. He abandoned her, then she abandoned him. And it's awful but it's real. And whenever one of them tries to reach out, the other has their walls up. It was painful. But it felt so real.

All the Fisk stuff. It's not the most gripping thing in the world, but I don't mind. The OG show took time to lay the foundation for Fisk's rise(s) to power, and that paid off. I'm optimistic here.

Kirsten! Kirsten my ABSOLUTE BELOVED.

That said, I think my new favorite character is The Investigator. He's so like the investigator in my office. I'm like Matt, constantly going: "I have to pursue this case! I know I'll probably lose, but I have to try! It's the Right Thing To Do! ... ... ... Btw could you please miraculously find this witness for me, please?" and then my Investigator grumbles but he always manages to pull it off.

Heather is so sweet and happy and smart and she makes Matt laugh and it's gonna hurt so badly when things go wrong for the two of them.

Also it's funny bc I've been shipping Matt with therapy for forever and now...well...

White Tiger! White Tiger! White Tiger!

PARALLELS. White Tiger and his wife, Matt and Heather, Fisk and Vanessa...THE PARALLELS.

THE 404b AND 403 ANALYSES IN THE MOTION IN LIMINE OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY GOSH OH MY -

Matt standing outside the church and just...just...longing? Be still, my heart.

The portrayal of law enforcement was fascinating. You have the corruption, but you also have characters like the commissioner who is standing up to Fisk. Is he standing up to Fisk only because Fisk killed cops, or because it's the right thing to do?

Matt like "Please, don't do this, please, don't do this" when he knows he's going to beat the corrupt cops up and he genuinely doesn't want to but then they push him and the switch gets flipped and aaaaaaaah. Now that felt like a real fight scene.

We are so back.

[ceterisparibus116]

The prosecutor's response kills me.

Judge, are you hearing this?

I am tremendously entertained by Matt Murdock very grimly and seriously arguing, "Your Honor, he wasn't even wearing his magical amulet"

[chappellsroans]

Daredevil: Born Again (2025 - ) 1.01 - 1.02 + text posts

[linusbenjamin]

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN 1.02 / Optics

[djo]

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN 1.02: Optics

[faithbetryin]

"THE RULE OF LAW WILL RETURN TO NEW YORK CITY."

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN, 1.02 "OPTICS"

[ceeyoutea]

CHARLIE COX as MATT MURDOCK

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN 1.02 'Optics' (2025 - )

[dancy-hugh]

CHARLIE COX as MATT MURDOCK/DAREDEVIL

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN (2025-)

1.02 - Optics

[moiraines]

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN (2025–) 1.02: OPTICS

[ceterisparibus116]

he WAsn'T EVen WearInG hIS maGICal AmUlet

I can't. I have to do an actual explanation of why this analysis was brilliant.

So the motion in limine is actually a combination of a motion in limine brought by the Defense (with the goal of excluding reference to Hector's other life) and a hearing on the prosecutor's intent to use evidence of the defendant's prior wrongs at trial.

Matt is arguing under what's commonly known as 403* (the rule that excludes relevant evidence if its probative value is substantially* outweighed by the danger of undue prejudice).

The prosecutor, however, is arguing under what's commonly known as 404* (the rule which permits the state to introduce evidence or prior wrongs as long as the evidence is not being introduced to argue that the defendant has a propensity for such wrongdoing).

Whenever a prosecutor wants to introduce evidence of prior bad acts, the defense attorney hackles bristle. "But Your Honor! The jury is supposed to determine whether this particular defendant committed that particular crime on that particular occasion against that particular victim. Whatever other misbehavior my client gets up to at other times is irrelevant. Clearly the prosecutor is just trying to sneak in a propensity argument, and suggest to the jury that my client has a propensity for wrongdoing and therefore should be convicted of the crime at hand without sufficient evidence!"

To which the prosecutor responds: "I would never. I am using this evidence for some other purpose, not propensity." What purpose might that be? Literally anything the prosecutor can think of. Because unlike what a defense attorney tried to argue literally today, Rule 404 provides examples of possible non-propensity uses of evidence, but does not exclude other possible non-propensity uses.

Literally, the only limit is the prosecutor's creativity, and what the judge condones.

So, what non-propensity uses does the Hawk have for the evidence of Hector's alter ego?

A pattern of behavior;

Motive ("that drove Hector Ayala to kill Officer [?] on that subway platform")

Pattern of behavior here might be referring to a plan? Idk, but "plan" often comes into play when identity is at issue, e.g. "the defendant was caught last year stealing from a bank last year using this special computer software that no one else owns and now this latest bank was burgled with the same software, which is evidence that the defendant is also the person responsible for the latest burglary." But Hector's identity isn't at issue here; everyone knows he was the guy on the platform. So that's not a very strong argument to introduce evidence of prior wrongdoing, which still has to survive the 403 analysis, and it's harder for evidence to survive that when its probative value is weakened.

I think the stronger argument is #2: motive to kill (or, put another way, absence of mistake or accident).

So how is a judge to determine whether evidence is really being introduced to show propensity (inadmissible) vs something like motive (admissible)? Well. If you have one instance in which the defendant appears to be deliberately targeting people to receive extrajudicial violence, and you have a second instance in which the defense is trying to argue that the defendant just stumbled upon a scene of violence and jumped in to protect the victim...you want to determine which facts create either similarities or distinctions between the two instances.

Such as...hypothetically...the presence or absence of a magical amulet.

*Note that New York refuses to be like the rest of the nation and has their own fancy numbering system for their rules of evidence, so 403 is actually 4.06 (and they don't actually include the "substantially" adjective which! I am shocked! And appalled!) and 404 is actually 4.38.

[lightgamble]

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN | 1.01, 1.02 & 1.03

I'm not him anymore. And, I won't let myself be.

[marveldaily]

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN 1.02 / Optics

[theolderguards]

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN (2025) | 1.02 - Optics

[linusbenjamin]

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN 1.02 / Optics

[djo]

And impossible odds work is what we do here.

DAREDEVIL: BORN AGAIN 1.02: Optics