Christian superhero fans may have expected Daredevil: Born Again to soften the religious intensity that defined Netflix’s run. Instead, the second season’s climax arrives with unmistakably biblical imagery—mercy extended to enemies at immense personal cost—spa
For fans who met Matt Murdock’s faith through Netflix, the timeline still feels personal. Daredevil’s third season premiered in October 2018. and in Christ and Pop Culture’s earlier review it was described as “unapologetically religious.” In that final Netflix season. Murdock wrestled deeply with a crisis of faith and the goodness of God—ending with a triumphant restoration of his soul.
When Disney continued the story in Daredevil: Born Again, the shift felt immediate to many viewers. The new showrunners kept Murdock Catholic, and religious easter eggs appeared throughout the first season. But the intense religious debates and faith-fueled soul searching from Netflix had largely disappeared. For some. that made the show’s spiritual core feel like something quietly left behind in favor of a more inclusive audience appeal.
Then the second season reappears with force. A viewer would be forgiven for not expecting the climax to arrive with “very Christian imagery,” and yet it does—turning the question of Christian grace into the season’s central argument.
The thematic center of Daredevil: Born Again’s second season begins to emerge in episode five. “The Grand Design. ” a turning point that changes the emotional temperature of the story. Dex (Bullseye). a villainous hitman who murdered Murdock’s closest friend. Foggy Nelson. has just landed a killing blow on Wilson Fisk’s (the Kingpin) wife. As Fisk’s forces hunt him down, Dex—grievously injured—asks Murdock to let him die. Murdock is almost relieved to do so, after the trail of bodies Dex has left behind.
But memory interrupts certainty. Remembering Foggy’s generous, selfless behavior toward others, Murdock changes course. He shuttles Dex away before Kingpin’s men can catch him, nursing him back to health. Then Murdock goes further—eventually letting Dex go—so he can save New York’s governor from Fisk’s targeting.
Not everyone in Murdock’s orbit agrees. One of his allies pushes back hard, insisting: “You keep choosing the wrong people!. Fisk!. This thing over the people who love you!. […] You let them live and people die.” Murdock answers with a defense that is. technically. true even if it doesn’t feel clean: he claims Dex’s recent kill was an accident. Dex had killed while trying to kill Fisk, and the distinction doesn’t soften the moral weight.
That mercy becomes a thread that pulls through the finale. Fisk’s manipulations are exposed. and the crowd that swarms him is made up of angry New Yorkers intent on beating him to death. From the audience’s chair. rooting for that crowd is almost automatic—viewers have just watched Fisk murder dozens of unarmed civilians. But Murdock steps in. He pushes the civilians aside. saving Fisk’s life. and forces Fisk toward a plea deal and freedom on the condition that he leaves New York forever.
In a moment that lands like an argument with the audience as much as with Fisk. Fisk snarls: “This is your so-called retribution?” and adds. “It means nothing to me.” Murdock answers with a direct question of faith: “What about grace?” Then comes the line that reframes everything: “I believe you love this city. same as me. We have the opportunity to give it peace, even if we have none. That’s grace.”.
The series previously drew similarities between Murdock and Fisk, but now Murdock “owns those similarities” with what’s presented as a new understanding—because his own heart is conflicted in a way that lets him extend grace to his sworn enemy.
By the time the season ends, the show locks the message into imagery. Fisk stands free on a vacant Caribbean beach while Murdock—the heroic figure—ends up behind bars.
This is where the Disney run diverges from the Netflix conclusion. Netflix’s original run culminated in Murdock realizing that Christian grace forbids him from taking someone’s life into his own hands. Disney’s newer run suggests an even bolder idea: that grace requires not just sparing lives. but actively fighting to preserve them. even when it costs something personal.
And that’s where the discomfort sets in—because the show’s mercy comes with a question that believers may not be able to ignore. Some would argue it’s faithful to Scripture. They point to examples like David sparing Saul’s life, not only from himself but also from his men. With enough squinting. the parallels can be drawn: David and Daredevil. Saul and Fisk—each set of figures shaped by a tyrannical ruler and forced into a kind of rebel identity.
But Scripture doesn’t treat every instance of reluctance to kill the same way. The narrative of Scripture. as the piece insists. doesn’t endorse the idea that unrepentant evildoers should be spared from the consequence of death. It also notes there’s no matching depiction of Ehud striving to spare Eglon’s life. or Elijah sparing the child-sacrificing prophets of Baal. David’s reluctance to kill is shown in a favorable light with Saul, but it becomes disastrous with Amnon. The argument is blunt: turning a blind eye to destructive people when you can step in is not the shape of Christian grace the text seems to demand.
If the irritation feels personal. it may be because the story is borrowing from Christ’s parable of the workers who complain about the grace others receive. Within Daredevil: Born Again. the fear is that Murdock’s well-intentioned protection of murderers will have consequences—especially when Dex has expressed a desire to change. yet continues to show glee when he kills. Saving Fisk pushes even further. The show has him refuse to change. and it becomes hard to shake the suspicion that Fisk returns in a third season to manipulate. hurt. and murder again.
From a civilian perspective. the argument in the piece is that Murdock may not have the right to murder. even if he also isn’t the one taking the law into his own hands. It’s presented as one thing to protect people from unauthorized killings; it’s another to protect them from legal consequences. That moves, in this view, outside a healthy understanding of Christian grace.
Yet the closer the viewer looks, the piece suggests the show may be aiming at something deeper than courtroom procedure. Films communicate through more than dialogue—they carry meaning through visual symbols. Those closing shots—Murdock falsely imprisoned and punished while Fisk walks free—read as an allusion to Christ. In that reading. the season ends with one of the most powerful visual references to Christ portrayed across Daredevil’s television runs.
And here the mercy becomes its own challenge. The brazenness of Murdock’s grace may be meant to make viewers gawk at the fact that neither Dex nor Fisk “deserve such unearned favor. ” and to feel the discomfort that their own hearts might resemble the villains they watch. The piece draws a contrast: Christ didn’t wait until people were penitent to deliver them. It argues that Christ’s grace is given to the wicked. the unrepentant. and the degenerate—and that it can truly transform recipients into the people they were originally meant to be.
But it also draws a hard line between divine grace and human imitation. Christ’s grace transforms the heart of the recipient; human grace does not. That leaves believers facing a personal warning: beware of “cheap grace” that leaves consequences off the table when those consequences might be necessary to prevent people—both the recipient and those around them—from being destroyed.
The piece closes where it began, with memory of Netflix’s tone. It says it still misses the deep religious debates Netflix’s run portrayed. Disney’s religious themes are “far more veiled,” but still present if viewers look deeply enough. Daredevil: Born Again may not offer a perfect model for how fallible humans should extend grace. Still. it forces the season—and the audience—into the same spiritual tension: how to balance grace with consequences in everyday life. and how to better appreciate the brazenness of Christ’s grace.
Daredevil: Born Again Matt Murdock Christian grace Foggy Nelson Dex Bullseye Wilson Fisk Kingpin Netflix Daredevil Disney Daredevil Christian superhero Christ and Pop Culture faith representation episode five The Grand Design