The race is on between Matt Murdock a.k.a. Daredevil and Mayor Fisk's Anti-Vigilante Task Force to take down a serial killer/street artist called "Muse" in the seventh episode of Daredevil: Born Again. Meanwhile, therapist extraordinaire Dr. Heather Glenn gets in a tight scrape that turns her intellectual curiosity about masked vigilantes to actual animosity in "Art for Art's Sake."
At the beginning of the episode, Buck and Daniel get word that Angela has been telling people that Daredevil saved her from Muse in episode 6. They tell the mayor, and the former Kingpin all but shudders at the news that his nemesis is officially back. Later, he rants to Buck about how Daredevil destroyed his criminal organization. But before taking action against Matt directly, he has to tie up some loose ands and maybe even catch a criminal.
How is Matt Murdock coping with being "back" as Daredevil?
Not well! At the beginning of the episode, the former hero of Hell's Kitchen sadly tries to wash off the blood and Catholic guilt from the night before. Even shower sex with his girlfriend Heather Glenn can't cheer him up. She doesn't have all of the information about where he got his bruises, but she is worried about the trauma he's carrying and his possible proclivity for self-harm. They're also already at the "sweetie" and "I love you" stage relationship-wise, by the way. Not surprising for adults, to be fair, just a little surprising for the will-they-won't-they world of television. Even Matt can tell that something is "fake" about his normie life.
Cherry, who knows Matt is Daredevil, is a little more pointed. He criticizes Matt for blowing up his life with vigilantism. Later in the episode, Matt's law partner Kirsten McDuffie criticizes Cherry because the two of them are clearly keeping secrets from her. They're both out of luck, however, because Matt talks to Angela and goes back to Muse's lair to investigate the killer artist's sketches for clues himself. Between Daredevil's skills, the AVTF's brute force, and the regular old NYPD detectives' resources, Muse's days are numbered.
What is Muse's secret identity?
His name is Bastian Cooper, the seemingly shy kid who asked Heather if she'd take him on as a patient at her book signing in episode 2. We finally see him at therapy in this episode. As the session continues, it becomes clear to the audience and Heather herself that he's the killer. In terms of intensity, Bastian goes from zero to 11. I wish there had been at least a scene or two of him having a normal therapy session with Heather in one of the previous episodes. That said, the way "Art For Art's Sake" goes back and forth between Rivera briefing Mayor Fisk about how Bastian killed his taekwondo coach when the suspect was a teenager and Bastian himself telling Heather about the incident in his own words is really compelling and creepy.
Then Bastian uses his own bloody nose to sketch his Muse mask on a notebook. There's zero doubt about who he is now. He ties Heather up and starts extracting her blood for his next masterpiece. The kid also puts on his Muse mask in order to do so and insists she stop calling him Bastian. It's interesting fodder for the book Heather wants to write on "projected personas" that Bastian needs to get into character, so to speak, to do a murder. She simply has to survive this first.
How does Daredevil find Heather in time?
If only Muse wasn't such a good artist. In the underground subway tunnel lair, Matt pages through Muse's sketches and finds a few of Heather. He's somehow able to recognize Heather's face by tracing it with his fingers. This is so unserious I almost respect it. He takes the Lord's name in vain (!) and runs to Heather's office. He gets there right before Fisk's cops and puts Muse's taekwondo skills to task.
It's not uncommon for supervillains to kidnap the girlfriends of superheroes and use their livelihoods as leverage. It's an annoying trope and kind of takes the appeal out of dating a vigilante despite their physical fitness and strong moral code, to be honest. But here's what's different: Muse and Heather have no idea that Daredevil is Matt Murdock, and therefore (or even in spite of that) Muse is not trying to provoke or motivate Daredevil by kidnapping Heather. He has other reasons–Heather's first book seems to have unlocked something in him. She's his *gulp* muse.
Alas, Heather cuts herself loose and shoots Muse, killing him. While she saves herself, she unknowingly goes against her boyfriend's "no kill" rule. Daredevil remains a more complicated comic-book story than most, even when some things feel a little rushed and simplified. Plus, you caught how Heather called Muse a coward for hiding his face, right? When she ultimately learns that Matt is Daredevil, this is going to go badly. Her opinion of vigilantes has hit rock bottom and she's going to find out sooner rather than later. Matt called her "Heather" when he was still wearing the suit! (I also really don't like how easily Matt is able to convince her that he's a helpless blind man, but that's another story.)
The press, however, won't be finding out that Daredevil had anything to do with stopping Muse. Fisk puts the responsibility on the AVTF and uses Muse as an excuse to introduce his squad of thugs to the world. He also has Daniel Blake offer BB Urich a job in communications. And by offer, I mean low-key blackmail and threaten her. She's officially going to be the mouthpiece for Fisk's harmful rhetoric.
Finally, did Vanessa order a hit on her husband?
Midway through "Art for Art's Sake," Vanessa meets with Luca in Red Hook. She says he still owes money for breaking the rules. He says he preferred playing by the rules when she was in charge, instead of Fisk, and suggests they need a change. Vanessa doesn't not agree with him. Then, at the end of the episode, she texts Luca the words "he'll be alone" and an address that leads him to a restaurant where Fisk is eating. Only he's not alone. Buck steps out of the shadows and swiftly kills Luca.
Fisk asks that Buck call Vanessa and ask if she wants leftovers. Two things may be happening here. They could have a Mr. and Mrs. Smith thing going on and this could be Fisk bragging to his wife that her assassination attempt on him failed. Or it's entirely possible that Luca was the target all along and Vanessa manipulated him. The couple could have planned this together. Daniel did say his boss was dealing with a "personal matter" that night. I'm leaning towards the latter. Those crazy kids!
