Daredevil: Born Again season 2 episode 7 is out now on Disney+ — and it reunites us with another fan-favorite character from the titular hero’s days on Netflix.
As last week’s chapter ended, the Marvel TV show’s latest entry features a character cameo that I suspect few fans would have expected to see. Full spoilers immediately follow for this season’s penultimate installmentso come back now if you haven’t seen it yet.
Who is Brett Mahoney in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 7?
For those who watched Daredevil Brett Mahoney needs no introduction during its three seasons on Netflix. The fact that he shows up in the incarcerated Karen Page’s distress and helps her briefly reunite with Matt Murdock to come up with a plan to find her innocent of the charges brought against her is all some fans need to remember that Mahoney is one of the good guys.
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There will be Disney+ viewers who didn’t see Daredevil and who by proxy have no idea who he is, so let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.
In the Netflix series, Mahoney was a New York City police officer who regularly helped Matt Murdock and Franklin ‘Foggy’ Nelson with their trials. A staunch ally of the couple, Mahoney would pass on crucial evidence and/or information to them in order for them to defend their innocent clients in court and bring criminals to justice. That included helping bring down Wilson Fisk and taking down organized gangs, including The Hand in The defendersalso known as the Netflix Marvel-Verse crossover miniseries.
One of the few honest cops operating in the infamous New York district known as Hell’s Kitchen, Mahoney also occasionally assisted Daredevil, aka Murdock’s crime-fighting alter-ego. However, his relationship with the eponymous hero was uneasy as the duo only saw eye to eye over the shared vision of keeping New York City safe.
Daredevil isn’t the only vigilante Mahoney was associated with. After being promoted to detective sergeant, he was also tasked with tracking down Frank Castle, aka The Punisher, and the anti-hero’s friend-turned-foe, Billy Russo/Jigsaw. The last time we saw Mahoney in Netflix’s Marvel-Verse was in The Punisher season 2 finale where the NYPD officer closes the Jigsaw case after his death at Castle’s hands.
Why has Brett Mahoney only just appeared in Daredevil: Born Again?
Considering he’s a longtime associate of Murdock and company, it’s odd that Mahoney has only recently re-entered the fold. Daredevil: Born Again. After all, Murdock—as his civilian self and vigilante alias—has clashed with the NYPD and other law enforcement agencies, such as Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force, both on the streets of New York and in its police district.
Surely Murdock and Mahoney would have crossed paths at some point? Maybe, but there’s a very easy explanation why they haven’t been reunited until now.
It’s no secret that this Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV show was initially supposed to be a completely separate entity from its Netflix predecessor. However, after an almost complete creative overhaul of Daredevil: Born Again in October 2023, Marvel decided to align this show more closely with its forebears.
Of course, the decision to turn Born again into one Daredevil sequel series birthed a Frankenstein’s monster from a first season where the story, character arcs, and general tone were uneven. Nevertheless, the creative reset now allows characters like Foggy, Page, Jessica Jones, and Mahoney, among others, to be permanent fixtures in the MCU. We recently learned that several Netflix Marvel-Verse characters will appear in the Born again season 3 as well, with Luke Cage and Danny Rand also set to join the party.
The Marvel Phase 6 show’s debut season didn’t have room to bring them all back at the same time. But with Born again firmly established on one of the top streaming services in Disney+, its second season has the time and space — just as its third season will — to finally welcome the likes of Mahoney back into the fold.
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