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.
Picking up where last week’s chapter ended, the Marvel TV show’s latest entry includes a character cameo that I suspect few fans would’ve expected to see. Full spoilers immediately follow for this season’s penultimate installment, so turn back now if you haven’t watched it yet.
Who is Brett Mahoney in Daredevil: Born Again season 2 episode 7?
For those who watched Daredevil during its three-season run on Netflix, Brett Mahoney needs no introduction. The fact that he shows up in the imprisoned Karen Page’s time of need, and helps her to briefly reunite with Matt Murdock to come up with a plan to find her innocent of the charges leveled against her, is all that some fans will need in order to remember that Mahoney is one of the good guys.
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There will be Disney+ viewers who didn’t watch Daredevil and, by proxy, have no idea who he is, though, so let’s take a brief trip down memory lane.
In the Netflix series, Mahoney was a New York City police officer who regularly aided Matt Murdock and Franklin ‘Foggy’ Nelson with their legal cases. A firm ally of the pair, Mahoney would pass on crucial evidence and/or information to them in order for them to successfully defend their innocent clients in court, and bring criminals to justice. That included helping to bring down Wilson Fisk, and demolish organized gangs including The Hand in The Defenders, aka the Netflix Marvel-Verse’s crossover miniseries.
One of the few honest cops operating in the infamous New York district known as Hell’s Kitchen, Mahoney also occasionally helped out Daredevil, aka Murdock’s crime-fighting alter-ego. His relationship with the eponymous hero was an uneasy one, though, with the duo only seeing eye-to-eye over the shared vision to keep 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, with the NYPD officer closing the Jigsaw case following his demise at Castle’s hands.
Why has Brett Mahoney only just shown up in Daredevil: Born Again?
Considering he’s a long-time associate of Murdock and company, it’s odd that Mahoney has only just re-entered the fold in Daredevil: Born Again. After all, Murdock — as his civilian self and vigilante alias — has had run-ins with the NYPD and other law enforcing agencies, such as Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force, both on New York’s streets and its police precinct.
Surely, then, Murdock and Mahoney would have crossed paths at some point? Maybe, but there’s a very easy explanation as to why they haven’t reunited until now.
It’s no secret that, initially, this Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) TV show was going to be a wholly separate entity to its Netflix predecessor. However, following a near-complete creative overhaul of Daredevil: Born Again in October 2023, Marvel decided to more closely align this show with its forebear.
Sure, the decision to turn Born Again into a Daredevil sequel series birthed a Frankenstein’s monster of a first season, the story, character arcs, and general tone of which were all uneven. Nonetheless, that creative reset now allows characters like Foggy, Page, Jessica Jones, and Mahoney among others to be permanent fixtures in the MCU. We’ve recently learned that more Netflix Marvel-Verse characters will appear in Born Again season 3, too, 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 simultaneously bring all of them back. But, with Born Again firmly established on one of the best streaming services in Disney+, its second season has the time and space — as will its third season — to finally welcome back individuals like Mahoney into the fold.
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