Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Kills Off A Major Marvel TV Character – SlashFilm

Spoilers for “Daredevil: Born Again” season 2, episode 5 follow.

Can a TV series have the exact same cliffhanger ending twice in a row? Well, “Daredevil: Born Again” just did. The season has teased that Mayor Wilson Fisk’s (Vincent D’Onofrio) would be fighting in a charity boxing match. When it finally happened in the season’s fourth episode, “Gloves Off,” both Matt Murdock/Daredevil (Charlie Cox) and the vigilante marksman Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter/Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) crashed the party. 

Bullseye threw one of his usual impromptu projectiles (a glass ornament) at Fisk’s wife, Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer), after she pushed past her guards and pulled a gun on Bullseye. Vanessa hit Bullseye in the torso, but Kingpin smashed the glass mid-air with his boxing championship belt. A great save … except one of the shattered shards went straight into Vanessa’s head. “Gloves Off” ended with Vanessa collapsing in the ring, cradled by Fisk, as her head gushed blood. You could be forgiven for thinking that was Vanessa’s death scene, but the latest episode, “The Grand Design,” reveals that she was rushed to a hospital, alive but still in peril.

Fisk, both a devoted husband and a vile criminal, stays by Vanessa’s side. Flashbacks set during the very first season of “Daredevil” also remind us how they first met. Midway through the episode, Vanessa stabilizes, and it appears she might pull through. But at the end of the episode, she flatlines and (unless the show is about to pull a second fake-out) dies. 

Wilson and Vanessa’s ultimate dream of a Fisk dynasty has also died, as “Born Again” will now feature a Kingpin deprived of that which he loves the most.

Vanessa has been intrinsic to Kingpin’s storyline on “Daredevil” from the beginning. As this episode reminds us in those aforementioned flashbacks, she began as an art dealer who Wilson was smitten with. They first went out in the series’ fourth episode, “In The Blood.” Kingpin’s most infamous act of violence, beating one of his men to death with a car door, was provoked by the man interrupting Fisk and Vanessa’s romantic evening.

Over the course of that first season, Fisk brought Vanessa more and more into his criminal life. She was absent in the second season, hidden overseas while her beau was locked up, but she returned in “Daredevil” season 3. Vanessa officially made herself a power player in the Kingpin’s empire by ordering the assassination of FBI agent Ray Nadeem (Jay Ali), while she and Wilson tied the knot in series finale “A New Napkin.”

The Fisks faced marital troubles in “Daredevil: Born Again,” complete with a “Sopranos”-style mobsters-in-therapy subplot, but emerged united (to the detriment of New York). Their marriage has always been intertwined with violence — let’s not forget that Dex and Daredevil also crashed their wedding in “A New Napkin,” turning the happiest day of their lives into a violent spectacle. As William Shakespeare wrote in the most tragic love story of all, “Romeo & Juliet,” violent delights have violent ends.

Vanessa has always known the kind of man who Wilson was, and the closer to him she got, the more her caution faded. Her death is the inevitable consequence of making herself part of a criminal empire.

Remember, “Daredevil: Born Again” season 1 revealed it was Vanessa who hired Bullseye to assassinate Matt’s law partner, Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson). Now, Bullseye has taken a loved one from both Daredevil and the Kingpin.

That’s not to let Wilson Fisk off here, though. Way back in “Daredevil” season 3, Fisk manipulated the psychologically fragile Dex (then an FBI agent) into becoming his assassin. Now, Dex wants not just revenge, but absolution. He’s convinced himself that he and Daredevil are allies, and he thinks killing the Fisks will balance his karma. Back in this season’s second episode “Shoot the Moon,” Dex even entered a church and discussed his spiritual needs with a seminarian (priest in training) there, paralleling Daredevil’s own Catholic guilt.

How Vanessa died carries plenty of symbolism condemning Wilson, too. The ornament Bullseye threw at her was a glass model of Fisk, surrounded by glass skyscrapers with a promise of New York City being “Born Again.” Fisk’s criminal empire is what killed Vanessa, and he put her in the line of fire. Him smashing the ornament, too, is what gave Vanessa her fatal wound; Fisk would never intentionally hurt Vanessa, but his actions did regardless.

Knowing Fisk, he’ll probably bury any guilt and instead channel his grief into rage. Conversely, Daredevil turns the other cheek. The flashbacks in “The Grand Design” also include Matt remembering his early law days with Foggy, and how Foggy thought that even bad people need second chances. Daredevil is now in the unenviable position of stopping his two worst enemies from killing each other. Even though Matt Murdock dresses like the Devil, it’s a Catholic martyr complex that pushes him forward.

“Daredevil: Born Again” is streaming on Disney+.