Spoilers for the “Daredevil: Born Again” finale follow.
We’ve gone through a season of brutal bad guy beatings, jaw-dropping tragedies, and Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) and Frank Castle (Jon Bernthal) having an unlikely therapy session in “Daredevil: Born Again.” After all has been said and done, though, one sliver of information has alluded both the audience and the Man Without Fear. It’s something you’d imagine Murdock to be far more concerned about from the beginning – forget running for mayor; how in the Hell’s Kitchen did Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) get out of prison in the first place?
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The last time we left Matt and Fisk together, way back in Netflix’s final season of “Daredevil,” one was being carted off in the back of a cop car while the other looked over his little spot in New York City, knowing that the Kingpin would never infect it again. Unfortunately, three years later he was out, making his first appearance in a top-level MCU story with “Hawkeye.” There was no update on Fisk’s goings on since we last saw him. He was simply just there. The same happened in “Echo,” with no one mentioning that the mob boss, who was permanently dressed in white, seemingly had red wiped from his ledger faster than Natasha Romanoff could even dream of. Flash forward to “Born Again,” and in the season 1 finale, we finally know how Fisk got off scot-free, and all it took was a throwaway line from the orchestrator of Foggy Nelson’s death in the season’s brutal opening to the one that pulled the trigger, Benjamin Poindexter (Wilson Bethel).
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Agent Nadeem’s sacrifice was thrown out with Fisk’s criminal charges
In the final season of Netflix’s “Daredevil,” Murdock finally gets his man after obtaining the last will and testament of FBI agent Sami Nadeem (Noah Huq), who, before anticipating his execution, spilled the beans regarding Fisk’s “incarceration” and his entire operation while being kept under FBI surveillance. His death was not just arranged by Wilson but ordered by Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer), who at this point was just dipping her toe into the criminal underworld her husband had spent most of his life in. The tragedy, however, is that we now know Nadeem’s name was dragged through the mud after his passing, which is briefly skimmed over by Mrs. Fisk herself.
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In the opening of the season finale for “Daredevil: Born Again,” Vanessa chats with Poindexter, and tells him outright that luck is on the side of the two of them and her husband. She explains that the operation led by Agent Nadeem, Dex’s former friend and one of his many victims, was deemed “corrupt,” resulting in Fisk and his wife’s charges being thrown out and both of them being set free. As a result, Poindexter is also released but not before he does one final favor for Mr. and Mrs. Fisk. It’s a deed that Vanessa had the full hope would put an end to two forthright lawyers, only to face retribution from one of them years later.
Vanessa Fisk was the mastermind behind the death of Foggy Nelson
Way back at the beginning of “Daredevil: Born Again,” Wilson Fisk assured his long-time foe during their “Heat”-ed conversation that referenced one of the greatest crime movie scenes ever, that regardless of their history, he wasn’t responsible for Foggy’s murder. “I had nothing to do with his death. I kept that promise,” he swears to Matt, and our lawyer takes his word for it. On the rarest of occasions, Fisk is telling the truth after being kept in the dark by his own wife, who had ordered the hit for him. The question is, just how hard will Matt retaliate now after Fisk’s plans have shown signs of cracking (along with the planner himself)?
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While he might’ve promised to keep the peace at the start of this season, recent events have ushered in a brand new battle for Matt to fight in and potentially refer back to an oath he kept in season 3 of “Daredevil.” “You’ll keep my secret, and you won’t harm Karen Page or Foggy Nelson, or anyone else, because if you do, I will go after your wife.” Well, now that pact has been broken, and Matt is promising an all-out war that demands an army to fight at his side. We’ll just have to wait until next season to find out if Mr., Mrs., or both Fisks suffer the wrath of the devil, when “Daredevil: Born Again” returns in season 2.
