A few things are starting to add up in my mind, namely the events of the Daredevil: Born Again’s premiere, which had a “shocking” introduction with the death of a major character. Detailed spoilers follow.
That would be Foggy Nelson, Matt and Karen’s best friend who was shot by Bullseye as apparent revenge for the events of season 3. That is the impetus to drive the events of the rest of the series, Karen leaving, Matt’s temporary retirement, all of it. But things feels a bit…off. Why? Let’s go through it.
- Daredevil: Born Again was obviously, almost stupidly giving away Foggy’s death in its marketing and in interviews, talking about the shocking moment, showing Karen screaming spattered with blood. It’s almost like they wanted us to know.
- Why did Bullseye, a man with perfect aim, shoot Foggy in the chest rather than the head (the deaths we can see of the others in the bar are headshots)? While Foggy does look dead, it can’t be ruled out there could be some sort of paralytic involved that just makes him appear dead. A bit goofy but I mean, this is a comic book story after all.
- Bullseye is a hired hitman, that is his whole thing. It seems pretty out of character to just go on a revenge spree without being employed. Killing ten other people during this rampage would make him seem unhinged and cover up an actual hit.
- Watch the whole court scene again and look how weird Karen is acting. After that, she talks with Matt who can tell she’s lying about…something, but he can’t figure out what. If Karen knows that Foggy is alive and has fled to San Francisco for some reason, it would also explain why she didn’t even want to grab coffee with Matt after all this time, as further conversation could lead him to figuring out what’s going on.
- Deborah Ann Woll said in interviews that both she and Foggy are returning for season 2. Most people assumed that meant Foggy in flashbacks, but it also feels like she says things she’s not supposed to, like how she confirmed before this she specifically would be in season 2, making it clear she wasn’t the one who dies early on.
- Finally, there is comic precedent for this when Foggy does in fact fake his own death, and a storyline where he’s forced into witness protection by Vanessa Fisk and simply cannot escape to make it back to his friends. This isn’t a specific “Born Again” story, as the show is doing its own thing, but a “Foggy isn’t really dead” bit of source material paired with all this? I’m suspicious.
I can’t really figure out the “why” here if we’re blending all these motivations and storylines, and whether Karen does or doesn’t know. Just to keep Foggy safe? To avoid him being killed by Vanessa or someone if Matt is told? It made him retire being Daredevil, after all, allowing Vanessa’s business to continue thriving.
The simplest explanation? He’s dead, and everything is how it looks. But things do not quite add up here, and I’m wondering if there’s more to all this than meets the eye.
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