'Daredevil: Born Again' Season 2 Episode 4 Recap & Ending Explained: Is Vanessa Dead Or Alive?

Last week, Disney+ dropped not one but two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again Season 2. Over the course of those two episodes, it was revealed that Cherry had survived the heart attack and was recuperating at the hospital. Since Cherry was looking for Achilleo and Christofi, the captain and first mate of the Northern Star, before getting hospitalized, the AVTF tried to bring him in for questioning again, but he managed to escape from there with the help of his cop buddies. Angie showed up at Josie’s to subtly give Matt and Cherry a status update about Cherry, but that ended up triggering an AVTF raid on the abandoned restaurant. Matt had to don his costume and take out the AVTF officers and ensure that Josie wasn’t hurt. Meanwhile, Karen kidnapped an AVTF officer and dragged him to Frank’s former lair to get some answers from him regarding Fisk’s warehouse at Red Hook Port. And the officer ended up giving Matt the keys to the warehouse because he apparently believed that Daredevil was the cure that the city needed, not Fisk. Before barging into the warehouse to rescue all the people that Fisk and the AVTF had detained, Matt allowed the law to take its course. It’s only after the judiciary proved that they were dancing to Fisk’s tunes that he decided to infiltrate the warehouse and free the detainees. Fisk, instead of “taking the L,” killed the clean-up crew that was aboard the half-sunken Northern Star in order to make it seem like Daredevil had not only rescued some “terrorists,” but he had also killed a bunch of innocent workers. What happened next? Let’s find out.

Spoiler Alert

Bullseye Kills A Bunch of AVTF Officers

Season 2 episode 4 starts off with a bang as Poindexter goes to a nearby diner, orders a banana milkshake (with whip), makes a prank call to the AVTF helpline, brutally murders all the AVTF officers who arrive there in the hopes of nabbing Frank, and leaves. I will say this is the first sign that the show is starting to find its voice. Objectively speaking, Netflix’s Daredevil had its fair share of flaws, but in my eyes, they were perfect in terms of characterization, storytelling, and action. And it’s tough to surpass a project that’s ingrained so deeply in the minds of Marvel fans. I don’t know what they tried to do in Season 1 and why such a massive creative overhaul was done, but based on what we got, it was quite evident that the showrunners were stuck between attracting fans of the Netflix show and welcoming new viewers. 

The first three episodes of this season seemed to be suffering from that same hangover (I have a feeling those episodes were meant to be in Season 1 and were tacked on to Season 2). But with episode 4, you can feel the vibe shit based on the cinematography, the action, the dialogue writing, the tone, and well, pretty much everything; and I like it. Anyway, going back to the plot, we get a “City Without Fear” clip where the Fisk impersonator informs us about the upcoming match between Kingpin and Matterhorn that’s been arranged to distract New York from the Northern Star debacle. Since it’s been labeled as a charity event for the New York Born Again Revitalization Project, the Fisk impersonator theorizes that it’s a money laundering exercise that’s happening in broad daylight, and nobody is willing to do anything about it because they are under Kingpin’s thumb.

Christofi Meets Karen and Daredevil

Karen interviews the people that she, Matt, and Angela had rescued from Fisk’s warehouse at Red Hook Port, starting with Soledad. Duquesne tells Matt that he is done with these vigilante shenanigans because his age is catching up to him. But he is willing to help Matt’s cause, which is why he has given Karen access to one of his bank accounts so that they can keep up with all the good work they are doing without worrying about financial constraints. Angela spots Karen worrying about how she’s going to deliver the SD card filled with the interviews of Fisk’s victims to BB and offers to help her out with it. After some initial hesitation, Karen trusts Angela with the card because she has already become a vigilante and babying her at this stage will only hinder her development. Matt notices that Angela is wearing the White Tiger locket (he didn’t see it during the rescue mission because things were quite chaotic) and tells her to always remember what it symbolizes. 

That conversation is sidelined by Christofi’s arrival, who spills the beans on the Northern Star and its assets. He claims that all the documents for the illegal weapons and ammo were signed by Fisk. Karen decides to get in touch with Kirsten and convince her to Christofi’s statement and then use it against Fisk. I don’t know how she has any faith in the judiciary after what happened to Duquesne, but what other choice does she have other than being hopeful that Christofi’s case will be overseen by a panel of judges that aren’t spineless? In the meantime, Matt goes out to find Bullseye because he thinks that the boxing match is actually a trap set by Fisk to capture and kill Poindexter. It seems like Poindexter knows that, but he’s willing to walk into that trap and take his chances. Going back to Angela, she hands over the SD card to Javi (he owes her one because he’s the reason why Soledad got arrested by the AVTF), who then secretly hand-delivers the SD card to BB.

Fisk Doesn’t Want Vanessa At The Boxing Match

Fisk meets up with Vanessa ahead of her meeting with McCaffrey and tries to joke about her carrying a gun in her purse, but Vanessa isn’t in a fun mood because Fisk is sending her off to Albany instead of letting her attend the aforementioned boxing fight. Fisk’s reasoning is that the fight is being held at a public place, and if both of them are under the same roof, it’ll be very easy for Bullseye to kill them. If they are divided, at the very least Bullseye won’t be able to destroy both of the architects of their empire at once. Vanessa says that they are the power couple of New York, and if she doesn’t attend the match while her husband is in the ring, then it’s going to send the wrong message to the public. Fisk doesn’t get into an argument on this topic; he simply says that he’s going to give her a call once the match is over. Vanessa understands that it’s pointless to argue with Fisk, and she leaves for her meeting with McCaffrey after wishing her husband the best of luck for his match. 

FYI, said match is taking place at Fogwell’s Gym, which was the place where Matt’s dad used to train; it was where he himself used to train; and it’s also the place where Matt fornicated with Elektra. Now, while Fisk is probably not aware of that last detail, he definitely knows about how important that gym is to Matt. So, it’s safe to assume that he has chosen that as the venue for his fight to ragebait Matt into coming out of the hole that he’s hiding in. He has already urged the people of New York to seek out Matt because “Daredevil has probably kidnapped him,” and he knows that must be irking Matt as it ruins the image of Daredevil. He hopes that desecrating Fogwell’s with this “charity event” might send Matt over the edge.

Charles Tries To Intimidate Fisk

Fisk and Buck go to the warehouse at Red Hook Port to check if all the cargo from the Northern Star is alright. Fisk can be seen venting to Buck about the Bullseye attack at the diner as well as the rescue mission conducted by Daredevil, Karen, and Angela. That’s interrupted by Charles, who asks Fisk why all this cargo is still in Brooklyn and not in Guinea-Bissau. Fisk says that Daredevil is monitoring his movements, and if he tries to put all those guns and ammo on a ship again, it might lead to a repeat of the Northern Star incident. Charles doesn’t seem to care about Fisk’s issues; he just wants Fisk to deliver the cargo to the aforementioned destination, and he wants him to move it quickly because he knows that McCaffrey is about to revoke Red Hook Port’s free port status, thereby rendering it useless. 

Fisk doesn’t like pushovers, and he gets particularly angry when Charles brings in some mercs with guns to intimidate him. Buck takes them down in a matter of seconds, and after advising Charles to “practice patience” regarding the shipment, Fisk and Buck leave the port. For the first time, Charles expresses fear because he has come to the realization that Fisk doesn’t react well to intimidation. Also, did anyone catch the political commentary of this scene? The showrunners are telling us that the CIA (Charles is a CIA operative) funds civil wars in foreign countries to trigger regime changes. I mean, it’s a pretty well-known fact, and it has been a heavily discussed topic for decades. But if you take a look at the global news, you’ll know how relevant this subplot is right now. I know that I have criticized Daredevil: Born Again Season 2’s politics when it comes to the police and the AVTF. However, portraying the CIA in such poor light? That’s interesting.

Vanessa Meets McCaffrey

Powell and the AVTF raid the Murdock and McDuffie office just so that Kirsten can’t do her job properly. It’s also a warning of what might happen if she continues to represent vigilantes. While she’s cleaning up the place, Karen shows up (I thought that it was difficult for her to move around the city). Kirsten rants about how she feels like an accessory to the murder that took place aboard the Northern Star because the explosion happened right after she told Daredevil everything about Red Hook Port. But Karen assures that that wasn’t Daredevil’s doing; Fisk destroyed the Northern Star right after the rescue op to make it look like Daredevil is a terrorist. Kirsten then asks Karen about Matt, and all she says is that he’s safe. I think Kirsten already knows that Matt is Daredevil; she doesn’t want to accept the truth because she won’t be able to process it during these trying times. Hence, she chooses to focus on the task that Karen wants to hand over to her, which is taking Christofi’s confession. 

While Kirsten works on that, Vanessa meets McCaffrey to get her to put her plans to shut down Red Hook Port on hold. Just because Vanessa assures McCaffrey that she’ll control Fisk’s “darker impulses,” McCaffrey doesn’t go ahead with her plan to shut down Fisk’s illegal business. What?! I am all for women supporting women, but this is nonsensical. I know this might be a setup for McCaffrey’s eventual wake-up call for trusting the Fisks, but, come on; even a child wouldn’t have trusted Vanessa no matter what she said. By the time McCaffrey realizes what she has done, despite having credible evidence that Fisk is a crook, it’s going to be too late. And even if McCaffrey regrets her actions, it’ll amount to nothing.

Matt Meets Bullseye

Matt wears the AVTF gear he has obtained from Alan and investigates the diner where Poindexter had killed all those AVTF officers. Poindexter had purposefully left a token from the Clinton Church on the floor of the diner so that Matt would find it, connect the dots, and then meet him, and well, Matt does exactly that. Matt re-enters where he had grown up and has a chat with the pastor who had previously encountered Poindexter. The pastor gives Matt enough hints to help him locate the apartment that Poindexter lives in. Later that night, Matt breaks into Poindexter’s apartment, not with the intention of hurting him but to talk him out of attending that boxing match. But since Poindexter attacks him, Matt has no choice but to retaliate, thereby leading to one of the best fight sequences in the show. Poindexter quickly realizes that Matt has evolved as a fighter, and he is no match for Daredevil anymore. 

So, Poindexter breaks away from Matt’s clutches and holds his neighbor hostage so as to get Matt to stop attacking him. As Matt negotiates with Poindexter, he reveals that there’s nothing in this world that’s going to stop him from killing Vanessa. It seems like Poindexter genuinely regrets killing Foggy, and he wants to “balance the scales” by putting an end to Vanessa. Matt knows that Vanessa is the one who is actually responsible for Foggy’s death, and Poindexter is merely the weapon that she used to kill his best friend, but still, he can’t allow Poindexter to kill Vanessa because it goes against the rules that he lives by. He tries to get Poindexter to stop, but he gives Matt the slip and runs away from the apartment. Well, Matt knows where Poindexter is going to end up next. Hence, he heads to Fogwell’s Gym so that he can intercept Poindexter when he goes in for the kill.

Vanessa Isn’t Dead, Yet

While Fisk is gloving up for the match, Powell, Cole, and Buck debrief him about the security detail. Fisk tells Powell to clear an entrance for Bullseye so that he can be easily lured into the trap and then killed. Buck advises against it, but Fisk tells him to focus on the task of killing Christofi. So, while Buck takes care of Christofi, Fisk goes to town on Matterhorn. After the first round, Powell informs Fisk that Christofi is dead, which motivates Fisk to beat up Matterhorn even more brutally in the second round than he was in the first round. Fisk gets momentarily distracted by Vanessa’s arrival in the gym, which allows Matterhorn to land a punch on Fisk’s face. Fisk retaliates by knocking out Matterhorn and winning the match. Vanessa enters the ring to congratulate Fisk, and even though he keeps telling her to leave because it’s too dangerous, she forces him to kiss her and celebrate the win because all the cameras are on them. 

In the ending of episode 4, Bullseye finally shows up, and he starts making his way to Fisk and Vanessa. The AVTF protects Fisk and Vanessa, but, for some demented reason, Vanessa breaks free of Powell’s grip so that she can take aim at Bullseye. She does manage to hit Bullseye in the abdomen, but that doesn’t stop Bullseye from chucking the glass “New York Born Again” memorabilia at her. Fisk intercepts the flying memorabilia with his victory belt and shatters it into pieces. He then takes a gun off one of the AVTF officers and tries to kill Bullseye. That’s when Matt finally shows up and rescues Bullseye, which makes them even now because Bullseye had saved Matt from those AVTF officers in the first episode. As Matt and Bullseye run away from the venue, Fisk notices that a piece of the broken memorabilia has hit Vanessa in the skull. Fisk orders someone to call an ambulance while Vanessa bleeds out profusely. Now, I have to point out a bunch of things. Firstly, Fisk chose Fogwell’s as the venue for his fight to desecrate the memories that Matt has of that place, only to end up traumatizing himself. Secondly, I am wondering if Bullseye actually predicted that Fisk would intercept that memorabilia he had chucked; hence, he threw it in a way where a shard would inevitably land in Vanessa’s head. I mean, he’s Bullseye and I totally believe he can do that. Thirdly, I think Vanessa isn’t going to die, but she might end up developing some physiological issues. The wound doesn’t seem deep enough to kill her, but it’s deep enough to give her lifelong paralysis, which is a punishment that’s probably worse than death. She’ll get to see her “empire” crumble, but she won’t be able to use her intellect to stop Fisk from making any rash decisions. And Fisk making rash decisions is inevitable right now because he’s going to use this attack on Vanessa to ramp up his anti-vigilante activities. Are Matt and Poindexter going to join forces to stop him? Will that cause a rift in Matt and Karen’s relationship, because she isn’t ok with involving Poindexter in their “save the city” mission? We’ll have to wait till next week to find out.

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