Daredevil: Born Again season 2 episode 5 has made its Disney+ debut — and there are two big talking points that we need to address.
Titled ‘The Grand Design’, the Marvel TV show’s latest chapter unsurprisingly examines the fallout from Born Again season 2 episode 4’s shock ending. Additionally, though, it also brings two characters back from the dead, in the only way that said duo could be realistically revived.
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How are Foggy Nelson and James Wesley alive in Daredevil: Born Again season 2?
Simple: they appear in flashback sequences that precede and take place around Daredevil’s first TV show, which ran for three seasons on Netflix and whose events are deemed canon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).
Ever since Matt Murdock’s law partner and best friend Franklin ‘Foggy’ Nelson was murdered in the Disney+ show’s premiere, fans have speculated that Foggy would reappear in Daredevil: Born Again.
It wasn’t an outlandish theory. Daredevil: Born Again has been inspired by various comic book storylines, including one where Foggy is presumably killed. However, it’s later revealed he faked his own death so he could enter a witness protection program, thereby allowing readers to breathe a sigh of relief.
I can fully understand why, then, some viewers thought a similar scenario would eventually play out in Born Again season 2. As it happens, Foggy is brought back to life — just not in the way that many expected.
Indeed, as I originally teased in my Daredevil: Born Again season 2 review, its fifth episode comprises the series’ present day storyline, and flashbacks to Matt and Foggy’s days as legal interns. In the wake of Foggy’s unexpected demise last season, it’s a bittersweet and poignant chapter that underlines the great and much-missed chemistry that Charlie Cox and Elden Henson had as their respective characters in the Netflix show.
It also closes the book on Foggy ever returning in Born Again. Indeed, this specific memory forces Matt to not only finally confront Foggy’s death at Bullseye’s hands, but actually forgive the sociopathic assassin by helping an injured Bullseye evade Wilson Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force in this episode.
Foggy isn’t the only returning face we see in ‘The Grand Design’. In a separate flashback, we finally see the lead-up to Wilson Fisk’s first encounter with Vanessa, which took place in the Netflix show’s first season.
As part of this look-back storyline, we’re reintroduced to someone we haven’t seen since Daredevil season 1: James Wesley.
For those unfamiliar or in need of a refresher, James Wesley was Wilson Fisk’s right-hand man and close confidante in the Netflix series. He oversaw the day-to-day running of Fisk’s criminal empire and unceremoniously bumped off anyone who posed a risk to said unlawful activities. Think of him as a cross between Born Again‘s Daniel Blake and Buck Cashman, and you’ll get the idea.
Anyway, Wesley didn’t stick around for long because he was killed by Karen Page in Daredevil season 1’s penultimate episode. Thanks to Born Again season 2 episode 5’s walk down memory lane, though, the Marvel Phase 6 TV show offers another glimpse at the tight bond that existed between Fisk and Wesley before the latter shuffled off his mortal coil.
Does Vanessa Fisk die in Daredevil: Born Again season 2 episode 5?
At the top of this article, I mentioned there were two big topics of discussion regarding this week’s episode — and this is the other one.
Following Born Again season 2’s premiere, Wilson Fisk actor Vincent D’Onofrio appeared to spoil Vanessa Fisk’s death in the MCU TV show. Then, with last week’s chapter revealing that Vanessa had suffered what looked to be a fatal injury, it seemed all but certain that she would perish.
However, ‘The Grand Design’ appears to grant her a reprieve from being the show’s latest casualty. Indeed, as part of its present day plot, we see one of New York’s best brain surgeons operate to save Vanessa’s life. Considering she soon wakes from her coma, it seems the operation was a success and that she’ll make a full recovery.
That optimism ends up being misplaced. In episode 5’s final stages, Vanessa takes a turn for the worse and, despite the efforts of nearby doctors and nurses to resuscitate her, she passes away, much to the devastation of Wilson Fisk.
With his long-time love no longer around to rein in his worst tendencies, all eyes will be on next week’s episode to see how the temperamental and tyrannical Mayor of New York will react. Will Vanessa’s death cause him to crack down harder on the city’s vigilantes and their supporters? And what else will he do with nobody else capable of keeping him unchecked? We’ll find out soon enough.
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