Daredevil: Born Again season 2 episode 5 has made its Disney+ debut — and there are two big talking points 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, it also brings two characters back from the dead, in the only way that said duo could realistically be 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 considered 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 stories, including one where Foggy is presumably killed. However, it is later revealed that he faked his own death so he could participate in a witness protection program, giving readers a sigh of relief.
I can fully understand why some viewers thought that a similar scenario would eventually play out Born again season 2. As it happens, Foggy is brought back to life – just not in the way many expected.
In fact, as I originally teased in my Daredevil: Born Again season 2 review, its fifth episode includes the show’s current storyline and flashbacks to Matt and Foggy’s days as legal interns. In the wake of Foggy’s unexpected passing last season, it’s a bittersweet and poignant chapter that underscores the great and much-missed chemistry that Charlie Cox and Elden Henson had as their respective characters on the Netflix show.
It also closes the book on Foggy ever returning Born again. In fact, 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 a wounded 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 meeting with Vanessa, which took place in the Netflix show’s first season.
As part of this flashback story, we are reintroduced to someone we haven’t seen since Daredevil season 1: James Wesley.
For those unfamiliar or in need of a refresher, James Wesley Wilson was Fisk’s right-hand man and close confidante on the Netflix series. He oversaw the day-to-day operations of Fisk’s criminal empire and unceremoniously busted anyone who posed a risk to said illegal activities. Think of him as a go-between Born again‘s Daniel Blake and Buck Cashman, and you get the idea.
Anyway, Wesley didn’t stick around long because he was killed by Karen Page in Daredevil Season 1’s penultimate episode. Thank you Born again season 2 episode 5’s walk down memory lane, but the Marvel Phase 6 TV show offers another glimpse of the close bond that existed between Fisk and Wesley before the latter shuffled his mortal coil.
Will Vanessa Fisk Die in Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 Episode 5?
At the top of this article, I mentioned that there were two big topics of discussion regarding this week’s episode – and this is the second one.
Follow Born again At the season 2 premiere, Wilson Fisk actor Vincent D’Onofrio appeared to spoil Vanessa Fisk’s death in the MCU TV show. So, when last week’s chapter revealed that Vanessa had suffered what appeared to be a fatal injury, it seemed almost certain that she would perish.
However, ‘The Grand Design’ seems to be giving her a reprieve from being the show’s latest victim. As part of its current plot, we actually see one of New York’s top brain surgeons operate to save Vanessa’s life. Considering she’s waking up from her coma soon, it looks like the surgery was a success and 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 revive her, she dies, much to Wilson Fisk’s devastation.
With his longtime 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 make him crack down harder on the city’s vigilantes and their followers? And what else will he do with no one else capable of keeping him unchecked? We will soon find out.
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