Daredevil: Born Again
Disney
Viewers are applauding the third episode of Daredevil: Born Again, which did not feature any brawls with Matt in or out of the suit, but was rather a courtroom drama as Matt defends a vigilante accused of murdering a cop.
A fun fact about this episode is that apparently, episodes 2 and 3 were supposed to be the first two episodes of Daredevil: Born Again before it was rebooted. Originally the plan was to kill Foggy (and possibly Karen) offscreen, and most of the rest of the series was going to be in the courtroom. Now, after this, most of it appears it will be changed. Okay, from here, actual episode 3 spoilers follow.
Matt does in fact end up getting Hector acquitted for the charges, mainly leaning on his time as the vigilante White Tiger aiding the police to make the case that he wouldn’t go and randomly kill an officer on a train platform. That sold the jury.
The problem, however, is that now it was open season on White Tiger, and after donning the suit again, he is assassinated almost immediately by a man who appears to be The Punisher, wearing his skull-painted ballistic vest.
No, it isn’t him.
Daredevil: Born Again
Disney
This isn’t some sort of read-ahead spoiler (if this was covered in the comics, I haven’t seen it), but it seems pretty clear what’s going on here. First of all, Frank may murder a lot of people, but he would have no reason to kill a vigilante in cold blood like that. Who would? The police, of course.
The show has shown a number of officers with variants of the Punisher skull tattoo, with a flag on the forehead, indicating some sort of secret movement within the force adopting his symbol for their own purposes. Whoever killed White Tiger was obviously one of them.
This also, no doubt, will serve as the impetus for Punisher coming out of retirement in order to take his symbol back and ensure it’s not the case that cops are murdering innocents in his name. And he will probably do that by murdering a whole lot of them. Expect to see him soon, if not next week.
As for White Tiger, that caps off an excellent performance by Kamar d los Reyes, who tragically died in late 2023 after filming this, but before it aired. In terms of the character, White Tiger may in fact live on through its second iteration, as Hector has a younger sister in the comics, Ava Ayala, who takes up the mantle. It’s not clear if that’s going to happen in this series. At least in this season.
It was an excellent episode, but don’t be fooled. Frank has not turned evil, and will show up shortly to make sure that’s explicitly clear to the cops killing under the guise of his brand of justice.
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