The Daredevil: Born Again writers are racking up quite the body count, and although we’re not even halfway through the show’s freshman season, dirty cops, the OG White Tiger (Kamar de los Reyes), and even our beloved Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson) have already kicked the bucket. With Born Again sure to live up to its TV-MA rating, there are fears the bodies will keep piling up. While Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock/Daredevil is the only one with enough plot armor to be guaranteed a stay of execution, one more Daredevil death could catapult another fan-favorite in the right direction.
Although he’s already popped up in Hawkeye and Echo, Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk makes his full-time return for Daredevil: Born Again. Managing to avoid that dreaded MCU villain problem, Fisk’s looming presence in the first three seasons of Netflix’s Daredevil has made him the ‘Kingpin’ of the MCU’s street-level villains and a popular choice to lead the upcoming Spider-Man 4 — something the man himself has downplayed. It was already confirmed that D’Onofrio will be back for Born Again season 2, with set photos confirming that the show’s title refers to New York being ‘born again’, but what if it’s not just the City That Never Sleeps that gets a new lease of life?
The Vanessa problem
The unhinged Muse has already been making murals of Fisk across the city, and as Kingpin continues his anti-vigilante agenda, he’s sure to stay on Muse’s radar. This was hammered home in episode 6’s mural that depicted a caricature of Fisk kissing a literal ass made of money. There was also a harrowing reveal that the mural was made of blood, seemingly representing the literal blood on Fisk’s hands. With Muse already being praised as possibly the MCU’s scariest villain yet, he could really cement his legacy by offing Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer). Giving some real Trinity Killer in Dexter vibes, imagine Kingpin coming across the gruesome scene of his wife’s murder and Muse leaving her as a message in the literal form of a painting. It’s a popular theory, with some noting that Vanessa started out as an art dealer, so having her become Muse’s masterpiece would be apt. If the series needed a catalyst to bring Fisk back to his villainous best and fulfil Muse’s mission of exposing him as the bad guy he’s always been, losing Vanessa is an easy one.
Muse killing Vanessa is dark enough, but what if there could be an even more heartbreaking twist where Fisk himself kills his beloved? While Vanessa stepped up to lead the Kingpin criminal empire in her husband’s absence, it has led to conflict between the pair - simply because she's doing a much more efficient job than he would have.
They’re currently in couple’s therapy following the reveal that Vanessa has been cheating on her husband. With more worrying foreshadowing, she says how she was enticed into an affair with Adam (Lou Taylor Pucci) because he’s an artist who is good with his hands (insert side eye emoji here). The analogy is that while Adam creates with his hands, Wilson destroys. This has been reinforced by the repeated imagery of his bloodied and beaten hands. As Fisk showed when he brutally beat his own father to death with a hammer, he’s not above harming those he’s supposed to love in a fit of rage. Vanessa saying that she doesn’t think her husband is ‘capable’ of hurting is perhaps the biggest indicator that things are heading toward an unhappy ending.
Netflix’s equally gritty Daredevil series was all about imagery, with Fisk and his fists of fury being a recurring metaphor for his destructive presence, so we can't escape that same imagery this time around — he's literally destroying his marriage to his wife. Despite facing hardship, Fisk has largely led a charmed life that’s even seen him survive a bullet to the head. There have been glimmers of the old Fisk seeping through, and even though he seemingly wanted to make good on his promise of giving up his life of crime, we’ve already seen him slip back into it with Adam.
Another major sign that the old Kingpin is bubbling away under the surface is the fact he still has the blood-stained “Rabbit in a Snowstorm” picture to remind him of his past loss. Is this setting the stage for something to happen to Vanessa and bring the Kingpin back out of hiding. When it comes to putting herself in a precarious position, Vanessa has dangers coming from all sides and is likely to get caught in the crossfire of her husband's dodgy dealings. With no mention of Zurer on the season 2 cast list, something tells us we’re going to need a suitably classy body bag to wheel Mrs. Fisk off before the final credits roll.