SPOILER ALERT: This article contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 5 of “Daredevil: Born Again,” now streaming on Disney+.
The pivotal element of Wilson Fisk’s mental stability has been shattered.
In the fifth episode of “Daredevil: Born Again,” titled “The Grand Design,” a long-anticipated disaster unfolds, setting Wilson Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) on a path of inevitable destruction that Marvel fans have anticipated for a decade.
Throughout the Disney+ series revival, Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio) has maintained an untarnished public persona, initially as a mayoral candidate and subsequently as New York City’s mayor, all while discreetly hiding his illicit actions. Recent episodes reveal that his wife, Vanessa (Ayelet Zurer), has become increasingly involved in his covert operations.
In contrast to her comic book version, who often urged Wilson to abandon his life of crime, Zurer’s portrayal of Vanessa is complicit and essential to the Kingpin’s endeavors. In the original “Daredevil” series, Vanessa showcased her unwavering loyalty by marrying Wilson despite his incarceration at Rikers Island, which forced her into a two-year exile abroad.
In “Born Again,” Vanessa is portrayed as the voice of reason, aiding Wilson in exercising restraint. This role is noted by New York Governor Marge McCaffrey (Lili Taylor), who meets with Vanessa to ensure she can moderate her husband’s darker tendencies. “I couldn’t sleep at night backing Mayor Fisk,” she tells Vanessa in Episode 4. “But I can back Mayor and Mrs. Fisk.”
The mid-season finale concludes with a tense cliffhanger, where a public boxing match involving Fisk goes awry. Vanessa is injured by a flying glass shard and bleeds out in the arena. Episode five delves into flashbacks of the day Wilson and Vanessa first met at her art gallery, underscoring her significance in his life from the onset. The episode ends with Vanessa’s death in a hospital bed, triggering Wilson’s uncontrollable fury, leading him to strangle a man to death.
“Personally, it was just a really gut-wrenching experience where I had to say goodbye to everything that we were working on in the last ten years,” Zurer told Variety at the “Daredevil: Born Again” New York premiere in March. “It was emotional.”
Vanessa’s death marks the second major character loss from the original “Daredevil” series in “Born Again,” following Foggy Nelson’s (Elden Henson) murder by Bullseye (Wilson Bethel) in the season opener. Zurer described the decision as unexpected, with the creative team feeling the need to explain it personally to her.
“Every person on the team had to call me directly to explain why — and how,” Zurer shared. “They were often so emotional about it. But I really felt like it was important for the story, too. To have an explosion that sends Vincent’s character, Kingpin, to a whole new level of crazy.”
Zurer’s insight into Kingpin’s escalation aligns with Marvel’s canon. In Brian Michael Bendis’ “Daredevil” series from the early 2000s, Vanessa’s death ignites a strategic war of manipulation, further solidifying Fisk’s Kingpin persona as if the last fragments of his humanity died with her. A more familiar scenario occurs in 2018’s “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse,” where a bereaved Kingpin risks multiverse destruction to resurrect his family.
“Power has always been a risky business,” Zurer explains. “It’s always been an emotional quest for [Kingpin] to have more power and to have more control. To fill something within him. It’s more of a psychological aspect.”
She concludes, “She’s never going to be enough. Nothing is going to be enough.”
