No, SPOILER Did Not Show Up In 'Daredevil: Born Again' Episode 3 (Probably)

If you were somehow still hoping that Disney’s new iteration of Daredevil would be a lighthearted affair, then episode three (“The Hollow of His Hand”) is here to dash your expectations. The episode is a loose adaptation of the comics story “Trial of the Century” which follows the court case of the vigilante White Tiger, Hector Ayala, who is wrongly accused of murder. But by making one big change, the show proves that even when Matt wins, he still loses.

That big change? The verdict. In the comics, Hector is found guilty and is then shot by the police while trying to escape. In the show, the jury finds Hector not guilty, thanks to Matt’s desperate decision to reveal that Hector is the White Tiger. By proving that Hector is a hero who has helped the cops in the past, Matt convinces the jury that he had no reason to become a cop slayer in this instance. The end is still the same, though: Hector is shot dead. Only this time, it’s after he’s won his freedom and returned to the streets in costume, and it’s a revenge killing by someone sporting the Punisher skull on his vest.

Look, we know Jon Bernthal is going to show up in Daredevil: Born Again as Frank Castle, aka The Punisher. We know he wears that skull on his vest. His whole thing is killing criminals, so if he genuinely believed Ayala was guilty, then sure — he’d probably go ahead and shoot him. Hell, he shot Daredevil before! But if Frank was following the trial, then he also knows Matt Murdock was defending Ayala, and Murdock wouldn’t do that if Ayala was guilty. We also know that a bunch of corrupt NYPD officers are sporting skull tattoos, and they have more reason to kill Ayala than Frank does. So while this might be Frank’s introduction to the series, I think it’s pretty clear that the killer was actually a cop (probably Officer Powell) - but maybe Frank needs to show up to deal with all these bozos appropriating his motif.

Anyway, one guy who was not too happy about the verdict was Mayor Fisk. Maybe because his nemesis won a big showy case, or maybe because it’s a sign that the public still loves its heroes despite his whole anti-vigilante campaign, but either way he decides to invite BB Urich over for an interview about this miscarriage of justice. BB is a budding journalist who hosts The BB Report, a popular online series of man-on-the-street interviews. She also happens to be the niece of Ben Urich, an investigative journalist who was killed by Fisk in the Netflix series. On the surface, BB and Fisk seem to be forging a mutually beneficial relationship: BB’s platform gives Fisk a direct line to the under-30 demo, and access to Fisk gives BB greater exposure. What’s unclear is how much BB knows about her uncle’s death or about what he was investigating regarding Fisk. Is she just getting closer to her enemy to continue her uncle’s work? Or is the other penny going to drop, and BB will learn she’s helped boost the popularity of a madman?

Despite the blow to Fisk’s anti-vigilante agenda, things seem to be going according to plan for the new Mayor. He reveals to Vanessa that the power vacuum the pair have left in the criminal underworld is intentional, to sow a bit of chaos that he can leverage to bring order under his rule. His whole law-abiding citizen schtick is holding for now, as is Matt’s, but a change is coming. Fisk is relying on the police to enforce the law, but we know they’re corrupt. It’s only a matter of time before Matt has to don the mask again to save the city from itself.