(MILD SPOILERS) By the end of the Season 2 premiere, Daredevil was in a desperate battle to save his friend, former police detective, Cherry (Clark Johnson), from being taken out by the AVTF. The fight starts to go really bad for Matt, until a mysterious benefactor snipes every officer in the squad, and leaves Daredevil the “calling card” of a knife blade, tossed onto the floor.
Marvel Cinematic Universe fans had to let their pulses settle, and their brains process, but it was clear who saved Matt and Cherry’s lives in that drastic moment. And with that reveal, Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is taking fans on one of the most unexpected redemption arcs they could get.
Bullseye Is A ‘Good Guy’ In Daredevil: Born Again Season 2
Disney+
Yes, it seems that Dex Poindexter, aka Bullseye (Wilson Bethel), still has Matt Murdock in his rifle scope – only for very different reasons. Instead of trying to take Matt out or kill anyone else close to him, Dex is watching over Daredevil like some kind of guardian angel, or… guardian devil.
Netflix’s Daredevil Season 3 chronicled how Fisk discovered Dex and groomed him to become Bullseye (while impersonating Daredevil, for a time). When Dex finally saw the puppet strings, he turned on Fisk, leading to a brutal three-way fight between them, which ended with Dex’s back being broken. However, Dex was repaired with cybernetics and then hired by Vanessa Fisk (Ayelet Zurer) to kill Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), in order to protect the secret of the Red Hook port, which the Fisks were setting up as a major freeport for illegal businesses all over the globe. Matt nearly killed Dex in their battle after Foggy died, and still left his nemesis brutally beaten and broken.
However, Matt’s anger proved to be the instrument of Dex’s liberation: after Matt visited Dex in prison and hurt him, Dex used a broken tooth to get out of prison and get back to his mission. Last seen, Bullseye had infiltrated a gala where he tried to assassinate Wilson Fisk, only for Matt to jump up and take the bullet. Dex escaped, but no one knows what he will do next. Now we do.
With Fisk having declared masked vigilantes to be outlaws in NYC, and the personal feud he has with Dex, Bullseye is under just as much threat as Daredevil, right now. That said, few would’ve guessed that Dex’s twisted mind (which was well mapped during Netflix’s Daredevil Season 3) would be able to get around helping Daredevil, as opposed to, say, using the opportunity to take him out. The Netflix series made the Daredevil vs. Bullseye rivalry more brutal than any comic has, and with Foggy’s murder still looming (for now), having Matt play nice is hard to envision.
Daredevil: Born Again Showrunner Teases Bullseye’s Season 2 Arc
Bullseye in daredevil: Born Again Season 2 / Disney+
Daredevil: Born Again showrunner Dario Scardapane spoke to ComicBook about Season 2 of the Disney+ series. During that conversation, Scardapane made sure to point out that a lot of Bullseye’s arc in Season 2 has to do with Dex kind of being a hero in his own mind – not necessarily the minds of Daredevil or the viewing audience.
“Bullseye is such a rich character, from what they did with him in Season 3 of the Netflix show, the horrible bargain he made with Vanessa Fisk in Season 1, and now he’s coming into our world,” Scardapane explained.
The showrunner went on to describe exactly what Dex is thinking right about now, stating, “‘Okay: the administration is hunting vigilantes. I am a vigilante, so I must be a hero.’ That thought process for somebody like Bullseye is hilarious and terrifying. Yeah. So without giving too much away: [We play with ] how he reacts to being “wanted” by virtue of being a vigilante, but not wanted by virtue of being a psychopathic killer. We played with that.
Daredevil Season 3 “The Perfect game” / Marvel – Netflix
Indeed, Wilson Bethel put on a clinic of masterful acting in Daredevil Season 3, as the show chronicled Agent Poindexter’s descent into madness and villainy – including one of the greatest Marvel origin stories ever told in “The Perfect Game” (Daredevil Season 3 Episode 5). By the end of Netflix’s Daredevil, Bullseye was a fully-realized character, who operates as a loose cannon threat, almost like a killer in a slasher-horror movie: whenever he shows up, you know someone is likely to die.
There’s little doubt that Bullseye will continue to evolve and be just as dynamic and fun in Born Again Season 2. In fact, Scardapane already teased as much: “Wilson Bethel is the best version of Bullseye ever done, and he’s always game.”
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is streaming new episodes every Tuesday at 6 pm PT, only on Disney+. Discuss the latest theories and rumors about the show with us, over on the ComicBook Forum!
