Daredevil season 2, and how it teases Marvel’s Netflix future

Contains spoilers for Daredevil seasons 1 and 2 and Jessica Jones season 1.

Daredevil season 2 had plenty to enjoy, not least the additions of Jon Bernthal’s The Punisher and Elodie Yung’s Elektra to the Hell’s Kitchen/Netflix corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But among all the punching, kicking and murdering, there were also some hefty teases of things to come.

Since Marvel has Jessica Jones season 2, Luke Cage season 1, Iron Fist season 1 and the Defenders crossover series in its Netflix pipeline, it should come as no surprise that Daredevil season 2 was littered with teases of things to come – some small, and some major.

Here’s everything we picked up on (and, if we’ve missed anything, please put your own findings and theories in the comments)…

The Defenders slowly uniting

The most obvious way in which Daredevil season 2 teased the future of Marvel’s Netflix project was through allusions to the other members of The Defenders, the superhero team that will eventually unite for a big crossover series. Interestingly, it wasn’t Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock who found out about these other superheroes, but instead the job of world-interconnecting fell to Elden Henson’s Foggy Nelson.

First, while visiting Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple at Metro General Hospital in the hope of locating a bloody and bruised Matt, Foggy instead found himself face-to-face with a dialogue description of Mike Colter’s Luke Cage, an indestructible hero who memorably debuted in Jessica Jones season 1 and met Claire while unconscious.

Claire described Luke as a “big guy, stronger than our friend”, which is a simple but accurate description. This was a big step towards fully integrating these shows together. Foggy now knows about Luke, and it’s only a matter of time before the two cross paths.

And later on, as the law firm Nelson & Murdock careened towards its demise, Foggy met his former colleague and ex-girlfriend Marci Stahl (played by Amy Rutberg) for a beverage and a powwow. She mentioned a vigilante by the name of Jessica Jones, who is already under ‘serious scrutiny’ from her office. Anyone who’s seen Jessica Jones will know all about her interesting working relationship with the law.

(Additionally, Marci stated that Jessica Jones/Daredevil connective character District Attorney Reyes wanted to use vigilantes as a platform for a mayoral campaign, but the fact that she’s now been brutally murdered has probably put a stop to that. But still, characters crossing over is always welcome.)

And again, it’s interesting that it’s Foggy on the receiving end of this information rather than Matt. This all led up to…

Foggy’s new job

At the end of the season, it became clear what all these Defenders teasers delivered to Foggy had been building to: a new job for the long-haired lawyer, with a corner office and a strong link to Hell’s Kitchen’s growing vigilante community. The job offer came from Jessica Jones regular Carie-Ann Moss, as her recurring lawyer character Jeri Hogarth.

The exact specifics of Foggy’s new role weren’t laid bare, but it was made clear that he’ll be working with/for vigilantes and is so important to Hogarth’s firm that they’re even considering adding his name to the company’s moniker and therefore making him a partner. With Nelson & Murdock disappeared down the drain, he’s certainly landed on his feet, although it’s ironic that in trying to escape one vigilante he’s actually ended up with a load more on his hands.

This new role is bound to mean that Foggy starts moving between shows. From this point forward, he could feasibly pop up in future episodes of Jessica Jones, Iron Fist, Luke Cage or The Defenders, as well as continuing in his commitments to Daredevil. Perhaps, in meeting all these vigilantes, he’ll inadvertently act as a Nick Fury equivalent and lead to the formation of their team. Maybe they’ll all meet on the way into his office. Do lawyers have waiting rooms?

But while Foggy was nabbing himself this cool new job, someone else was quitting theirs…

Claire’s lack of a job

Rosario Dawson’s Claire Temple displayed near-endless levels of patience in Daredevil season 1, tending to the wounds of Matt Murdock on a regular basis. She popped up towards the end of Jessica Jones season 1, as well, helping Luke Cage in a similar way.

All the while, Claire worked at Metro General hospital, where her tendency to run off and help superheroes landed her the shift rota from hell. That’s where Daredevil season 2 picked up with Claire, but by the end of these 13 episodes she was in a very different situation.

At the start of the season, Claire’s anger was pointed vaguely towards superheroes. Because of these vigilantes, she was being punished by her bosses. But when said bosses decided to cover up a ninja attack from The Hand, her dissatisfaction became firmly targeted at these corrupt pencil pushers running the hospital.

She quit, and ended the season without a job. This seems to be teeing up a geographical relocation for the character, who will next appear in the Harlem-set Luke Cage series. Therein, Sonia Braga will appear as Claire’s mother, which to me suggests that Claire may have to move in with her mum after quitting her job and losing her only source of income.

Of course, comic book fans have long predicted that Claire will become Night Nurse, a character who runs a secretive specialist surgery for superheroes. Perhaps quitting Metro General is a step towards this eventual destiny, although rumours that a different version of Night Nurse may appear in the Doctor Strange movie could put a stop to Claire officially taking on that title… only time will tell on that front, but for now it’s a safe bet that some big changes are ahead for Claire.

Identity secret no more

At the very end of the season, Matt Murdock brought a holdall to the old offices of his now-defunct legal firm Nelson & Murdock. He met Deborah Ann Woll’s Karen Page there, and opened the bag to reveal his Daredevil costume within. His double life is no longer a secret, which is bound to have ramifications for future seasons of Daredevil.

In the comics, Matt revealing his double life to Karen led to their breakup, and Karen leaving the legal profession for a career in film acting. However, in this Marvel Cinematic Universe incarnation, I’d expect things to play out very differently, not least because Matt and Karen have already split up after their very short-lived initial romance.

Here, perhaps the revelation will actually bring the duo closer together. Matt doesn’t have to lie about his nighttime antics anymore, and Karen no longer has to think that he’s an alcoholic fight club attendee. Maybe they’ll give their relationship another shot, with more success than before. With Matt seeming to lose himself into the Daredevil persona during season 2, perhaps this is exactly what he needs to anchor himself in the normal world now that Nelson & Murdock has crashed and burned.

A couple of new problems have now arisen, though – Karen is now a journalist, and in revealing his secret identity to her Matt has essentially asked her to sit on the scoop of the century. I’m sure he trusts her, but still, one slip of the tongue to one of her newspaper colleagues and everything could blow up in their faces.

And also, Karen still hasn’t fessed up regarding the murder of Wilson Fisk’s loveable lackey Wesley. The closer they get, the more likely Matt is to find out. And his views on killing were made fairly clear this season, especially in that rooftop scene with The Punisher. 

Being the partner of a superhero is always dangerous in of itself, of course. So, if the pair do romantically entangle themselves again, Karen could be placing herself in even more danger. If that’s even possible, given that she already seems to be in close proximity to every major crime in Hell’s Kitchen. In terms of the comics, if you want a tease of what the future could hold for Karen, 1999’s Daredevil vol. 2 #5 is probably the place to look. I won’t say what happens here, though, for fear of spoiling a future plotline.

Superpowers in Hell’s Kitchen

“Doesn’t your whole belief system hinge on one guy pulling that off?” – so said Stick to Matt, as they discussed Nobu’s apparent immortality during Daredevil season 2. And although Stick now seems to have stopped this Hand-leading baddie once and for all, the existence of an A-list superpower like this in Hell’s Kitchen is bound to have ramifications.

Although Jessica Jones has super strength, Kilgrave can control people and Luke Cage is impenetrable, this is the first time that Matt Murdock has come face to face with something so fantastical in his personal Netflix series. And on top of this, there was a suggestion that The Hand’s foot soldiers had some kind of enhancement as well (“real power behind those fists, and I’m not talking muscles”, Brett told Daredevil at one point.)

Of course, we’ve seen all sorts of superpowers in the MCU over the years, but it’s interesting that Matt Murdock is now starting to come up against them. I read this as a tease of bigger things to come in Hell’s Kitchen, with it only being a matter of time before Matt comes up against a villain that’s far too powerful for him to take on alone.

Perhaps this is why the Defenders will be needed, with the team-up being necessitated by a rise of super-powered criminals in the gritty corners of New York. Mob bosses and army nuts are one thing, but the wide world of Marvel has a lot more to offer on the evildoing front.

The Black Sky and Elektra’s death

“Help me destroy Black Sky, keep it off the streets, and I promise you this… Wilson Fisk will know the taste of fear the day he faces you ’cause he’ll know that you kicked the guy he’s afraid of right in the nuts.”

Another Stick quote there, from Daredevil season 1. In that episode, Stick described the mysterious Black Sky as a weapon, known as ‘the bringer of shadows’. Nobu – a man so scary that he frightens Fisk – was after it, and it was down to Matt and Stick to save the day. It turned out that this first Black Sky was a young boy, who Stick ultimately killed to stop The Hand from completing their as-yet-unrevealed plans for him.

In season 2, the idea of the Black Sky resurfaced. Now, The Hand believe that Elektra is their ‘bringer of shadows’, and this time around no death – not even the double demise of Elektra and Nobu – can stop their plan. The Hand dug up the deceased Elektra, and plonked her into some kind of tomb-like chamber. Whatever happens next is surely going to be big.

Some think that the Black Sky is somehow linked to the Beast of the Hand, a powerful demon from the comic books that needed a host/vessel in order to cross into our world, and was hell-bent on death and destruction. In the comics, Daredevil once became the Beast…

In the MCU, maybe we’ll see Elektra reincarnated as a host for this evil force instead. That’d explain why The Hand were so keen to recover her body; perhaps that chamber is somehow linked to the Beast, and with the right host (‘the Black Sky’) it can be used to bring the demon to life in our world.

Elodie Yung has expressed an interest in reprising Elektra as a villain to face the Defenders in their crossover series, which could be a tease of things to come. Maybe Elektra will embrace her Black Sky destiny and become a host for The Beast, allowing The Hand to unleash a full-scale attack on New York.

You’ve got to wonder where the huge hole in the ground fits in, though, and the kids that The Hand were draining of bodily fluids. Perhaps this all part of the Black Sky ritual, although we’ll have to wait and see.

Fun fact: when Daredevil was possessed by The Beast, it took a chi-powered punch from Iron Fist to set him right. Could we get to see this on screen one day?

The continued adventures of The Punisher

And finally, the most blatant tease of things to come from the conclusion of Daredevil season 2 came from The Punisher. In the penultimate episode, he confronted Colonel Schoonover, who was strongly implied to be The Blacksmith, the drug dealer at the centre of the Central Park gunfight that killed Frank Castle’s family.

Before Frank killed him the Colonel said this: “What happened with your kids, the park, who cares. It’s about what happened with you, with all of us… Kandahar! Did you think they would ever let that go?”

Seeing as Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, it’s fairly obvious that Frank’s story isn’t over yet. What dark secret has he left in Kandahar? And who are ‘they’ that won’t let it go? Frank goes to his home and nabs a hidden CD labelled ‘Micro’, before burning the place down and walking off dramatically. The contents of this CD and the events of Kandahar seem a lot like potential plot threats left dangling, just in case Marvel decide to give The Punisher his own solo series.

Rather than expose Frank, Karen publishes a story stating that he’s dead. This gives Frank the freedom to do whatever he wants, and his immediate urge is to paint a skull onto a black top, as per his iconic comic book look.

He lends a helping hand in Daredevil’s end-of-season battle against The Hand, before saying “see you around, Red” from a neighbouring rooftop. Clearly, we’ve not seen the last of this guy, even though Marvel is yet to announce their future plans for the character. A petition is afoot to bring him back in his own series, which you can find by clicking here if you fancy signing it.

In the meantime, the next Marvel Netflix series is Luke Cage, which reaches the streaming service on Friday 30th September.