Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3 was a rousing courtroom drama with a deeper socio-political quandry at its center: Are masked vigilantes really heroes? Or just troubled citizens who decided to bend the law for their own violent gratification? That argument propelled Matt Murdock’s (Charlie Cox) defense of Hector Ayala (Kama de los Reyes), the man who moonlights as the vigilante crimefighter, White Tiger and stands accused of murdering a NYPD cop. By the end, Matt had just as much personal investment in proving the nobility of masked heroes as he did professional investment – which made the outcome of the trial that much more devastating.
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WARNING: SPOILERS FOLLOW!
In “The Hollow of His Hand” Matt makes the bold decision to reverse-course on Hector’s defense strategy, after his first gambit falls apart. The confidential informant Hector saved from two corrupt cops caves to police pressure and recounts his statement implicating the two officers who were assaulting him. Matt is forced to go against his own earlier plea to the judge by revealing that Hector is White Tiger in open court.
The strategy is controversial to be sure, but it also works: the jury hears testimony from all of the people the White Tiger saved over the years, painting the portrait of a hero whose only instinct was to help others. It’s a massive risk, but it pays off: Hector is exonerated of the murder charge and gets to walk out of jail a free man. Unfortunately, what should be a proud new era for the White Tiget is cut short tragically: that same night after the trial, as Hector heads out on patrol as White Tiger, he’s shot point-blank in the head by an unknown assailant, who is seen to have The Punisher’s skull logo painted on his black tactical gear.
[RELATED: Daredevil: Born Again Wasted A Great New MCU Character In White Tiger]
Daredevil: Who Really Killed White Tiger?
The larger story arc being established in these first three episodes of Daredevil: Born Again see the entire act of superhero vigilantism coming under scrutiny (yet again), as “Mayor” Wilson Fist (Vincent D’Onofrio) puports to be ushiering in an entirely new era of law and order in NYC – one that’s free of the need of street-level vigilantes like White Tiger, Daredevil, or Spider-Man. However, anyone who knows Fisk (like fans of Netflix’s Daredevil do) already suspects that the “order” Kingpin wants isn’t the kind that aligns with what most consider “heroic” ideals, and that figures like White Tiger aren’t the sort Fisk will abide.
That’s all to say: seeing the scene of White Tiger being ambushed and killed, juxtaposed to Fisk taking a hardline anti-vigilante stance regarding the outcome of the trial during an interview with B.B. Urich (Genneya Walton), doesn’t seem like a coincidence. It seems like an implication that Fisk probably gave the order to make an example of Hector.
As for who actually pulled the trigger on White Tiger? Obviously, the visual of the Punisher’s logo on the shooter’s vest is a red herring; Marvel fans already know Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle/Punisher will be showing up, and a fair percentage of them will probably believe that Punisher is the killer. However, Born Again has made a point to make it clear that there is a contingent of cops within the NYPD that have co-opted the Punisher logo as their unofficial gang sign; we also know that there is a contingent of cops in force who wanted to make sure that Hector Ayala didn’t ever walk free again – if he ever walked again, at all. It’s hard to believe they’d let a little thing like a “not guilty” verdict stop them from getting retribution.
The missing link in all this is what (if anything) Fisk has going on with the rogue cops of the NYPD. So far, Daredevil: Born Again has (mostly) kept up the facade of Fisk trying to ‘go straight’ with his new political career as mayor; three episodes in and we’ve only seen Kingpin scheming in both the political and criminal worlds, and using a wee bit of blackmail to get NYPD Commissiner Gallo (Michael Gaston) in line. By this time in the old Netflix Daredevil series we’d seen Fisk crush a guy’s head in a car door!
There’s no doubt that White Tiger’s death was sudden, and brutally shocking, and if it was indeed Fisk calling that shot, then the fact that he wasn’t directly responsible for the carnage is just a technicality, really. Fisk knows what kind of statement Hector’s death will be to both Matt Murdock – one that could provoke him into bringing back his Daredevil alter-ego. The question then becomes: would Daredevil’s return be a thorn in Fisk’s side? Or playing right into Kingpin’s hands.
Daredevil: Born Again is streaming on Disney+.
