I don’t think Matt would have gone with Elektra had Karen not broken up with him. The part where he is making promises to Elektra is what felt like a cop out to me, something Elektra instantly recognizes. She knows the reason Matt wants to run away with her is so he doesn’t ever have to let anyone else in. He’s lost everything, his firm, his friend, his girlfriend. The only one left is Elektra. In that moment where he says they can just run away, you can feel how much of a lie that is and Elektra sees right through it. “You hide from yourself. You don’t let anyone in.” They want to believe he can leave everything for her but the truth is, he can’t. New York is in Matt’s blood. He can be daredevil with Elektra but he can be daredevil ALONE, not Matt. Elektra doesn’t care about his daily normal life as a lawyer. But we know that Matt needs both in his life, to keep himself grounded. And he can never ever leave Hell’s Kitchen. That moment was a bunch of wishful thinking and the fact that it was said right before they would both be killed is very telling. Matt wasn’t thinking in that moment, he was being reckless and impulsive. He wanted a way out and Elektra seemed like his only chance.
The fact that he listened to Elektra and finally decided to, WILLINGLY, let Karen in, says a lot. He didn’t go back to Karen because she is his second choice. He doesn’t even know if she will take him back nor do I think he’s expecting that. He wanted to let someone in. He wanted Karen to know because he owed her that. To keep Karen in his life, he needed her trust and acceptance. Throughout the course of the season, Matt’s relationship with Elektra and her insight into him as well as Frank’s understanding of Karen and vice versa was meant to set the foundation to bring Matt/Karen to that mental place of taking a step forward in their relationship.
Matt needed a lesson to let people into his life, a lesson about how essential that was to keep him grounded and his darkness at bay. He needed to learn that you can’t save people from themselves, they need to save themselves from it, like Elektra did. Like he needs to do if he wants to keep both parts of his life. And for that he needs to open up to people he trusts. He needs workable anchors, because Elektra, despite being able to understand him, was never going to work. Because of how different they are, how toxic for one another. With Elektra, Matt would never have been happy. He would have to leave the city he loves and leave his normal life. With Elektra, he would just be daredevil and nothing else. With Karen, however, there is a possibility that he can be BOTH.
Through Karen opening up to him about her opinion of Frank Castle and her support for him, Matt knows she is someone he can count on to not judge him. We constantly see how baffled and curious her answers make him whenever Frank comes up. Matt CARES so much about Karen’s opinion of him, it’s astounding. Through her take on the Punisher, Matt is constantly assessing how Karen might fare if he were to reveal his identity and I feel him starting a relationship with her was because he could see that in the future, this might even work for him. That “He could be any of us” talk with Karen in 202(?) was the turning point for him. The talk about Karen’s compassion. Nothing in those moments is without purpose. We see Karen accept Frank Castle’s motives and support him, so Daredevil falls into the same category. Through Matt/Karen’s initial dating we see Karen has accepted Matt, wants Matt, but the only thing that came in the way of that relationship was Matt holding back from her. Their entire break up happened because Matt was too busy being Daredevil and couldn’t explain it to Karen. Add Elektra to that and of course the break up had to happen. Matt and Karen are still very much a mystery to one another, but I feel once they take the next step forward in terms of trust and acceptance, they are exactly what they both need.
With Claire, Matt could just be Matt because Claire wanted nothing to do with Daredevil. She was not okay falling in love with someone who was that unpredictable and dangerous. She cut that relationship in its bud. As for Elektra, I am not denying that she loves Matt, but its important to note that Matt was a mission for her and she used him. She also loves his darkness, something Matt doesn’t want to unleash, ever. Most importantly, with her Matt can ONLY be Daredevil, not Matt Murdock, the lawyer who has a normal life and friends and who does things a certain way, the legal way. Elektra doesn’t care about that part of Matt’s life. Which brings me to Karen. She is the only one who has fallen in love with Matt and who simultaneously has a thing for Daredevil as well. With her past and her understanding of her own self and Frank Castle, she is the only one capable of handling Matt’s truth. And I feel the whole reason her arc with Frank was so important was so it could set the foundation for us to understand how OKAY she can be with Matt as Daredevil and how supportive. It really sets her apart as a unique love interest and honestly, Matt’s only hope of balancing both aspects of his life.
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