appellatedefender

AKA "Heisey" on AO3 "Resist. Rebel. Rebuild."

[comiced]

Daredevil: Born Again 2x08 - The Southern Cross (2026)

Daredevil Vol. 2 #83 (2006)

Ed Brubaker | Michael Lark

[iamsteelorchids]

Calling the "I'm in love with this man" scene a catfight is as derogatory as the term itself.

This is not a simple fight between the current girlfriend and the ex. To start with, Karen is not just Matt's girlfriend, she is a longtime Wilson Fisk enemy, that's why she's in prison; and Heather is not just his ex, she was Fisk's therapist, chose to work for him and—whether she knows it or not—is also being used like a puppet. The context in which they meet has to do with their decisions—Karen's fight against Fisk, and Heather's choice to take him on as a client and accepting his job offer—and nothing to do with Matt.

Heather tries to psychoanalyze Karen, but Karen knows what the real objective is and, almost for fun, immediately points out the absurdity of her technique. She still decides to play Heather's game and brings up pieces of information that she considers more useful to understand her character. What follows is a masterful explanation of her love and attraction to this mysterious, inaccessible and complicated man who, she is 100% sure, is also in love with her, and happens to be Heather's ex. That in no way means they're arguing over Matt, as I've seen some people suggest. Karen just used her relationship with him to mess with her. 

I find this very funny because Heather never had access to the real Matt, and everything Karen finds attractive in him was actually a turn-off for Heather. As a bonus, something I love about this scene is that it suggests Matt told Karen everything about Heather—and I’d even say about Elektra too. That shows how deep their trust goes. 

Heather is left disarmed, so she appeals to Karen's file and almost gets on her nerves at the mention of her brother, but you can't bully someone whose weaknesses have made them stronger. She knows Heather doesn’t know and could never understand the whole story, but she doesn’t care about that. Karen despises her for being an ally to her enemy, for being friends with the ones who killed her friend and so many others. The fact that she is Matt's ex just made confronting her a little juicier. 

When Heather asks whether Matt knows about her dark past—as if that was something that could bring them apart—she strikes back telling her he loves her, and that all those conflicts and contradictions are part of what brings them together.

Then the roles switch. Karen is asking the questions now and Heather is not pleased. “Matt really hurt you, didn’t he? Enough that you'd run to them to feel safe.” Again, she’s using Matt to get on her nerves, but clearly Karen’s issue here is the fact that she’s with Fisk. 

Heather has nothing. She runs out of ammunition and, in an attempt to show superiority, hits Karen while handcuffed. If there is anything more pathetic than that, please tell me what it is.

“Don’t pity me.”  

“Too late.”

Karen is left with a bruised eye and a busted lip, but with her dignity intact and her love for Matt as strong as ever. She knows he's out there desperately missing her and doing the impossible to get her out of jail.

As a final thought, she would have been hostile even if the evaluator wasn't her boyfriend's ex.

[appellatedefender]

The first words spoken in S2E07 of Daredevil:Born Again are an unidentified man saying, "One avocado."

Hmmm....

[foggyinphx]

What is reddit's obsession with "he was shot in the heart"? I think if he got hit directly in the heart, wouldn't it have arrested pretty much immediately? We listen to his heart very slowly stop beating. Because he was bleeding out (just like Angela in episode 6). It depends entirely on where exactly he took the internal damage. There are so many factors involved it's ridiculous. Doctors feel free to weigh in on the fictional scenario in the superhero show where people routinely survive critical injuries if the plot deems it necessary 🙄

Also: no one who thinks he's alive is saying that Foggy getting shot was fake. That's not what the Brubaker fake-death plot was. He definitely got stabbed in the comic. He definitely got shot in the show. It took emergency surgery to save him in the comic. It'll take something even more drastic to save him in the show (maybe something that could save a guy who got shot in the face!). He's gonna have months of recovery ahead of him after he was resuscitated, maybe even some permanent damage. (Well gee, doesn't that sound like a very convenient time to abduct/disappear somebody 🤔)

Also here are three (THREE!) ambulances at the scene while Matt is still on the roof crying:

[appellatedefender]

Yes to all of this. Good catch, spotting that Foggy is no longer lying on the sidewalk in front of Josie's. If he had been pronounced dead at the scene, he would still be lying there, awaiting the arrival of someone from the medical examiner's office.

Next to where Foggy was lying is some trash that looks like discarded medical supplies. This suggests that there was at least an attempt to save him. People can survive a cardiac arrest "in the field." Most don't, but some do - and this is a TV show.

It's also worth noting that this scene takes place in episode 1, which was written and produced by the new writers and showrunner after the reset. There are other hints that Foggy survived, and they're all in episodes 1, 8, and 9 - episodes written and produced by the new team.

Finally, this has nothing to do with Foggy's survival, but at the bottom of the screenshot, just below Matt's helmet, there is a person on a gurney being wheeled away, apparently toward ambulance #3. The person looks like a man with short light brown hair, wearing dark clothes. Could it be Dex?

[appellatedefender]

[whomst-the-hell]

my favourite genre of fanfic is daredevil fic written by law students

[appellatedefender]

"What about fics written by actual lawyers?" she asked plaintively.

[whomst-the-hell]

“obviously those are also excellent but from what ive found fics by law students are just more common,” she answered simply.

[appellatedefender]

"I know of at least two Daredevil fan fic authors who are lawyers: @ceterisparibus116 and myself ("Heisey" on AO3)," she said, blushing.

Like you, I am happy to find Daredevil fics written by authors with legal knowledge, something the writers of seasons 1-3 were woefully lacking. But if I may speak frankly....Law school mostly teaches you what you need to pass the bar. Practicing law teaches you what you really need to know (learned the hard way, in my case).

[angelcatsiel]

Met Charlie Cox today and he was wondering what to write for my autograph and my boyfriend suggested 'bring back Foggy' because of my obsession with Foggy Nelson, and he wrote it. So there you go. The king has spoken!

[whomst-the-hell]

my favourite genre of fanfic is daredevil fic written by law students

[appellatedefender]

"What about fics written by actual lawyers?" she asked plaintively.

[appellatedefender]

FREE DC!

[appellatedefender]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Daredevil (TV) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Characters: Matt Murdock, Kirsten McDuffie, Hector Ayala, Wilson Fisk, Vanessa Marianna Fisk, Lester | Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter Additional Tags: Legal issues, Legal Procedures, Legal Commentary, Legal Drama, Courtroom Drama, Daredevil Meta, Daredevil: Born Again (TV) Season 01 

Series: Part 5 of Legal Commentaries

Summary: My take on the many legal issues in season one of Daredevil: Born Again.

[depsidase]

[appellatedefender]

Do not comply.

[slipping-into-madness]

[kendallsroyco]

This is facts and I really need some respect placed on Charlie's name, he is the lifeblood of this franksteined season and is doing a lot of the work to make it compelling and worthwhile to watch.

And his range! In the last episode alone, his comedic timing on his response to the Skrull line, his charm when he was negotiating with the prosecutor, and then his heart-wrenching delivery during his conversation about Foggy.

His performance as Matt this season is like his excellence in the Netflix show but on steroids since he needs to do a lot more carrying for a show with a troubled production. I can write a whole 100000 word essay on the nuances of his acting in these 4 episodes so far. He's so good.

Like what this tweet says. He's making a lot of silly-sounding dialogue seem so earnest and believable, that's talent.

Just a Charlie Cox acting appreciation post because man he deserves one

[toyswithoutfear]

Daredevil Vol. 2 Issue 41 (2003) Bendis/Maleev

Milla Donovan's first appearance, just before she nearly gets hit by a truck and is saved by Daredevil.

There are a handful of blind characters in Daredevil - of course including Matt himself - but most of them have some supernatural means of navigating the world. Matt has his super senses, Stick has training that seems to give him similar abilities, Blindspot regains some level of vision via a sacrifice to the Beast. This doesn't necessarily negate their disability, at least not when written well, but it can easily fall into the trope of 'the magical cure': writing off a disability as not mattering due to a fantasy environment, advanced science, magic, etc. This is usually done as a 'happy ending' for the character - because, apparently, disabled people cannot be happy while still being disabled. In Matt's case, his enhanced senses and especially his radar sense are used more as a plot device to explain how he can be a typical superhero character. This is not inherently a bad thing, especially when writers make it clear that Matt is still disabled, but the history of Daredevil is rife with ableism, so Milla is in many ways a breath of fresh air.

Milla is, at her core, a normal person. She's an excellent character, who is defined as her own person before she even interacts with Matt - and, crucially, is immediately characterised as a strong, independent blind person. She has none of Matt's superpowers, but she is a capable, happy and captivating person. This provides an excellent additional viewpoint for the reader to see that disabled people are perfectly able to live fulfilled lives even without the 'magic cure' or superpowers.

The realistic, casual dialogue in Bendis' run also helps define Milla as a well-rounded character who has depth outside of being just Matt's love interest or just a disabled character. In her first appearance we see her discussing housing for the homeless, already emphasising a personal life and her own political views before we even know that she's going to be a love interest for Matt. This is refreshing compared to many of his previous love interests, who are often initially defined solely by Matt's attraction to them.

Daredevil Vol. 2 Issue 43 (2003) Bendis/Maleev

Milla stands up for herself when Matt tries to turn her down, according to him for her own safety.

Since Milla's debut is soon after Matt's identity has been leaked to newspaper tabloids, she is in the unique (at this point) position of knowing he is Daredevil before they even have a first date. This puts her on a much more even playing field compared to his past love interests, where his secret identity tends to be a cause of tension and drama within the relationship. This is emphasised by Milla immediately standing up for herself when Matt tries to tell her that she'll be in danger if they're together. Although Milla does become a victim many times over the course of her storylines (something I wish would've happened significantly less) this being one of her first conversations with Matt - and the first when he isn't in the middle of saving her life - shows that she is not going to let Matt have all the power. From the very start, Milla has autonomy in their relationship, which is excellent considering both women and disabled people are often denied this both in real life and in fiction.

Daredevil Vol. 2 Issue 46 (2003) Bendis/Maleev

Milla and her friend Lori debate the pros and cons of dating Matt.

Having prior knowledge of Matt being Daredevil gives Milla the chance to make a full, informed choice on if she wants to date him. This scene is after their first date, which is interrupted when Matt is taken in for questioning about a murder case. At this point, Milla is notably unsure about whether a relationship with Daredevil is a good idea - and understandably so, considering that they've barely met and she's already engulfed in the drama of being a superhero - and all of this makes her choice to stick with it have additional weight and meaning behind it.

Although the way she was overly victimised by Daredevil's villains and then written out of the story in an unpleasant way is extremely frustrating to me, I still find Milla to be a wonderful character, especially during Bendis' run on Daredevil. I strongly believe that Daredevil overall should have more disabled characters that aren't super powered, or at least not in a way that allows writers to depict them as essentially fully abled, and Milla is a great example of how that could be done. I hope she comes back eventually, even in just a small way that can provide closure and a better ending to her story.

[daresplaining]

Daredevil vol. 2 #74 by Brian Michael Bendis, Alex Maleev, Dave Stewart, and Cory Petit

This issue of the "Decalogue" story arc introduces Lynn, one of Milla's coworkers at the Hell's Kitchen Housing Commission and the Maid of Honor at her and Matt's wedding. "Decalogue" is framed as a conversation between ordinary citizens whose lives have all been affected, in one way or another, by Daredevil; in Lynn's case, she lost her daughter to a horrific encounter with supernatural forces from which Daredevil couldn't save her. That is the focus of the issue, but Bendis also takes time to weave in some wonderful scenes with Milla, including the one above.

Milla is not a superhero in the traditional sense, but her introductory run places great emphasis on her power as a quieter form of hero: someone who cares deeply about the people around her and works within her own abilities to make the world a better place. Her job at the Hell's Kitchen Housing Commission is front and center to her character; we are shown again and again that she knows the neighborhood intimately and is passionate about helping its most vulnerable residents get the resources they need. And this scene is another, smaller extension of that aspect of her character. It is neat to see her operating, as it were, as a member of Team Daredevil: hearing a cry for help and quietly calling her superhero partner to come do his thing. But I also love that we then get this quiet page of Milla taking Lynn home, holding her hand while she cries, performing this equally important, human side of superhero work while Matt is out doing the rescuing.

[appellatedefender]

The fact that Vanessa brought up Ray Nadeem's murder while hiring Dex makes me think that Fisk's defense team probably got Nadeem's dying declaration confession excluded from evidence on the grounds that it's heresy without Nadeem alive to explain his statements on the tape.

The only silver lining might be that the video confession did at least do the job that Karen and Ellison were hoping to accomplish by having the Bulletin publish it: even if it couldn't be used in a criminal case against Fisk, it would certainly ensure that the public had some awareness of his criminal actions. And this does line up with a remark that Cherry makes in the first episode of DDBA about half the police force still very much hating Fisk (because they still remember the cops who took bribes from Fisk and those who were murdered on his orders).

You're correct that Nadeem's "dying declaration" was inadmissible under the hearsay exception for dying declarations, as provided in the New York and federal rules of evidence. I discuss this in detail in my commentary on legal issues in Daredevil season 3. Some of the statements on his video might be admissible under other exceptions to the hearsay rule, but I have not analyzed the video to try to identify them.

Under these circumstances, the prosecution would have had to rely on the testimony of SAC Hattley and the other FBI agents who flipped. As I said in another post, this is not uncommon, and experienced prosecutors would know how to handle the situation and rehabilitate these witnesses' credibility. However, the jury is the sole judge of witnesses' credibility, and juries can be unpredictable. If Fisk was acquitted (as he was), the jury must have rejected the testimony of Hattley and the other agents. We don't know why the jurors rejected their testimony, but apparently this is what happened.

It's true that Nadeem's video helped to publicize Fisk's criminal activities. However, his defense counsel would have questioned potential jurors about their knowledge of the video and would have tried to keep those who had seen the video off the jury. In light of FIsk's acquittal, that strategy may have worked.

[ceterisparibus116]

I have to admit, it's still kind of bugging me that we don't know how Fisk got out of prison and has a restored reputation since DD season 3.

Responding to you and @ladymaigrey who also asked about this: yes, it's frustrating and feels too comic-book-ish.

I might pick up on more details as I rewatch the show. But my understanding at this point is:

He's appealing his charges and/or sentence from S1; and

He was acquitted of his charges from S3.

The implications of this are huge.

First, if Fisk successfully appeals his charges, that would mean the prosecutor would likely have to start over and present the case again. It's possible that the prosecutor would simply not do so because it would be too much work, because it would be against public opinion, because Fisk bought them off...maybe the appeal would be based on bad decisions from a judge, and the prosecutor knows that Fisk has bought the judges off, so bringing the case again is fruitless...maybe it's just that Fisk's lawyers have so much money that they bury the prosecutor's office in frivolous motions and the prosecutor can't justify spending so much of their budget on one man....

As for his charges from S3, an acquittal means Fisk went to trial and the jury found him not guilty. Which, oh my goodness. If the reason he was acquitted was "because of the FBI," that suggests that the jury...got confused, and thought the FBI's corruption meant Fisk wasn't guilty? Or perhaps the jury was pissed and engaged in jury nullification and acquitted Fisk because they were angry at the FBI's corruption? Or perhaps the jury just hates prosecution and will always find any defendant guilty because they think the system is broken, and that got interpreted as an acquittal because of FBI corruption? Or maybe someone in the jury was bought off, and persuaded everyone else to acquit, and then claimed that it was because of the FBI to hide the fact that they were bought off?

Lots of options, really.

And I am fascinated by the idea of Fisk being acquitted. I love juries, but goodness, they are just twelve random people and they they can be dumb. The average reading level in the U.S. is 7th-8th grade. The average attention span of an adult is 45 seconds. Jurors can completely fail to connect two logical points; they can stop paying attention and miss key information; they can conflate issues; etc.

Juries can (and do) also choose the absolute wierdest possible hills to die on and think jury duty is an opportunity to make some kind of statement. "I hate the FBI [or the police or prosecution or The Government™ or whatever] and therefore I'm going to find this person not guilty" is absolutely a thing that happens.

I love juries, I really do, and I would never want to replace our jury system with anything else. But they are fallible.

[appellatedefender]

Thanks for the analysis, @ceterisparibus116. I have a few additional comments.

In episode 11 of season 3, Fisk and his attorney Ben Donovan hold a press conference. Donovan announces that the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed Fisk's convictions (on the five counts of RICO he was tried on after his arrest at the end of season 1), and the U.S. Attorney has decided not to re-try Fisk on these charges. (Note: in most cases, a defendant can be re-tried after a reversal on appeal.) Donovan does not mention the reason(s) for the reversal or why the government elected not to re-try Fisk, except for a general statement to the effect that the government has seen the error of its ways. The reversal on appeal, followed by the decision not to re-try him, means that Fisk is free and clear of the charges on which he was tried, the five counts of RICO. There might be charges that could be brought against Fisk under state law without violating double jeopardy, but DA Blake Tower doesn't seem interested in pursuing them.

In episode 9 of Daredevil: Born Again, Vanessa Fisk tells Ben Poindexter that her husband was acquitted of the charges brought against him at the end of season 3. The acquittal means the case is over; the prosecution cannot appeal, and Fisk can not be re-tried on those charges. According to Vanessa, Fisk was acquitted because of "the whole FBI corruption scandal, Agent Nadeem, all of that." It's possible that the jury chose not to believe and rejected the testimony of the FBI agents who (presumably) testified against Fisk at trial because of this corruption. However, in real life, it is common for prosecution witnesses in criminal trials to be criminals themselves, often accomplices of the defendant who is on trial. Experienced prosecutors know how to handle this situation. And in this case there is the added element that it was Fisk himself who corrupted the FBI agents. But the jury is the sole judge of the credibility of witnesses. On the other hand, it’s entirely possible that Fisk or someone on his behalf got to the jurors, just as he got to the grand jurors in season three.