Matt's reveal to Karen and what it may mean for the future
So season 2's last shot is with Matt revealing his secret identity to Karen. The show ends before we can see Karen react to the discovery. But how would she react? Part of me posits that Karen will probably approve of Matt being Daredevil, maybe even encourage him, which will be a major point going into The Defenders and Daredevil season 3.
My evidence:
1. Unlike Foggy, Karen has personally seen Matt in action as Daredevil.
Foggy's seen Matt in his uniform, but both times it was after he'd been injured in a fight (after his fight with Nobu and Fisk in season 1, after being attacked by the Punisher in season 2). Because Foggy's never actually seen Matt fighting (he was there for the fight with the Hand but he was at street level and could only hear it), his only idea of what Matt does as Daredevil is in the form of soundbites on the evening news. And he has no connection to anything in the other half of Matt's life. He doesn't see Matt out there getting beaten up and chasing down associates of Wilson Fisk, the Kitchen Irishmen, Hand ninjas, or Dogs of Hell bikers. He only knows that Matt is beating up bad guys, which is what the NYPD is paid to do. Foggy also may have a hard time taking Matt's word as gospel after having found that his best friend of five years had been keeping such a big secret from him.
But with Karen, it's the complete opposite. For her, Matt's actions as Daredevil aren't something that shows up in the trending column on her Facebook page. For her, they're real. She's actually seen him in action. She saw him subdue Wilson Fisk's assassin Rance in season 1, and knows that he saved her life. She also personally saw Matt engaging the Hand ninjas who were holding her and the others captive, the same ninjas who were about to amputate Turk's foot.
2. Matt disclosing his identity to Karen had been foreshadowed
In "Dogs to a Gunfight", when Karen visits Matt at his apartment after the hospital shooting. First, she admits to him she is barely holding it together and doesn't like being used for target practice. In the same conversation, there's this exchange:
Karen Page: Sometimes I worry about you a little too much.
Matt Murdock: I appreciate it. There's no need to worry.
Karen Page: Yeah, you know that doesn't help, right? You denying that there's anything wrong?
Matt Murdock: Karen-
Karen Page: No, how many times can I hear that you "fell down the stairs" or you "walked into a door"?
Matt Murdock: Well, you know I'm blind.
Karen Page: And you know that I'm not an idiot. [beat] Okay, um, let's say this: when or if you ever feel like you can tell me what's going on with you, I promise that I'm here. Is that a deal?
Matt Murdock: That is a deal.
"When or if you feel like you can tell me what's going on with you, I promise that I'm here." Matt probably decided, "You're saying you'll listen to me when I decide to reveal my secret identity to you."
3. Of Matt's three love interests, she's the one most like him personalitywise
In season 2, there were three potential love interests for Matt: Claire, Karen, and Elektra. Elektra was killed, and when she comes back from the dead in The Defenders, she will most likely come back as an enemy and leader of the Hand since Nobu's gone. Even when she was just a normal person, she was no good for Matt, and the only reason he was chasing after her and teaming up with her, was because she was like him: a vigilante that's equally skilled, who also got training from Stick. She hurt him and lied to him many times, but because Matt is clearly a bit of a masochist, he was willing to accept her regardless, and tried to reach for the good in her and get her to be good, even though things would just fundamentally never work out between them (if you've ever been with a crazy girl, you would understand the relationship they had, where Matt knows that Elektra is dangerous and not good for him, and that she hurts him, but that he's willing to put up with it because he is sort of trapped by his love for her).
Matt and Elektra's relationship is similar to how Frank Castle described his wife to Karen at the diner, and how badly she would hurt him. She made him feel something, even if that feeling was emotional pain. And there is something about someone who can make you extremely happy, or hurt you when they choose to, that is emotionally intense. It's so intense in comparison to having a nice, bland relationship with someone predictable, that you become addicted to it.
Now let's consider Claire. Matt already had something with Claire. She is definitely useful and very strong. Matt needs someone like her in his life. But Claire was turned off by Matt's blood knight tendencies, and was routinely frustrated by him. They were not emotionally compatible, and that showed through loud and clear. They care about each other, but they could never work, and their romantic interest in one another faded, with Claire eventually forming a relationship with Luke Cage, though there is still clear professional attraction and chemistry between her and Matt.
Which brings us to Karen. She is the central female character in Daredevil, and there is very serious chemistry between her and Matt. Karen obviously likes and supports the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, especially since, again, he saved her repeatedly. Even after the Fisk controlled media painted the Devil of Hell's Kitchen as the one responsible for the death of Detective Blake and the cops that got shot, she still supported him. Her response to Foggy's skepticism was, "He didn't hurt Ben and he didn't hurt me. I'll take the Devil of Hell's Kitchen over Fisk any day. Plus, he kicks ass! [Matt smiles with approval; Foggy scoffs] No, you should've seen the way that he was flipping around in the rain." She also is in love with Matt, and despite her standoffish nature after finding Elektra in his bed, still has feelings for him, as she admits in that diner conversation. Their personalities click really well together, both as Matt and as Daredevil. Karen also likes being involved directly with somewhat dangerous things. She could drop things at any point for her own safety, but she never stops going after her leads. Throughout season 1, we saw this in their own borderline obsessive dedications towards stopping Wilson Fisk and ending corruption in Hell's Kitchen. Matt used Daredevil, and Karen tried to use the media. In season 2, it was Karen who pushed to find the whole truth about the Punisher through use of the media, while Matt pushed to use the courts to achieve the same thing.
In that sense, Karen combines the better qualities of the other two love interests: like Elektra, she enjoys the action, despite her obvious fear and inability to really protect herself. And like Claire, she is kind and caring, though obviously more consistent and less dramatic than Elektra. Claire obviously was repeatedly frustrated by Matt's fondness for violence (which is why she ended up with Luke: Luke only seeks violence as a last resort, due to being a righteous guy, and his durable skin making his punches deadlier than the average person's), and Elektra was less a supporter of Matt's actions but more of an enabler of his darker aspects. But Karen, on the other hand, is the sort of person Matt needs: useful, with a strong personality, one that actually supports him but not to the point of enabling him, and never quits once she sets her sights on an injustice. Their personalities work perfectly together, but their romance has always been hampered by the other goings-on and drama.
So my opinion is that going into the future shows, Karen will eventually really come to like the fact that Matt is Daredevil and support him, and will obviously become even more attracted to him now that she knows how strong he is and what exactly he's capable of. Consider that Matt is knowingly taking a risk by showing Karen his secret, and it's likely she will freak out initially. It will be a matter of "wait and see" if she takes it better or worse than Foggy did. But let's assume it goes down like Frank Castle's relationship advice at the diner (which in layman's terms was "Give Matt a second chance. You may hate him, but you'll come to love him more at the same time"): Karen will initially freak out and be naturally upset about all the times Matt lied to her, but she'll realize that most of his lies were for the sake of protecting her from people like Fisk and the Hand. And again, he saved her life on several occasions (Rance, the Hand, etc.). So she will come around in the end and help him by sleuthing things out with her investigative journalism work.
Another reason I think that Karen will take the news better than Foggy did, is because, well, here's one thing you might notice in hindsight: up until the last episode of season 2, everyone who knew about Matt's secret had either figured it out on their own (Elektra, Fisk, Frank Castle, Father Lantom), or had the misfortune of finding Matt bleeding half to death (Foggy). Karen is the first person that Matt decides to tell his secret to entirely of his own volition. The fact that Matt is showing her the helmet, coupled with how nervous he is about it, shows that he has set his sights 100% on her now that Elektra is gone, and that he is willing to fight to get her back.
Oh, and an unrelated thing: each one of Matt's season 2 love interests had at least one trait that brought them closer to Matt, helping him feel understood. Elektra obviously had the karate-action-double life going for her. Plus she kicks ass and Matt likes to do just that. Karen has her love for the truth, she loves justice, and the underdog going. She has a more of a "day time" going for her, it's even somewhat hinted in her Bulletin piece in the last episode about the "every day hero". With her it's about shining light on the dark. We can see that she liked the Punisher, she did not agree with him, but she had something going with him, she wanted to save him from himself. Claire had a little of the same characteristics of Karen, but not so much. But she has the same morals as Matt and Luke, the same Christian morality that everybody deserves to be saved, nobody should die, and understands the frustration when hard work turns out to be all for naught (Matt putting Fisk behind bars only for Fisk to rise again; organized crime doesn't stop just because Fisk is removed, instead getting a lot worse; Scarfe dies despite Claire's best efforts to treat his wounds, etc.)
4. Karen supports and approves of most vigilantes like Daredevil because she has done vigilante actions herself
Part of the reason I believe that Karen will be accepting and encouraged by the reveal that Matt is the same guy who saved her from Rance or from the Hand, is because well, Foggy didn't seem to fond of learning that his best friend was secretly a masked vigilante. And Deborah Ann Woll has suggested in interviews that Karen is going to accept that Matt is Daredevil in her own way, very different from Foggy's.
I also believe Karen would be the kind to accept and encourage Matt's vigilante activities because she knows what it's like to be a vigilante. I mean, let's remember that she killed James Wesley.
Except there's the implication that Wesley is not the first person Karen personally killed. When she called Wesley's bluff with leaving the gun on the table, she said "Do you really think this is the first time I've shot someone?" before shooting him to death. From that line, we know that Karen can tell the weight difference between a loaded handgun and an empty one, and has fired a gun in the past. Season 2 provided small amounts of information about the car accident that killed her brother, most notably the newspaper article in "Seven Minutes in Heaven", but not much was confirmed by that article other than that Kevin Page got into a one vehicle accident that the police found suspicious for whatever reason. I'd theorize that perhaps it was a hit-and-run or something like that. Karen tracked down whoever was responsible for her brother's death, and shot him repeatedly.
It explains some of Karen's dialogue in "Dogs to a Gunfight". During her conversation with Foggy at the office (after the pawnshop scene), she asks to herself "What if I deserved [to have the Punisher shooting at me]?" which sounds like she had bad flashacks of killing Wesley and possibly her brother's killer. When she visits Matt in the next scene, she contemplates that maybe Matt was indirectly responsible for the Punisher's creation. Later in the conversation, Karen says, out of nowhere, "There's just something about this city that makes good people want to shoot their way out of bad situations!" Matt asks, "You think this 'Punisher' could be a good person?" And she replies, "No! No, I'm just saying....he could be any one of us." As someone who herself has shot people in the past, Karen maybe was talking about herself.
That stuff earlier about Karen trying to save Frank Castle from himself? That could also be explained as Karen having an identity crisis because she wants to know if she can be a good person despite being a killer.
The bottom line is, Karen might be willing to accept Matt's nighttime activities because she's done such things herself.
5. The reveal scene itself
Watch the scene where Matt makes his reveal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OBVnLh2J2k.
What I like about the Netflix shows is how they put lots of subtle meanings into characters' dialogue and their facial reactions. For instance, a careful viewer would've realized that Fisk was fluent in Japanese and Chinese long before that conversation with Madame Gao, off the fact that his facial expression darkened when Nobu was speaking angrily to him in Japanese BEFORE Wesley even started translating. Or the fact that a careful viewer of Jessica Jones would have realized she was immune to Kilgrave long before she realized it herself.
Now here's how facial reactions go when it comes to Matt's reveal to Karen. Since the little misunderstanding involving Elektra, Karen thinks that despite her feelings for Matt, he does not truly care for her. That's why she asks "What am I doing here?" after agreeing to meet with Matt at the office. But look at the way Karen's facial expressions change when Matt takes the helmet out of the paper bag. She looks at the mask. She thinks, "That's the mask of Daredevil! Why are you-", and then her eyes widen and mouth drops open in shock as she looks up at Matt. From Karen's perspective, it's like she's looking at Matt with a fresh new pair of eyes. And then he bluntly says, "I'm Daredevil." You can see the cylinders firing in Karen's brain as she begins to process everything that she's ever seen him do. She's thinking, "YOU saved me from Rance when I was retrieving the Union Allied pension file from my apartment, YOU rescued me and a couple dozen others from an army of ninjas, you single-handedly took down Wilson Fisk. My god, you really DO care about me after all." She's realizing he has in fact been fighting to protect people like her all that time. And the writers didn't overly do it with an "Oh my God" or something like that. Just a stunned silence as the realization takes hold.
Furthermore, Matt's behavior is also telling. The way in which he tossed his walking sticks onto the chair, you could tell he was about to confess his secret.
Sidenote: Karedevil is a more realistic shipping
I have to admit there may be some bias in my analysis because I'm a "Karedevil" shipper. Why am I a Matt/Karen shipper? Because I personally think that's more realistic than "Kastle [Karen/Frank Castle]". I know a lot of fanfic writers like to ship Karen and Frank Castle together, but they completely disregard the fact that Frank recently lost his family. To me, Frank doesn't seem like the kind of guy to just forget about the family he just lost. At least, not for a good long time. And as was perfectly made clear during the diner conversation, Karen still has feelings for Matt despite her standoffishness at finding Elektra in his bed.
Also, Karen was disgusted at some of Frank's actions. Namely, when she watched as he killed the Blacksmith. The Blacksmith was already defeated when the Punisher blew up his men at the docks. Karen believed that Frank only killed criminals to deal with his family's death. When he executed the Blacksmith in cold blood, she realized that Frank was a sociopath - he would never be a normal person again and that he actually wanted to kill criminals without remorse. And that didn't help Karen, who after having killed Wesley was trying to see if she could be a good person and a killer at the same time. Remember that she was clearly mortified about having to kill Wesley, as well as mortified about Frank's other kills. Karen had been trying to lie to herself about who Frank was after seeing his handiwork in the diner. Her look suggests that she realized what kind of person Frank was and desperately hoped that what she saw was wrong. Then he executes the Blacksmith. That's why that scene is powerful. It also means "I can't see Karen getting into a relationship with this guy."
More importantly, as mentioned before, Karen is concerned with the truth above everything else. Frank refused to tell her what happened in that mission, and then killed the Blacksmith without trying to find any answers. He buried the truth, the same way people did with him, because he no longer cared about the truth. Karen was disgusted with him for that, too. Plus, Karen, like Matt, believes in redemption. Sadly, redemption only works for those who want it- and Frank Castle does NOT.
Matt, on the other hand, doesn't kill people. While he's occasionally been suspected of killing people (like when Fisk painted him as the Hell's Kitchen bomber), he's got a thing against killing. He also doesn't put innocent bystanders in danger during his fights. Furthermore, Karen has known Matt to be someone who is kind and compassionate towards people like her that have been failed by the justice system.
If Frank ever gets a significant other during his show, it wouldn't be someone who didn't accept him as he was. He won't change who he is for anyone. That is very apparent. If I wanted to ship Frank Castle with someone, it would be someone in his own show. My opinion is that Amber Rose Revah's character Dinah Madani is more likely to be Castle's love interest. share