KILLER INSTINCTS: FRANK AND KAREN Part II of III

This essay contains SPOILERS and assumes you are familiar with all three seasons of Daredevil and both seasons of The Punisher.

AUTHOR NOTE: I will update the citations for this later. Also, I am having technical difficulties with the Table of Contents I will fix later!

 

KILLER INSTINCTS: FRANK AND KAREN

By Alizé Lavasseur

Part II of III: The Defenders and The Punisher Season One (1)

 

Table of Contents

No table of contents entries found.

 

 

Introduction

 

Karen and Frank parted on poor terms, but the last time Karen saw Frank, he was shooting people trying to kill Daredevil, and she found closure that she did what she could for him. Karen was relieved that he was using his skills to help Daredevil, the “good guy.”

 

 

Chapter Twenty: Better Off With

 

After Matt confessed that he was Daredevil, Matt and Karen spent the next many months apart. It is likely that Matt, Foggy and Karen communicated during this time, even though they worked at separate jobs. Matt, Karen and Foggy identify Matt's activity as Daredevil as addictive and self-destructive, which is part of the story, but not the full picture. Matt has made unhealthy decisions for himself as Daredevil, demonstrating disregard for his own life. Matt is attempting to work through these impulses, but his confusion about his own identity is worse than ever, veiled in grief, remorse, and abandonment PTSD. It is likely that Matt, Foggy and Karen have a lot more miscommunication confusion during this time.

 

Karen believed she and Matt needed to "figure ourselves out or something" before they could try to be a romantic partnership again. She is the first to initiate the first steps of their reunion by asking Matt out to coffee.

 

Karen is ready to talk face-to-face, endeared by Matt's paternal care for his young disabled client. Karen is proud that Matt has rebuilt his career, proving himself to be reliable, stable, and trustworthy again. Matt handled being Daredevil and a lawyer for a year before he lost control and self-destructed, so Karen knows he can do it, and he’s completed the first big step to getting their life back. Karen believes Nelson, Murdock and Page is destiny, and all Matt must do is want it and not be self-destructive, this time around.

 

Karen believes Daredevil can be a healthy, productive, effective force for good in the world ("I really think that Daredevil may have made the city a safer place."). However, Karen is aware Matt is still at risk for making life-threatening choices ("[The city is] better off with Matt Murdock."). This echoes what she told him a while ago ("You're worth keeping around.").

 

Karen can see Matt's self-destructive tendencies better than Foggy can, but it's likely she sees it more like her dalliance with recreational drugs, as an impulse borne of pain and not the expression of true mental illness that it really is. She probably doesn't recognize that there is a threat of actual suicide, not just life-threatening self-neglect.

 

Matt is extremely effective at hiding his depression under a veneer of stoicism and independence. When Matt told Foggy to tell Karen, "You're better off without me," Foggy did not understand it as a warning sign of suicidal ideation. Matt lampshades his own behavior when he gives advice to his young client ("Your ability to get through it, as this gets harder - that is a hundred times more powerful than slapping a smile on your face and pretending everything's just fine."). In fact, he does exactly this as he talks to Karen.

 

When Karen asks Matt if he misses Daredevil, he lies straight to her face and says, "No. It feels like a chapter of my life that's closed." Karen wants to believe him and accepts what he says at face value. After all, he promised to never lie to her again. Matt immediately goes to confession, remorseful ("I lied to someone. Someone I love.").

 

When he shows up a couple of days later at her office, Karen can tell something is wrong. It's after midnight, and he's never showed up like this before. He is typically vague and uncommunicative - and then reveals he lied to her face again. He is going out as Daredevil again, completely contradicting what he just told her. He drops her right into the deep end again, without considering her feelings or asking her opinion about it or meaningfully acknowledging that he misled her.

 

She is firmly outside of his life and decision-making, barely his friend, and certainly not his partner. Karen bristles but ultimately relents, believing that he must do this because it's who he is (a true hero), but also that it's not possible to have a close relationship with him anymore if he's still going to lie. He has chosen Daredevil over her - instead of what she really wants, which is for him to be true to himself as Daredevil, but also to include her in his decision process. Karen finally relents when Matt reveals his vulnerability, and crucially, asks her to come with him, instead of making yet another unilateral decision about her life.

 

What Karen wants most in the world is for Matt to be happy, healthy, safe, and true to himself. She just wants the very best for him, and she knows in her heart that whatever path he's on will end badly for him. 

 

Chapter Twenty-One: Ghosts

 

The whole scenario ends in calamity. Matt dies. His friends/allies try to couch it in flattering terms that he sacrificed himself to save the city, but the truth is that he chose to end his life for a hopeless cause, and didn't need to do it to save anyone in the city except his ex-girlfriend. He did it as a last-ditch attempt to save her life and in the slim hope of saving her soul before she died, knowing full well the likelihood that he would go out with her.

 

Matt’s new friend Danny is aware that Matt never intended to make it out alive, because Matt pulled him aside to give him his last request. Karen and Foggy are left in the dark about Matt's disappearance. There is no body recovered from the wreckage, giving Karen hope that Matt may have made it out alive, despite the protestations of the people who were there with him.

 

Karen presumably handles whatever clients Matt has left behind, pays rent on his apartment, and all his essential bills. She does this for several months. Karen's gut instinct is that Matt is still alive ("I know it's irrational. I can just feel it."), partly out of sheer hope, but also because it "doesn't feel real." She can't mourn him without a body, and she can't give up on the love she had for him since they first met. Karen keeps his home waiting for him, ready to pick up right where he left off.

 

A few weeks after Matt disappeared, Frank Castle shows up outside her work. Karen wasn't sure until now that she'd still talk to him since they left things so badly, but Karen is so lonely and mournful that she invites him back to her place for a beer. Karen has an obvious flattened affect, not even cracking a smile at Frank's jokes.

 

Karen is bitter that he just disappeared on her, just like Matt. The last time they met, Frank left her unconscious and bleeding, ignored her pleas not to kill the Blacksmith, and traumatized her further, demonstrating his remorseless disdain for her physical and emotional wellbeing, and the values she holds most dear. It turns out Frank isn't here for any semblance of a friendship - he just needs her help. Someone knows he's still alive and he needs Karen to help find who it is.

 

Karen is resigned to this, living a hollow life with little purpose. Karen's heart and soul were invested in an imagined future with Matt that has now been snatched away. She failed to protect the man who could have been the love of her life, her family, just like she failed to stop Castle from being a serial killer. Now, she is totally alone. Karen still feels obligated to Frank because he saved her life and he helped her come to terms with the fact that she was in love with Matt, and helped clarify the way she viewed herself. She agrees. It reflects the attitude she has displayed before when faced with risk. ("What could it hurt?").

 

Karen is haunted by what Frank says about the man who is after him ("He said something about us both being dead men, right? About me not being the only ghost in New York."). Karen looks at a photograph of her, Matt and Foggy that she has displayed in front of her TV, and her eyes fill with tears. Right now, she is embroiled in the mystery of two supposedly "dead" men faking it, and all she wants is for that to be true of Matt as well.

 

When Frank gives her flowers, Karen initially thinks they are for condolences, which she never got for Matt's death, because of the nature of the ambiguous loss, and the fact that she is not a real widow, even though she mourns like one…but it's only for communicating.

 

However, that doesn't negate what this powerful act has done for Karen. Once again, Frank has helped clarify the murky confusion she has felt about the nature of her grief for Matt. Like Frank was the one who understood the most shameful, hidden part of her before - that she was a killer - Frank understands what it's like to lose the love of your life. Once again, a deep part of herself she is unable to express, or fully understand the complexity of, is shared by Frank, and makes her feel less alone.

 

Frank was married to his wife in a legal ceremony, she died before his eyes, and he is a merciless serial killer. His identity is as starkly black-and-white as the Punisher emblem on his chest. Karen's world is as hazy and muddled as the gray paint she wears on her nails. Karen and her potential husband were entangled in a complicated romance as deep, serious, and lifelong as a real marriage, but they were hardly dating on the surface. He is believed to be dead, but there were no witnesses, and his body was not recovered. Karen was responsible for deaths, but they were unintentional or a matter of her survival, and the survival of her loved ones.

 

Before, Karen struggled in the depths of her foggy world, alone in her bewilderment about the truth about herself: was she a killer? In love with Matt? Frank helped her see. Frank's nature is what Karen seeks to do herself, which is to cut through to the truth. Frank teaches her the model of how and what it looks like, unearthing all the ugliest, buried reality in everyone, and shows her that she can survive even after letting all that darkness surface in her psyche. Today, he's done it again, and held up a mirror for her.

 

All Karen ever desires is the truth, and Frank did it again. It's the most meaningful thing in the world to her. With this mission, she is needed and has a purpose, making her feel alive again. Karen hugs Frank, grateful. He tells her to "be careful," like Matt always did, and it's nice to have someone around who cares enough to say it. Most of all, he has reignited Karen's hope. There are two men pretending to be dead here in New York…why not three?

 

Chapter Twenty-Two: Still Alive

 

Karen finds the name of the man going after Frank and meets him by the river. Karen makes it extremely clear that she wants to help, but not if it's going to get someone killed. Frank's response isn't reassuring, but Karen knows her attempts to stop him are futile. She learned that brutal lesson last year. Frank's crimes are on him - and he'd find the information one way or another. Perhaps this way, she could stop other people from getting hurt by cutting straight to the chase. At least she tried.

 

Plus, Frank pulls at Karen's heartstrings - she can't just "leave [his ass] in the wind," as he says. Frank seems genuinely scared ("This guy, he's…he's scaring the shit out of me."). Karen has a soft heart and can't resist helping someone in need, who is literally begging her, not to mention that she's obligated to him for saving her life, personally sympathetic to his situation, and responds well to the fact that he is so transparent about his intentions and what he needs. He's not trying to hide anything. It is what it is. She appreciates that deeply, so often unable to do that herself, even though she is similarly transparent about her passionate emotions. Karen intuitively understands Frank’s up-front, blunt communication style, where he readily admits his fears and vulnerabilities, exactly what he needs and wants, and always leaves the choice up to her. He is precisely the opposite of Matt. 

 

Of course, Frank won't tell her what this guy's got on him (typical), like he wouldn’t tell her about Kandahar in the forest, but she has no illusions about any of this. She believes Frank's assertion that he'll only hurt people if they're guilty parties in his family's murders. Nothing she had done or thought of before could stop him from doing this mission. No one could - not Matt, not the police, not prison, not Wilson Fisk, not anyone.

 

Karen is sad that Frank is still embroiled in his war, and the endless grief and fear. She realizes that she'd be glad to see him again, as a kind of friend. He's the only person in her life who is even close to understanding who she is. He's the only person in the world who has an idea she shot a man to death. Foggy mourns Matt like she does, but he does not have the steadfast belief that Matt could be alive. Military man Frank would get it - soldiers are not presumed dead but "missing in action" until their bodies are returned to their families. Frank can't let go, just like she can't let go.

 

Frank is surprised that Karen wants to see him again. Karen says, "It would mean you're still alive," with a shrug. It's a very low bar, but it's preferable to the enduring agony of the question of whether Matt could be alive or dead. Just knowing is a gift she took for granted.

 

Karen is glad he's still alive, that he hasn't yet succumbed to what pulled Matt under, and what might someday pull her under. Their natures are enslaved to the relentless compulsion to try to fix the world. Karen cares about what happens to Frank, because to her, he's a man in mourning who deserves some peace, no different than her. Maybe, just maybe, there is one tiny ember of hope for a second chance for either one of them, and her efforts to save him weren't in vain. Perhaps one of them will get to step off the merry-go-round. For now, she is still stuck, wanting to save him, and wanting to save herself.

 

Karen knows Frank doesn't care if he lives or dies, like Matt didn't, and like she doesn't, sometimes. Frank cared enough about her to tell her to "be careful." She recognizes that as a loving wish now, and she wishes for him to "be careful," too. When Matt used to tell her to "be careful," she brushed it off every time, and she may never have the chance to hear him say it again.

 

Chapter Twenty-Three: Afterlife

 

A few days later, Agent Dinah Madani from Homeland Security contacts Karen out of the blue, and Karen is sure it is because of Frank. Karen is certain Frank killed the Homeland Security agent involved in the story of the "dead man" Frank had her find, plus there was an incident down at the docks with Frank's fingerprints all over it. But how would Homeland Security know Karen was involved?

 

Agent Madani confirms the Homeland Security agent who was murdered was dirty and probably killed because of it. She asks Karen if she has any idea who killed him. Not good. Agent Madani seems to know that not only is Frank alive, but he could be in contact with Karen. She doesn't seem to have any hard proof, but she has put it together that they have some kind of friendship since the trial last year, from the fact that he kidnapped her from under police protection but let her go, unharmed. Agent Madani probes Karen on Frank's time in Afghanistan, which Karen knows nothing about (Castle refused to tell her last year when she offered to help him), and seems to hope that Karen can help put her in contact with Castle.

 

Karen doesn't betray Frank, maintaining that he's dead, and making it clear that she believed him to be a decent man with a code of honor, and that he deserved to rest in peace. Agent Madani didn’t buy it, but she seemed less interested in nailing him and more interested in talking about something that happened overseas.

 

Karen arranges a meeting with Frank by the river to talk about this meeting. Frank confirms that Madani knows he's alive, since he pulled her out of a burning car. He also confirmed that the "dead man" Frank was looking for was indeed alive, and that the same people who went after Frank went after him, and that he played "possum" to keep his family safe.

 

Frank approved of this man's plan because, unlike him, he kept his family alive and well. Karen considered that if Matt faked his death, his intent could have been to keep her safe (this is precisely what Matt tells her when he returns: “I told you, I was trying to protect you, Karen.”). Frank could even be trying to tell Karen that he believes Matt has done the same as David, to keep his family (Karen) safe.

 

Frank confides in Karen that he believed his family was "better off without him." The pain of this statement sears through Karen and moves her to tears. Matt expressed that she was better off without him twice. The first time was when Matt asked Foggy to tell Karen, "You're better off without me" when their firm ended, and he broke her heart. Just as they were finally recovering their relationship, and taking baby steps to try again, they had their last coffee together. Matt said the city was "better off without him." Karen told him the city was "better off with Matt Murdock," and he beamed. Just days later, Matt chose to end his life.  

 

With that memory still fresh, Karen is stricken with grief. Nothing could be farther from the truth. No one is better off without their family, their loved ones, and it's awful anyone could believe that. Frank went on to say that him being with his family got them killed, echoing her thoughts about getting her brother killed. Perhaps that was Matt's justification for what he did, whether it was a real death or a faked one, and he believed he was keeping her safe. (Matt later confirms this was his motivation: “I was trying to protect you.”).

 

Frank reiterates his need to kill the people who took his family from him. Karen is in tears, heartbroken, unable to listen to this any longer. Here in front of her is another man who is living in the grips of this obsessive, looping nightmare, reminding her of when Matt visited her office, and she realized he was doing it again. ("So where does that end, Frank?") Frank will end up just like Matt, dying a futile and forsaken death, because he just couldn't stop himself. Perhaps that's her fate, too. As she phrases it, it's just "echoing, endless loneliness."

 

Matt never got the chance to live a life beyond Daredevil, and it cost him everything. They never got the chance to live a life together, as lovers and partners, having defeated their lonesomeness. She doesn't expect Frank to let it go completely, but she wants him something more for him ("I want there to be an after. For you."). Matt never got an "after" - and robbed her of her "after" with him. Once again, Karen wants for Frank what she wants for herself. Her focus on fixing him is always about fixing herself, like Frank and Matt try to fix themselves and their grief with vigilantism (“We don’t get to pick the things that fix us, Red. Make us whole. Make us feel purpose.”).

 

Karen proposes that there is an alternative way to approach his mission, by using the press. ("Say that these men die, right? You get what you want. They'll paint them as martyrs, Frank. Is that what you want? You want to turn these…these scumbags into heroes with no one knowing what they were? You expose them. I write a story about it. We let the truth hang them."). Her speech echoes what Matt told Elektra in Season Two (2) ("If we shine a light on them, they'll scatter. [Killing him] would make him a martyr. I wanna dethrone him, defrock him, and let him rot on a cell. Show this cult of his that their holy man isn't anything but a guy.").

 

Frank rejects it because he's still stuck in his mission-oriented mindset, firm in the belief that he must protect the only person in the world who cares about him at this point, which is Karen. Karen doesn't want him to think he has to protect her, but Frank makes it clear how much he cares, that he can't live with her death, and that he is steadfast in this role of protector.

 

Frank couldn't protect his real daughter, but he could protect Karen this time around. Like Karen, Frank wants to get something right, this time. Frank's daughter never got to grow up to be someone as fearless and heroic as Karen, and to see her full potential fulfilled. Karen still has that chance, and maybe Frank can save her, and close the open wound of his daughter's unrealized life. Frank is certain his personal second chance is a pipe dream, but Karen's life has all the possibility in the world in front of her. Karen's life is his one hope. He can finally play the role of father that he was meant to, and raise a daughter to fully come of age, and bloom into the woman she was meant to be. Frank reached maturity, had a family, and lost it, and he died with it - but Karen is still in the land of the living.

 

Karen's father abandoned her, first when he got lost in the fog of grief and left the family business to be Karen's responsibility, and then when she killed her brother, and he withdrew protection and guidance that he was not willing or capable to offer. Karen was left to make her way like an orphan, having to learn about herself the slow way, painstakingly uncovering the truth about herself in tiny increments. Karen wants to grow up, but she is stuck in her nineteen-year-old mentality, just trying to survive a cruel and frightening adult world, unable to free herself to blossom into the self-actualized woman she longs to be. Karen resisted being her true self to Matt, and to the world, but most importantly, herself. Now, Karen's future is even more hopeless, dark, and vulnerable.

 

Karen can't resist the offer of Frank's protection. Karen gravitates to father figures like Ben and Ellison, but chafes against their authority, and refuses to open herself up fully to a healthy, honest and open relationship. Karen's self-esteem is still poor, and only someone as utterly broken as Frank feels okay to reveal herself to, because he's the only person worse than her, in her mind. Karen succumbs to the temptation of thinking that he's the only person in the world capable of caring about her true self.

 

Karen believes Foggy puts her on a pedestal ("You put us on such high pedestals and you can't see who we really are.") and he wouldn't care about her if he really knew her, which is patently untrue - as he later demonstrates in Season Three (3). Karen's dearest wish is that she could have protected her brother and Matt, and she even wishes she could protect Frank, so she gets his need to protect her. Karen made the terrible mistake of rejecting Matt’s protection when she had the chance, and she craves an expression of love, hollow as it may be.

 

Karen and Frank are both wandering, caught in the cycle, searching for a way out of the suffering in life, but neither are close to enlightenment, although they both have wisdom to offer each other.

 

On the night the Buddha died, he delivered his final teachings, and said, "I was only able to point the way for you. All individual things pass away. Strive on with diligence." He also said, "Be a lamp unto yourself, be a refuge to yourself. Take yourself no external refuge." The Buddha was saying not to look to him for the source of well-being, peace and wisdom, but to find the truth for yourself, within yourself, and your refuge is your own being. This is not far from the message of the memento mori Frank has painted upon his chest, or what Karen is trying to tell Frank. Last year, Karen wrote similar sentiments about choosing to be your own hero, and Frank created the Punisher, after he looked deep within himself. Even so, they are both stuck looking to the external, and neither of them acknowledge that they will not find answers by looking to each other.

 

They part ways. Frank tried to tell her she was the closest thing he had to a family, but Karen knows in her heart it isn't true. They are both alone. Their families are gone. Karen can accept that she might be better off without Frank and safer without him, like he says. All Frank has is "echoing, endless loneliness," like her. They part, not expecting to see each other again any time soon. Yet, once again, Frank has helped Karen see the truth. Whether Matt was dead or alive, he wanted to protect her, and that meant he did love her. It echoes what Frank helped her see last time, which was that Karen loved him. Karen is one teeny nudge closer to loving herself.

 

Chapter Twenty-Four: Awful Things Happen

 

A terrorist bombs Midtown Manhattan and writes a letter to Karen personally. He describes his motivation for the attack, believing himself to be a "common hero" like Daredevil (and perhaps the Punisher, who is not widely regarded as a hero, but the bomber might think so), who Karen has championed in the paper before. Karen is outraged that this man thought Karen would approve of what he'd done ("I believe you understand that sometimes a man has to make a stand for what is right, what is true, even if the law stands against him."). The terrorist threatens to kill her and bomb the paper if she doesn't print his manifesto.

 

Karen wants to print his letter in the chance someone could recognize his syntax or handwriting, like how the Unabomber was caught. She also wants to respond and let him and everyone else know exactly how this makes her feel ("I feel sick."). She has no desire to hide behind the paper. Karen writes a "pissy editorial," calling the terrorist a coward and emphasizing that he is not a patriot.

 

Karen is invited on a radio show to debate an anti-gun senator. Karen makes it clear she has no sympathy for the bomber's point of view, believes in guns for self-defense and defense of others, and she defends Frank as a killer who targeted murderers and drug dealers, not innocent civilians.

 

The bomber was listening in and calls the show. The bomber wants to know why Karen disagreed with his mission ("I despise everything you've done."). The bomber tries to justify himself by calling out politicians, but Karen claps back ("Those people you killed, they weren't making policy. They were secretaries and janitors and beat cops. Regular people. How does that help your cause?").

 

Karen has sympathy for people victimized by the government, like she and Castle were (like when she was strangled by a government employee in police custody, or how the District Attorney destroyed Castle's life). However, Karen says, "Maybe the government did something awful to you. I don't know your story. But awful things happen to people every day, and they don't murder people because of it."

 

Karen is aware that she has taken a life - she is still uncomfortable with it - but it is self-defense, and she has no doubts about that anymore. It was a choice between life and death, and the willingness to use her gun is what saved her and her friends. She's also aware that she has defended Frank after he's murdered numerous people and draws a sharp line between his actions and terrorism (killing for a political cause).

 

Despite this, Karen is firmly anti-murder in general - and that's why she and Frank can never have a true friendship. As long as he continues to choose to murder, they are not really friends. She will continue to try to save his soul and attempt to stop him in whatever way she can think of, because she thinks he can be redeemed, but she will never endorse his mission. It is unequivocally wrong. This is why Frank is shocked when he hears her say this on the radio. She's not the supporter he wants her to be, and reveals the uncomfortable truth about him to himself, like he does for her.

 

Chapter Twenty-Five: Don’t Do This

 

As Karen talks to the FBI, Frank calls to lecture and shame her about publicly going after the bomber. Karen explains that he chose her, not the other way around, and she's angry that he thinks she'd agree with his actions. Karen is not one to back down from a fight. Frank mocks her, upset she has a target on her back, but Karen is adamant: "What was I supposed to do? Nothing? That's how people like this win." It echoes what Matt told Claire in S1 ("I know you're afraid. You can't give into the fear. If you do, men like this win.").

 

Karen implores him to do this "the right way for once," but Frank, as always, is unpersuadable. Karen even tells him it makes him "no different than [the bomber]," and that they are both just "two guys who don't like the way the world works, so they do whatever they like." Karen is especially incensed to think he might "do this and say it's for me." Frank disregards her wishes completely and hangs up on her in a rage.

 

Karen might succumb to the temptation to think Frank is a good paternal figure for her, or some kind of friend, but ultimately, Frank has no interest in the values she holds most dear, or her agency, or her desires over his. Superficially, he gives her choices when he is manipulating her for her help, but when a crisis hits, but when it really means something to her goals or needs, he doesn't even take a split second to consider them. It is more important to him that she plays the role he wants her to, not have ideas that are independent and counter to his. Clearly, this isn't for Karen, it's for Frank. Tellingly, Karen has never confided any of her grief for her mother, her brother, or Matt, to Frank - only Frank has been the recipient of Karen's empathetic support. Karen's "ass is left in the wind," as Frank would put it.

 

Later that day, Karen gets the news that Frank has gone after the bomber and accidentally exposed the truth about his "death" to the world by getting caught on camera: Frank Castle is alive, and now the whole world knows it. His karmic punishment has blown over to Karen, too. Karen is in hot water with her boss, who strongly suspects she knew all along.

 

While Karen believes Frank does care about her, he has just revealed that he is really in this for himself, and they are on different paths. When it really matters, Frank denies her wishes in favor of his own, even though he makes a good show of leaving decisions up to her. Once again, Frank totally and willfully disregards what’s most important to Karen. This is the opposite revelation Karen had about Matt just before he died; Trish Walker helped her see that Matt might not be reliable or a good friend in the traditional sense, but when it came to the "real stuff…. the stuff that'll last forever," he was the real thing.

 

In Season Three (3), Matt demonstrates this by appearing not to listen when she told him what killing Fisk would do to his self-concept, but when the moment came that really mattered, he took her words to heart and honored them. Matt did this repeatedly throughout their relationship. Matt appeared controlling on the surface, making numerous unilateral decisions and barking orders, but when Karen drew a firm boundary, Matt always obeyed, and respected her. When she was vulnerable and needed help, he was always there, like her personal guardian angel. When Karen objected or disagreed with him, he debated her and listened to her points, not just considering them, but was persuaded, and he acted accordingly. Matt always treated Karen as his equal, and an autonomous person. Even when they were at their furthest apart, barely tethered together, and he was mentally unwell, Matt still valued her so much that he gave up his deepest desire for her.

 

Chapter Twenty-Six: Better Off Without

 

Karen's next task is to interview the anti-gun Senator Ori at a hotel where he will be hosting a fundraiser for the victims of the bombings. Despite being guarded by armed security, Karen and the senator are attacked by the bomber. Frank appears out of nowhere, just as Matt did when he rescued her, and throws himself in front of the bomber's gun to save Karen, but Karen ends up being held hostage by the bomber, who is wearing a suicide vest.

 

The bomber forces Karen down into the kitchen, without a plan for his next move, and he releases Karen from his grip. Karen's strategy is to talk him down. Karen attempts to open communication with the bomber as his subordinate ally ("Lewis, what…what's the plan? What do we do now, huh?"), to humanize herself ("I'm really scared here, okay?"), offers to help him ("We can get out of this if we're smart."), appeals to his morals ("Nobody else here has to die."), and listens empathetically to what he has to say. He expresses that he thought she was different, that she understood him, and that she would be his advocate. Karen apologizes and asks him to help her understand, and so they could go tell everyone else, adding, "I can't do that if we're dead."

 

Karen has succeeded at engaging the bomber. However, Lewis thinks he's still in control as long as he has her and the bomb. Unfortunately, Karen doesn't get the chance to talk Lewis into disarming himself, because Frank barrels in and escalates the danger with his presence.

 

The bomber grabs Karen again, defensive and enraged, and he issues more dire threats. Frank takes over the "negotiation," with the questionable tactic of encouraging the bomber to commit murder-suicide with Frank ("Maybe this is the way it's supposed to end…. Just you and me, and a bomb."). That’s exactly how Matt died, only he did it after securing Karen safely away from the bomb, keeping his family safe. (Later, when Karen recounts what happened to Detective Mahoney, she says, "Do you really think Frank Castle is the kind of man who walks into a building he doesn't know how to get out of?" Strikingly, Matt was the opposite - he died walking into a building he was certain he could never get out of.).

 

Meanwhile, Frank talks in code to Karen, giving her instructions on how to pull the right wire to disarm the bomb. Frank keeps the bomber distracted by antagonizing him and guilting him about his father's life being ruined ("He's just gonna give up. His friends, his family, they're not gonna come around. His phone won't ring. He will know loneliness, Lewis. He will suffer!"), which Frank knows all about ("I know what that's like."), and how he and the bomber are the same ("We try to create a version of the world that we can stand to live in."), to buy Karen time to get the wire: "Do it now, Karen! Do it now!" Karen shoots the bomber's foot and disarms the bomb. The bomber is forced into the freezer, and he puts the wire back in.

 

Karen lingers, trying to get Frank to get out of here, but Frank has every intention to stay, and tells her to go, but she refuses. Karen can't walk away from trying to save Frank and has no self-preservation instinct. Her life is just as lonely and hopeless as Frank described his life and the bomber's father's. She suffers when her phone doesn’t ring (In Season Three (3), Matt is still the first contact on her phone.).

 

Frank encourages the kid to commit suicide again ("That's it, kid. You can do it."), with no regard for Karen's presence, even though he had the option to prioritize her safety and the physical strength to force her out of the kitchen and harm’s way. The young man detonates the suicide bomb, blowing himself up and the door off the freezer. Frank dives to protect Karen from the percussive blast, and they fall to the floor, ears ringing, hurt by flying debris and shrapnel.

 

To help Frank escape, Karen comes up with the plan to be Frank's hostage (something she used as a cover last year, in Season Two (2).). Frank and Karen bypass the cops this way, and use the emergency stop in the elevator.

 

Frank is grievously injured from his battle here today, saving Karen's life, and Karen is profoundly grateful for what he did. They meet eyes and share a wordless conversation; they still share the same connection as always, two lonely people committed to the impossible task of "creating a version of the world that they can stand to live in."

 

Frank might have hastily rushed into danger, recklessly disregarding all the consequences, but Karen is the same. She antagonized the terrorist, too, with an unkind editorial and harsh words on the radio. She could have died, and emotionally hurt Frank, even though she knew how much he would suffer. Her focus was on her righteous pursuit. Karen knows she is the same as Frank, the same as Matt - she couldn't stop herself from provoking a terrorist, getting in the middle of a fight, and risking her life, even if she hurt someone by getting hurt herself. Like Frank and Matt, there's probably no "after" for her, but she still has enough hope to try (evidenced by the fact that she is paying Matt's rent and bills). Frank has no such hope.

 

Frank and Karen press their foreheads together. They are relieved to have someone in the world that understands the ugly flaws and impulses within them, and the righteous part that's driven to help, in some way, and an understanding of the bleak future they may not be able to stop themselves from creating for themselves. In this one moment, they feel less alone, but that's all they have to offer each other.

 

Despite Frank and Karen understanding each other, or perhaps because of it, they decide to part ways. They have nothing to offer each other in any relationship capacity; all they have in common is "endless, echoing loneliness," dead families, and they probably are better off without each other. They aren’t family. They still have diametrically opposed worldviews. Nothing has changed for Frank or with his stagnant relationship with Karen, but she has stumbled upon an epiphany about herself: this is who she is.

 

Later, this will help soften Karen’s frustration with Matt and help her connect to him and fully forgive him for being Daredevil. This contrasts Matt and Elektra, who are magnetically pulled to each other, and the dark things they have in common draw them to a death together, while Frank and Karen are magnetically repulsed toward lives apart. Frank and Karen's relationship is characterized by this magnetic repulsion, and once again, have no expectation or particular desire to ever meet again. They understand each other, but there is nothing else. They long for people who are out of reach, not each other.

 

Conclusion

 Once again, after briefly meeting Frank for scant minutes over a few days, Karen has reached another epiphany about herself. Karen must contend with the hard truth that she is no different than Frank or Matt, willing to put herself in danger for her desire to save people and make a world she can stand to live in, even though she could risk hurting others because they care about her. Frank helped Karen gain insight about why Matt would be willing to kill himself and leave her to suffer without him. Karen was willing to kill herself to save Frank. It’s who the three of them are.

At the same time, Karen is steadfast in her moral views: killing is only acceptable in defense of yourself or others, and Frank is not a terrorist, and targeting the guilty is better than innocents, but cold-blooded murder is never justified. Karen is still alone, but Frank helped her express and understand her complicated grief, like he did last year. Frank also gave Karen hope that she may still have an “after,” even if she failed again to influence Frank into a better path.

In Part Three (3), Karen puts her lessons to work.