The fifth episode of Daredevil: Born Again season two, episode five is quite the turning point. Fisk is set to be more violent and brutal than ever after having hope that Vanessa would live, only for her to die. Meanwhile, Matt/Daredevil is at odds about what to do with a seriously injured Bullseye. A part of him wants to break his neck but he also believes in a second chance. And the reason why is connected to a case he worked with his dearly departed bestie Foggy. Yep, we get to see Foggy Nelson return to Daredevil: Born Again in a pivotal flashback.
We go back to when Foggy and Matt were early in their careers as associates. They are working on the case of a guy named Lionel “Ray” McCoy. He’s looking at serving upwards of 10-12 years in prison for various charges. Foggy and Ray recognize each other from not only growing up in the same neighborhood, but Foggy being childhood friends with Ray’s brother Connor. It’s immediately clear that Ray wasn’t kind to Foggy and isn’t the nicest guy. Foggy and Matt try to get him to do a plea deal but he doesn’t want to do that. He knows that there are men on the inside who will kill him almost immediately.
Later on, Matt and Foggy want to make plans to hang out but they get stuck with work. And their superior Mr. Levine isn’t happy about their lack of a plea deal with Ray. Foggy proudly says they have $1700 in their little joint savings box to eventually start their own firm. While parsing through paperwork, Foggy notices that the apartment address for McCoy is wrong on the form for the warrant, which makes everything inadmissible.
Matt knows this is true, but also rightly says that this guy is in bed with the mob and spoiling the neighborhood. Foggy doesn’t disagree but he points out that they are his legal representation and talks about Ray’s terrible family life. Foggy says he wants to do the right thing and goes on about second chances, redemption, etc. You see where this is going.
The duo get his charges dropped, but Ray knows that the people he’s been dealing with are waiting to find him. And he is right because Fisk finds Buck to try to kill him. Foggy gives Ray the money they’ve saved and told him to make the best of this second chance. Ray admits that he was envious of how good a friend Foggy was to his brother Connor, and they find amicable ground. Ray gets away and lives. Good for him.
After thinking about this, Daredevil decides to save Bullseye’s life. Will they become besties? Probably not. But Matt is a good Catholic guy at heart, so he wants to honor Foggy’s spirit, even if that means saving the man who killed him. Vanessa is dead, so that seems to balance those scales. And hey, an enemy of my enemy is a good ally in a fight to save NYC from Fisk’s iron fist regime.