Daredevil: Born Again Season 2, Episode 7 Is Setting Mr. Charles Up In A Surprising Role

Contains spoilers for "Daredevil: Born Again" Season 2, Episode 7 — "The Hateful Darkness"

"Daredevil: Born Again" Season 2 character Mr. Charles (Matthew Lillard) is a curious one. On the surface, he's a shady CIA guy whose whole thing seems to be wildly illegal global power plays, and he's specifically stated to be working for the notably nefarious and untrustworthy Contessa-slash-CIA director Valentina Allegra de Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus). Yet, he seems to be mainly interested in keeping Kingpin (Vincent D'Onofrio) on a short leash, and he hasn't really bothered our protagonists. In fact, the episode "The Hateful Darkness" actually sees him siding with the governor to bring Kingpin down. This begs the question: Is Mr. Charles a good guy, a bad guy, or something in between? The answer might be even more complicated than any of those options.

Based on the episode's clues, the Marvel Cinematic Universe seems to be setting Mr. Charles up as a controller figure whose role is not unlike that of his boss, Valentina, and Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) before her — at least, as far as the Defenders corner of the franchise is concerned. "Daredevil: Born Again" Season 2, Episode 6 ("Requiem") teased that Mr. Charles has superpowered people at his beck and call, and it heavily implied that Luke Cage (Mike Colter) is among those working for him. This latest episode confirms without a doubt that he's in charge of Luke's (and possibly other superheroes') operations overseas. What's more, Charles knows — and is on very uncomfortable terms with — none other than Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter).

From the beginning, Matthew Lillard's Mr. Charles has seemed too larger-than-life for the sort of "Julia Louis-Dreyfus didn't have time for this" placeholder CIA stooge that he could've been. Lillard gives Charles too much personality for him to be a throwaway Agency guy. With the confirmation that he's Luke's handler and on hostile terms with Jessica Jones (who's had a comics-accurate update with the revelation that she and Luke have a child together), it all clicks.

The show has sneakily established Mr. Charles' global reach and his association with more than one Defender. Daredevil (Charlie Cox) is also aware of him, and Charles' international connections make it possible that he may have the ear of at least one of the Iron Fists running around, too (fans on X have been convinced that Finn Jones will return as Iron Fist in the MCU for a while now).

Of course, there's a chance that Charles will not make it out of "Daredevil: Born Again" alive — he's severely angered Kingpin, after all. Still, right now it seems that Lillard's delightfully weaselly CIA operative is going to be the MCU's next overarching spymaster figure, and the explicit Luke Cage namedrop teases that he might facilitate the MCU arrival of the Defenders' Harlem-based heavy hitter.

"Daredevil: Born Again" Season 2 is streaming on Disney+.