It took
me a while to appreciate Karen, and I really don’t think it should have. I feel like I initially had a tendency with her
character to take a few details about her and fill in a type, when in truth,
there’s more to her than that, and as I’ve come to understand that, it’s
greatly increased my enjoyment of her as a character (Karen-related spoilers.)
I don’t
know why, in Daredevil’s pilot, the
first impression I made of Karen was “damsel.”
It’s true that we meet her shaking and terrified, and that Nelson and
Murdock saves her legally (from a crime she was framed for with evidence so
damning no other defense attorneys would touch her) while Daredevil saves her
physically (from a hired goon sent to her apartment to kill her,) and that
she’s thin, blond, and softspoken.
However, it’s also very true that the only reason she’s framed for murder – way more than enough
to throw anyone off their usual game – is because she uncovered proof of her
company’s wrongdoing and the only reason she’s even at her apartment when she
gets attacked is because she’s retrieving the flashdrive of evidence against
the company. If she needs saving, it’s
because her enemies are so much powerful than she is but she still takes them
on anyway.
For me,
Karen’s most defining traits are her determined pursuit of the truth and her
tireless work ethic for obtaining it.
These qualities serve her well working at Nelson and Murdock fighting on
behalf of their clients to uncover the corruptions in the system that have let
them down. In season 2, she makes an
intriguing shift from dogged legal assistant to investigative journalist. It all starts with the Punisher: first looking for information simply about
who he is, then the trauma that shaped him into who he’s become, then evidence
that can be used in his favor for his legal defense, and finally, proof that
someone else is setting him up to answer for their crimes. She finds enormous, hidden truths and risks
her safety on countless occasions in tremendous ways, all in her quest to
understand this person and what is going on around him. In her investigation, she proves supremely
competent, with a fine head for conjecture and seeing which threads are the
right ones to pull on. Foggy sees how
skilled she is and asks if she’s ever considered law school herself.
I also
like the interesting evolution of Karen’s moral considerations. Despite the way Matt views her, consciously
or otherwise, as a Good Girl (especially compared to Elektra,) Karen is no
stranger to darkness. She gives the
first impression of being someone Hell’s Kitchen will eat for breakfast, but
she knows how to make hard choices and has gotten her hands very dirty to
protect her and her own. That’s left her
questioning who she is, what’s right, and what’s wrong. While Matt wrestles with similar issues (as
does the show altogether,) he actively trained and prepared for the dark path
he’s gone down, whereas Karen has just sort of found herself on it and is
trying to reevaluate what she’s capable of and where her lines are. It leads to the great interactions between
her and the Punisher. On one level, she
sees how he does terrible things (murdering gangsters) for what he feels is a
just cause (avenging his family and preventing them from hurting anyone else,)
and she wonders if her own dark actions can be justified. On another, she sees how the man who only
kills “bad people” spares her, and she wonders if she deserves it. Neat stuff to explore here.
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