If Daredevil: Born Again‘s debut season introduces a roster of new supporting characters, then Season 2 showrunner Dario Scardapane doesn’t let his foot off the gas, incorporating key figures from Netflix’s original Daredevil series and its sister shows. Aside from Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), Benjamin Poindexter (Wilson Bethel), Jessica Jones (Krysten Ritter), Luke Cage (Mike Colter), and the upcoming Danny Rand (Finn Jones), the latest leaked set photos confirm Scardapane has also added Elektra Natchios (Élodie Yung) to Season 3’s tableau.

The infamous assassin felt like the last major missing piece from Netflix’s legacy. Elektra and Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) are irrevocably intertwined in Marvel Comics lore (depending on who you ask, she’s either Matt’s soulmate or his second-greatest love), she’s a tremendous solo force on and off the page, and it’s been 10 years since her live-action TV counterpart first taunted Matt from the shadows while lounging in one of his apartment chairs. Her return almost undoubtedly triggers a domino effect — unbridled chaos, attempts at redemption, or ushering in other Netflix-era MCU characters who deserve their own resurrection.

‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 3 Can Improve Elektra’s Inconsistent Characterization

Elektra joining the Disney+ universe arrives not a moment too soon. With that said, she stands to benefit from a more refined portrait. Daredevil presents her in a contradictory light, and not always in a coherent or admirably subversive fashion. Season 2 predominantly juxtaposes Elektra against Karen as a shorthand that represents Matt’s conflict between his darker urges and his altruistic convictions. She isn’t merely the “crazy” ex-girlfriend archetype; moments of complex humanity blaze through as she shifts from antagonist to ally to renewed love interest to an unlikely hero. Still, one walks away with the sensation that even the last several episodes’ heavy-lifting doesn’t sufficiently deconstruct her stereotypical introduction. Season 2’s overall framing remains as reductive now as it was in 2016.

Doing maximum justice by Elektra means granting her more narrative momentum and agency, specifically a life independent of the men who seek to impose themselves upon her power — both the self-made kind she’s honed, and her status as the Black Sky. That twist, although based in canon, arguably dilutes her nuance by obscuring whether her hedonistic bloodlust is a side effect of her destiny as a vessel for evil or a trait indisputably born from her clear-eyed choices. The Elektra of the comics secured her legacy as a woman defined by her duality and then some: an exceptional, ruthless mercenary with a temptress streak and a morally conflicted anti-hero taken aback by her capacity for mercy. She stumbles through her formative trauma, searches for inner peace, escapes the Hand’s manipulations, and temporarily assumes the protective Daredevil mantle in Matt’s absence.

In retrospect, The Defenders leaving Elektra for dead unintentionally gives Born Again a creative buffet. Where’s she been for this long? Did she regain her memory? What about her current ideology? Can the former child soldier look at her reflection in the mirror yet? Elektra’s motivations embody opaqueness on her best days, but the extent to which she involves herself in Matt’s Born Again Season 3 predicament — a helping hand capable of biting, another chaotic thorn in his side — deserves as much transparent narrative cohesion as Matt receives.

Yung warrants no less consideration. Her spectacular performance exudes a tiger’s calculating intelligence and violent allure, as well as a haunted vulnerability. Something unnamed always simmers, unsatiated, beneath Elektra’s skin: paradoxical ethics, resentment, defiance, devil-may-care indulgence. The same excellence applies to Yung’s chemistry with Cox; they’re sizzling, combative, and as tender as two regretful souls who match each other’s brokenness, but only to a point. Reopening Matt’s Elektra-shaped scars could prove cathartic or send his stable convictions for a loop.

Elektra’s Return Could Usher More Familiar Faces Into ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Season 3

As long as we’re discussing stand-out women, Jessica’s return and Matt’s arrest organically open the door for Jeri Hogarth (Carrie-Anne Moss). With the latter in legal hot water, who better to defend that man than an unflinching lawyer with her own firm, a near-peerless track record, and who’s no stranger to representing costumed crusaders? She’s unapologetically ambitious, insightful, manipulative, defensive against perceived weakness, vicious when betrayed, and confronting death on a daily basis through her ALS.

Meanwhile, the last viewers saw of Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick), she’d assumed Danny’s duties as the Iron Fist. Colleen’s friend, Detective Misty Knight (Simone Missick), would have more than a few harsh words regarding police corruption and Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force. Similarly, the grounding perspective Matt’s mother, Sister Maggie (Joanne Whalley), brings is sorely missed. Daredevil: Born Again lives up to its name as Matt Murdock’s show, first and foremost. Every familiar face should be relevant, not a distracting nostalgic roll call. Simultaneously, the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen never fares quite as well without his better angels or his living demons.