Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter (Bullseye) has a problem. Killing people is part of it, but that’s something that can be managed (most of the time). No, the problem is that he genuinely believes he’s one of the good guys now.
In Daredevil: Born Again season 2, episode 4 “Gloves Off,” Bullseye tells Matt Murdock that he’s good now… while holding a gun to his neighbor’s head. He regrets killing Foggy Nelson and wants to make it right. And for him, the only way he can do that is to kill Wilson Fisk. One good deed cancelling out one bad one.
Sounds like a good idea until you realize while Bullseye thinks he’s trying to do good, actually trying to feel better about himself.
That difference matters more than you might think.
A Man Without a Moral Compass
Most people have a basic sense of right and wrong, a voice telling them when they’re about to cross a line. It isn’t perfect, but it’s there. Dex doesn’t have that voice. To compensate, he has a deep need for structure. He needs a “North Star”. Where someone or something guides him on how to behave, where the boundaries are, what being a good person looks like.
This is one of the ways psychopathy manifests. He doesn’t feel what others feel. He watches how the people around him act and mirrors it instead.
His first “North Star” was the FBI. After the death of his psychiatrist Dr. Eileen Mercer, Dex clung to the agency’s strict rules to maintain his sanity. But his psychopathic tendencies and fear of abandonment made it difficult for him to stick with his routine.
Then Wilson Fisk came along and gave him a new sense of purpose. He ordered Dex to kill civilians while impersonating Daredevil to turn the public against the hero. To secure his place as Dex’s North Star, Fisk had Dex’s former co-worker (and obsession) Julie Barnes murdered, then made it seem like Julie had cut Dex out of her life.
Years later, Wilson’s wife Vanessa had Dex released from a mental institution so he could assassinate attorney Foggy Nelson. Foggy was representing a client in a case that would threaten her illegal operations involving the Red Hook port. Once the hit was carried out, Vanessa abandoned Dex who was sentenced to eleven consecutive life sentences in prison without parole. The Fisks’ manipulation didn’t just make him angry. They destroyed the sense of order and structure he needs to function like a regular human being.
Is Dex’s “One Good Deed” Heroism or Revenge?
So now Dex has decided that vengeance is his new guiding light.
To him, killing Fisk is the one good deed that balances the ledger. Fisk is a monster and New York City would be safer without him. But Dex isn’t trying to save Hell’s Kitchen or the rest of NYC. He isn’t thinking about all the people suffering under Fisk’s thumb. Dex is thinking about “regaining his mind”. It’s about his anger and humiliation from being played like a fiddle.
What Bullseye wants is retribution, which is different from wanting to be a hero to protect innocent people. He can use his incredible marksman skills against Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF). He can even do something that helps people completely by accident. But he can’t truly be good, because goodness isn’t about targets. It’s about values, which Dex doesn’t have of his own.
Bullseye is Disruptive Despite His Good Intentions
Bullseye’s plan to assassinate Fisk at the charity boxing match doesn’t go according to plan. It never does with Dex. He throws a glass paperweight that Fisk deflects with his champion belt, only for a shard to end up lodged in Vanessa’s head. Vanessa dies at the end of episode 5 “The Grand Design,” and a now unhinged Fisk is going to go scorched earth.
This is what makes Bullseye so dangerous, tragic even. He isn’t evil in the way Fisk is evil. Bullseye became the way he is due to a combination of childhood trauma and the adults in his life failing to teach him right from wrong. Even when he tries to use his murderous tendencies for good, does more harm than good.
Fisk’s love for his wife has been the one thing that kept his brutality (slightly) in check. And now with Vanessa gone, New York City is controlled by a grieving mayor with no one to reign in his violent nature.
Can He Ever Be a “Good Guy”?
Probably not. But that doesn’t mean Bullseye can’t do good things, even if he’s doing them for the wrong reasons.
He could become an anti-hero like the Punisher. A dark force that hunts down and eventually kills criminals. He could be useful, in the way that a fire is useful when you need to burn something down. But being useful isn’t the same as being good.
A true hero like Daredevil genuinely wants to help the people who were failed by the legal system. He refuses to kill even when killing would make his life easier, because he believes that’s not his call to make. Bullseye doesn’t think that way. He would kill the right person for the wrong reason, only to accidentally hurt the wrong person in the process. And call it redemption anyway.
The sad part is that Dex may never understand the difference. He wants to feel like he’s done the right thing, but doesn’t have the moral compass needed to know what the right thing actually is. Not the promising start of a redemption arc.
