Ben Urich was a seasoned investigative journalist who worked for the New York Bulletin. He was meticulous, diligent and committed to exposing New York’s criminal underworld. When he got too close to exposing Wilson Fisk’s criminal activities, the Kingpin of Crime strangled him in his own apartment.
Even though the NYPD considered Fisk to be the main suspect, they couldn’t arrest or charge him for it.
His niece never forgot that.
Meet BB Urich
In Daredevil: Born Again, BB Urich (played by Genneya Walton) was named after her uncle. She’s a young journalist who hosts The BB Report, a digital news show where she walks the streets of New York City, microphone in hand, talking to everyday people. She’s bright, sharp, and beloved by viewers under thirty. On the surface, she looks like a typical freelance journalist success story.
She’s also running a dangerous undercover operation in the city.
BB knows Fisk was the main suspect in her uncle’s murder and that knowledge is the engine that drives everything she does. She became a journalist because of Ben. She positioned herself so she could get close to Fisk’s mayoral campaign because of Ben. BB has spent two seasons walking deeper into the lion’s den, hoping to bring her uncle’s murderer to justice.
The Infiltrator
In season 1, BB befriends Daniel Blake, a young, eager staffer on Fisk’s campaign. She uses his connections to get a private meeting with Fisk himself. Later, she gets Daniel drunk at a club and extracts information about a recycling scheme that would hurt union workers. She publishes it immediately, calling Fisk “Mayor Garbage.”
Following the death of serial killer Muse, BB credits Daredevil for saving the city (it was actually Heather Glenn who killed Muse in self-defense). A furious Daniel summons BB to Fisk’s office where he calls her out for betraying his trust and publishing information about Fisk’s recycling plan. Stating that she owes him, Daniel gives BB an ultimatum: change her report by claiming Fisk’s Anti-Vigilante Task Force (AVTF) was responsible for stopping Muse, or her life will be ruined. BB is shocked but she complies to maintain her connection to Fisk.
At the Black and White Ball, she speaks with Commissioner Paul Gallo about the AVFT. When Gallo brings up her support for Fisk, she makes it clear she knows Fisk murdered her uncle and that she’s trying to take him down from the inside. She also implies that she has ways of getting incriminating evidence out to the public without damaging her relationship with City Hall.
The two had planned to work together to destroy Fisk, but those plans were disrupted by Bullseye making an attempt on Fisk’s life, followed by Gallo’s “resigning” aka getting his skull crushed by Fisk’s bare hands.
Living a Double Life
By season 2, The BB Report has been twisted into a propaganda tool for Fisk’s administration. She’s forced to publish stories that paint his actions in a positive light. But BB is still committed to taking Fisk down so she creates a second show: City Without Fear. The series acts as a brutal satire that denounces Fisk’s actions as mayor. BB hosts each episode while wearing a cheap caricature mask of Fisk’s own face and calls herself “Mayor Kingpin.” It’s where she secretly shares footage and documents harvested from inside the mayor’s office.
One thing BB didn’t account for was that she’s genuinely starting to care about Daniel Blake.
Daniel is not a villain. He’s a young man who admires Fisk the way some people admire a self-made hero. Even after BB’s betrayals, he’s still warm to her. He wants her to be proud of him. This is where BB’s story becomes more than a revenge mission. It makes you wonder what you are willing to do to pursue justice.
The Birthday Dinner
By mid-season 2, the Fisk administration is hunting for the mole inside City Hall. Buck Cashman, Fisk’s cold and calculating fixer, identifies BB as the leak. He puts Daniel through a grim initiation by taking him to bury a body in the woods. Then he instructs Daniel to invite BB to his birthday dinner at his mother’s house in Staten Island, feed her false information that Fisk won’t be running for re-election, and watch to see if she leaks it. In espionage, they call this a Barium Meal Test. You poison the well with a lie and see who spreads it.
Daniel agrees because he has no choice.
During his birthday dinner, Daniel tells BB the fake story. Upstairs, alone, BB pulls out her phone and starts to type it up. She’s about to send it to her contact, Mitchell Ellison, editor-in-chief of the New York Bulletin.
Then she walks into Daniel’s childhood bedroom.
She takes a look at the posters. The small, ordinary details of the simple life Daniel lived before getting sucked into Fisk’s web. And she deletes the message. She chooses her friendship over the scoop. But it’s not enough to save her.
When she comes back downstairs, Daniel tells her he found an SD card in her coat pocket… the one containing stolen footage she had compiled for City Without Fear. It’s a tense moment where Daniel’s worst fears are confirmed. He tells her he can’t protect her from Buck, right as Buck calls his cell.
Will History Repeat Itself?
As season 2 of Daredevil: Born Again winds down to its final two episodes, BB Urich is in serious danger. Her cover is blown and her only ally is forced to choose between her and his own survival. And the man who killed her uncle is more dangerous than ever now that his wife Vanessa isn’t around to temper him.
Ben Urich died trying to expose Wilson Fisk.
His niece is trying to finish the job. Only time will tell if BB meets a similar fate as her uncle.
