Coupons were supposed to be dead — killed by prestige brands, frictionless checkout, and the rise of the 'experience economy.' Instead, they mutated into a shadow infrastructure of browser extensions, affiliate kickbacks, and manufactured urgency that now quietly skims margin from nearly every online transaction you make. This week, we pull apart the Honey-PayPal deal, the brands secretly funding the discounts they publicly pretend to hate, and why the coupon never died — it just put on a suit.