History Fanfic / WhatTheyWouldntDo

* LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub: Like Union Allied, Fisk had used Orion Incorporated as a front to launder his illegitimate income. But Union Allied was a 100% legitimate construction company and its legal department (where Karen had worked) was where the shady activities took place. Orion is little more than a front for criminal activity.

* AcceptableTargets: [[invoked]] In Chapter 21, Sarah comments about how hectic and dangerous New York City is, with alien invasions, bombings, and shady companies fronting for organized crime.
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' You know who doesn't have these problems?\\
'''Matt Murdock:''' …most people who aren't us?\\
'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Hermits. Old mountain men who live up in the Adirondacks.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Matt's [[LivingLieDetector lie detector abilities]] are not infallible. They are complicated by people whose heart rates aren't that much different when they're terrified vs. when they're lying.
** The relative ease with which Sarah figured out Matt's double identity leaves Matt in a constant state of paranoia, always concerned that she might accidentally slip his identity to the cops or to the criminals at Orion.
** It's established that Karen has become somewhat paranoid after killing Wesley. Her face turns pale when she finds a photo of Wesley's body in Sarah's purse and she later mentions keeping tabs on the police investigation into his death.
** After being initially blackmailed by Wesley, Sarah tried to go to the police, unaware that there were crooked cops on Fisk's payroll. The desk officer warned her not to come back lest she wanted to get herself killed. Even after Fisk is arrested, Sarah still doesn't trust the police because there's no way to know if the FBI sweep missed a few corrupt cops. And it turns out some of the crooked cops are still working for the guys who run Fisk's former shell companies.
** Sarah's connections to so many suspicious criminal incidents happening at Orion fails to go unnoticed by Brett.
** Karen is not happy when she finds out that Matt is Daredevil. Matt's attempt to justify it as him trying to protect her falls flat on Karen, who points out that he has no problem trusting Sarah to keep his identity a secret.

* CelebrityParadox:
** Actor Creator/JeffGoldblum is name-dropped at one point. He also appears in ''Film/ThorRagnarok'' as the Grandmaster.
** In Chapter 20, Lauren name-drops ''Film/MillionDollarBaby'' in response to Sarah getting fight training from Matt. That movie has MCU faces like Creator/MikeColter (Luke Cage), Creator/AnthonyMackie (Sam Wilson / Falcon), and Creator/MichaelPena (Luis).
** In Chapter 22, Sarah and Foggy have a conversation in which Sarah references ''Series/LawAndOrder''. One hopes they didn't ever watch ''[[Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent Criminal Intent]]'' and notice [[Creator/VincentDOnofrio Robert Goren]]'s resemblance to Wilson Fisk.
** In Chapter 11, when Matt asks Sarah if she'd ever used violence before attacking Ronan, Sarah replies, "Uh...in seventh grade, I slapped a high school boy for telling my friend that her haircut made her look like Creator/JamesSpader." James Spader portrayed Ultron in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''.
** In Chapter 26, Sarah mentions seeing the movie ''Film/{{Noah}}'', a movie which features Creator/AnthonyHopkins (Odin from the ''Thor'' films) as Methuselah and Creator/RussellCrowe (Zeus in ''Thor: Love and Thunder'') as Noah.
** ''Series/GameOfThrones'' is referenced on one occasion. Finn Jones (Danny Rand from ''Series/IronFist2017'') is in that show as Loras Tyrell, as is Jessica Henwick (Colleen Wing) as Nymeria Sand.
** At one point, there's an article shown in the ''Bulletin'' about the breakup of Creator/BenAffleck and Creator/JenniferGarner's marriage (which happened in 2015, around the same time this work was first published). Affleck and Garner were Matt and Elektra respectively in the [[Film/{{Daredevil}} 2003 Daredevil movie]].

* ContrivedCoincidence: Sarah just quite coincidentally ends up encountering Karen while mailing packages in a post office, unaware that this is the same Karen that she's heard Matt and Foggy talk about. She is absolutely shocked when she does realize this much later, and Matt is pissed since due to misundstanding he thinks Sarah had deliberately approached Karen.
* ContinuitySnarl: As the author's notes in chapter 1 point out, there are some inconsistencies with characters that are the result of being retconned by Season 2. For instance, Vanessa Marianna is established as still in New York City, taking care of Wilson Fisk's business on the outside (and has married him and sired his son Richard thanks to conjugal visits), when season 2 has her hiding out overseas protected by an offshore fund Fisk set up with whatever assets weren't seized during his arrest.

* PoliceAreUseless: When Wesley propositioned, er, ''blackmailed'' Sarah into taking over her father's debts to Fisk, she went to the precinct right away. The desk officer, however, turned out to be on the take:
-->"You seem like a good enough kid, so I'm going to give you some advice. Take the job, and keep your mouth shut. Trying to go to the police to fight these guys…it's never going to work. Trust me. [[ImpliedDeathThreat I'm not going to rat you out for coming here tonight. Not this time. But if you come back here again, I can't guarantee that another officer won't. Got it?]]"

* RedRightHand: During the initial fight where Sarah stumbles upon Daredevil, she witnesses an Orion goon slash him with a glass shard, leaving a nasty checkmark shaped gash on his face. The next day, Sarah returns to her building, and sees her elderly neighbor Mrs. Benedict being escorted by Matt. She notices a fresh looking cut on his face in the shape of a checkmark and recognizes him as the man she saw at the office.
* RelationshipUpgrade: Matt and Sarah have their first kiss in chapter 31

-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' We're lucky no one is around, because you are acting so suspicious right now. Can you just—act normal?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Normal? I am helping push a passed out vigilante around Hell's Kitchen in a stolen shopping cart at three in the morning. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis With a stranger. In my pajamas!]] This is the ''least'' normal thing I have ever done.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Alright, alright, fair point. But can you just stop looking around every other second like the FBI is going to drop down on us?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Sorry, sorry.

-->'''Matt Murdock:''' What?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Nothing. Sorry. I'm sorry. I just hadn't thought of that. Matt Murdock's one true nemesis: lamination.
-->''[Matt sent her a glare from behind his dark glasses, though the corner of his mouth curved up almost imperceptibly. The sight only made her laugh more, covering her mouth to try and stifle the sound. It was the kind of laughter that only ever came to her from extreme tiredness, and she had always had difficulty controlling it]''

-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Plus, I think you underestimate how many girls would be into the Daredevil thing. I bet some of them would totally let you keep the mask on, if you're worried about potential identity exposure. I heard a few of the baristas at that coffee shop on 46th talking about you the other day. [[MrFanservice Something about being able to see your abs through your shirt.]] [[EvenTheGuysWantHim To be fair, most of those baristas were male]], [[FemaleGaze but the ladies who were listening looked pretty interested, too]]—
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' [[TooMuchInformation This isn't helping.]]

* AssholeVictim: Officer [=McDermott=]. In chapter 32, as Sarah is stopping by the 15th Precinct trying to see how the investigation into his disappearance is going, she hears Brett talk to another cop about the missing persons campaign [=McDermott=]'s mother has been carrying out. Sarah can tell that [=McDermott=] must have been very much despised by his fellow officers, who don't show much interest in trying to find his body.

** In Chapter 20, Lauren name-drops ''Film/MillionDollarBaby'' in response to Sarah getting fight training from Matt. That movie has MCU faces like Creator/MikeColter (Luke Cage), Creator/AnthonyMackie (Sam Wilson / Falcon), and Creator/MichaelPena (Scott Lang's friend Luis in ''Film/AntMan1'').

** In Chapter 26, Sarah mentions seeing the movie ''Film/{{Noah}}'', a movie which features Creator/AnthonyHopkins (Odin from the ''Thor'' films) as Methuselah and Creator/RussellCrowe (Zeus in ''Thor: Love and Thunder'') as Noah. While that movie's director Darren Aronofsky has worked with MCU actors like Creator/NataliePortman, Creator/MickeyRourke, and Creator/MarisaTomei.

** In Chapter 4, when Foggy visits Matt's apartment to catch up on work (he doesn't want to do catchup at the office lest it feel too much like a normal workday), Matt jokingly suggests that they could've asked Karen to come over to make coffee, to which Foggy replies that Karen's coffee " might be a subtle attempt to try and kill us and take over our lucrative establishment". Foggy made similar remarks about Karen's coffee technique in "Shadows in the Glass".

-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' You know, when I said you needed to get laid, sleeping with Sarah was ''so not'' what I had in mind.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Foggy, I'm not—
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Nope, let me get this out, because I totally saw this one coming.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' ''[skeptically]'' You…did?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' You bet your black-pajama-clad ass I did. You always try to keep your hook ups under the radar, but this time there were definite signs. The two of you cozying up in the police station when she got arrested, for example.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' What, when she was having a ''panic attack''? What was I supposed to do, let her hyperventilate right in the interrogation room?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Of course not. I'm just saying, Mr. Radson was freaking out last week when he got arrested for breaking and entering, and I didn't see you scooting your chair all close to him and wrapping him up in your jacket.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Mr. Radson is a six-foot-five construction worker, Foggy; I don't think my jacket would fit around him.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Irrelevant. Exhibit number two—
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' [[DisabledSnarker Are we in court right now?]]
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' ''Exhibit number two:'' that day I went to visit her after she got hurt and she answered the door [[SexyShirtSwitch wearing your Columbia sweatshirt.]]
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' I—she what? ''[shakes his head]'' Borrowing a sweatshirt because your clothing is covered in blood is not a sign of romance, Foggy. In fact, I think it might be the opposite.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Yeah, but ''snuggling'' up in it after the fact? Questionable. Number three—
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' '''Nothing happened, Foggy.''' She fell asleep here, and I slept on the couch. ''[beat]''
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' You're sure?
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Pretty positive. I'm blind, but I think I would have noticed that.

* FridgeLogic: InUniverse, during Chapter 10, Foggy points out that Matt lying on his couch to recuperate doesn't make much sense given that his bed's probably more comfortable, with silk sheets and everything.

-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' So…training sessions, huh?
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Basic self-defense lessons.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' I don't know…kind of sounds like an excuse to get all sweaty and handsy, in my opinion.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' You know, I'm not the shameless deviant you try to paint me as, Foggy.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' I'm just saying, it seems suspicious. I mean, you've never offered to train me.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' I'd gladly show you how to take a punch right now.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' You couldn't handle these fisticuffs of fury, Murdock!
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' I believe it.

-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Alright, Sarah. Now we're going to talk about me. Do you know who I am?
-->''[Sarah can feel her palms starting to sweat and tries to play dumb]''
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Y-you're...Daredevil.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' I think you know that's not what I'm asking. Do you know who I ''really'' am?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' I—I, um— ''[Matt increases his hold on her throat just slightly—not painful, but undeniably threatening]''
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' If you're thinking of lying, rethink it. Do you know who I am?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Yes.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' What's my name?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Matthew. M-Matthew Murdock.

-->'''Matt Murdock:''' You know, if you were going to try and turn me in without me catching you, it might have been a smarter move to go to a police station not in Hell's Kitchen.
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Okay, w-wait. I know what you're thinking—
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' I'm thinking that you just broke your part in our agreement, Sarah, less than twenty four hours after you swore you wouldn't, so give me one good reason why I shouldn't do the same.
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' I wasn't there about anything to do with you. I swear. I wasn't going to—
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' We'll get to what you were going to do in a minute. What I need to know right now is what you've already done. If the police station wasn't your first stop then my friends are in danger, meaning you have about ten seconds to tell me the truth. Have you already told someone?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' No. No, I—I haven't. A-and I wasn't going to in there, either.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Then why were you there?
-->''[lengthy silence]''
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' [[LampshadeHanging You know, when someone takes this long to answer, it's not usually a good indicator that they're about to tell you the truth.]]
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' It…it was for…personal reasons.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' "Personal reasons?" This is my ''life'' you're messing with. The lives of people I love. You can at least come up with a better lie than "personal reasons".
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' It's not a lie! I just, I can't—I can't tell you. Why I was there. B-but it had nothing to do with you, I swear.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Really. If it had nothing to do with me, why can't you tell me what it was?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' I just—you don't need to know. It's not relevant. T-to anything that we're doing.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' So you're telling me that your mysterious reason for being in the police station has nothing to do with me? Nothing to do with Orion, or why you're working there? No connection to…any of that at all?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' [[BlatantLies R-right. No connection.]]

** Matt and Sarah learn that Karen killed Wesley.

-->'''Connor Donovan:''' So, I was thinking that to help pass the time, I might tell you a little bit about what kind of jail time we're potentially looking at here. Not for you, necessarily. But just for, you know…whoever it turns out is responsible for these things.
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' [[GenreSavvy You're not supposed to talk to me until my lawyers get here]].
-->'''Connor Donovan:''' I'm not supposed to ''ask'' you any questions. And you're not supposed to tell me anything. But I can talk. And you can listen, or not listen. It's up to you.

-->'''Karen Page:''' Why do you have this?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Did you…did you know him? James Wesley? ''[Karen nearly flinches again, which to Sarah means "yes"]''
-->'''Karen Page:''' [[BlatantLies No. I—I didn't.]] ''[brushes off her skirt and heads for the doors]'' I have to go, I'm sorry.
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Wait! ''[stops Karen as she makes it to the doors]'' Listen. I—I know what kind of guy Wesley was. Maybe…I can help you.
-->'''Karen Page:''' No. You really can't.
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' James Wesley ruined my life. ''[Karen looks at Sarah intently]'' In fact, he's still doing a pretty good job of ruining it. Like…like he never died.
-->'''Karen Page:''' I'm sorry. [[{{Doublespeak}} Sometimes it feels like I can't shake him off either...]]
* OneDialogueTwoConversations: In chapter 31, Karen catches the tail end of Matt and Foggy having a conversation about Sarah, after Sarah calls Foggy at the office. So when Foggy and Karen go get drunk at Foggy's apartment, and the conversation turns to Sarah, for a while Foggy is talking about how Matt and Sarah's relationship is complicated because of the fact that he's Daredevil and she's working for a mob front, while Karen thinks Foggy is talking about Matt having gotten Sarah knocked up.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Are you…angry?
-->'''Karen Page:''' Yes! ''[hits Foggy on the arm]'' How could you guys not tell me about this? This is a huge deal.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Ow. You're strong when you're drunk. And I know, it is a big thing to keep from you. I'm sorry.
-->'''Karen Page:''' I don't even know where to start asking questions. Does—does he have a plan of some kind for all this?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' ''[shakes his head]'' Not that I can tell. I think he's just kind of working it out as he goes.
-->'''Karen Page''' Oh, great. That'll turn out well. He goes on all these rants about how we need to be more careful with our cases and everything and then he goes out and—I know it's not the same thing, but…Jesus. Also, he's an adult, has it not occurred to him to use some kind of…''protection''?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Well, he kind of does, but it's this flimsy stuff he gets off [=eBay=]. I keep telling him to upgrade, but he's all, "No, it'll slow me down," blah, blah.
-->'''Karen Page:''' Men... ''[rolls her eyes]'' And Sarah? Is he helping her out?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Sarah? Oh. Yeah, I mean, he's trying to help her as much as he can with her whole situation. That's how their whole thing got started, actually—
-->'''Karen Page:''' That's how it began? They didn't know each other at all first?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' No, and it was awful. He thought she was going to use it against him, and she thought he was basically the biggest jerk in the world. Which, to be fair, he was acting like it. But they're good now.
-->'''Karen Page:''' Well, I hope so. So, what's he going to do? I mean, is he going to stick this out?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' It seems like it. You know how Matt is. He has to do what he thinks is the right thing.
-->'''Karen Page:''' Well, of course it's the right thing! What other option is there?
-->''[Foggy gave her a mildly offended look; had she forgotten he and Matt were both lawyers?]''
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' I mean, there's always going through the courts—
-->'''Karen Page:''' No, Matt wouldn't go to court if he can handle something himself.
-->''[She let out a long exhale, staring at the window again as she processed the information. He was always impressed by how levelheaded she could be.]''
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' You're reacting to this way more calmly than I would have called. Way better than I reacted.
-->'''Karen Page:''' Really?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Yeah. Maybe it's just because I've known him longer but…God, the moment I realized it was him under that mask, I—
-->'''Karen Page:''' ''[sharply]'' Mask? What are you talking about?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' I… ''[The pause that followed was painfully long]'' …what are you talking about?
-->'''Karen Page:''' I was talking about Sarah being pregnant. And Matt being the father.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Pregnant? Sarah's not pregnant. Is she? No. She isn't. Right?
-->'''Karen Page:''' What mask, Foggy?
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' It's—oh—it's not a mask—uh, just—
-->'''Karen Page:''' Holy shit. ''[Her piercing blue eyes widened as the pieces of their conversation clicked into place]''
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' You know, now that I think about it, Sarah is pregnant, and that is what I was talking about. I got confused.
-->''[But it was too late. The slow dawning of realization spread across Karen's face as she put two and two together, always too quick on the uptake for her own good. Her piercing blue eyes widened as she got an expression that was all too familiar to anyone who knew her: the one she made when she finally solved a puzzle.]''
-->'''Karen Page:''' Holy shit. It's Matt. Matt is the man in the mask. It's him.

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Foggy and Matt mention Karen a lot during their conversations with Sarah, but never actually describe her appearance, only things like her speaking Spanish, her love of cheesy soap operas, etc. Subsequently, by pure chance, Sarah ends up in line behind Karen while mailing packages at a post office, with no idea that this is ''the'' Karen that Foggy and Matt had been talking about. After a conversation in which they briefly talk about having worked for shell companies under Fisk's control, and about Wesley, Karen invites Sarah out to dinner at a Thai place she's taken Matt and Foggy to. It's only when Karen offhandedly mentions Matt and Foggy by name that Sarah realizes just who she's been talking to. This leads Sarah to panic as she knows Matt will probably ''not'' be happy to know that she and Karen are meeting behind his back. Especially since Karen gets her arm broken getting into an altercation with a corrupt cop in Ronan's pocket.

-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Something's up here, Matt. Starting with whatever the hell this room is. I've never seen an interrogation room with no windows, no mirrors, and no cameras. What is this, [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror the Gitmo of Hell's Kitchen?]] ''[Sarah whips her head around to look at him in alarm]''
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Foggy-\\

** In Chapter 6, when Matt drags Sarah into an alleyway to grill her (thinking that she was at the precinct to rat him out), she finally gets to point out that his constantly threatening her isn't making her trust him:
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' You accuse me of killing someone, then hang up and mysteriously disappear for a night. And now you want me to just…take your word that you were in the police station the very next day for some completely unrelated reason? But you can't tell me what? I'm just supposed to accept that on faith?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' W-well I have to take it on faith that you won't decide to just up and kill me after I help you take down Orion. Or even sooner. And—and that's not helped by the fact that you spend half your time threatening me in every ''freaking'' alleyway in Hell's Kitchen!

-->'''Matt Murdock:''' I don't want to interrogate a girl, Foggy. Especially not one who's about half a foot shorter and seventy pounds lighter than me.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Seventy pounds? How much does all that martial arts muscle weigh, man?
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Foggy.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' I know, I know. I don't want to see you running around terrorizing women either, especially since I'm sure if she's in anyway connected to your life she must be a hot one. ''[Matt sighs in exasperation]'' But I mean, what other options do you have here, Matt? She works for the Big Bad Company that you're trying to fight. She's gotta know what kind of company that place is, and she still chooses to work there. And it's especially sketchy that she was lurking around the place in the middle of the night. This chick doesn't sound like the most trustworthy person to know your secret. If she tells even one of those guys about who you really are—
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' —I know, Foggy. I'm not saying that I'm not going to interrogate her. I'm just saying…I'm not going to like it.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Do you usually like it?

-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Hang on…all those nights that you let me believe you were sleeping with hot paralegals…were you out Daredeviling?
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' ''[clears his throat]'' Well…I never actually ''said'' I was sleeping with any of them. You just assumed.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Matt! Sleeping with a hot paralegal is a sacred thing! You can't lie about that.
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Technically, I ''did'' go out with some of them. In the beginning. But then it just got more time consuming and…injury inducing. I don't think a lot of girls are into giant bruises and poorly done stitches. So, I just kept using it as an excuse.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Wait, so, when's the last time you actually got laid? ''[Matt leans back in his chair and sighs in aggravation; Foggy leans forward and whispers...]'' Are you saying you haven't had sex since you started getting your illicit crime-fighting on? Matt, do you know how long that's been?
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' ''[annoyed]'' It hasn't been at the top of my priority list, Foggy. I've kind of been busy trying to keep Hell's Kitchen from being overrun by criminals.

The story follows Sarah Corrigan, a young woman who had been blackmailed into working as a secretary at Orion, a shady company formerly owned by Wilson Fisk. Her life is turned upside down when she stumbles upon Daredevil beating up several Orion employees, and then discovers that Daredevil is Matt Murdock, the blind lawyer from Hell's Kitchen. Matt finds himself having complicated feelings towards how to deal with Sarah, while doing his best to keep his friends safe.

** In Chapter 11, when Matt asks Sarah if she'd ever used violence before attacking Ronan, Sarah replies, "Uh...in seventh grade, I slapped a high school boy for telling my friend that her haircut made her look like Creator/JamesSpader." James Spader was the voice of Ultron in ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron''.
** In Chapter 26, Sarah mentions seeing the movie ''Film/{{Noah}}'', a movie which features Creator/AnthonyHopkins (Odin from the ''Thor'' films) as Methuselah. While that movie's director Darren Aronofsky has worked with MCU actors like Creator/NataliePortman, Mickey Rourke, and Marisa Tomei.

** At one point, there's an article shown in the ''Bulletin'' about the breakup of Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner's marriage (which happened in 2015, around the same time this work was first published). Affleck and Garner were Matt and Elektra respectively in the [[Film/{{Daredevil}} 2003 Daredevil movie]].

* MeetCute: Platonic type, but Sarah happens to run into Karen Page at the post office while they're both waiting in a long line to mail packages, and they're soon talking pretty amiably like best friends, Karen even inviting Sarah out to a noodle place she's taken Matt and Foggy to. They even can relate to each other given their past experiences with Fisk's men.

* OneDialogueTwoConversations: In chapter 31, Karen catches the tail end of Matt and Foggy having a conversation about Sarah, after Sarah calls Foggy at the office. So when Foggy and Karen go get drunk at Foggy's apartment, and the conversation turns to Sarah, for a while Foggy is talking about Matt being Daredevil while Karen is talking about Sarah becoming pregnant because of Matt.

* RealityEnsues:
** Matt's [[LivingLieDetector lie detector abilities]] are not infallible. They are complicated by people whose heart rates aren't that much different when they're terrified vs. when they're lying.
** The relative ease with which Sarah figured out Matt's double identity leaves Matt in a constant state of paranoia, always concerned that she might accidentally slip his identity to the cops or to the criminals at Orion.
** It's established that Karen has become somewhat paranoid after killing Wesley. Her face turns pale when she finds a photo of Wesley's body in Sarah's purse and she later mentions keeping tabs on the police investigation into his death.
** After being initially blackmailed by Wesley, Sarah tried to go to the police, unaware that there were crooked cops on Fisk's payroll. The desk officer warned her not to come back lest she wanted to get herself killed. Even after Fisk is arrested, Sarah still doesn't trust the police because there's no way to know if the FBI sweep missed a few corrupt cops. And it turns out some of the crooked cops are still working for the guys who run Fisk's former shell companies.
** Sarah's connections to so many suspicious criminal incidents happening at Orion fails to go unnoticed by Brett.

** Chapter 36 has a scene of Sarah walk in on Stick tending to a wounded Matt. The scene combines two different scenes from season 2: the scene in "Dogs to a Gunfight" where Matt's hearing temporarily goes out after he gets shot in the head by Frank, and the scene at the end of "Guilty as Sin" where a Hand ninja in his apartment shoots him in the shoulder with an arrow before getting killed by Elektra. Stick even uses the same concoction he uses in season 2 to cure Elektra.

** Learning that Matt hasn't left New York City once in his life, Sarah suggests that he take a vacation and let the Avengers take over crimefighting in Hell's Kitchen, to which Matt retorts that arms dealers and organized crime are a bit below their pay grade.

* ThickerThanWater: Foggy points out that despite her lack of trust and obvious fear of Matt, Sarah still willingly jumped out of bed to help pull Matt out from under fallen scaffolding.

* InternetDetective: After recognizing Matt's cuts, Sarah finds herself going on the Internet to research him. A large number of articles come back surrounding the truck accident and chemical spill that blinded him as a kid, and many more about the murder of his father. She even finds a Facebook photo of Matt and Foggy celebrating their graduation from Columbia Law School.

-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' You know who doesn't have these problems?
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' …most people who aren't us?
-->'''Sarah Corrigan:''' Hermits. Old mountain men who live up in the Adirondacks.

-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Something's up here, Matt. Starting with whatever the hell this room is. I've never seen an interrogation room with no windows, no mirrors, and no cameras. What is this, [[WarOnTerror the Gitmo of Hell's Kitchen?]] ''[Sarah whips her head around to look at him in alarm]''
-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Foggy-
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' [[VerbalBackspace Uh—I didn't mean Gitmo. Not—not Gitmo like with the—the torture, or—]] ''[looks to Matt for help]''

* TheWarOnTerror:
** When Matt and Foggy show up to aid Sarah when the police take her in for questioning, Foggy gets suspicious of the interrogation room, at one point calling it the "Gitmo of Hell's Kitchen", alarming Sarah. Foggy tries to backpedal with little success.
** When Sarah and Matt converse about the "Incident" in chapter 21, they mention where they were when it happened: Sarah was at a concert hall that took damage, while Landman & Zack went on lockdown. The conversation plays out like a "Where were you on 9/11?" conversation, and this is intentional on the author's behalf because, like 9/11, "The Incident" affected all New Yorkers in one way or another and caused a ton of destruction and loss of life while the rest of the nation/world watched.

** In Chapter 20, Lauren name-drops ''Film/MillionDollarBaby'' in response to Sarah getting fight training from Matt. That movie has MCU faces like Creator/MikeColter (Luke Cage), Creator/AnthonyMackie (Sam Wilson / Falcon), and Creator/MichaelPena (Scott Lang's friend Luis in ''Film/AntMan'').

** In Chapter 22, Sarah and Foggy have a conversation in which Sarah references ''Series/LawAndOrder''. One hopes they didn't ever watch ''[[Series/LawAndOrderCriminalIntent Criminal Intent]]'' and notice that [[Creator/VincentDOnofrio Robert Goren]] looks a lot like Wilson Fisk if he had hair.

* MythologyGag: At one point, Matt mentions that the newspapers have nicknamed him "The Man Without Fear", an appellation normally used to describe him in the comics.

** Likewise, in chapter 20, Sarah spends the night at Matt's place after she has a nervous breakdown from encountering Ronan in a diner while having dinner with Matt. She leaves his apartment just as Foggy shows up. Naturally, [[NotWhatItLooksLike Foggy thinks that Matt and Sarah had sex]] and tries to lecture him on it.

** Of course, since Donovan and his partner [=McDermott=] turn out to be on the take, it's pretty obvious anything they got out of Sarah, lawyer or not, was probably not going to be used in court.

-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Well, he kind of does, but it's this flimsy stuff he gets off [=eBay=]. I keep telling him to upgrade, but he's all, 'No, it'll slow me down,' blah, blah.

* OneDegreeOfSeparation: Foggy and Matt mention Karen a lot during their conversations with Sarah, but never actually describe her appearance, only things like her Spanish, her love of cheesy soap operas, etc. Subsequently, by pure chance, Sarah ends up in line behind Karen while mailing packages at a post office, with no idea that this is ''the'' Karen that Foggy and Matt had been talking about. After a conversation in which they briefly talk about having worked for shell companies under Fisk's control, and about Wesley, Karen invites Sarah out to dinner at a Thai place she's taken Matt and Foggy to. It's only when Karen offhandedly mentions Matt and Foggy by name that Sarah realizes just who she's been talking to. This leads Sarah to panic as she knows Matt will probably ''not'' be happy to know that she and Karen are meeting behind his back. Especially since Karen gets her arm broken getting into an altercation with a corrupt cop in Ronan's pocket.

** Matt's [[LivingLieDetector lie detector abilities]] are complicated by people whose heart rates aren't that much different when they're terrified vs. when they're lying.

** Sarah asks Matt at one point if he was doing his Daredevil schtick at the time of the Incident. Matt replies that he didn't start until a year later. Aliens are out of his league, and Landman & Zack went on lockdown for the duration of the attack.

* WeDoNotKnowEachOther: In chapter 3, Matt and Sarah have to pretend not to know each other when Sarah runs into him talking with her neighbor.

-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Do you usually like it?"

* LoveEpiphany: In the chapter 28, after her terrible date night and then being accompanied by Matt, when he leaves, Sarah realizes that the feeling of tension she had with him at her side was what she missed for her date

* ContrievedCoincidence: Sarah just quite coincidentally ends up encountering Karen while mailing packages in a post office, unaware that this is the same Karen that she's heard Matt and Foggy talk about. She is absolutely shocked when she does realize this much later, and Matt is pissed since due to misundstanding he thinks Sarah had deliberately approached Karen.

* InternalReveal: Matt and Sarah learn that Karen killed Wesley.

** Obviously the whole work is retconned as a result of season 2's release.

* ContinuitySnarl: As the author's notes in chapter 1 point out, there are some inconsistencies with characters that are the result of being retconned by Season 2. For instance, Vanessa Marianna is established as still in New York City, taking care of Wilson Fisk's business on the outside (and is implied to have married him and even having had a son with him thanks to conjugal visits), when season 2 has her hiding out overseas protected by an offshore fund Fisk set up with whatever assets weren't seized during his arrest.

-->'''Matt Murdock:''' Nothing happened, Foggy. She fell asleep here, and I slept on the couch. ''[beat]''

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: In Chapter 21, Sarah's conversation with Matt about what each of them were doing when [[Film/TheAvengers2012 the Chitauri invasion happened]] sounds very reminiscent of "Where were you on 9/11?" or "Where were you when UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was assassinated?" conversations. In this case, Matt says he and Foggy were at Landman & Zack, and they went on full lockdown for the duration of the invasion. Sarah says she was accompanying a singer at a concert hall, and until a blast blew the roof off, they thought the noise outside was just a really bad thunderstorm.

** When Foggy catches Sarah leaving Matt's building after spending the night there (due to a bad encounter with Ronan), Matt has to reassure him that he didn't have sex with Sarah.
* OhCrap:

* PosthumousCharacter: Despite having been killed in season 1, James Wesley still plays an important role in the plot from beyond the grave, as he was the one who strongarmed Sarah into taking over her father's debts to Fisk. Likewise, Matt and Sarah individually learn that Karen was the one who killed him.

* ShipperOnDeck: Mrs. Benedict, Sarah's elderly neighbor, always seems to be trying to play matchmaker between Sarah and other people. This is much to Sarah's annoyance. When having an espionage meeting with Matt under the guise of one of these matchmaker moments, Sarah thinks, "So not the time for your weird, sneaky matchmaking, Mrs. B."

There was a pause.

"Do you usually like it?"

-->'''Matt Murdock:''' ''[clears his throat]'' Well…I never actually said I was sleeping with any of them. You just assumed.
-->'''Foggy Nelson:''' Matt! Sleeping with a hot paralegal is a sacred thing. You can't lie about that.

* WouldHitAGirl: Matt's first reaction upon Sarah recognizing his identity is to threaten her. His panic at her saying Foggy's name leads him to accidentally choke her to the point of passing out.

* ComicBookCharactersDontUseCodeNames: The 'Daredevil' and 'Devil of Hell's Kitchen' names are used interchangeably in dialogue. But Sarah stops thinking of the man in the mask as 'Daredevil' and always thinks of him as Matt after her first run-in with him, figuring that referring to him by his real name in her head makes him seem human and less threatening.