Nightmare Fuel / Daredevil (2015)

"You know you're one bad day away from being me..."

Daredevil: You took their eyes!
Madame Gao: No. They blinded themselves.

—"The Ones We Leave Behind"

When they said that Daredevil on Netflix was going to be Darker and Edgier than the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they weren't kidding.

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In general

• Wilson Fisk. The Kingpin. The man is a brutal mob boss who has bought the media and half of the police for his benefit and protection. Basically, he has both the mob and the law in his possession in a completely ridiculous level. In season 1, the mere mention of his name causes so much fear in his associates that they are willing to commit suicide or murder in his name. He makes it almost impossible to link criminal activity to him by having others do his dirty work for him, but don't let that fool you because if you piss him off, he's more than a capable fighter. He's like a shadow consuming everything in its path.
  • Season 3 Fisk in general. In the words of showrunner Erik Oleson, he has the influence of "a real life spymaster, someone who understood the techniques of psychological manipulation, of informational warfare, of recruitment, of operational thinking." And it shows, in a way that is absolutely terrifying. He has nigh-unlimited surveillance over his targets, is able to read into people's psyche and their weaknesses, creates traps for them years in advance just in case they may become useful to him later, makes already unstable people go over the edge and forces good upstanding citizens to do his dirty work by blackmailing them with threats against their families (stuff we've already seen him do in season 1, but dialed up to eleven). As Matt repeatedly states, Fisk is five steps ahead over any of their plans that could harm him, having over a dozen of FBI agents under his direct control and able to threaten anyone who could testify against him and make good on that threat. He orders a complete bystander in Julie Barnes killed merely because she's too much of a positive influence on Dex, and controls SAC Hattley by murdering one of her kids and then threatening the other.
  • While, under current U.S. laws, becoming someone like Fisk is practically impossible ^note In the U.S., he would face thousands of charges of corruption, extortion, rackeetering, money laundering and terrorism under laws like RICO and others enacted in the 21st century, he's not different from many criminals and/or dictators who amassed such power and influence that apprehending them proved challenging during their reigns of corruption, terror, and criminal activities. Real-life examples abound: Al Capone, Pablo Escobar, El Chapo Guzmán, Manuel Noriega, to name a few.
• Matt Murdock himself can be quite scary at times. He isn't called "The Devil of Hell's Kitchen" for nothing. Foggy notes that his years training with Stick and honing his senses indicates he's premeditated the notion of using his abilities to fight criminals later on in life...or to find an excuse to hit someone as a way cope with all his trauma and inner demons.
  • Given how much more grounded this MCU series is compared to the rest of the shows and movies, Matt's fights are much more visceral and bloody. He can be very relentless and brutal with his fighting style, and you can sometimes spot Matt wearing a grin during his fights.

Season 1

Episode 1 - Into the Ring

• The series opens with Jack Murdock coming onto the scene of the accident and finding Matt on the ground, his face covered in unknown chemicals. Matt then starts screaming how he can't see while Jack just holds him, helpless.
• James Wesley is introduced walking up to Clyde Farnum as Farnum is having lunch in a park. Without saying a word, he sits down next to Farnum. Right off the bat, there's something very unsettling about the way Wesley presents himself.
  Clyde Farnum: [annoyed] There's plenty of room over there. Do you mind?
  James Wesley: $28,957.
  Clyde Farnum: Tell Rigoletto he'll get his money.
  James Wesley: Mr. Rigoletto has retired. His books have been acquired by my employer.
  Clyde Farnum: ...Well you tell him the same thing. [he gets up to leave, until...]
  James Wesley: I'd like to show you something. If you have a moment?
  [Wesley sets down a tablet on the table; on it, a live feed plays of Farnum's daughter in a park]
  James Wesley: What is it about college girls in Monet T-shirts? Open composition and spontaneity reflecting this... transformative time in their lives, perhaps? Or maybe they just like the color blue. Call her.
  [Hands shaking, Farnum frantically digs in his pockets for his phone and calls his daughter]
  Tracy Farnum: Hey, Dad. What's up?
  Clyde Farnum: Hi baby. I'm just checking in. You need anything?
  Tracy Farnum: Uh, yeah. I actually have a ton of laundry. I was gonna swing by this weekend and use the machines, and then maybe we could catch a movie after your shift?
  Clyde Farnum: Yeah. Yeah, that would be great. Uh, look, baby I—I gotta go. I love you, baby.
  Tracy Farnum: I love you too. Bye, Dad.
  [Farnum hangs up; the tablet feed shifts slightly to the left and focuses on a man seated on a park bench]
  James Wesley: Now you see this man here? If we're being honest with each other, Mr. Farnum, I find his methods... unpleasant. But such are the times we live in. [to the tablet] Give us a wave, Mr. Rance!
  [Rance looks up at the camera and waves]
  Clyde Farnum: [getting the message] I told you... that I will get you the money.
  James Wesley: Such a small sum is of little interest to my employer. Your position, however? That's something we can work with.
  Clyde Farnum: What do you want me to do?
• With the Union Allied scandal exposed, Fisk orders Wesley to have everyone involved killed so they can't talk: Karen's boss McClintock is force-fed an overdose of pills. Farnum is shot through his mouth in his basement and his death staged to look like a suicide. And Rance, captured after Matt thwarted his attempt to attack Karen in her apartment, is hanged in his jail cell with his bedsheets, the very fate that Farnum had originally tried to give to Karen.
• Madame Gao's heroin workshop, operated solely by blind workers.
  • Episode 12 reveals it is. Gao claims they did it to themselves after she showed them something. Considering that Madame Gao is later revealed in Iron Fist and The Defenders to be one of the Five Fingers of the Hand, it's even worse... perhaps something fanatic themselves.
• The first people Matt fights are sex slavers who were in the middle of loading a group of kidnapped women into a shipping crate.

Episode 2 - Cut Man

• Matt torturing Semyon for information... with the assistance of a trained medical professional.
  • To elaborate, Matt presses a sharp object through Semyon's eye socket, without touching the actual eye itself, and starts cutting the soft, tender parts protecting his brain. One step short of a transorbital lobotomy, which he supposedly does in order to directly stimulate the part of the brain that feels pain.
  • And then Matt throws the guy off the roof. He lands in a dumpster and will live, but it really looked like Matt did not care if he just murdered a man. "In The Blood" reveals that while the fall didn't kill him, the impact put the man into a coma.

Episode 3 - Rabbit in a Snowstorm

• Healy commits suicide by impaling himself on a spike through the eye socket. The camera does not cut away (holds on it afterward, even). Matt's utterly horrified reaction matches the audience's.
  • Healy in general. Right from the opening scene, where he beats Prohashka to death with a bowling ball, it's clear just how remorseless and guilt-free he is. Until he spills Wilson Fisk's name. Then he abruptly becomes a terrified wreck who decides to kill himself before Fisk can think of a reason to kill the people he cares about.
    Matt Murdock: You get in your car. If I ever see you in Hell's Kitchen again…
    John Healy: No.
    Matt Murdock: You do not want to test me.
    John Healy: You think this is still about you? I gave up his name. You don't do that, not to him. He'll find me and make an example, and then he'll find everyone I've ever cared about and do the same to them, so that no one ever does what I just did. You should have just killed me, you coward!
  • The aforementioned opening scene involving Healy and Prohashka, specifically how, during the fight between the two, Prohashka has his arm broken and the camera ever-so-briefly focuses on the bone sticking out of his arm and Healy smashing Prohashka's head in with the bowling ball, blood splattering on his face.
• Wesley manages to be one without doing much for the entirety of his interaction as he hires Nelson & Murdock to defend Healy. There's always something off about him, and then the casual way he mentions knowing Karen.
  James Wesley: I'm curious about your...clientele. Do they all end up working for you after you get them off for murder or just the pretty ones?
  [Karen gasps softly and stops writing. Matt tenses up]
  Matt Murdock: [to Karen] You, uh, give us a minute, please?

Episode 4 - In the Blood

• Now that we've gotten to meet Fisk in person, he comes across as friendly, socially awkward and a bit of a romantic with Vanessa...until Anatoly makes the mistake of crashing his date to personally inform him that they want to agree to Fisk's offer of support and resources. He has Wesley take Anatoly to an empty lot in Queens. As they're sitting in the car, Wesley has some ominous words that only make clear that something very bad is about to happen to Anatoly.
  James Wesley: They say the past is etched in stone, but it isn't. It's smoke trapped in a closed room, swirling, changing. Buffeted by the passing of years and wishful thinking. But even though our perception of it changes, one thing remains constant. The past can never be completely erased. It lingers. Like the scent of burning wood.
  • At this point Wesley's phone rings.
    James Wesley: [answers phone] Sir? [beat] Yes, passenger's side. [hangs up]
    Anatoly Ranskahov: Was that him?
    James Wesley: Hmmm. He'd like to have a word with you.
    Anatoly Ranskahov: Oh that's good...
  • As if on cue, Anatoly's door opens. Fisk reaches in, rips Anatoly from the car, and begins ferociously beating on him. Eventually, Anatoly gets an opening, pulls a switchblade, and slashes at Fisk's chest, to no avail... as Fisk's suits have an inner mesh lining to protect him from just such a thing. Fisk grabs Anatoly, slams him against the side of the car, and disarms him of his knife, in the process breaking his right arm.
    Wilson Fisk: You embarrassed me! Embarrassed me in front of her...
  • With that, Fisk headbutts Anatoly, and viciously beats him into the pavement. Desperately, Anatoly tries to crawl back to the car, begging Wesley, "Help me! Please!" before Fisk grabs him and hits him again in the head. He then grabs Anatoly's body, positions his head in the door well, and begins bashing it in with the door. And he doesn't stop until Anatoly's head is reduced to nothing. You can actually see Anatoly's brains hitting the pavement before the head snaps clean off. This is just a reminder of what Fisk is capable of doing when he is really, really pissed off.
  • Even though Anatoly is clearly dead after the second or third door slam, Fisk does not stop until his head is smashed off. If you do something to incur Fisk's wrath, you're not just dead; you're obliterated.
  • Wesley manages to add a moment of creepiness throughout the whole thing. He has a very blank expression on his face as Anatoly tries to crawl back to the car, begging for mercy. Then as Fisk begins crushing Anatoly's head with the door, some blood splatters onto Wesley's face and suit, and he doesn't even flinch. He's then shown casually stepping out of the car on the opposite side and buttoning his suit as Fisk is finishing destroying Anatoly's head.
  • Just as chilling is how Fisk composes himself as Wesley hands him a handkerchief to wipe Anatoly's blood off his face.
    Wilson Fisk: Tell Mr. Potter I need a new suit.
    James Wesley: [gestures to the body] What about this?
    Wilson Fisk: Take what's left of him and send it to his brother.
    James Wesley: It'll start a war...
    Wilson Fisk: I'm counting on it.
  • Another thing driven home about Fisk by this scene: even when he seems to be totally out of control with rage, he's still thinking several moves ahead. He'd been planning to have Anatoly and Vladimir killed now that their inability to handle the masked vigilante was showing them to be a weak link in his criminal enterprise. All Anatoly's intrusion on Fisk's privacy did was cause Fisk to decide he had to handle Anatoly's death personally instead of paying someone to do it.
• The way the Ranskahov brothers escaped from the gulag is gruesome in and of itself — after the guards left their dead cellmate with them to be consumed by rats, Vladimir ripped a hole in the corpse's side and fashioned one of his rib bones into a shiv.

Episode 5 - World on Fire

• To follow up on Anatoly's brutal murder, the first thing we see after the opening credits is Fisk's mechanics washing brain matter from the door well with a high pressure hose. Before the credits, we see what little is left of the body as it is delivered to Vladimir.
  • Later, the way Vladimir washes the beaten, headless corpse is the definition of creepy.
• The scene when one of Madame Gao's blind workers casually strolls into Vladimir's warehouse and blows the place up just reeks of brainwashing creepiness.
  • We learn in season 3 that there were innocents who got killed in the bombings, as Foggy encounters a woman at one campaign event who lost her husband to one of the explosions.
• Our glimpse into how Matt really views the world - aside from being a none-too-stealthy Title Drop. Imagine seeing the world like that for more than ten years.
• Matt goes to the 15th precinct to get some case reports from Brett Mahoney for Mrs. Cardenas' tenement case. While he's there, he overhears Detectives Blake and Hoffman interrogating one of the Russians he fought the previous night. The second Piotr gives up Fisk's name, the two detectives reveal themselves to be in Fisk's pocket, and swiftly murder him on the spot.
  Christian Blake: Whose turn is it?
  Carl Hoffman: Yours.
  Christian Blake: I thought I took it for that thing in the bodega.
  Carl Hoffman: Oh shit, yeah. [Hoffman begins contorting his face as he prepares himself to be punched] All right, wait, wait. OK. Come on. Come on.
  [Blake punches Hoffman in the face, leaving him with a bloodied nose]
  Christian Blake: Watch out, jeez!
  Carl Hoffman: [backs himself up against the wall] He's going for my gun!
  Christian Blake: Watch out!
  Carl Hoffman: He's got my gun! [Blake draws his gun and points it at Piotr]
  Christian Blake: You really shouldn't have said his name.
  Piotr: No! No- [Blake shoots Piotr dead]

Episode 6 - Condemned

• As Fisk is having his chat with Matt over the radio, Wesley authorizes an ESU sniper to open fire on Blake and the cops assembled outside the building where Matt and Vladimir are holed up. The sniper shoots Blake as he's talking to Ben, then fatally shoots two other uniformed cops nearby. Ben is left with the duty of attending to Blake's wound, using his hands to contains the bleeding while Hoffman runs to find a paramedic.
  Matt Murdock: What did you do?
  Wilson Fisk: What you forced me to do. Goodbye. I'm afraid we won't speak again.
• Officer Sullivan's death. The ESU team sweeping the building comes upon the room where he's been left by Matt, tied up to a column and gagged with duct tape. As they surround Sullivan, Sullivan looks relieved that help has arrived. Then one of the officers kneels down next to him and speaks into his radio.
  ESU Officer: Officer Sullivan is dead.
  Officer Sullivan: [muffled] HMMMM?!
  ESU Officer: I say again, Officer Sullivan is dead.
  Officer Sullivan: NO, I'M FINE! NO!
  • Sullivan's face turns to shock as the officer promptly produces a small knife and plunges it into his throat and carves it open. Sullivan bleeds to death, the cold and emotionless look of the faceless ESU officer (who has his goggles lowered and a balaclava covering the lower half of his face) being the last thing he ever sees.

Episode 7 - Stick

• Matt tells Stick that due to his enhanced sense of touch cotton sheets feel like sandpaper. This implies that Matt feels injuries far more intimately than the average human being, which is especially horrifying given how often and how badly Matt is injured on a regular basis.
• The revelation of what Black Sky is: just a boy. When Matt confronts Stick on it, Matt insists that he could hear the boy's heart. He was scared. However, Stick insists that what Matt saw wasn't a boy, but a weapon who was the "bringer of darkness". Given that season 2 reveals that Stick is fighting a war against the Hand, this opens up some disturbing possibilities on what Black Sky was supposed to bring. Moreso after Elektra is ultimately revived as their Black Sky.

Episode 8 - Shadows in the Glass

• After losing the council election, Bill Fisk decides to go confront Bernie Walker, a kid who was knocking down Bill's signs and who assaulted Wilson. After a bit of back and forth, he begins beating on Bernie, and then makes Wilson join in.
• What's worse: Fisk killing his Abusive Dad with a hammer or his mother sawing him to pieces after the fact to dispose of the body.
  Wilson Fisk: "KEEP KICKING HIM! (smash) KEEP KICKING HIM! (smash) KEEP KICKING! (smash) HIM! (smash) KEEP KICKING HIM!"

Episode 9 - Speak of the Devil

• Nobu's fight with Matt is incredibly brutal. Summed up by stabbing him, and then using the chain attached to the blade to drag Matt along the floor, trailing blood the entire way.
  • Nobu catching fire and burning alive at the end of the fight. All the more unsettling because he doesn't make a sound and still throws a couple of kicks. And as season 2 reveals, it doesn't kill him. Or rather... it doesn't keep him down.

Episode 10 - Nelson v. Murdock

• We finally learn what drove Matt over the edge to becoming a vigilante: he heard an Abusive Dad who then escaped conviction because his wife refused to believe it. Some people believe that the man was a child molester, although nothing indicates that there is such evidence of this (although it does not make it any less terrible than it already is).
  • The way Matt finally beats down the man for his crimes is chilling; he turns the guy's face into a red pulp with an unending barrage of brutal punches and a frustrated scream that's downright feral.
    Matt Murdock: He spent the next month in a hospital, eating through a straw. And I never slept better.

Episode 12 - The Ones We Leave Behind

• All of the blind heroin workers turn on Matt and swarm him like they were zombies. For what it's worth, Matt's reaction plays into it as well, since he's both frightened by their unexpected reaction and confused since he doesn't know how to handle the situation without hurting them, all the while pleading that he's there to help.
• Ben Urich's death. Ben returns home with his box of possessions, and as he begins typing at his computer, the camera slowly pivots around his head...to reveal Fisk sitting in an armchair behind Ben. The resulting conversation is very tense, with it unclear if or when hell is about to break loose.
  Wilson Fisk: Just one more thing. Were you alone when you spoke to my mother?
  Ben Urich: Your guy at the Bulletin?
  Wilson Fisk: Yes, I received a call that was upsetting. Were you alone?
  Ben Urich: [realizing Karen will be targeted if he tells the truth] Yeah. I was alone.
  Wilson Fisk: And Wesley. Was that you?
  Ben Urich: [puzzled] Wesley?
  Wilson Fisk: Yes, I didn't think so. You're a man of principle, of conviction. I understand that, I even admire it. But you went after my mother. That's not something that I can forgive.
  Ben Urich: I wrote a lot of stories in my years pushing ink. You know how many times people have threatened me, to get me to keep my mouth shut?
  Wilson Fisk: [growing more agitated and angrier] But that's my mother that you brought into this, Mr. Urich! My mother! So I am not here to threaten you. I am here to KILL you!
  [Fisk lunges at Ben from the chair he's been sitting at, throws him to the floor, and chokes the life out of him]
  • Fisk's Slasher Smile as Ben dies. The fact that it's the last thing Ben ever sees makes it worse.

Episode 13 - Daredevil

• Fisk's murder of Owlsley by throwing him down an elevator shaft. Fisk already knows that Owlsley is stealing from him, and the conversation convinces him that Owlsley had conspired with Madame Gao over the benefit poisonings. It seems that Owlsley has managed to outmaneuver Fisk into letting him go using Hoffman as leverage. Fisk even seems to be considering it, but that temper we've come to expect erupts when Fisk realizes what most angers him about the whole affair.
  Leland Owlsley: I've spent my entire life hiding assets overseas for pricks like you. My son and I will be just another transaction, disappearing into the tax-exempt ether. But I'm a fair sort. That's why I'm only taking half your money. You go your way. I go mine. Not what I'd call win-win... but it's as close as we're gonna get with this. So... we on the same page?
  Wilson Fisk: I, uh... No. I DON'T THINK WE ARE!
  [Fisk clocks Owlsley in the face. Owlsley whips out his stun gun and tries to tase Fisk's neck, but Fisk recovers and shoves him backwards.]
  Wilson Fisk: YOU HURT HER!!!
  Leland Owlsley: Wait, wait!
  Wilson Fisk: YOU HURT VANESSA!!! [shoves Leland down an elevator shaft]
• It seems like finally the tables are turning for Fisk with this episode. At long last every single rat that has been on his payroll has been named and is being rooted out. Nope. He still has a few more up his sleeve. Including one of the FBI guards in the truck with him. Fisk really does have eyes everywhere.
  • There is a civilian that has the misfortune of being nearby the rescue attempt on Fisk. Imagine that you're driving home or running a late errand, when all of a sudden, people in full body-armor and wielding assault rifles begin opening fire.

Season 2

In general

• Meet Frank Castle, aka the Punisher, who finally gets to show off some of the Tarantino-esque violence of the comics onscreen. Killing you is the least he could do with you if you're lucky. To clarify, he not only murders his victims, but also tortures them and leaves them in horrible agony. Sure, his victims are just gangsters and criminals, but that doesn't take away the fact that the man is a brutal, bloodthirsty killing machine to the extent that even Fisk is surprised at his effectiveness. Basically, he is less a man and more an unstoppable force that leaves waves of murder.

Episode 1 - Bang

• The whole sequence with Frank Castle stalking Grotto and Karen in the hospital. The whole scene practically plays like the Terminator's massacre of the West Highland police station, with the Punisher as the T-800, Karen as Kyle Reese, and Grotto as Sarah Connor. The guy is always walking, but always seems to be right behind Karen.
  • And then when the two are getting away in Karen's car, Frank is on the roof with a sniper, getting ready to take the shot.
• The Irish mob massacre. One moment, you and your buddies are just sitting around and raising a toast to future business in Hell's Kitchen, the next, you are all being gunned by someone outside with a machine gun who you can't even see. In the aftermath, when the police are looking at the mess, the camera does a nice track through the giant through-and-through bullet wound that one of the bodies received, and we see that another guy got his hand clean sawed off.
  Detective: It's gonna take weeks to process this shit! And where's this asshole's hand?
  • And right after the massacre, Nesbitt's phone rings, causing his "Irish Washerwoman" ringtone to play. It feels surreal listening to it echo over the bloody carnage.
  • Matt overhears one of the detectives commenting that the shooter was using armor-piercing ammunition so strong that the Kevlar vests the victims were wearing turned out to be useless.
• Matt walks inside a butcher warehouse and finds nothing but bodies of criminals that Castle has hanged and executed, with one of them looking partially disemboweled. Worse, one of them is still alive!
• Three words: "It's one man!" Because up until now, the gory nature of these attacks on the Irish Mob, the Dogs of Hell, and the Mexican Cartel is such that Matt and the NYPD have been led to believe that it's the work of a group of trained killers. The big reveal that all those murders were committed by a single man...
• How the first fight between Matt and Frank ends - just as Matt has knocked Frank down, and is about to keep going, Frank whips out a pistol from an ankle holster. "Bang." With one word - and the only thing he says in the whole episode - Frank shoots him in the helmet - sending him over the roof's edge.

Episode 2 - Dogs to a Gunfight

• When Matt loses his hearing due to his concussion. First everything seems louder than ever before, causing him to drop a glass of water. Then we see the glass shatter...but we don't hear it. The panicked look on Matt's face says it all, even getting worse as he starts to scream out and we still can't hear anything. Imagine how terrifying it would be to have already gone blind and then be struck deaf on top of it. Thankfully it's only temporary, but he had no way of knowing that when it happened.
  • Especially for Matt Murdock, where his hearing is heavily implied to be the primary means by which he navigates the world, and what allows him to operate as Daredevil.
  • For the full effect of this, turn on the audio description and close your eyes. It's incredibly eerie when the sound of the show suddenly cuts out and you're left with just the narrator describing Matt's reaction.
    [INAUDIBLE]
    [INAUDIBLE]
• When the Punisher kills people in this show, or his own, it's all screaming ferocity. But when he murders the sleazy pawnshop clerk who tries to sell him child pornography, he's completely silent. Just the eerily calm, methodical way he closes the store and picks up the bat to kill him with is chilling, even if the guy deserved it. The fact that we don't see the impact adds to it. Also, full props for Jon Bernthal for being terrifying through body language.
• Frank showing up at a Dogs of Hell garage. It starts with the guy with the headphones cleaning the blood out of the truck cabin. Then, after a few brief moments, we hear shouts and shots fired, but the cleaning guy doesn't notice until one of the men collapses against the truck. The guy turns, the song he's listening to becomes the background music, and then Frank steps into shot, shotgun in hand and his eyes cold and dead.
• Round two of Matt versus Frank, which ends about as well for the former as the first fight did. Everything seems to go fine until the two fall through a skylight. As Matt struggles to get up, Frank steps across the broken glass, unknowingly causing Matt's concussion to act up. As Matt staggers, trying to keep control, Frank slowly closes in...

Episode 3 - New York's Finest

• Frank Castle, at first doesn't seem quite as intimidating as his deeds would have you believe, having a cup of Joe and making small talk. Eventually the conversation between them gets more and more heated until Matt gets fed up and calls him a nutjob. You can feel the white-hot rage emanating off of Frank, and hear the fear in Matt's voice.
  Frank Castle: ...what'd you say?
  Matt Murdock: You... You're unhinged, Frank.
  • That's right, Frank's rage was so powerful it managed to, if only for a moment, scare the Man without Fear.
    • Who puts a scare into Frank when he pushed his Berserk Button and attempted to force Matt into making a Sadistic Choice between taking a life and letting another die. Matt escapes his chains by taking a third option and charges Frank with a look of absolute rage on his face. Frank's expression says it all.

Episode 4 - Penny and Dime

• Finn Cooley, an Irish mobster who was the father of one of the criminals Frank killed in the Kitchen Irish massacre, stabs a fellow associate in the eye with a ice pick during the funeral ceremony after saying that death was just a natural part of their business.
• Frank gets perforated with a power-drill by the Irish mobsters during his Cold-Blooded Torture.
  • For animal lovers, Finn threatening to do double of everything he's done to Frank to the abused pit bull Frank rescued will strike a chord, particularly Frank's horrified and desperate reaction to that threat. Thankfully, the pit bull is fine, but still...wow.
• Though the bastard really had it coming, Finn's death was really messy and detailed.
• Though we (thankfully) don't get to see it, the death of Frank's family is described in very grisly detail with him holding his dead daughter with meat spilling out of her face after being shredded by gunfire.

Episode 7 - Semper Fidelis

• The episode ends with Matt and Elektra finding a massive hole dug in the floor of the future site of Midland Circle. Matt throws Elektra's flashlight down the hole and listens for it to hit the ground. A good eight seconds go by before Elektra asks if it has hit the ground yet, and Matt says it hasn't, she waits a few more seconds and asks for him to let her know when it does. The episode ends before we ever hear it hit the ground. By the time the episode ends, the flashlight has been falling for almost 20 seconds. For reference, a penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building takes about nine seconds to hit the ground. Assuming that a flashlight is affected by gravity and air resistance in a roughly similar enough manner to a penny, then the hole they have dug is more than twice as deep as the Empire State Building is tall.
  • The Defenders reveals the pit is 400 feet deep.

Episode 8 - Guilty as Sin

• Elektra is poisoned in the opening by a Hand ninja, and the healing process administered by Stick to save her is as unpleasant as it sounds like: cracking open a hole in Elektra's abdomen and directly dumping the boiling cure into it.
  Stick: I'm gonna make her worse before I can make her better.
• Frank Castle's outburst is quite the awesome I Am What I Am speech, but as awesome as it is, it's also every bit as terrifying, especially when you take into account Nelson & Murdock's efforts to get him out alive, as well as Karen's assertion that Frank originally wanted to clear himself (as he was beginning to show in the previous episodes). Because, as it turns out, Fisk has made him an offer he can't refuse.
  Frank Castle: Those people? The ones I put down, the people I killed? I want you to know that I'd do it all again. ... This is a circus, all right? It's a charade, it's an act. It's bullshit about how crazy I am. ... I ain't crazy! I'm not crazy. Okay? I know what I did. I know who I am. And I do not need your help. I'm smack-dab in the middle of my right goddamn mind, and any scumbag, any... any lowlife, any maggot piece of shit that I put down, I did it... because I LIKED IT! Hell, I loved it! I'm sittin' here, I'm... I'm just itching. I'm itching to do it again. And you think... What, you think you're gonna send me to a nuthouse? Some doctor, they're gonna get me to stop from doing what I want to do? Well, that ain't happening! Not on my watch! You people, you call me the Punisher, ain't that right? The big bad Punisher. Well, here I am! You want it, you got it! I am the Punisher! I'm right here! You want it, I'll give it to you. And anybody who came here today to hear me whine, to hear me beg? Well, you can kiss my ass! Do you hear me? I'm guilty. Come on, please, Judge! I'm guilty, you hear me? I'm guilty! I'm guilty! I'll kill every one of 'em! I'll kill every single one!
• Elektra slitting the ninja's throat- without the benefit of a Gory Discretion Shot. And he was just a kid.

Episode 9 - Seven Minutes In Heaven

• After the scene in the previous episode, Matt calls Elektra out on what she did, and how once again, she enjoyed it. She still tries to brush it off as self-defense, but after Matt keeps challenging her, she reveals a horrible truth. She murdered her first person when she was twelve, and for no reason other than to see if she could. It's the moment that confirms to Matt, and the audience, that while there is some good in Elektra, Stick largely turned her into a cold-blooded sadist and borderline sociopath.
• Frank Castle's attack on Dutton, immediately followed by his savage takedown of the inmates. To amplify this, remember Matt taking down the Russians in the hallway or the Dogs of Hell in the stairwell? Difference is Frank doesn't spare his enemies. He beats nearly half of them unconscious and the others: he drives a broken stick through a guy's chest,, snaps another's neck, split another guy's head open with a hatchet, and for the finish... gouges out a man's eye and slits his throat to the point where his head nearly comes off. By the end of it all, Frank's face is bathed in blood, and there is a skull-shaped bloodstain on his uniform.
• Dutton slowly dying on the operating table as his lungs fill up with blood. As he does so, Fisk sits by his bedside, calmly gloating about his triumph.
  Wilson Fisk: The physician says that your condition is grave, that your lungs are filling with liquid. In a few hours, you're likely to suffocate in your own blood. But you won't suffer alone. I'll be here. Because you were right. In prison, there's only room for one kingpin.

Episode 10 - The Man in the Box

• While Asshole Victim DA Reyes's death-by-assassination through a ton of firepower was pretty much in the making (plus her death was virtually papered over by subsequent events), it's hard not to scratch off her going out with Dies Wide Open, the fact that she was basically begging for forgiveness in order to keep her daughter safe, and the fact that Matt, Karen and Foggy could have been turned into salsa with her (Foggy actually sustaining an injury).
• Matt goes to see Fisk and threatens to have Vanessa barred from returning to the United States if he doesn't confess his coercing Frank Castle to make a guilty plea. Fisk then snaps his handcuffs, grabs Matt, slams him into the table like a ragdoll and holds him up to his face with contemptuous ease:
  Wilson Fisk: SPEAK HER NAME AGAIN! GO AHEAD! [Matt punches him, and Fisk slams him into the table again] Yes, the son of a boxer!
  Matt Murdock: You... You are running this place! Yeah, you did set him free...
  Wilson Fisk: You ask such small questions, Mr. Murdock.
  Matt Murdock: I know you're regaining power in here—
  Wilson Fisk: Yes, ask my lawyer! He'll deny it! Ask the guards, they'll deny it! Ask the inmates here! They'll cut their TONGUES out before they talk! But I have something to say to you: When I finally get out of this cage, I will dismantle the lives of the two amateurs THAT PUT ME IN HERE!!! You, Mr. Murdock, and Franklin Percy Nelson!
  Matt Murdock: I put you here! Not Nelson! I did!
  Wilson Fisk: The two of you took the laurels. You'll both take the blame. I'll chop both the heads off that snake, and I'll spend more than $6 on postage to bring you down!! You see, I had a lot of time to reflect on my journey here, Mr. Murdock! My mistakes, everything I took for granted. While I try and sleep in this bleak place, the one thing that keeps me warm is the thought that I will look down upon this city, the city that birthed me, with the woman that I love, whom I love with everything that I am! If you're worried that Frank Castle will wreak havoc on Hell's Kitchen, [throws Matt back into his seat]...just wait.
  • And this is one of his last appearances in this season, denying us any kind of catharsis by reminding us of his current relative lack of power.
  • Plus, at the end of the episode, Fisk feels his split lip (the only blow Matt managed to land during the above scene while being throttled), contemplates it for a moment and then demands to be brought his file on Matt. He's ready to declare war on Matt for his threats, something that he makes clear the first time he ever contacts Matt in season 3.
  • The audience knows that this is Matt vs. Fisk, so that the fact that Fisk so easily overpowers him is a fearsome display of strength and power, except that Matt isn't there in costume. And Fisk has no idea who he’s really dealing with. Which means Fisk just pulled out his full strength to beat up a civilian blind man, which is somehow more terrifying.
  • Just before Fisk snaps his handcuff he is snarling at Matt. Showing that Fisk is still just an angry thug that will kill you if you push his buttons.
• The scene where Claire Temple sees the kids controlled by The Hand, standing there motionless, with a dead body to their feet (which happens to be the father of one of the kids, no less). Then they slowly look up at her, while the alarm blares and the hallway lights continue to flicker on and off.

Episode 11 - . 380

• There's a moment during the diner shootout that's worth paying attention to. At the point when Frank is stabbing that one guy repeatedly with a knife, the scene cuts to Karen taking cover, and she covers her mouth in horror listening to the stabbing. That one shot drives home the realism and brutality: that the Punisher is not a hero. He's a monster who destroys other monsters. If you didn't have the context of the scene, you'd think Karen was hiding from a villain.

Episode 12 - The Dark At The End Of The Tunnel

• It's very hard to watch and not wince at Stick being tortured by the Hand through having tiny bamboo sticks being inserted under his fingernails very slowly. Even if, based on Stick's remarks to Alexandra in The Defenders when she captures him, he probably planned to get captured.

Episode 13 - A Cold Day In Hell's Kitchen

• In his attempt at putting down Nobu (who just killed Elektra inadvertently), Matt has essentially broken his rule by throwing Nobu off the building, and he had no idea Nobu would survive this. Stick was eventually the one who finished him.
  • In fact, Season 2 had been all about Matt's struggle with the desire to kill and his deep religious belief against killing. Frank Castle challenged him on a real world practical level. He dealt with the issue of how the justice system is simply not able to handle these criminals and how the police simply can't stop them from hurting innocent people. Elektra challenged Matt on a personal level. She dealt with the fact that Matt actually enjoys beating the shit out of people. Remember what Matt said in the very beginning of the show about "letting the devil" out? Elektra is always unrestrained and she brings that side out in Matt. The season 2 finale was the culmination of the conflict. Matt let the devil out, and confirmed Frank Castle's "You're one bad day away from being me" remark from earlier in the season.
• The Stinger of the series is The Hand robbing Elektra's corpse and beginning the resurrection process. The Defenders shows the rest of the resurrection process in full detail.

Season 3

In general

• Matt's dark new outlook throughout Season 3. A man who has gone through hardship after hardship, endured tragedy after tragedy, who has only kept his resolve due to his faith (which he basically loses in the beginning) finally hits his breaking point after seemingly losing everything. The season goes to show how terrifying Matt can be when he basically has nothing to lose as he resorts to more and more brutal methods to get at Fisk and kill him. In short, this is what Frank meant when he said that Matt was really one bad day away from becoming just like him.
• Benjamin “Dex” Poindexter. A born psychopath with Improbable Aiming Skills, as a twelve year old, he kills his baseball coach - who was not only constantly kind to him but encouraged his talents - all because Coach Bradley wouldn’t let him finish pitching a game (which in itself was only so other kids could get a chance to play). He is then assigned a therapist, Dr. Eileen Mercer, who quickly diagnoses him with borderline personality disorder, psychopathic tendencies, and significant lack of empathy as he admits to not feeling any remorse for killing his coach and believed he deserved it for benching him. As an adult, Dex becomes an FBI agent who has a constant record of using lethal force. When saving Fisk from being killed, he knowingly murders two hit men who already were surrendering, then uses ejected gun clips like daggers to kill another group. Fisk, seeing his potential, begins to subtly manipulate Dex into becoming his personal attack dog, with his first assignment being massacring a good chunk of the staff at the Bulletin while wearing Matt’s Daredevil suit, before killing off Jasper Evans. A tormented, sociopathic monster who enjoys killing, Dex is easily one of the most terrifying villains of the MCU.
  • Something particularly scary about him is that no reason is given for him to present such a threat. Sure his accuracy is explained and while Matt might have the edge in hand-to-hand combat, the gap isn't nearly as wide as it should be. Matt was trained by the Chaste and was shown to match the Iron Fist, the Black Sky and any of the Five Fingers; he should be able to make short work of someone who (supposedly) only has the standard training of a soldier or an FBI agent, but Dex always beats him, the implication being that he's such an Inexplicably Awesome perfect killing machine just because he's meant to be and his violence, focus and insanity allowed him to be so.^note Though some of that also has to do with Matt not being in 100% fighting shape. He spends season 3 recovering from his Midland Circle injuries, and one can argue that he'd stand a much fairer chance against Dex in any fight if he were at the top of his game
  • Even worse? Dex tries to be good, clings to anything and everything he can to keep himself from becoming the complete, unrepentant, unstoppable monster he knows he can be. And Fisk methodically takes away every pillar that props up Dex's failing morality. Eventually, Dex just gives up and embraces his utter amorality, to a degree that even Fisk is left worried.

Episode 1 - Resurrection

• Much like when Matt lost his hearing when he got shot by Frank, the audio makes us feel what Matt is going through as he's lost partial hearing in his right ear.

Episode 2 - Please

• As Fisk is exercising in the rec room, the dangers of his becoming a snitch become clear when Jasper Evans walks up to him with a concealed shank and stabs him in the chest while he's lifting weights and unable to fight back.
  • As it turns out, Fisk has paid Jasper Evans to shank him as part of his plan to manipulate the FBI. But that reveal makes some other things about the scene terrifying in retrospect. After Jasper shanks Fisk, an enraged Fisk overpowers him, pins him to the ground with the barbell, then picks up a giant weight and holds it over his head like he's about to use it to bludgeon Jasper to death and ensure that Jasper can't testify to being paid off. Ultimately, Fisk settles for dropping the weight on the floor a few feet away from Jasper's head, and arranges for Jasper to be secretly released from prison. Of course, Fisk is putting on a show to create a false paper trail in case anyone questions how he got out of prison (and also because killing Jasper might jeopardize Fisk's efforts to paint himself to Nadeem as an atoning criminal), but it's unclear how much information Jasper received in his orders beyond "shank Wilson Fisk non-fatally and make it look like he's being targeted for snitching, and you will be spirited out of the prison". If that's all he was told, then the terrified look on his face as Fisk looms over him is likely because he thinks Fisk has decided to double cross him and kill him rather than give him the money he was promised.
• The sequence that introduces Dex involves Fisk's FBI convoy being ambushed, like in the season 1 finale. But this time, it's not one of his own making, but rather, it's the Albanians that want revenge on Fisk for ratting them out. The entire scene plays out from Fisk's POV. He is left trapped in his overturned car, hanging upside down by his shackles, and can only watch as the Albanians gun down his FBI escorts outside. Fisk frantically tries to break the bolt linking his restraints to the floor, succeeding after a struggle. By the time Dex leaps into action and begins picking off the assailants, the attackers are already preparing to saw the doors off of Fisk's car.
  • It's also a rare occasion to see Fisk not in control of the situation. His shanking at the hands of Jasper Evans was planned, this is the one variable in his carefully orchestrated release plan that he didn't plan for. It's only because of Dex's intervention that Fisk survives.
  • Right off the bat, Dex manages to establish that he's a ruthless one man killing machine. He executes two of the gunmen by shooting them in the head while they're actively surrendering. Then when his pistol runs out of bullets, he just uses the empty clip and the gun itself as improvised projectiles to kill the last two remaining gunmen.
• The Albanians that Fisk snitched on apparently have all the markings of a very ruthless bunch, which makes it no wonder why Fisk picked them of all syndicates in New York City to snitch on as part of his long term scheme to get Nadeem under his thumb (among other reasons that will be revealed in later episodes):
  Ray Nadeem: You're right. Wilson Fisk is a piece of shit. After every time I'm in the room with the guy, I want a shower. But let's talk about the Albanians for a minute, what they have done. Four dead NYPD officers, 12 more riding desks with disabilities. One hundred and seven civilian murders. And even after five task forces over seven years, to the tune of $11 million, we got zero. Those are some shitty numbers. But here's another one. With Fisk's intel, we beheaded the Albanian syndicate in one day. One single day. No loss of life, no injuries, no mayhem. I mean, look at the take. We got their documents and data, and we're gonna get their money. Best of all, we bagged corrupt officials whose protection they were selling. A lot of cases they've been interfering with may finally get somewhere. Look, none of us like it. It makes me want to throw up to admit it. But New York is safer tonight because of Wilson Fisk.

Episode 3 - No Good Deed

• Matt's way of going after Fisk is to go after Big Ben Donovan. On the one hand, it's nice to see someone wipe the smugness off his face, but on the other hand it's also kinda creepy as Matt basically hides in the backset of Big Ben's car and chokes him from behind when he gets in to pressure him into revealing why Fisk flipped on the Albanians.

Episode 4 - Blindsided

• How much long-term planning does Fisk have? He's come up with an elaborate scheme just on the off-chance that one of the lawyers who put him away visits the prison. His loyal guards and inmates maneuver Matt into an exam room, where the nurse then proceeds to inject Matt with a sedative. While Matt is catching his breath after disarming the nurse, the phone in the exam room rings. While appearing to experience flashbacks of when Fisk spoke to him over Officer Sullivan's radio, Matt goes over to the phone and nervously picks it up.
  Wilson Fisk: [in his war room at the Presidential Hotel] You're not Franklin Nelson.
  Matt Murdock: [swallows] ...Fisk.
  Wilson Fisk: It's quite something to see. For a blind man, you have very impressive reflexes, Mr. Murdock.
  Matt Murdock: What was I injected with?
  Wilson Fisk: Do you remember the last time that we spoke? [Matt faces the camera and nods slowly, knowing Fisk is referring to when he visited after Frank's escape] You said that for the cost of postage, you could prevent my reunion with the only person who gives my life meaning. The only person that I love. And I would've let bygones be bygones. But you didn't just threaten me. You threatened Vanessa! And that is something that I cannot forgive.
  Matt Murdock: Listen to me very carefully-[Fisk abruptly hangs up]
  • Next thing Matt knows, a half-dozen inmates working for Fisk ambush him in the hallway. While he manages to fight them all off, it is quite a brutal struggle for him. Then he has to take down two dirty guards, negotiate with Vic Jusufi to get Jasper Evans' name, and have one of Vic's men steal a uniform off one of the guards to escort Matt out through the chaos of a riot that Fisk's men have orchestrated. The sedatives take effect and Matt passes out just as he gets back in the cab.
  • But Fisk's planning didn't simply stop there. He has a contingency planned for in case Matt managed to escape the prison alive. When Matt comes around, he finds that the driver who brought him there has been replaced by another of Fisk's henchmen. Seconds later, the driver bails out and the driverless cab flies into the water, taking Matt with it.
  • Another detail worth mentioning: because of the fact that Matt stole Foggy's wallet and used his Bar ID to sign in at the prison, Fisk is under the impression that it's Foggy who is at the prison asking questions about him. He doesn't know that his men are actually going to be attacking Matt until he sees Matt on the surveillance camera in the exam room. It's chilling to think that Fisk was planning this whole riot (and all of the above mentioned contingencies) to take out Foggy, someone with none of Matt's fighting prowess.

Episode 5 - The Perfect Game

• Dex's Start of Darkness: He killed his coach by hitting him in the head with a baseball over pulling him from the game.
  • His idea of talking down a suicidal man is to suggest that the guy murder his stepfather.
• Fisk's manipulation of Nadeem has gone so well so that he's able to convince Nadeem that Matt is an accomplice and Nadeem will run with it without looking too closely at Matt's background.
• Felix Manning is able to spook Karen, a woman not easily intimidated, by revealing intimate details about the house she grew up in and how he knows all about her Dark and Troubled Past.
  Felix Manning: Karen Page. Daughter of Paxton and Penelope. 239 Kings Road, Fagan Corners, Vermont. You had the back room. My guess, Dad wanted his little girl to be safe. Sadly, he should've been more worried about his little boy. Drug addicts really do destroy families, don't they? [beat] Off the record, you are incorrect. About what I do for a living. I don't fix problems. I make them disappear.

Episode 6 - The Devil You Know

• Fisk's newest plan to strike back at the people who put him away: he sends Dex in a Daredevil costume to attack Karen at the Bulletin. Dex enters and immediately kills several reporters and maims a few others.
  • Matt shows up, intercepting one of Dex's batons just before it can embed itself in Foggy's head, and takes a moment to size up his foe. He is disturbed by the realization that Dex is dressed as him.
    Matt Murdock: Who the hell are you?
    Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter: I'm Daredevil...
  • Matt and Dex fight each other all over the newsroom. Whenever Matt is up close, he gains the upper hand; whenever there's any distance, Dex just uses whatever office supplies are in reach as weapons. A cat-and-mouse game of hide and seek results in some crazy trick shots that keep knocking Matt around; finally Matt uses a false target or two to get in close, and goes for the KO. He almost wins, but Dex reaches a nearby pair of scissors, which he tosses into Matt's collarbone. Matt goes down and Dex drops a supply shelf on him and knocks him out with a brutal boot kick to the face.
  • Dex then proceeds to break into the office where Karen, Foggy, Ellison and Jasper are hiding. He manages to very quickly overpower Foggy, disarms Karen of her gun, stabs Ellison with a pencil, and finally shoots Jasper in the head with Karen's gun.
    Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter: Hello, Karen. It's nice to see you again...

Episode 7 - Aftermath

• Right out of "Born Again", we get a scene of Fisk sitting in a dark room full of TV monitors reporting on the attack, and a Psychotic Smirk forming on his face as he admires the success of Dex's work.
• Just like the prison fight, Fisk has made sure to cover his bases with his gambit to frame Matt. He knows that in the aftermath of the Bulletin attack, Matt will go to Melvin Potter as soon as he realizes who made the suit. So to that end, he forces Melvin to build two suits: one for Dex to wear, and another to be kept in the shop for Matt to be caught with. And he has an FBI SWAT team stationed right outside who are to raid the place when Matt shows up.

Episode 8 - Upstairs/Downstairs

• The nightmare Karen had of Fisk in her apartment coming to kill her after she killed Wesley was terrifying enough. But it was just foreshadowing the inevitable. And that occurs when she borrows a page from the playbook Matt used in his visit to Fisk in prison back in season 2, and decides to visit Fisk in his penthouse and provoke him into trying to kill her to violate the terms of his house arrest. Deborah Ann Woll best describes the atmosphere:
  Deborah Ann Woll: I killed his best friend. He doesn’t know it yet, that’s a good thing. It was funny, they kept saying, “Play the paranoia. We definitely want to work up the paranoia.” It’s not paranoia if it’s real! If he’s really going to kill you if he finds out, that’s not paranoia. That’s real fear. We definitely play with that. I finally got to do a scene with Vincent and it was fantastic. We were both so excited because he killed my Ben Urich and I killed his James Wesley so we have a mutual hate, I guess. Very Shakespearean mutual disgust for each other. But as actors, I think we both have tremendous respect for each other and the opportunity to get to play with him in this brilliantly flamboyant performance he gives, which is very much a contrast to Karen. So it was great to get both of those energies in a room and see how they play off each other. It was a great day. There was like a snowstorm out when we shot it. We felt very much like we were all stuck in this little sound stage, the winds were roaring outside, emotions were roaring inside. It was cool.
  • Kudos for Deborah Ann Woll for how menacing and scary she can sound as she describes Wesley's death. Even it pales to Fisk's rage.
    Karen Page: What was it like for you when he disappeared? Really, it’s those first 24 hours that are the worst, aren’t they? When you call and you call and you call, and there’s just no answer. It becomes an obsession. The calling. The never-ending loop of a ghost’s voicemail in your ear. You worry. You wonder. You swear "Goddamn it, if he’s still living I’m gonna kill him myself." Is that what it was like for you? Did you rage at him? ‘Cause you thought he betrayed you? Because I wonder what would be worse for you? His duplicity or his death? He died quickly...if you were wondering. Didn’t suffer much. You see, Wilson, Matt Murdock isn’t the person you should be worried about. I killed Wesley. I shot him seven times... Because the clip ran OUT! HE DESERVED MORE!
    [Fisk unleashes a scream of primal fury, ready to TEAR HER APART]
  • As with when he murdered Anatoly, Ben Urich, and Owlsley in season 1, and when Matt visited him in prison in season 2, Fisk's reaction is very much that of a big baby throwing a tantrum over his favorite possession being broken. He's visibly fuming with rage as Karen gloats to him about her killing of Wesley, and when he gets up, it's clear he's planning to give Karen a fate far more gruesome than he gave Ben or Owlsley. But fortunately the FBI comes in and escorts her out at the last second thanks to Foggy's arrival.
  • Foggy later points out that if her plan had worked, it’s very likely that the agents would not have made it in time to save her from Fisk. Karen doesn't say anything to counter this.
    • As the next episode reveals, Fisk's FBI guards are already in his pocket. They likely wouldn't have even tried to save Karen from Fisk. If not for Foggy's intervention, they probably would've simply let Fisk beat Karen to death, and would then dispose of her body.
• Fisk's murder of Julie Barnes. It comes into this because of its detached, inhuman depiction. We see it all unfold as Fisk watches it on a video camera he had installed in her apartment. She arrives home, finds two "handymen" in her hallway, and gets half a question out before they shoot her in the head. No build up, no drama. Just alive to dead in two seconds. Then the guys immediately wrap her in plastic for removal like they're just cleaning up a normal painting job and nothing else, as Felix Manning picks up Julie's phone and flashes it to the camera. Equally chilling is Fisk's non-reaction to watching it all. There's nothing but cold satisfaction in his eyes the whole time.
  • This scene rams home just how terrifying Fisk's influence has become, how ubiquitous and just how little he values human life. Julie is an "inconvenience" to him, so he has her popped like he's swatting a fly. And how did he know? Because he has Mrs. Shelby hack the security camera feed from a coffee shop Dex and Julie met in.
  • Which is the sole reason he orders her killed. She had a single meeting with Dex, promised him nothing other than she would talk to him, and so Fisk decides she has to die. That's how easy it is to get on Wilson Fisk's bad side. And you'll never know you are, until it's too late.
  • To make things worse, in the finale episode, we see Fisk has literally put Julie's body in a freezer...and the bodies of the two hitmen who killed her. There's no loose ends as far as Fisk is concerned.

Episode 9 - Revelations

• Ray meets up with Agent Hattley and her supervisor to out Dex and Fisk's manipulations. Except, Dex is not the only agent working for Fisk. Hattley is, too. And that's only apparent when Hattley suddenly picks up Ray's gun and shoots Winn to death with it.
  Tammy Hattley: [in fake distress] "No! Ray! Put down the gun! Please!" [stops the recording] Damn you, Ray. You bring this into my house? My home?! [points Ray's gun at him] Sit down. Sit! [Ray slowly sits down, shaking uncontrollably. Felix Manning emerges from the basement and enters the room with an evidence baggie]
  Felix Manning: [bags up...] Your prints, your weapon, the recording. Do I need to explain to you what this means? [Ray stares at Felix, wide-eyed] Answer my question, please. Do you understand your situation now?
  Tammy Hattley: Ray? You get this?
  Ray Nadeem: [swallows] Yeah, boss. I understand.
  Tammy Hattley: I'm not your boss anymore. Wilson Fisk is.
  • And on rewatch, there's a very glaring red flag indicating that something bad is about to happen, and it's the fact that a lot of the surfaces in Hattley's kitchen are all covered in plastic, like it's a kill room. Just like with Julie in the previous episode.
• Now blackmailed, Nadeem walks into a conference room and finds it of terrified-looking FBI agents. He blanches as he realizes that every one of these agents has been corrupted by Fisk in one way or another. And all of them are enforcing Fisk's agenda, not the FBI's.
  Ray Nadeem: I don't believe it. Fisk got something on all of you? [sits down next to Arinori] Arinori?!
  Pryor Arinori: Better we don't talk about it. And in here, we don't even say his name.
  Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter: That's one of the rules, Ray. We only refer to him by his codename.
  Ray Nadeem: What codename?
  Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter: Kingpin.
  • How did Hattley get mixed up in all this? Fisk murdered one of her kids. And based on the fact that Ray, who's worked for Hattley for the past decade, doesn't remember that she used to have two kids, this appears to have been something that Fisk did long before the events of season 1.
    Ray Nadeem: So what was it? Money? I've known you for ten years, for Christ's sakes.
    Tammy Hattley: Shut your goddamn mouth!
    Ray Nadeem: Or what? You'll frame me for another murder?
    Tammy Hattley: Keep your head forward. There's no mics in here, but you know they're watching.
    Ray Nadeem: You murdered Winn. How do you live with that?
    Tammy Hattley: I killed him to save your life. That's right. This is on you. I didn't tell you to break into Dex's apartment. I would've stopped you, and you wouldn't be here. But here you are.
    Ray Nadeem: I can't believe you want this. We made this happen. We can find a way to end it.
    Tammy Hattley: There's no way out, Ray. Fisk's had you marked for more than a year.
    Ray Nadeem: What do you mean, "had me marked"?
    Tammy Hattley: Why do you think your sister-in-law lost health coverage? He made you desperate for this job, you did everything you could to get him this penthouse, get him everything he asked for. Like I said, there's no way out. We're out of our league here. [they exit the elevator on the floor where Fisk's secret "war room" is]
    Ray Nadeem: You could've gone to Homeland Security or the NYPD. Not take me down with you. Not murder an agent. You make a report. You get your family somewhere safe.
    Tammy Hattley: That's not an option with Fisk. I used to have two children, Ray. They made it look like a hit-and-run. I got a divorce. Maybe that keeps him a little safer. But there's still Allie, so think about Seema and Sami. And do what Fisk tells you.
  • Remember how the season 1 finale sorta hinted that Fisk had an FBI higher-up in his back pocket who was responsible for giving his men the necessary information to ambush his convoy and attempt to free him? Well, this conversation pretty much establishes that Hattley probably was that insider.
• And as it turns out, Fisk has managed to manipulate Foggy for a good amount of time, using the exact same playbook he's used to manipulate Nadeem. He directed their suppliers to stop doing business with the shop, causing them to lose money and end up in financial ruin, where Theo would be unable to get a loan from any of the banks because he didn't have enough collateral. Then Fisk had Red Lion swoop in to the rescue and give Theo some crooked financial advice, and tricked him into being creative with his books to secure a loan. It’s bad enough to put Theo in prison, but it turns out that Fisk managed to also get Foggy's parents to sign the loan. Thanks to Fisk taking advantage of the desperation that he drove the Nelsons into, Foggy either has to bow out of the DA race or see his family go to jail. You can hear Foggy cursing under his breath at the realization of the lengths Fisk is willing to go to hurt those who pose a threat to him.
• Fisk arranges a meeting with all of the rival crime lords, and demands a tax of 20% of their profits in return for him providing them protection from federal prosecution. One particular mouthy one, Everett Starr, balks at the idea of paying up so much money.
  Rosalie Carbone: How much? What's the vig?
  Wilson Fisk: Twenty percent...
  John Hammer: For Chrissake.
  Wilson Fisk: ...of everything.
  Everett Starr: I don't know how you keep that suit white with all the bullshit you pack into it. I know what this is. We all know what this is! You want us to confess to something that buys you another month in that hotel suite you conned yourself into! No. You can count me out!
  [Dex walks in from behind Fisk, wearing his Daredevil suit, and beans Starr in the forehead with a baton. Starr falls face forward, dead, and a pool of blood spreads across the table.]
  Wilson Fisk: ...The tax is now 25%.

Episode 10 - Karen

• The suddenness of Karen's car accident. She's taken her eyes off the road to look at Kevin, only for Kevin to shout "Watch out!" Karen looks back in time for the car to hit a guardrail, launch into the air, then flip over three times before coming to a rest on its roof. Karen is briefly knocked out by the impact, while Kevin is instantly killed.
• Dex's entry to the church as he prepares to attack Karen. He looks like a character from a horror movie.
  Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter: [tapping his baton on the sides of the pews as he advances towards the pulpit] Where. Is. Karen. Page?
  • When Karen finally does reveal herself (as Dex begins attacking innocent parishioners to lure her out of hiding), he uses the exact same "Hello, Karen. It's nice to see you again" line he used in the Bulletin attack.

Episode 11 - Reunion

• Remember what Fisk did to Anatoly? Well, we get a repeat of that. He's in the back of the car with Agent Weller after the visit to Mrs. Falb's brownstone, and Weller gets a phone call. He relays to Fisk that the NYPD have taken Karen into custody, as per Nadeem's call. Fisk calmly asks Weller for his jacket. Weller obliges as he and the audience wonder what exactly Fisk is doing...then Fisk abruptly throws the jacket over Weller's head and beats him to death, punching him in the face repeatedly until blood is leaking through the jacket.
  Wilson Fisk: [to his nervous driver] Pull over. Get rid of the body.
  Driver: [nervously] Yes, sir.

Episode 12 - One Last Shot

• It turns out that behind Fisk's back, Dex has gone to Mrs. Falb's brownstone, killed her, and stolen the "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" painting. A spot of blood on the edge of the frame is all we (and Fisk) need to see to know what exactly happened. It becomes clear to Fisk that Dex has gotten to a point where he has become a liability, moreso when Dex introduces himself to Vanessa claiming to be "the new James Wesley".
• Like in the season 1 finale, some civilians have the misfortune of being nearby when Fisk's henchmen ambush the police van that is carrying Matt and Nadeem to the courthouse. Imagine being stuck in a traffic jam when people with automatic guns begin opening fire around you and you have no way to escape.
• Turns out Fisk anticipated Nadeem going to a grand jury, and manages to do some speed-chess to coerce all the jurors. It renders Nadeem so paranoid that he decides to knock Foggy out in the bathroom and flee to his home, record a video confessing everything, and just resign himself to his fate when Dex comes by to kill him.
• It's not Fisk who orders Nadeem's death, but Vanessa herself. Confirmation that she is just as evil and amoral as him.
  Felix Manning: Agent Nadeem has been located. His testimony to the grand jury remains sealed and inadmissible... but given its public nature, we should weigh the benefits of keeping him alive.
  Wilson Fisk: Force Nadeem to stand trial for the murder of Agent Winn, turning the FBI against him and discrediting him in the press.
  Felix Manning: My thoughts exactly, sir.
  Vanessa Marianna: Wilson, what does Agent Nadeem know about your business?
  Wilson Fisk: A considerable amount.
  Vanessa Marianna: And is he determined to find ways to hurt you? To hurt us?
  Wilson Fisk: Yes.
  Vanessa Marianna: Don't you think it would be safer to remove the threat?
  Wilson Fisk: Yes, I do.
  Vanessa Marianna: If Agent Poindexter is useful, perhaps he can help us with this problem. [turns to Felix] You'll let him know, won't you?
  Felix Manning: Yes, ma'am.

Episode 13 - A New Napkin

• Matt is arguably at his breaking point in this episode. First, he interrogates Felix Manning by dangling him over a rooftop, which breaks his leg from the sudden stop. He then sends Dex on a bloody warpath after Fisk by revealing Fisk murdered Julie. And in regards to the man himself, he is dead set on killing Fisk, so he's setting Dex toward an objective that he intends to deny him anyway. One gets the feeling that the Arc Words of the Murdock boys being cursed isn't just for dramatic effect.
  • It says a lot that Matt gets Felix Manning (a man who has been shown to be one of the few people who are loyal to Fisk out of some degree of respect rather than just fear) to flip on Fisk in the first place. As one might recall with John Healy in season 1, Fisk is the kind of person many people would rather commit suicide then give him up, but Matt’s brutal interrogation of Felix ends with Felix deciding he'd rather take his chances with Fisk than endure Matt’s torture. That's Matt when he's in a bad mood.
  • Let this one sink in for a minute: Matt turns Dex loose on Fisk's hotel just as a distraction so Matt could have a better chance of getting to Fisk. Either Dex takes out a significant chunk of Fisk's FBI protection, or the FBI is too busy fighting off Dex to stop Matt. And if (as it did in the end) it does end up as a Mêlée à Trois between Matt, Fisk, and Dex, that works to Matt's advantage, too. Stone cold manipulation worthy of a true sociopath, and how many innocent people were in Dex's way before he got to Fisk? Matt's damn lucky Dex didn't happen to be in a massacre mood.
• When Dex shows up at Fisk's wedding, he drives into the garage, wearing the Daredevil suit with a smile... and Julie's frozen body in the passenger seat. Whatever control Dex has over his madness is completely gone, and he now truly is Bullseye.
  Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter: (to Julie) That's Lim. He's one of the good ones...
• Fisk breaking Dex's back on a wall's corner can be painful to watch (even if Dex totally deserved it). Especially the snap sound it makes.
• After the final fight, Matt furiously declares that Fisk will be facing life in prison, and that if he is to harm anyone else again, Vanessa's role in Nadeem's death will be revealed and she too will be in jail. And, while Fisk's fate is well deserved, just the sheer amount of rage in Matt's voice can send chills down one's bones. It really does show how far the guy's been pushed, after so long of being tormented. Beware the Nice Ones to its purest core.
  Wilson Fisk: No prison can keep me. You know that. Come on! Kill me!!
  Matt Murdock: No! God knows I want to, but you don't get to destroy who I am! You will go back to prison, and you will live the rest of your miserable life, in a cage! Knowing that you'll never have Vanessa, that this city...rejected you! It beat you! I!! BEAT YOU!!!
  [Matt unmasks himself in front of Fisk]
  Matt Murdock: You keep my secret...and you won't harm Karen Page, or Foggy Nelson. Or anyone else. Because if you do...I will go after your wife. And I will prove Vanessa...ordered the murder of Agent Ray Nadeem. And like her husband, she will spend the rest of her life in a cell.

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