A desperate Dex reaches out for help, Matt forms an uneasy alliance with Agent Nadeem, and Karen concocts a dangerous plan to provoke Fisk.
Tropes:
- Actually Pretty Funny: When Dex says the FBI is using him as a scapegoat and makes an actual goat bleat, Julie cracks up.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Matt and Nadeem infiltrate Dex's apartment and rummage through his safe.
- Alone with the Psycho: Karen invokes this on herself by visiting Fisk. Downplayed, though, in that the FBI agents are watching them with the cameras, so she's not completely alone.
- Bad People Abuse Animals: In one of the recordings which Matt takes with him, Dex as a kid recounts to Dr. Mercer how he kills crows and kittens for fun.
- Big Damn Heroes: Foggy shows up in the nick of time, saving Karen from Fisk's rage.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Not only does Fisk have access to the FBI's cameras, but to other security cameras across the city, which he uses to spy on Dex and Julie.
- Blatant Lies: Dex claims to Julie that he wasn't stalking her. Given that he's followed her long enough to know her eating habits, followed her while jogging, and knows a lot of other details about her life, this is clearly untrue.
- Boom, Headshot!: Julie is killed this way.
- Bullying a Dragon: Provoking Fisk really wasn't the smartest move from Karen. Then again, at this moment, she doesn't really care about her own life anymore, she just wants to take him down with her.
- Burn Baby Burn: Dex burns his therapy session recordings after the encounter with Daredevil and Nadeem.
- Call-Back:
- Fisk offering Karen tea seems like a callback to when he offered Madame Gao tea in season 1 episode 8.
- Among the gangs Fisk is snitching on, are the Golden Tigers and the Hatchet Gang. This not long after the attacks they got from Davos in Iron Fist season 2 led to them making peace.
- Didn't Think This Through: Karen hopes to make Fisk angry enough to react emotionally and provoke him into attacking her... even though, if it didn't work, she'd be putting a huge target on her back (which, as future episodes show, is exactly what happens), and even if it did, there's the possibility Fisk would kill her before the FBI agents could make it in to save her (though it seems she did consider this, and just didn't care). Foggy calls Karen out on it.
- Cooldown Hug: Fisk encourages Dex to give a scream of primal rage, then hugs him while giving the nod to his underling to tell the hitmen he has waiting outside that there's no need for their services.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: During his argument with Blake Tower, Foggy suddenly realizes why Karen isn't there, has an Oh, Crap! moment and storms off.
- First-Name Basis: Subverted when Karen and Fisk do this during their Snark-to-Snark Combat.
- Hall of Mirrors: Dex has the "shoot only to hit a reflection in a mirror" version, when Daredevil stands up to draw his fire so Nadeem can flee while's he's changing magazines.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: Dex has a second go at meeting Julie Evans and is actually able to convince her to help him. Unfortunately Fisk has him under observation, and has his hitmen kill Julie and send fake text messages saying that she doesn't want to see him any more. His fellow FBI agents arrange a lawyer to fight on his behalf, but Dex then discovers that Nadeem is onto him and working with Daredevil. This all drives him right back into Fisk's arms (literally).
- Hope Spot: For Dex. Nadeem introduces him to a lawyer who promises to get him reinstated and thus stabilized... in about 6 months. Furthermore, it looks like he'll finally be able to fix things with Julie and get her to help him get himself back on track... but then (unbeknownst to Dex) she gets killed off by Fisk, and he or one of his men uses her phone to reject Dex and make him angry and unstable enough to go back to Fisk's side.
- I Gave My Word: Matt promises Nadeem that he will leave Dex's apartment without confronting him if they can't find any evidence, and kicks himself afterwards for missing a chance to catch Dex off guard.
- Improvised Weapon: Dex's immediate reaction to hearing intruders in his apartment is to grab decorational lamp pieces to use as throwing weapons.
- Internal Reveal:
- Fisk confirms from Karen's reaction that Matt is Daredevil, and also learns from her that 1) she visited his mother together with Ben, 2) she knows that he killed his father, and 3) she's the one who killed James Wesley.
- Matt and Nadeem learn Dex is the fake-Daredevil.
- Dex is shown Fisk's secret control center beneath his apartment.
- Is That a Threat?: Karen gives this trope when Fisk mentions Ben Urich who was murdered by Fisk, hoping to get him on video threatening a journalist, but Fisk doesn't fall for it.
- Janitor Impersonation Infiltration: Fisk hires a pair of assassins to kill Julie Barnes for fear she might sway Dex from his influence. The assassins disguise themselves as painters and use the pretense of making repairs in order to get into Julie's apartment block, where they surprise and Boom, Headshot! her when she comes home, wrapping her body in the plastic they have covering the floor. Later when Dex reports to Fisk he passes the same two workers painting the corridor outside Fisk's office. Once Fisk is assured that Dex is still under his control, he gives a quiet nod to Felix who leaves the room and tells the painters to pack up and leave.
- Lampshaded Double Entendre:
- Foggy tells Karen about how he realised what Fisk's Evil Plan was after looking through Marci's briefs—and immediately smirks and notes the Double Entendre, to Karen's annoyance.
- Subverted when Fisk comments on Karen working as Matt's secretary and being "intimately involved in his affairs". It looks like he's leading up to the expected jibe that she was sleeping with the boss, when he's actually setting her up for the question about Matt's double life.
- Late-Arrival Spoiler: Even if you didn't read the comics, many articles and even the MCU Wikia pretty much spoiled that Sister Maggie is Matt's mother.
- Luke, I Am Your Father: Not done directly, but when Sister Maggie is praying for Matt's safety, she ends her prayer by saying "Our son is too much like you, Jack." Matt, being downstairs, is naturally able to hear this, and reacts in complete shock at the realization that Maggie is his mother.
- Mythology Gag:
- Dex's talks about killing animals for fun is something from some variants of Bullseye's backstory.
- Among the crime syndicates that Fisk is snitching on is the Maggia, a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of the actual The Mafia (which debuted back when the Comics Code forbade their depiction and there was danger from the Mafia's reaction). Doubles as a Continuity Nod with regards to the larger MCU, as the Maggia debuted in Agent Carter.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Karen reveals that she killed Wesley, setting Fisk off on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge in future episodes. Foggy charges in with the FBI, foiling her plan to have Fisk lose his temper and attack her (though likely saving her life).
- Not Helping Your Case: Dex's initial attempts to explain his actions to Julie do not make him sound any less creepy, as she points out.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Foggy tells Karen that her suicide mission was the sort of thing that Matt would do. Karen appears offended but doesn't protest.
- Not So Similar: Despite similar pasts, and knowing that Maggie wants to bring it up, Matt denies that he and Dex are anything alike, as he is not a murderer.
- Oh, Crap!:
- In the middle of his public confrontation with Hightower, Foggy realizes why Karen isn't at the dinner to record his accusations: she's gone to confront Fisk and get him to kill her.
- At that confrontation, Karen is shocked to learn that Fisk knows Matt is the Daredevil.
- Pinball Projectile: Dex shoots at Daredevil and Nadeem by ricocheting his bullets into the apartment they're hiding in.
- Rage Breaking Point: Karen manages to drive Fisk into a fury, but Foggy shows up at the last second and saves her life.
- The Reveal: Sister Maggie is Matt's mother. While this is no surprise to comics fans, and there were slight hints at it throughout the season, this is when the audience has it confirmed, and also when Matt himself finds out.
- Skeleton Key Card: Daredevil does the credit card version.
- Targeted to Hurt the Hero: After Dex starts to mend fences with Julie and she agrees to help him, Fisk has her murdered, and later he or one of his men sends texts from her phone telling Dex she never wants to talk to him again, in order to push him back under Fisk's control.
- Tranquil Fury: Karen is in this state throughout her entire meeting with Fisk, but especially after he tricks her into confirming for him that Matt is Daredevil. Meanwhile, Fisk enters this state mixed with a bit of Suppressed Rage once Karen reveals that she visited his mother along with Ben, and falls into it more and more as she reveals the other things she knows about him and has done, though he finally can't hold it in anymore after Karen rubs her killing of Wesley in his face, letting out a shout of fury that ends their interview.
- Wham Line: "Our son is too much like you, Jack." It's a wham line for Matt, too, who hears it from downstairs, and realizes at the same time as the (non-comic book reading) audience that Maggie is his mom.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Foggy gives one of these to Karen after she confronts Fisk.
- Would Hit a Girl: Fisk has Julie murdered in order to further manipulate Dex.
- Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Karen, in response to Fisk's You Just Told Me moment below, furiously fires back about how she killed Wesley, telling him, among other things, that Wesley's death was quick, she shot him seven times, and emptied the clip of the gun doing so.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Karen's response to seeing Fisk's luxury penthouse.
- You Just Told Me: Though Fisk clearly was already almost certain that Matt is Daredevil after watching him in the prison fight, he confirms it beyond a shadow of a doubt when he asks Karen how long she's known about Matt's double life and sees the horrified look on her face in response to his question.
