Matt's already shaky world twists when he learns a shocking truth. Karen runs for her life. Nadeem discovers how deep Fisk's influence runs.
- Age-Gap Romance: It probably wasn't intended this way, but because they use the same actor for Jack as when he portrayed the father of 10 year old Matt, which actor was age appropriate for that situation, he looks significantly older than the young actress they hired to play past!Maggie.
- All Girls Want Bad Boys: When young Maggie is asked by Jack Murdock to clean him up between bouts, her friends pointedly remind her that Chastity is one of her vows. She ends up getting pregnant by him.
- An Offer You Can't Refuse: Fisk has the FBI assemble five of the top crime bosses in the city and offers them his protection for a 20% share. When Starr (one of the bosses) refuses, Dex promptly kills him, and Fisk raises the tax to 25%. The rest are then forced to accept. (And it's also hinted that he intentionally made a demand that he knew one of them would opt out of.)
- Blackmail:
- Aside from Dex, it's pretty obvious to Nadeem that all the other FBI agents working for Fisk were strong-armed into doing so.
- Mrs. Shelby, Fisk's computer tech, is clearly being coerced into working for him as well. She's wearing Fisk's ankle monitor and shows open relief when Daredevil says he intends to kill Fisk.
- Batman Gambit: Nadeem's sister-in-law's healthcare being denied wasn't a coincidence: Fisk specifically targeted Nadeem, in order to get him desperate enough for a promotion to indirectly orchestrate Fisk's freedom.
- Batman Grabs a Gun: Matt is now ready to kill Fisk to make sure he stays down next time.
- Big Brother Is Watching You: Ironically the FBI is on the receiving end. With Fisk's people watching all the monitors, Hattley tells off Nadeem for trying to talk to her in the elevator because they're being watched even if they can't be heard.
- Broken Pedestal: Father Lantom, Maggie, and Jack Murdock are all this to Matt for keeping the truth about his heritage from him.
- Call-Back: Fisk is now travelling in the same multi-car convoy we first saw him in for Season One, except now they're driven by his FBI escort.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Matt does this to Father Lantom (who's been a father-figure to him since he was a child) at the beginning of the episode about not telling him that Maggie was his mother, and later calls out his hallucination of his real father for the same thing, and for his other mistakes.
- Ceiling Cling: Matt does this to hide from Fisk's FBI guards in a stairwell. A downplayed example, though, since he's perched on some pipes near the ceiling rather than bracing himself on the walls to hold himself against the ceiling. It works because he's in the corner of the ceiling behind the door the feds come out of, so it's the one place they don't think to look.
- The Chessmaster: Fisk has laid the groundwork for his rise a year in advance, not only preparing the penthouse but placing all the FBI agents who were likely to be put on his detail in compromising positions. He also gained advanced leverage on Foggy's family, anticipating that Foggy would once again cause trouble for him.
- Continuity Nod: Rosalie Carbone debuted in Luke Cage (2016).
- Costume Copycat: Dex murders Starr while dressed in the Daredevil suit, to make it look like the Devil of Hell's Kitchen is also under Fisk's control.
- Crazy-Prepared: Fisk, of course. He had someone cook the books of Nelson Meats knowing he'd one day want something to use against Foggy.
- Cut the Juice: Matt shuts down the hotel power switchboard so he can enter Fisk's penthouse.
- Dead Person Conversation: Matt spends much of the episode conversing with a hallucination of his father.
- Dramatic Irony: Turns out Foggy really did save Karen's life in the last episode. If Fisk had attacked her, his guard detail wouldn't have made a move to stop him and would have destroyed the evidence as well making her sacrifice All for Nothing.
- Evil All Along: Tammy Hattley has been under Fisk's thumb all along, killing Winn and forcing Nadeem to cooperate. Then it turns out that a whole bunch of agents are working for Fisk.
- Evil Is Petty: Fisk has Nadeem specifically remove his ankle monitor, so he has to bow before him.
- Falling-in-Love Montage: A brief one in the flashbacks between Jack and Maggie, showing how they first met, bits and pieces of their life together, and when Maggie eventually left Jack due to her postpartum depression.
- Faux Affably Evil: Dex is quite nice to Nadeem's family while secretly threatening them.
- Five-Second Foreshadowing: There are several red flags about the trap being set for Nadeem before Hattley and Felix spring it on him, such as all the surfaces being covered in plastic (like the room where Julie was killed in the last episode) and Hattley sends her daughter out of the house (so that she won't have to witness the murder).
- Flashback: Several, of Maggie and Jack meeting, getting together, giving birth to Matt and eventually parting ways due to Maggie's severe postpartum depression.
- Forced into Evil: Nadeem finds himself blackmailed into working for Fisk, alongside a bunch of agents that have been similarly blackmailed.
- Frame-Up: Nadeem's fingerprints and weapon are used for pinning Winn's murder on him in case he doesn't comply.
- Give Me a Sign: Maggie assumed her postpartum depression was a sign that she should return to the Church. She realises she missed the actual sign from God—her son's return as a sign that she should admit the truth to Matt.
- Hallucinations: Matt has them of his deceased father, which eventually changes to one of Fisk giving Matt "The Reason You Suck" Speech.
- Handwraps of Awesome: Matt wraps his fists in Muay Thai ropes to give his punches more impact when he next fights Dex.
- He Who Must Not Be Named: The FBI agents who have fallen under Fisk's control now refer to their boss only by his Code Name: Kingpin.
- Hidden Depths: Turns out Father Lantom is a pretty good pool player at night, hustling guys for cash.Pool Player: Wait, you're a priest?
- Hypocrite: Dex complains about how 'cold' it was for Nadeem to hire the lawyer for him, while secretly collaborating with Matt to plot his downfall. This is from someone who has presented an amiable façade to cover his own psychopathic acts all his life.
- If You're So Evil, Eat This Kitten!: When Fisk makes his offer to the other crime bosses, they accuse him of just being part of an FBI sting operation. Dex murdering one of their number in front of Fisk's FBI escort puts that idea to rest.
- Instant Humiliation: Just Add YouTube!: Foggy learns from Marci that the video of him calling out Tower in front of the club has gained over a million views on YouTube and the cops are all sharing it to their personal pages. Unfortunately, this publicity also causes him to learn that his brother is being blackmailed by Fisk.
- Internal Reveal: Karen learns that Maggie is Matt's mother. And both Maggie and Father Lantom learn that Matt knows.
- It's Personal: Dex is pretty pissed at Nadeem for double-crossing him and seems to get a big amount of satisfaction from now having power over his former friend.
- Kosher Nostra: One of the crime bosses Fisk has the feds round up is a fully kitted out Hasidic Jew.
- Mole in Charge: Hattley.
- My God, What Have I Done?:
- Nadeem now realizes what a terrible mistake he has made and to what it led.
- Sister Maggie admits to Karen that she has squandered the chance, both in the past and present, to admit the truth and reconcile with her son.
- Naughty Nuns: As a young novitiate, Sister Maggie entices her friends to visit a boxing match where she falls for Matt's father and gets pregnant with him.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Matt does this to his hallucination of Fisk, finishing it with a Neck Snap.
- "Not So Different" Remark: The hallucination of Jack Murdock compares his stubborn attitude and addiction to fights to Matt's own. Matt however resents the comparison.
- Obvious Trap: Fisk has Nadeem call Matt to where Fisk is meeting the crime bosses, noting to Dex that Daredevil will suspect it's a trap but will turn up anyway. Fortunately Matt takes the opportunity to break into Fisk's penthouse instead.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Nadeem's reaction to learning Hattley is in league with Fisk and has been all along, and he's been an Unwitting Pawn to Fisk.
- Similarly, Foggy's reaction when he learns that Fisk manipulated the Nelson's Meats finances and is now blackmailing him into retracting the remarks he made when calling out Tower for his inaction. The moment that Theo tells Foggy he needs to apologize for the remarks he said on the video, Foggy's face turns pale and he can only ask "...what happened?"
- Matt has this reaction when he learns Fisk plans to have Karen murdered and his FBI mooks have tracked her down to Father Lantom's church.
- When Father Lantom tells her "Matthew knows.", she runs out of the room, down to where Matt has been sleeping, and breaks down sobbing on finding he's left and taken his things with him.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: As the crimelords are waiting at the round table, they wonder what they're doing here. Rosalie Carbone is savvy enough to point out to the others what exactly is off about the situation before Fisk even shows himself:John Hammer: This is some bullshit. What are we waiting for?
Rosalie Carbone: We'll know when it happens.
John Hammer: You know something about what's going on?
Rosalie Carbone: Well, they pick us up all quiet. Like...no press, no perp walk. They take us here instead of downtown. The feds want something. - Parental Abandonment: Maggie admits to Karen that she is Matt's mother, and that she did this to him by leaving him and Jack and never telling Matt about it. Matt's conversation with his hallucination of his dad reveals that, to some degree, he felt that Jack did this to him, too, by prioritizing his pride and desire to make Matt proud over a life with his son.
- Parents as People: Both Jack and Maggie had their flaws, but only wanted what was best for Matt in the end. Father Lantom invokes it verbally.
- Relative Button: Fisk is more than happy to use his victims' families against them.
- Fisk murdered one of Hattley's kids and is using the threat of killing her daughter to keep her from turning against him.
- Fisk manipulated Foggy's family into committing fraud to secure a bank loan, and is now using the threat of sending them to prison to try and get Foggy to recant the things he's been saying about Fisk in public.
- The Reveal: Nadeem's boss Tammy Hattley is in the league with Fisk, as are numerous other agents he works with.
- Shower of Angst: Nadeem takes a low-key one after Winn's murder and being forced into Fisk's service. It's not helped by him getting out of the shower to find Dex in his living room socializing with Seema and Saami.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here / Run or Die: Karen is fleeing in light of having provoked Fisk.
- Smug Snake: None of the FBI agents are happy about their predicament, with the noticeable exception of Dex who walks around with a permanent smirk.
- Thrown from the Zeppelin: Fisk summons five other mob bosses and offers to use his newfound connections to protect them from the authorities in exchange for 20% of their profits. Three of the bosses mock Fisk's offer and accuse him of being an FBI informant. When one of them tries to back out, Dex immediately kills him with one of his batons, and Fisk immediately raises the tax on the remaining bosses to 25%. They nervously comply.
- Trap Is the Only Option: Averted. Matt recognizes the trap and elects to go to Fisk's hotel instead, planning to kill him on his return.
- Trapped in Villainy: Hattley, Nadeem and many other FBI agents.
- Truth in Television: Post-partum depression can be devastating.
- Turn in Your Badge: Subverted when, after Nadeem turns in his badge and gun, Hattley immediately uses it to shoot the OPR agent he's just confessed to. Then Felix Manning comes in and collects the gun as blackmail, while Hattley returns Ray's badge to him and tells him he works for Fisk now.
- Wham Episode:
- Hattley is revealed as Fisk's Mole in Charge, albeit one of the many FBI agents that have been coerced into serving Fisk, with Nadeem becoming the latest one.
- Foggy learns that Felix Manning is blackmailing his brother with Nelson's Meats financials.
- Matt severs ties with Maggie and Father Lantom after getting confirmation that she is his mother and comes to the conclusion that he must kill Fisk.
- Wham Line:
- As Hattley returns Ray's badge to him after using his gun to kill Agent Winn, she says, "I'm not your boss any more. Wilson Fisk is."
- Ray is on the receiving end of another bombshell as he calls out Hattley for deciding to do Fisk's dirty work.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.
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. - As Foggy is basking in publicly calling out Tower's inaction against Fisk, Theo takes him aside and tells him he needs to recant everything he said.Theo Nelson: All that stuff you said about Fisk on the video, you gotta take it back.
Foggy Nelson: What are you talking about?
Theo Nelson: You have to make a different video, man. Issue a statement or whatever. Say you were drunk.
Foggy Nelson: Au contraire, mon frère. That's the last thing I gotta do. I gotta exploit this opportunity to expose everything Fisk is doing!
Theo Nelson: No, no, no. Foggy, listen to me. You need to apologize.
Foggy Nelson: [quietly] What happened? Did someone come after you, Theo?
Theo Nelson: Fog, it's real bad. About a year ago, some of our suppliers stopped taking our orders. Just stopped. No reason I could understand. We couldn't change their minds for the love of money! After a few months, the shop was in a tight spot financially, right? And we didn't have the collateral to get a loan...
Foggy Nelson: Why didn't you come to me? I could have helped.
Theo Nelson: I didn't have to, because of what happened next. Out of the blue, I get this call from a bank I never heard of offering to help us out. Red Lion Bank.
Foggy Nelson: Shit...
Theo Nelson: You know these guys?
Foggy Nelson: Just keep going.
Theo Nelson: So, the loan officer there, he coaches me on how to move the numbers around. Make our assets look healthier, y'know? And bam! The loan comes through without a hitch. I don't give it another thought. Life goes on. I mean, we've been through a lot around here.
Foggy Nelson: And the old suppliers came back.
Theo Nelson: Yeah. Yeah, they did, now you mention it.
Foggy Nelson: And then someone came to talk to you?
Theo Nelson: This afternoon, yeah. This old English dude comes to see me. He knew all about the creative accounting on the loan app. He said unless I could convince you to walk back everything you said about Fisk, he'd have Red Lion call the loan.
Foggy Nelson: Of course.
Theo Nelson: Foggy, that application... if anyone looks too carefully at it...
Foggy Nelson: You're going to jail.
Theo Nelson: Not just me. Mom and Dad signed it, too.
- Wham Shot:
- Tammy Hattley murdering Winn and being revealed to be in cahoots with Fisk.
- Then we get a long, slow zoom in the conference room after Dex is reinstated, showing that Fisk has subverted enough agents to fill a large table. Nadeem is the ninth member of just that one team.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.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Nadeem calls out Hattley for not reporting Fisk's moves to blackmail her.
- Would Hurt a Child: Fisk had one of Hattley's children killed in what he made look like a hit-and-run. Nadeem's family is now a target, too, of course.
