What An Idiot / Marvel Cinematic Universe TV Shows

TV Shows - Pre-Disney+

• Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.:
  • In "Yes Men", the team have to capture an Asgardian criminal named Lorelei. Lady Sif warns them that Lorelei can use magic to bend any man to her will - for most men, the sound of her voice is enough - but her powers have no effect on women.
    You'd Expect: Agent Coulson would arrange for an all-female assault team before moving on Lorelei. Note that he does do this later in the episode, after what we're about to describe here.
    Alternatively: If that isn't feasible given the time frame, he should at least have the male agents stay back and deal with Lorelei's minions from behind cover, while the women (May and Sif at a minimum) go to catch Lorelei herself.
    Or At The Very Least: He would issue a "shoot on sight" order since his team both has stun guns and real guns, and Asgardians are far tougher than a human.
    Instead: For some bizarre reason, Ward goes around the back without any backup, orders the superhuman seductress to stand down instead of just shooting her outright, and gets himself seduced by her and placed under her control. Coulson at least learned his lesson the next time he tried it.
  • In "The Only Light in the Darkness", Erik Koenig, trained S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, expert interrogator, and Nick Fury's hand-picked housesitter, is interrogating the members of the team to determine if any of them are enemy agents of HYDRA. One character starts giving vague answers that set off every alarm on Koenig's super-sensitive lie-detector, to the point where he draws a gun on the suspect and demands answers. Unfortunately, The Mole (Grant Ward), uses Exact Words to give an evasive explanation that turns off the alarms. What's worse, the Exact Words in question are that he's there for Skye. That's not really a great innocent explanation either for why he should be there if he wasn't a mole.
    You'd Expect: Koenig to either keep the suspect under detention and get further clarification on the matter. Or, at a minimum, talk to Coulson or another already-established-as-trustworthy S.H.I.E.L.D. agent and have them watch the suspect for any signs of treasonous behavior.
    Instead: After the alarms turn off, Koenig lets bygones be bygones and gives the suspect full access to everything, no (further) questions asked.
    The Result: The Mole, Agent Grant Ward, kills Koenig offscreen after May leaves the team, and while Coulson, Fitz, Simmons, and Triplett are occupied with protecting Coulson's cellist friend, Audrey Nathan, in another location.

• Daredevil:
  • In "Into the Ring", having narrowly escaped being both framed and murdered by Fisk's men, Karen Page has to get a thumbdrive of evidence against her employers at Union Allied.
    You'd expect: Her to find someone else to go or get an escort, or at least let someone know what she's up to, so that if she goes "missing", people won't assume she fled.
    Instead: She sneaks off in the middle of the night to her apartment alone.
    Result: Rance is waiting for her in her apartment and attacks her, and Karen only survives because Matt heard her slipping out and followed her.
  • Karen does this a lot. Another instance is in "Stick" when she is going off alone to investigate Elena Cardenas's tenement case.
    You'd think: Karen would bring someone else with her, or at least be prepared for trouble, given she's investigating men menacing people on the very block she's investigating.
    Instead: She goes on her own.
    As a result: She is jumped by the same goons she was asking about. This time, she's saved by Foggy. Now, in fairness, Karen did have a pepper spray can when she went there, but she should've had it more easily accessible or assumed that the men in question could've jumped her.
  • "Rabbit in a Snowstorm": James Wesley visits Nelson & Murdock to hire the firm to defend John Healy, an assassin who was recently arrested for killing a rival mobster on orders from his boss, Wilson Fisk. When he's let into the office, he recognizes Karen from his prior attempts to have her killed. Throughout his conversation with the lawyers, Matt is suspicious of Wesley given his refusal to say his name and the amount of background he's done on Matt and Foggy.
    You'd Expect: Wesley to feign not knowing Karen. She's never met him before, Karen's arrest was never reported in the papers, and he also knows thanks to his phone conversation with Fisk at the end of "Into the Ring" that the plan is to bribe her into keeping quiet about the Union Allied corruption.
    Instead: He lets slip that he knows who Karen is, that she got arrested, and she got exonerated for murder.
    Result: Matt becomes even more suspicious of Wesley and follows him out of the office, losing the trail when he gets into a car with Fisk and is driven away. Karen, meanwhile, realizes Wesley is involved with the people who tried to have her killed, and her meeting with the Union Allied attorney later that day goes badly as she realizes they're attempting to buy her silence. She starts investigating Union Allied, eventually uncovers their ties to Fisk's other criminal operations, and kicks off a chain of events that ends in Wesley's death at Karen's hands.
  • "In the Blood": In light of Matt Murdock's attacks on their gang, the Ranskahov brothers are losing the respect of their criminal partners. Fortunately, Fisk wants to help them get back on their feet, and sends Wesley to approach the brothers with an offer of support. While the brothers initially turn down the offer out of pride, Anatoly reconsiders and decides to accept it after Matt beats up a bunch of their men who were trying to torture his name out of Claire Temple.
    You'd Expect: Anatoly would call Wesley, and leave it to Wesley to set up a meeting so that the Russian gangsters can meet Fisk in person and solidify a partnership where Fisk can supply them with funding and resources for their campaign against Matt, keeping his own hands clean in the process.
    Instead: Anatoly decides to break the news to Fisk in person, rudely barging into Fisk's dinner with Vanessa to tell him that he accepts the offer.
    Result: Fisk is enraged by Anatoly's intrusion into his private life. He has Anatoly driven to a vacant lot, where he personally beats Anatoly unconscious, then decapitates him with a car door. He then proceeds to have the Russians' hideouts bombed, and corrupt cops sent in to finish off the survivors, Vladimir included, to prevent further retaliation for Anatoly's death.
  • "World on Fire": One of Vladimir's men, Piotr, is arrested after Matt jumps him and some of his goons while making a drug drop at one of their stashhouses. He gets interrogated by Detectives Christan Blake and Carl Hoffman, who happen to be dirty cops on Fisk's payroll.
    You'd Expect: Piotr would keep his mouth shut. If it's knowledge that Fisk has cops on the take, it's best to say nothing because you don't know who to trust.
    Instead: He mentions Fisk's name and promises to give up everything he knows on Fisk for leniency.
    Result: Blake and Hoffman kill him right there and then.
  • One could say Detectives Blake and Hoffman had a moment of this too. The fact that Piotr has said Fisk's name makes him a liability that needs to die.
    You'd Expect: Much like back in "Into the Ring," when Matt and Foggy browbeat them into letting Karen go free following Farnum's failed attempt on her life, Hoffman or Blake would step outside the interrogation room, call Wesley and ask for instructions. It'd be best to not raise any suspicions that they're dirty, so the ideal fate for Piotr would be something like Rance (a hanging) or a jailhouse shanking.
    Instead: Blake punches Hoffman in the face, then shoots Piotr in the head, while they make it seem like Piotr jumped Hoffman and tried to grab his gun.
    Result: While Fisk's contacts in Internal Affairs make the matter go away, Matt happens to be at the precinct getting information from Brett Mahoney, and overhears the murder. He jumps Blake that night, breaks his arm, and gets him to give up information on Fisk's plot to bomb the Russians' hideouts, which renders Blake as a liability that Fisk has to eliminate later.
  • "Condemned": In the aftermath of the bombings, a rookie police officer, Officer Sullivan, finds Matt with Vladimir in an abandoned building, and calls in a "10-10" (potential criminal activity) to the dispatcher. Matt overpowers Officer Sullivan, and after sussing out that he isn't working for Fisk, tells him to inform the dispatcher that the call was a false alarm.
    You'd Expect: Matt would let Officer Sullivan know the situation, as the cops in his precinct are overwhelmingly corrupt. Word travels fast in the police department, so it's hard to imagine Sullivan doesn't already know about the Russian goon that Detectives Blake and Hoffman murdered in custody earlier that day at the precinct for saying Fisk's name, and Matt is trying to convince him to waive any hope of backup coming for him, a dangerous proposition given he's alone with the "Devil of Hell's Kitchen."
    Additionally: If he's not going to agree, Matt's Living Lie Detector abilities would let him know that Sullivan isn't going to cooperate.
    Instead: Matt tells him to tell dispatch without giving him any context, and only ominously to let Sullivan go "eventually."
    As a result: Matt lets Sullivan speak into his radio... and he immediately shouts his location before Matt can knock him out. The police are dispatched in full force to the scene, with Detectives Blake and Hoffman assuming command of the scene. The ESU team that storms the building to "rescue" Sullivan are all in Fisk's pocket, and upon finding him, they kill him by cutting his throat.
  • "Shadows in the Glass": Detective Blake has just come out of a coma after the sniper attack on him in "Condemned" failed to kill him. Fisk and Wesley know that Blake, bitter over getting shot, is likely to give up information on them. They also know that none of the cops guarding Blake's room are on their payroll. The plan they come up with is for someone to sneak a syringe filled with poison into Blake's IV line, using that to kill him.
    You'd Expect: Fisk would have Wesley pay Blake's nurse to kill him or hire a hitman to impersonate a nurse to do the job.
    Instead: Fisk personally approaches Blake's distraught best friend and partner, Carl Hoffman, and intimidates him into doing the job.
    Result: Hoffman almost doesn't go through with it when it's time to inject the poison, and it's only by chance that Matt arrives too late to save Blake (after being tipped off by Karen that Blake is out of his coma). And after the murder, Hoffman immediately goes into hiding and is scooped up by Leland Owlsley as a bargaining chip. Eventually, he goes to the police and gives up Fisk in a plea deal negotiated by Nelson & Murdock. His testimony ends up guaranteeing Fisk's conviction on five RICO counts as he can testify to Fisk ordering him to commit a murder, and link Fisk to plenty of other murders.
  • "Shadows in the Glass" also reveals a moment of this which happened in Fisk's childhood. When Fisk was twelve years old, his father Bill ran for city council. He had to borrow money in order to fund his campaign.
    You'd Expect: Bill would borrow money through proper legal channels.
    Instead: He goes to a Loan Shark, Don Rigoletto, to get a loan.
    Result: Bill digs his own grave a couple ways at once. Aside from the possible scandal that would have arisen if his borrowing from the mafia got exposed, there was no guarantee he would win, especially given the community's very low opinion of him. He inevitably loses, and it's only thanks to Wilson beating him to death with a hammer for beating his mother that Bill is spared a potentially more gruesome retribution from the mafia.
  • "Speak of the Devil": Fisk has taken over Armand Tully's properties. Elena Cardenas, a resident in one of Tully's properties who has hired Nelson & Murdock because she refuses to leave, approaches Matt and Foggy to say that Fisk has doubled Tully’s buyout offer.
    You'd Expect: As Matt and Foggy are in no position to prevent Fisk from carrying out his plans for the building, and Matt knows just what kinds of criminal activities Fisk has committed or had others commit for him, they would tell Elena to accept the offer.
    Instead: Foggy changes his mind and says Elena should not accept the offer.
    Result: Fisk hires a junkie to kill Elena, both to get rid of an obstacle to his plans for the property, and also to lure Matt into an ambush by Nobu. At the same time, though, there's every reason to believe Fisk would've just killed someone else (like one of Elena's neighbors) had Elena accepted the offer to get the same result, or done something like burn down her building.
  • "The Path of the Righteous": James Wesley finds out that Karen Page and Ben Urich have spoken to Fisk's mother Marlene Vistain, and know about his darkest secrets. He decides to kidnap Karen from her apartment, take her to a warehouse, and threaten her into ceasing her opposition of him and Fisk by threatening to have her loved ones killed.
    You'd expect: Wesley would restrain Karen in any way. He has a gun, so if she runs, he can easily shoot her.
    You'd also expect: That Wesley would tell Francis, Fisk's head of security who supplied him with the gun, of where he is going, who he's going to talk to, and what he's doing, and tell Francis to also pass word of this to Fisk.
    Instead: Wesley doesn't tell Francis where he's going. And while interrogating Karen, he not only leaves her unrestrained (expecting the drugs he knocked her out with to do the job), but leaves the gun on the table where she can easily reach for it. And he also tells Karen that Fisk is unaware of what he's up to, meaning she'll be off the hook if he dies.
    As a result: When Wesley's phone rings as Fisk tries to call him to find out where the hell he's gone, Karen grabs the gun and shoots him to death. He dies taking valuable intelligence on who knows Fisk's deepest secrets to his grave, a matter further compounded when Fisk kills Ben a day later after getting a tipoff from his mole at the Bulletin (and Ben turns out to be savvy enough to lie when Fisk asks him if he was alone when he talked to Marlene), and Marlene dies shortly after Fisk is convicted and sent to prison. Ultimately, Fisk doesn't know Karen knows everything about his checkered past until she visits him late in season 3.
    To Add to the Stupidity: As Wesley tries to talk Karen down, he even asks her if she thinks he's dumb enough to make such a mistake. Karen, who once shot her drug-dealing boyfriend to protect her brother, calls his bluff.
    James Wesley: Do you really think I would put a loaded gun on the table where you could reach it?
    Karen Page: I don't know. [pulls back the hammer] Do you really think this is the first time I've shot someone?
  • The season 1 finale, "Daredevil": Fisk finds out that Leland Owlsley was behind the poisoning of Vanessa at his fundraiser, Owlsley has been skimming from him, and on top of that, Owlsley has squirreled away Carl Hoffman, who can implicate Fisk in several murders. Owlsley also reveals that he checks in with Hoffman regularly, such so that if he dies, Hoffman will go to the FBI with everything he knows about Fisk.
    You'd Expect: Fisk to pretend to accept Owlsley's offer to part with half his money. While doing so, he can have his men shadow Owlsley. Then, once they find out where Hoffman is stashed, they can kill Hoffman and Owlsley in one fell swoop.
    Instead: Fisk, enraged at Owlsley for poisoning Vanessa, immediately throws him down an elevator shaft.
    Result: While Fisk does immediately also give orders for Hoffman to be hunted down for execution, he's forced to move much quicker before the Dead Man's Switch kicks in, due to not knowing where Hoffman is stashed. Fisk is also forced to enlist his dirty cops to help out, and Matt is tipped off when he overhears them talking about the search while he and Foggy are at the precinct talking with Brett Mahoney. Which means Nelson & Murdock find out where Hoffman is hiding and Matt is able to rescue him just as one of Fisk's hit squads tracks him down and is about to finish him off.
  • The squad of dirty cops that are sent to kill Hoffman get a moment of this too. Officer Corbin and his men find the building where Hoffman is hiding.
    You'd Expect: Corbin to immediately shoot Hoffman in the head, then worry about taking out Hoffman's bodyguards.
    Instead: Corbin and his men kill the bodyguards first, then Corbin walks up to Hoffman and puts his gun to Hoffman's head, so Hoffman can realize how hopeless his situation is.
    Result: This extra few seconds is all it takes for Matt to show up, overpower the dirty cops, and rescue Hoffman, who subsequently goes to the 15th precinct and sells out Fisk.
  • "Dogs To A Gunfight": Frank Castle walks into a pawnshop to buy a police scanner. At his request, the pawnbroker leaves himself completely vulnerable, selling Frank the shells from his shotgun, and disconnecting the video camera (and giving the tape to Frank). Considering the incredibly illegal sale he's just conducted (of stolen police equipment), this is already pretty dumb.
    You'd Expect: That the owner would now just let Frank go.
    Instead: The owner tries to upsell Frank, offering DVDs of increasingly extreme porn, culminating in child pornography.
    End Result: Which is dumb in two ways: 1) Frank has demonstrated literally nothing to indicate that he's interested in buying anything else from the man, certainly not extreme BDSM porn, and definitely not child pornography. All he's demonstrated is that he's a professional criminal. 2) Many criminals despise child molesters and child pornography in general. So if the buyer was the average criminal, this probably wouldn't end well for the seller. But this is The Punisher. The seller is so dense that even as Frank turns around and flips the sign in the door to "CLOSED" to prevent any witnesses from walking in, he still thinks he's making a sale, not about to get beaten to death with a baseball bat.
  • In "Penny and Dime", Frank Castle is tortured by Finn Cooley and his Kitchen Irish goons. He gives up the location of a stolen briefcase of money to them. A couple of guys are sent to retrieve it.
    You'd Expect: That when they open it, they consider the possibility that it might be booby-trapped.
    Instead: They don't.
    Result: And indeed, Frank had stuffed a bomb under the money, which explodes once someone tries to grab some cash out of the briefcase.
    At the Same Time: Castle had pointed out that Finn was little too interested in getting his money back. After all, he wasn't concerned about Frank decimating a portion of his crew when they captured him at the carousel.
  • Elektra Natchios has been sent by Stick to recruit Matt for the Chaste's crusade against the Hand. She already did this once, back when Matt was in law school, but it failed because he refused to kill Roscoe Sweeney, the man who had Matt's father killed.
    You'd Expect: Elektra would go to Nelson & Murdock acting like a prospective client seeking legal representation, and hire Matt on retainer. Matt might not take her showing up all well, but she is wealthy, and Nelson & Murdock are in a bit of a financial slump. At the very least, this would be more respectful than what Elektra ultimately does...
    Instead: ...which is to break into Matt's apartment, and surprise him when he's coming back in right after having just kissed Karen in the rain.
    Result: Matt isn't all that inclined to offer to help Elektra out, pointing out, "Well, sweetheart, you don't break into my house and then talk to me about trust." She is thus forced to use further manipulation tactics to sway Matt over, like making a deposit into Nelson & Murdock's bank account, stealing his Daredevil armor and manipulating him into coming over to her penthouse so he'll have to wear it while helping her fight off some ninjas, and sending a chauffeured car to pick him up while he's at the hospital with Karen and Foggy to talk to Frank Castle.
  • In "Guilty as Sin", Karen visits Matt's apartment. She manages to make it to Matt's room, where he's talking to Elektra, who is laid up in bed and recuperating from a poisoned stab wound she sustained during a recent fight with the Hand.
    You'd Expect: That in the time between Karen showing up at the door, Stick letting her in, and presumably bringing her to the door, Matt would realize that Karen is here, know that seeing Elektra in his bed is a bad idea, and try to shoo her away or come up with some sort of lie.
    Instead: He doesn't.
    Result: Stick lets Karen in, and Karen sees Elektra in Matt's bed, recovering from the injuries she took in their recent fight with the Hand. Now it's Karen's turn to have such a moment.
    You'd Now Expect: That because Karen knows Matt is a reasonable, sweet, and overall decent man, she would notice that Elektra was clearly not well, and assume that Matt and Stick are taking care of a friend of his (which could explain his flakiness throughout the trial). The fact that Matt was at her bedside, and not say, lying in it with her seems like a pretty big tip. And again, Stick was right outside the door and he let her in, so Matt wasn't even alone. And also perhaps, on Matt's end, that he would explain what was going on, even if this meant having to admit he was Daredevil.
    Instead: Instead of even considering he and Stick were taking care of a friend, or even asking "What the hell is going on here?" and demanding answers, Karen instantly assumes he's a sleaze.
    Result: Between that and Frank's trial falling apart the very next day, coupled with Matt being dragged into Stick and Elektra's war with the Hand, Matt doesn't get a chance to come clean with Karen until the end of the season.
  • In "Blindsided", Matt goes to the prison looking for information on Fisk's stay there.
    You'd Expect: Matt would remember from his previous visit to Fisk in prison in season 2 that Fisk had control over the guards and inmates. Therefore, he would assume Fisk still has people at the prison working for him who have been instructed to inform Fisk if Matt visits.
    Instead: Matt seems to think that because Fisk is out of prison, he has no reason to continue paying the guards and inmates there.
    Predictably: Fisk is still paying the guards and inmates there, and moreover has staged an elaborate trap that's to be sprung if one of the lawyers who put him away should happen to stop by. He remotely orders them to start a riot in an attempt to kill Matt, and when that fails, they replace his cab driver and try to drown him. The head of the Albanian crew Matt came looking to speak to even lampshades Matt's shortsightedness.
  • In "The Perfect Game", Fisk decides to leverage the FBI for the return of his personal possessions by alleging to his handler, FBI agent Ray Nadeem, that Matt Murdock is a former associate of his.
    You'd Expect: That Nadeem would not take Fisk's allegations at face value, even if the information Fisk has been giving him up to this point has been reliable. This is because Matt is different from the previous individuals Fisk has given up. So far, Fisk has solely been handing the FBI criminals that (as far as Nadeem is aware) he has no obvious motivation to be going after.^note Fisk is using the FBI to take down rival criminals of his and taking their various corrupt officials and connections for himself, making him a one-stop shop for bribery and protection from prosecution for any other crime bosses who are left Matt is not a known criminal, and even without the whole fact that he's Daredevil, he is someone Fisk does have a blatantly obvious motive for targeting: it's public knowledge that Nelson & Murdock opposed Fisk at every turn in season 1, between exonerating Karen when Fisk tried to frame her for murder and sent people to kill her on two occasions, the whole tenement case with Mrs. Cardenas (who was murdered on Fisk's orders), and the firm making the plea deal for Carl Hoffman (a witness against Fisk). In short, Nadeem should consider the possibility that Matt is someone that Fisk has a personal vendetta against, and question Fisk further for clarification.
    Instead: He believes every word of Fisk's tall tale, for the sake of getting a promotion.
    Result: Nadeem ends up falling further and further into Fisk's hooks while Karen, Foggy, and Matt have to deal (separately) with the repercussions of his carelessness. By the time Nadeem realizes that Matt is innocent, he's in way too deep.
  • In "Upstairs / Downstairs", Karen decides to visit Fisk with the intention of provoking him into attacking her in front of the FBI so he'll violate his house arrest and go back to prison. At first, she tries to do this by disclosing that she accompanied Ben Urich on his visit to Fisk's mother. When that fails, she instead decides to admit to killing James Wesley.
    You'd Expect: That Karen would arrange for someone to come with her who can ensure an intervention before Fisk can hurt her too much. And that she'd call Foggy to tell him why she wasn't going to be at the forum where he planned to call out Tower for his inaction against Fisk.
    You'd Also Expect: Even though Karen doesn't know at this point that the imposter Daredevil is an FBI agent, she knows Fisk has corrupted law enforcement officials in the past (especially when it was one of these corrupt cops, Carl Hoffman, who ended up being instrumental to bringing down Fisk), and thus should assume that the agents in the penthouse are loyal to Fisk and not to the FBI.
    Instead: Neither of those things happen.
    Result: Fisk comes narrowly close to choking Karen to death, only not doing so because Foggy shows up just in time. Karen walks out alive, but Fisk retaliates by sending Dex after her, resulting in a fight that ends in the deaths of Father Lantom and two bystanders, as well as Matt and several church patrons being seriously injured.
    Furthermore: Since the agents in the penthouse are indeed working for Fisk (not just Dex), it's likely that had Foggy not intervened, Fisk would've killed her and they would've deleted the footage.
  • Also from "Upstairs / Downstairs", Fisk decides to have Dex's girlfriend Julie Barnes killed so that Dex can't rely on her as a "north star".
    You'd Expect: That Fisk, who killed multiple people to hush up Union Allied when it was exposed, would have her body immediately disposed of so that no one can find it or be able to link him to her death.
    Instead: Fisk keeps her body (and the bodies of her assassins) in a walk-in freezer.
    Result: Dex finds Julie's body after Matt tortures the location out of Felix Manning and relays it to him. He subsequently attacks Fisk and Vanessa's wedding as revenge and tries to kill the two of them.
    Furthermore: The reason Fisk had Julie killed is because he thinks that by taking away Dex's moral compass, Dex will be entirely devoted to him and no one will be competing with him. Which makes the murder pointless because Dex clearly already is loyal to Fisk, so really the only thing Fisk accomplished was create a way for Matt to turn Dex against him later on.
  • In "Revelations", Nadeem decides to visit his boss, SAC Tammy Hattley, to inform her of his suspicions. Namely, that Fisk manipulated the FBI into letting him out of prison, and is using Dex as his personal assassin.
    You'd Expect: For Nadeem to realize that where there's one corrupt FBI agent, there's likely a bunch of others as well. Fisk had a large number of NYPD cops in his pocket in season 1 besides Christian Blake and Carl Hoffman. Therefore, Nadeem should trust none of his superiors in the FBI (as they're suspect number one as far as FBI agents Fisk is likely to sway to his side are concerned) and take his information to the NYPD.
    Particularly: Take his information to Brett Mahoney. Brett is known in the NYPD for being the cop who arrested Fisk and the Punisher, has a direct line to the real Daredevil during the time prior to Midland Circle, and since the NYPD are likely looking for Dex as well, they can open an investigation into his activities and place him under surveillance without the FBI realizing what's going on.
    Instead: Nadeem decides Dex is a single rogue agent, and takes his information straight to Hattley while accompanied by Agent Winn.
    Result: Hattley and all of the other agents on the detail turn out to be working for Fisk as well. She abruptly kills Winn, and then she and Felix Manning blackmail Ray into working for Fisk as well.
  • A season 3-long one: Fisk carefully selects his FBI detail in advance because he's researched them thoroughly and plans to bribe, threaten and blackmail them all later and turn them into being his personal bodyguards.
    You'd Expect: That Fisk would do what he did with the NYPD cops in his pocket in season 1, and use manipulation (with Nadeem and Dex) and bribery (for everyone else). He can then use blackmail to keep them from leaving once they're dirty.
    Instead: He resorts to intimidation and blackmail as his main means of controlling them.
    End Result: Fisk essentially spends his days surrounded by about a dozen or so people who all would be happy to see him six feet under. When Matt breaks into his penthouse to kill him, Mrs. Shelby, the woman running his surveillance network, is thrilled at the prospect purely because she hates working for Fisk just that much. Eventually all of these Feds either provide testimony against him (Nadeem through his posthumous video confession, and everyone else after Karen gets the Bulletin to publish it) or try to outright murder him (Dex).
• Jessica Jones:
  • "AKA 99 Friends": Hope has been commanded by Kilgrave into shooting her parents. Jessica wants to prove that she was under Kilgrave's control at the time of the shootings. So she and Jeri Hogarth decide to find people who've been mind-controlled by Kilgrave in order to have them testify in Hope's trial.
    You'd Expect: That they subpoena the staff from the restaurant that Kilgrave took Hope to. AKA people who have very little reason to lie and can positively say "that woman right there walked in with a creepy British guy who made us do things we didn't want to do."
    Instead: They just go out and get a bunch of random people who at best can only testify that someone exists who can force you to do stuff (no proof that Hope was under his influence) and at worse are all mentally unstable or have good reasons for wanting to excuse their actions by lying about someone else making them do it.
  • So a bunch of Kilgrave's victims are located and brought in.
    You'd Expect: That Jessica and Hogarth would work to isolate each victim, so that they could be interviewed separately and without anyone or anything around to influence them.
    Instead: They put the victims all together in a support group.
    Result: This weakens all of their stories because they've had time to be influenced by each other.
  • "AKA 1000 Cuts": Kilgrave attempts to make a deal with Hogarth: busting him out of his Tailor-Made Prison in exchange for doing Hogarth a favor.
    You'd Expect: Hogarth to take Jessica's warning seriously since Kilgrave is very dangerous, and there's no guarantee that Kilgrave will keep his promise after he's free. Plus, Hogarth doesn't have anything to keep Kilgrave from backstabbing her.
    Instead: The temptations of harnessing mind control is too irresistible for Hogarth. She vouches for the easy way to get her ex-wife Wendy to sign the divorce papers - double-cross Jessica, spring Kilgrave, and take him to Wendy.
    Result: Kilgrave does use Mind Control on Wendy... to order her to kill Jeri through Death by a Thousand Cuts. Jeri nearly bleeds to death, and her mistress Pam shows up in the nick of time to kill Wendy. Jeri regrets her choice, while Pam is disgusted by her actions and gets thrown in jail.
  • When Kilgrave was a child, he had a rare and terminal brain disease. So his parents, both scientists, subjected him to very painful experimental treatments.
    You'd Expect: Albert and Louise would explain to Kilgrave what they were doing and how important it was they do it. Sedate him if possible so he didn't go through extreme pain. At the very least, offer him comfort and consolation after each procedure.
    Instead: They never explain what they are doing at any point.
    Result: Kilgrave believes he was born to be their guinea pig and hates them for the pain they put him through. When he gains powers, he wastes no time in making his parents do what he wants. They abandon him at the age of 10, and he grows up to become a Psychopathic Manchild with the power to control people.
  • In Season 2, Jessica has finally decided to turn her mother in to the police. She has the contact of Detective Costa, who trusts her, and her mother is currently in her apartment.
    You'd Expect: Jessica would contact Costa by texting or emailing him.
    Instead: Jessica calls Costa and tells him out loud where her mother is, while knowing that Alisa is in the next room and probably listening. She even leans on the door, for God's sake!
    Result: Alisa tries to run for it when Costa shows up, and Jessica has to spend several minutes tracking her down. It's only by pure luck that Alisa doesn't kill anyone else in the interim.
• Luke Cage:
  • "Code of the Streets": Cornell "Cottonmouth" Stokes' enforcer Tone, and Shades, have been instructed to track down Chico and recover the money he, Dante and Shameek stole from Cottonmouth and Domingo's guys during an attack on an arms deal. Shameek is captured and beaten to death by Cottonmouth. Cottonmouth tells Tone to go after Chico if he's slipping.
    You'd Expect: Since Tone was present for Shameek's murder, he'd know that Cottonmouth can be unhinged when he's angry. And subsequently, that Tone run a plan by Cottonmouth first before going out to look for Chico.
    Instead: He does run a plan by Cottonmouth, sure. But since Cottonmouth seems non-committal, Tone decides to make an executive decision. Leading to....
    Then: After Turk Barrett tips them off, Tone and Shades see Chico at Pop's Barber Shop. Shades wants to wait, and Tone wants to go in and kill him.
    Now You'd Expect: That Tone listen to Shades, call Cottonmouth, and ask him what he wants to do.
    Alternately: Put on a ski mask, walk in with a pistol, and just shoot Chico in the head.
    Instead: Tone proceeds to take twin submachine guns and sprays indiscriminately into the barbershop.
    End Result: The only bullet that does manage to hit Chico is a non-fatal hit, while Pop - a well-respected former friend of Cottonmouth's and father figure for Luke - is killed by a stray round to the neck. The latter transgression enrages Cottonmouth such that he murders Tone on the spot when he finds out what happened, while Luke retaliates against Cottonmouth by attacking his stashhouses, getting most of his money seized by the police.
  • Following the shooting, Tone and Shades return to the rooftop of the nightclub to converse with Cottonmouth and Mariah.
    You'd Expect: That Tone calmly explain what happened (he opened fire, Pop was accidentally hit and killed by a stray). Maybe even show remorse for killing Pop or provide some justification for shooting up the place. Or just let Shades do all the talking.
    Instead: He brags about going all "Django Candieland shit for real", and callously dismisses Pop's death as "a casualty of war". And he calls Cornell "Cottonmouth" TO HIS FACE, despite having lectured Shameek in the previous episode about how Cornell hates being called that.
    End Result: By this point, it's not a matter of if things are going to end badly for Tone, but how badly they are going to end for him. Cottonmouth, furious that Pop is dead, throws Tone off the roof to his death.
  • "Suckas Need Bodyguards": Misty's partner Rafael Scarfe is secretly in Cottonmouth's pocket and feeding him inside information. When smuggling seized weapons and money out of evidence, he gets the idea to squeeze Cottonmouth for $100,000, given he's just learned from another dirty cop in the precinct that Internal Affairs is investigating him.
    You'd Expect: It's been less than a year since Wilson Fisk was arrested, and it's public knowledge that he'd killed corrupt cops who became problems for him since one of them, Carl Hoffman, testified against him. Knowing this, Scarfe would consider that being crooked means his badge won't protect him from Cottonmouth killing him, and thus have some sort of contingency on hand.
    For Instance: Mention the IA investigation, or the hidden ledger he's got hidden under the floorboards in his apartment with details of the various crimes he's committed or covered up for Cottonmouth, one that will be released to the public if anything happens to him.
    Instead: Scarfe goes to meet with Cottonmouth, and tries to shake him down.
    Result: Cottonmouth attacks him, wrestles his gun away, and shoots him several times. Scarfe is still breathing.
    Now You'd Expect: Cottonmouth would walk behind the car and finish off Scarfe by bashing his head in/strangling him/something. As long as Scarfe is alive, he's very much a threat.
    Instead: Cottonmouth gets back in his own car and drives off.
    Result: Scarfe manages to make it back to Pop's Barber Shop, and tells Luke and Claire everything he knows before he dies. And while Luke does uncover Scarfe's ledger, it's rendered worthless without him alive to verify the details of it.
  • "Soliloquy of Chaos": Zip has been ordered by Diamondback to assassinate Shades. After Zip and a few of his henchmen get Shades into a freight elevator, Zip carries out his attack....
    You'd Expect:....by just shooting Shades in the head.
    Instead: ...by garroting Shades from behind, while his henchmen just stand there and do nothing...
    End Result: ...and Shades, a former street brawler, manages to fight back, grabs one henchman's gun, and uses it to kill both of Zip's men. He then leads Zip out onto the roof, and pistol-whips him into admitting to Diamondback's complicity. Shades, unimpressed, then shoots Zip in the head.
  • Towards the end of season 1, Candace Miller decides to come clean with Misty Knight and admit to being paid off by Mariah Dillard to lie about Cottonmouth's murder and programs the number of a burner to contact Candace from.
    You'd Expect: That Misty would password protect her phone, in case she loses it. And, in addition to that, use codenames for her informants when putting them in her contact list.
    Instead: Misty doesn't do either of those things.
    Result When her phone is stolen by Shades in the ruckus of the fight between Luke Cage and Diamondback, he has a direct line to Candace and can call her out of hiding to get killed.
  • On the subject of Candace: during Mariah's interrogation in "You Know My Steez", her forensics friend Bailey interrupts, pulls Misty out, and informs her that Candace has been found dead.
    You'd Expect: That Misty would pull Inspector Ridley out, quietly explain the situation to her, and then gone back in and used anything they could to trick Mariah into confessing on tape. Police can lie, they know and are trained in exactly how to lie to elicit a confession^note example: tell Mariah that Shades had nearly killed Candace, not actually killed Candace, and that she was lucky to be alive. Mariah knew Shades was going to do something, so as long as she was led to believe Shades tried and failed she might have bought it..
    Instead: Since Misty gets irrational when she loses control of situations, she just goes in and just announces their witness is dead. And gets rightfully chewed out by Inspector Ridley for her mistake.
  • Diamondback opens fire on Misty Knight when she tries to take him in at Harlem's Paradise for killing a police officer. Luke carries Misty to safety even as Diamondback's men open fire on him.
    You'd Expect: That since there are lots of witnesses who clearly can see people shooting at Luke, not Luke shooting at others, Diamondback take Shades' suggestion and withdraw from the club before the police show up.
    Instead: Diamondback, due to his absurd amount of hatred for Luke Cage, decides to improvise a Hostage Situation.
    End Result: Once the situation is over, the police know Luke isn't the hostage taker since there are lots of contradicting statements from the witnesses. Additionally, Shades and Mariah choose to cut ties with him due to Diamondback's recklessness.
  • Domingo and his men decide to go to Diamondback's warehouse to kill him. After a brief exchange, Domingo and his men pull out their guns...
    You'd Expect: ...and shoot Diamondback and his men dead on the spot.
    Instead: ...and Domingo monologues...
    Result: ...long enough for Diamondback and his men to get the drop on them. A gunfight ensues in which everyone on Domingo's crew is killed.
  • Mariah Dillard is a councilwoman who happens to be cousin to Cottonmouth, a known organized crime figure.
    You'd Expect: Since a nosy reporter in the likes of Karen Page or Thembi Wallace might turn up evidence of her dirtiness, that Mariah would have some sort of PR plan if allegations that she's in bed with her cousin's criminal activities ever come up. Especially considering she regularly hangs out at Cottonmouth's nightclub. And she knows the stuff Cottonmouth does isn't exactly family friendly material. Even something like "That's my cousin. Not me. I do this pretty Harlem stuff."
    Also: Wait until the heat from Luke's attack on Crispus Attucks has died down before doing the TV piece.
    Instead: She doesn't.
    Result: She effectively is ambushed by Thembi Wallace during the interview, and all Mariah can do is end the interview and kick Thembi and her camera crew out. There are calls then from the public and fellow city councilmen for her resignation, which are only silenced when she kills Cottonmouth and pins his death on Luke. She is eventually forced to step down from the city council, though still has some prestige as the owner of Harlem's Paradise.
  • In "Straighten It Out," Shades and Comanche visit Arturo Rey, one of the prospective clients looking to buy guns from Mariah. Arturo has decided to back out of the deal in light of being busted for trying to kill Luke with a Judas weapon, and threatens to go to the police with what he knows in hopes of reducing his prison sentence if Mariah doesn't use her legal connections to get him off. Shades takes this personally and gets in Arturo's face.
    You'd Expect: Arturo to get the hint that Shades doesn't like people bad-talking Mariah and back down.
    Instead: He switches to Spanish and continues insulting Mariah to Shades's face.
    Predictably: Shades shoots him in the face, and Comanche kills his bodyguards.
  • At the start of season 2, Shade's childhood friend and prison lover, Darius "Comanche" Jones, is released from prison, and takes a spot in Mariah's gang, and promptly becomes an informant for Misty's boss, Captain Thomas Ridenhour.
    You'd Expect: He would work out creating alibis for himself for times when he needs to meet with Ridenhour to deliver information.
    Instead: The best he does is claim he's off meeting his mother Janice.
    Result: Shades becomes suspicious of Comanche, especially when the timing of Comanche's meetings with Ridenhour leaves him unreachable during important events like Bushmaster visiting Mariah at Harlem's Paradise to threaten her, or Bushmaster declaring war on Mariah (Comanche doesn't help himself along the way by asking Shades questions about Mariah in a way that makes it obvious that he's fishing for information). Eventually, a moment of idiocy by Ridenhour leads to Comanche's snitch status being exposed, and Shades ultimately killing him for it.
  • In "The Basement", Bushmaster has declared war on Mariah by planting three severed heads in the entrance to her new housing project and also shooting up a party being held by Piranha Jones. Captain Ridenhour, her former high school sweetheart, has Mariah brought to the precinct to be questioned. Unbeknownst to Mariah, Comanche is acting as an informant for Ridenhour. While trying to gain Mariah's cooperation, Ridenhour mentions the criminal deeds her late cousin committed.
    You'd Expect: Ridenhour would only mention crimes that are on the official record as being committed by Cottonmouth or his men.
    Instead: He mentions how Cornell threw Tone off a roof.
    Result: Mariah realizes that there's a rat in her gang because Tone's death (which she was a witness to) was covered up by Cottonmouth. When she discloses this to her gang, Shades (who also witnessed the murder) realizes Comanche is the rat because he confided in him the details about Tone's death. He keeps a close eye on Comanche all throughout the day, and eventually catches him meeting with Ridenhour that evening. While Comanche kills Ridenhour and attempts to bluff his way out, Shades promptly kills him for snitching.
  • Shades gets a moment of this in "On and On" when he catches Comanche meeting Ridenhour. After Comanche kills Ridenhour, Shades decides to stage a scene where Comanche and Ridenhour killed each other, and shoots Comanche with Ridenhour's gun.
    You'd Expect: Shades would let Comanche slowly bleed to death.
    Instead: He can't bear seeing his friend/prison lover die slowly, so shoots him a second time at close range to grant him a Mercy Kill.
    Result: Misty realizes there was a third party at the crime scene, pointing out Ridenhour wouldn't have had the arm strength to fire the second shot with his dying breath.
  • In "The Main Ingredient," Mariah decides to smoke out Bushmaster by kidnapping his uncle Anansi, then taking him back to his restaurant Gwen's in Brooklyn. She and her gang walk into the place and promptly take everyone present hostage.
    You'd Expect: Mariah to have one of her men shoot Anansi in the head with their pistols. His death alone should be enough to draw Bushmaster out of hiding.
    Instead: She has her men kill everyone present, before having Anansi doused in alcohol and set on fire. Then, as he's burning to death, she shoots him in the head with a revolver that's a Stokes family heirloom, one that Cottonmouth had used to kill Uncle Pete in the late 1980s, and which Shades used to kill Candace Miller in the season 1 finale.
    Result: With five innocent bystanders dead and one (Bushmaster's aunt Ingrid) wounded, the case becomes a media circus. The police turn up the heat on Mariah's gang, and ultimately establish her as the culprit when the ballistics on the bullet dug out of Anansi's body match it to the same gun used in the two aforementioned murders. Shades, for his part, is also appalled at Mariah's ruthlessness, and decides to turn informant, leading the police to the gun in question, ensuring Mariah's arrest.
  • In the second season finale, Mariah finds herself in prison thanks to Shades turning on her, and is set upon by two other inmates who prepare to kill her, but are taken out first by Sunflower, who is the leader of the prison's black clique, and a childhood rival of Mariah. After making it clear that she wants Mariah's servitude in exchange for having just saved her life, Mariah asks for Sunflower's shiv so that she can carve her initials into the corpse of one of the women who just tried to kill her.
    You'd Expect: Sunflower to point out that this would be an extremely stupid thing for Mariah to do, as it would instantly get her fingered for a murder she didn't even commit, and end any remote chance of her escaping conviction for the multitude of murders she actually has been responsible for some way.
    Instead: She happily hands over her shiv.
    Result: Mariah rewards her with a slit throat for her trouble.
• Iron Fist:
  • "Snow Gives Way": Danny Rand has made his way back to New York City after 15 years in K'un L'un. He decides to go seek out Rand Enterprises to reintroduce himself to the Meachums.
    You'd Expect: That Danny would stop at a local shelter to get himself cleaned up and presentable with some donated clothing beforehand.
    Instead: He doesn't.
    Result: Ward and Joy rebuff him because even though he's saying things they ought to remember (like Ward's bullying), he comes off as an insane homeless acrobat (that Ward nicknames "Cirque de Psychopath"), and they're not willing to believe him.
  • The Meachums have a bit of this too in reference to the above:
    You'd Expect: That Joy or Ward would ask a few questions only Danny could answer.
    Instead: Due to Ward's stubbornness and Joy's paranoia, on top of Danny's appearance, neither of them do.
    Result: It's not until the next episode that Joy comes up with a test solution (the M&M's test) by remembering a childhood habit of Danny's the two of them shared. And in the episode after that, Jeri Hogarth tries this trick (by asking Danny very specific questions about her work as an intern in Rand's legal department), and it literally only takes her about a minute to believe this is Danny.
• The Defenders:
  • "Mean Right Hook": Danny and Colleen are in a warehouse where they've found the bodies of recently killed Chaste soldiers. A group of cleaners including Cole enter the building carrying acid and a spray hose to dissolve the bodies. Danny and Colleen reveal themselves and engage the cleaners.
    You'd Expect: That the cleaners would try spraying them with acid to blind them.
    Instead: They put their acid cans down and instead fight Danny and Colleen with their fists.
    Result: This means their work is preserved when the police arrive minutes later.
  • "Royal Dragon": After fleeing Midland Circle and hiding in a Chinese restaurant trying to keep their presence a secret, Matt, Jessica, Luke and Danny are found by an injured Stick who explains that he found them because Danny tried to call Colleen. Stick smashes Danny's phone and reminds him that the Hand can trace their calls.
    You'd Expect: That they immediate relocate to another safe place, probably somewhere like the Bulletin or Matt's apartment, before the Hand can get to the Royal Dragon.
    Instead: They stay put.
    Result: The Hand, tracking Danny's phone, are able to follow them there.
    • Also from this episode: Matt has just recognized Elektra is still alive and has been brainwashed into being the Hand's top assassin.
      You'd Expect: That Matt, remembering how he burned his bridges with Karen and Foggy as a result of keeping them in the dark about what he was doing with Elektra during Daredevil season 2, as well as the closure of Nelson & Murdock, would immediately come clean with the other Defenders about who Elektra is and his attachment to her.
      Instead: He and Stick make it their little secret.
      Result: When Elektra shows up for the fight at the Royal Dragon, Jessica, Luke and Danny are quite baffled when Matt splits off from them to fight her one-on-one. And things don't go over well when Matt is eventually forced to come clean about his ties to Elektra when interrogating Sowande.
  • "Ashes to Ashes": Stick, Matt, Luke, and Jessica decide that if Danny were out with them he would be easier to kidnap, so they need to hide him away.
    You'd Expect: That they listen to Danny's side, that hiding him away isn't a smart move, and let him have a say in the decisionmaking.
    You'd Also Expect: That Danny would keep his emotions in check so that the others might be more willing to listen to him.
    And You'd Also Expect: That since the four know the Hand had a habit of popping up when least expected, that Elektra could very likely find them and try to capture Danny.
    Instead: Between being shut out of the discussion, and not keeping his anger reined in, Danny lashes out at the group, forcing Matt, Luke and Jessica to tie him up.
    End Result: Elektra is able to capture Danny without him being able to defend himself, and she also ends up killing Stick and knocking out Matt, Luke and Jessica in quick succession.
    Even Moreso: Even if Danny had just cooperated and stayed behind willingly, it's unlikely that he could have stopped Elektra from capturing him if he fought her alone.
  • "Fish in the Jailhouse": Once Danny's kidnapped and taken beneath Midland Circle, Elektra outright tells him that the Iron Fist is needed to open the barrier.
    You'd Expect: That Danny realize that the one thing he shouldn't do during the subsequent fight with Elektra is summon the Iron Fist.
    Instead: He does.
    Result: This leads to Elektra bullfighting him into punching the barrier with the Iron Fist. Granted, he spends most of the fight using his regular martial arts, and only activates the Iron Fist when Elektra pushes him to do it by taunting him.
• The Punisher:
  • "Cold Steel": After most of Dinah Madani and Sam Stein's backup have just been taken out in a shootout with Billy Russo and his men, Sam manages to corner Russo at gunpoint.
    You'd Expect: That Sam wait for backup to arrive before approaching Russo. Given that Russo had just shot another SWAT officer literally seconds before Sam drew on him, doing so would guarantee that Russo wouldn't be able to make a sudden move on him.
    Or: If he approaches Russo, pat him down to make sure he doesn't have any hidden weapons, then put handcuffs on him.
    Instead: Sam walks up to Russo and rips off his ski mask.
    Result: Russo takes advantage of Sam's shocked reaction to pull out a retractable knife mounted on his right arm (which he used in the previous episode to kill Colonel Bennett) and stabs Sam to death.
  • "Front Toward Enemy": Lewis, having set off bombs in Manhattan, chooses to address a manifesto to Karen Page, as she's previously been an advocate for Frank Castle.
    You'd Expect: As Lewis is clearly unhinged, has just blown up an office building, and he literally threatened the Bulletin, that Karen get police protection. Especially since this isn't a resourceful person like Wilson Fisk or the Hand targeting her, but a single individual acting alone; and also since Matt is not around and there's no guarantee Frank could help either.
    Instead: She comes out calling him a coward on the radio.
    End Result: Lewis responds by targeting Karen and Senator Ori personally at the hotel, while Karen's working relationship with Ellison gets put on thin ice after he learns she was secretly aware Frank has been faking his death this whole time.
• Inhumans:
  • During his coup, Maximus has Black Bolt cornered in his soundproof chamber, the one place where there's no risk of him causing mass-destruction (intentionally or otherwise) with the power of his voice. As yet, Black Bolt has only heard rumors of a possible coup, not that it's actually in progress.
    You'd Expect: That Maximus and his forces would stand ready at the entrance to the chamber, then pounce on Black Bolt as soon as he emerges. While he may be enforcing a Fantastic Caste System, he does try to be The Good King in other regards, so he won't do anything that'd risk harming innocent bystanders.
    Instead: Maximus and his men march right into Black Bolt's chamber, and inform him that's he's being deposed. And then, to make it even dumber, Maximus starts taunting Black Bolt about his accidentally killing their parents, and tries to goad him into doing the same to him. In the middle of the once place where Black Bolt could do just that without causing casualties. The only thing that saves Maximus from his own stupidity is Lockjaw showing up to rescue Black Bolt and teleporting him away.
  • Gorgon proves he was clearly the one who didn't get the brains when he was born; firstly, there's when he has to deal with a moonrover that's stumbled upon the cloaking device that's keeping Attilan hidden from the Earth, and because said cloaking device is a solid shield, anyone who's watching the video footage from the camera is going to notice it's stuck against something.
    You'd Expect: He would crush the rover with a boulder. To whoever was watching the rover through the camera, it would appear that the rover merely had the misfortune of being in a spot that wound up being where another meteoroids struck the moon (which, given that the moon gets struck by meteoroids daily, is easy to imagine).
    Instead: Gorgon crushes the rover with his hoof, and doesn't even do so in a way that hides said foot.
    Result: The people on Earth now know there's something on the moon, which is the last thing that the very secretive Inhumans want.
  • Also, there's how he deals with Mordis when the latter tries to bring down the building the other Inhumans are in.
    You'd expect: Him to snap Mordis's neck. Since killing Mordis is the only way to end this situation, snapping his neck would quickly end the situation. The Royal Family doesn't even have a "Thou Shall Not Kill" policy^note it's possible that Black Bolt and Medusa themselves don't kill, if the fate Black Bolt inflicts upon Maximus in the show's finale was intended to be a demonstration of said policy, and Medusa does object to Karnak killing another Inhuman; however, there's nothing suggesting the other Members of the Royal Family have such a policy, and considering what Gorgon actually does, it's clear he doesn't have such a policy, and Karnak even snapped another Inhuman's neck earlier^note so they don't even object to that specific method of killing someone; Medusa's objection was likely to the killing in general, so there's literally no reason for him not to snap Mordis's neck.
    Instead: He opts to use a Shockwave Stomp to kill Mordis, bringing the building down - said stomp being just as dangerous as one of Mordis's blasts.
    Result: Gorgon dies alongside Mordis. While he does come back later, he had no way of knowing that the Royal Family would bring him back.
• Helstrom:
  • Ana Helstrom's father made a deal with a woman named Audrey who has a grudge against her after barging into her house with questions. She would lure in Ana into a trap set by him. He is successful and Ana has been beaten into unconsciousness.
    You'd expect: That the demon would make sure to restrain her daughter before doing anything else. Or if he wanted to do anything else to just wait until after he puts her in a safe location.
    Instead: He proceeds to kill Audrey immediately afterwards, who showed no signs of betraying him whatsoever.
    The Result: Ana regains consciousness during that time frame and escapes.

TV Shows - Disney+

• WandaVision:
  • "On a Very Special Episode": Wanda Maximoff has created an extremely powerful hex around Westview. Very little is known about the nature of the energy used, the stability or volatility of the Hex if attacked, how it's affecting the citizens of Westview, and what would happen if Wanda was killed. In order to open a line of communication with Wanda, S.W.O.R.D. decide to send a drone into the Hex. Hayward is fully aware of everything in Wanda's file, which almost certainly includes the fact that she overpowered and nearly singlehandedly killed Thanos just a few weeks prior.
    You'd Expect: Hayward would let Monica continue to talk with Wanda via the drone, so they can do something like start a crisis negotiation to try and get the kidnapped townspeople out of the Hex.
    Instead: Hayward arms the drone without telling Monica, and fires a missile at Wanda before they can even start a conversation.
    Result: Wanda, already angry at Hayward for not letting her give Vision a proper burial, hijacks the drone and crashes it. She then exits the Hex, tosses the destroyed drone at Hayward's feet, warns him to leave her alone, and to emphasize her point, she possesses 20 S.W.O.R.D. snipers into pointing their guns at him before heading back into the Hex, strengthening the barrier to prevent anyone else from getting in. Hayward is lucky that Wanda doesn't have his men pump his body full of bullets. The only beneficial thing Hayward gets out of all this is that the crashed drone is infused with some of Wanda's chaos magic, which he later uses to reactivate White Vision.
  • "Previously On" reveals how the Westview anomaly happened. After the Blip and battle with Thanos, Wanda finds out that S.W.O.R.D has taken possession of Vision's body. She goes to S.W.O.R.D headquarters and politely asks director Tyler Hayward to hand the body over to her so she can give him a funeral. Vision has specified in a living will that he does not want to be revived, out of fear of being turned into a weapon of mass destruction.
    You'd Expect: Hayward would respect Vision and Wanda's wishes, and thus reassemble the body, hand it over to Wanda, and make do with what S.W.O.R.D has managed to learn in the last five years. If the reasons aren't to give a grieving woman closure, the pragmatic ones are that 1) Wanda is a walking being of chaos and an Avenger, one who can tear apart materials stronger than vibranium like they were tissue paper. 2) Professor Hulk is still around, as are Captain Marvel, Falcon, and Bucky Barnes. They and Stark Industries' legal team^note Vision could be considered property of Stark Industries since Tony and Banner created him could prove that Wanda has the legal right to decide what happens to Vision's body as his next of kin, or do a show of force. And 3) it would minimize the chances that Wanda goes to a reporter with evidence of Hayward's abuses of power.
    Instead: Hayward not only refuses to let Wanda take Vision's body, he tells her about Project Cataract, then shows her the in-the-middle-of-being-dismantled body in hopes that she can, and more bafflingly want to, bring Vision back from the dead so he can use Vision as a living weapon, even coldly refuting her claims of his rights by constantly de-humanizing him. All of which are either illegal and/or just plain immoral.
    The Result: Wanda, grief stricken over not even being able to give her lover a proper sendoff, snaps and creates a sitcom reality in a hex encompassing the town of Westview, completely out of touch with reality and in denial that she's causing more harm than good by subconsciously kidnapping innocent people and making them act out roles in her fantasies. It's only because Hayward is Born Lucky that she doesn't fricassee him and the S.W.O.R.D. facility then and there. When Monica keeps trying to reason with her, Wanda is reluctant to trust her because of her association with Hayward. Hayward goes Never My Fault when Monica confronts him for this, saying Wanda is too unstable for negotiations. His abuses of power ultimately come to light, and the season ends with him being arrested by the FBI.
  • "The Series Finale": Jimmy Woo has been investigating S.W.O.R.D. because the Hex is weird and he suspects that Wanda wouldn't willingly trap people given her track record. He ends up captured by Hayward while his allies try to find out what's been going on here, and infiltrate confidential information about Project Cataract. Meanwhile, Darcy and Monica have willingly entered the Hex to save Wanda from being killed by Hayward, and the citizens from Wanda and Agatha.
    You'd Expect: Hayward would maintain Plausible Deniability. He could point out that Wanda is holding a town of 4,000 people hostage, so the nuclear situation may be the only option, and remind Jimmy that Wanda doesn't exactly have much in the way of good publicity (between being Ultron's accomplice and the disaster in Lagos). Also, he could give Jimmy a dressing-down for breaking the law in the name of aiding and abetting a fugitive. Jimmy Woo is known for being good.
    Instead: He reveals that he plans to use Vision as a weapon, violating the Sokovia Accords, and killing Wanda as a loose end. What's more, Hayward gloats that no one will believe Jimmy, not even his buddies at the FBI.
    The Result: Jimmy is Smarter Than You Look and he takes advantage of Caught Monologuing. He uses the magic tricks he learned from watching Scott Lang so as to free himself, get a phone, and notify his fellow FBI agents about the slew of evidence that proves Hayward is committing abuses of his authority. Cue the FBI arriving to Westview as The Cavalry, and once Wanda takes down the Hex, they move in and arrest Hayward. Just because Jimmy Woo is a goofball doesn't mean he's incompetent.
• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier:
  • In Episode 3, Sam, Bucky, and Zemo go undercover in Madripoor to find the Power Broker.
    You'd Expect: Sam would turn his phone off, or better yet, get a burner specifically for the mission.
    Instead: Sam brings his own phone and leaves it on.
    The Result: Sarah calls Sam in the middle of the op, blows his cover, and the whole thing goes to hell.
  • In Episode 4, Sam tries to talk down Karli Morganthau before she's too far gone. He tells Walker to wait.
    You'd Expect: Walker to be patient and let Sam work his magic.
    Instead: After a few minutes, Walker grows impatient and immediately moves in to arrest Karli as Sam comes this close to talking Karli down and ending her crusade against the government.
    The Result: Karli ends up thinking Sam betrayed her and it only gets worse from here as she accidentally kills Hoskins, and Walker murders Nico in retaliation. And this in turn also ends up completely ruining Walker's image as Captain America, as after he got apprehended by Sam and Bucky, the US government strips him of his title, his rank (even if he were to retire), and lost all his benefits.
• Loki:
  • For reasons, Loki has ended up falling in love with a female parallel version of themselves who is named Sylvie. Sylvie has been waging a crusade on the TVA for wiping out her timeline but is forced to partner with Loki. They try to survive an apocalypse and fail; the two decide to wait for the end, to Face Death with Dignity.
    You'd Expect: Judge Ravonna would let the variants die. Sylvie was on her hitlist already, due to being a Variant that would not yield to the TVA's authority.  Letting Loki die before he can talk to Mobius ensures that Mobius remains under Ravonna's control.
    Instead: The TVA rescues them, puts both Loki variants under arrest, and tortures them.
    The Result: Despite being mad at Loki for seemingly betraying him, Mobius starts questioning the TVA when Loki encourages him to investigate before placed in a time loop as punishment. He finds out that everyone working in the TVA is a Variant with their memories wiped, including himself, and Ravonna has been wiping their memories. Mobius busts out Loki, and B-12 frees Sylvie by handing her the sword. Cue Ravonna getting busted, though she manages to "prune" the threats to her life.
• What If...?: In "What If... Killmonger Rescued Tony Stark?", Tony Stark has just discovered evidence that Killmonger murdered Rhodes and T'Challa and staged it to look like they killed each other.
  You'd Expect: Tony to give a copy of the evidence to the police or Pepper or someone else he trusts, and if he absolutely feels the need to directly confront an experienced soldier with no qualms about murder, to do so from a million miles away via Skype or something.
  Instead: He confronts Killmonger in person with nothing but a single robot minion to protect him without telling anyone.
  The Result: Killmonger overpowers the robot, easily kills Tony with a vibranium spear, and successfully inflames U.S./Wakanda tensions further, with no one the wiser.