History Fridge / TheDefenders2017

* Luke is a little hesitant to admit that Matt's billy club gimmick is "kinda cool" because he's using it on Sowande - as the only one of the four that's been experimented on, torture is still clearly a sore spot for him. [[KickTheSonOfABitch Fortunately Sowande's an asshole.]]

** So when Matt wakes up in the precinct, he's freaking out because he’s wearing an NYPD shirt, has been drugged and knocked out, and falls apart as he tells Foggy that Elektra killed Stick. But not only is he processing the fact that he just lost Stick, the father figure whom he still loved (despite being manipulated, abandoned, and rejected over and over again), he is processing that he has lost Elektra completely. That the Elektra who earned her redemption by throwing herself in front of Nobu’s blade both to save Matt and deny the Hand their Black Sky is gone. That he can never get Elektra back again. And yet, even in their final confrontation down in the pit below Midland Circle, he still holds out that tiny bit of hope that maybe the Elektra he knew is still there, because he’s Matt. He will always believe in redemption. He has to, or else he’s damned. Stick was an asshole who weaponized children, and fucked them up because he loved them (in a very twisted way). But that moment isn’t just about losing Stick. It’s about losing hope.

** Which means that ''The Defenders'' marks the end of a chapter for Matt; he’s basically going to be starting from scratch in ''Daredevil'' season 3, as he begins to realize that he ''needs'' Foggy and Karen in his life, and that pushing them away has not done him ANY favors, nor has it done any good for Foggy or for Karen. ''The Defenders'' is the beginning of a new chapter in Matt's life, where it’s not about who Matt's lost, but about who comes back. Starting with his mother, and then continuing on to Karen and Foggy, which will be an absolute necessity for Matt since with Fisk scheming revenge against him, Matt will need to have allies.

* Jessica notes that she's the only person who doesn't know karate. (Luke doesn't know Eastern martial arts either, but he has his training as [[ElitesAreMoreGlamorous a Force Recon Marine]] to fall back on, and his super durability gives him some leeway) This comes to bite her in the ass when she goes up against Murakami in his attempt to kill Trish, and gets handily defeated in a matter of seconds, not even managing to land a punch. However, Matt, who has no physical super strength, holds his own. Jessica relies on her super strength as a blunt instrument with no finesse because her enemies in her own series and Luke doesn't require anything more since he never had to really exert himself, whereas Matt has decades of training and experience needed to fight supernatural ninjas. Superior strength doesn't mean shit when you don't know how to use it effectively.

* It's appropriate that a Nirvana song would be used for the trailer music, since we saw during Jessica's brief period living with Kilgrave in her childhood house that she was a fan of them in her teenage years.

* When Luke and Danny first team up, Music/RunTheJewels is played. Aside from the hip hop motif in both Series/LukeCage2016 and Series/IronFist2017, the two heroes parallel the two rappers. The white El-P is from New York City like Danny, while the black Killer Mike is from Georgia like Luke. Plus their symbol, two hands making a fist and a gun are pretty fitting for the Iron Fist and a bulletproof man.

* There's a nice callback in Matt and Karen's meal at the diner in "The H Word" to the angry remarks Karen made to Matt after Frank Castle's trial went down in flames, showing how Karen sees Matt (and Daredevil by extension) in a new light now that she knows the secret:

* By the end of ''Daredevil'' season 2, Matt's personal life was mostly in tatters, and he only just starts rebuilding things with Karen and Foggy by the time ''The Defenders'' rolls around. By "dying" in Midland Circle and getting reborn, he's basically now on the same page as Wilson Fisk for ''Daredevil'' season 3: an opponent who lost everything and is now trying to restore his personal life and professional reputation (which is easy for Matt, but going to be harder for Fisk given the public knows his role in the deaths of Detective Blake and numerous other cops).

* After his initial reaction, Foggy seems resigned to the fact that Matt is gone, whereas Karen is in denial and even in ''The Punisher'' is still visibly torn up about Matt being gone.

* When Jeri Hogarth tracks Jessica down to the city archives to ask her to exercise caution on the John Raymond matter, Jessica asks Jeri if she's having her followed intentionally. ''Jessica Jones'' season 2 reveals that Jeri had come into contact with Pryce Cheng after she and Jessica had their falling out in the aftermath of the saga with Kilgrave, and thus, it was Cheng who told Jeri where Jessica was.

* Did Jeri sic Foggy on Jessica purely as a means of damage control? That is, was she just putting a junior lawyer on it? Or does she suspect/know about his connection with the Daredevil and wanted him on that so that when Jessica's work went sideways she'd have some help?

** Time and intensity of relationship plays a great deal into Foggy’s emotions after the outcome of Midland Circle. Foggy's resigned acceptance is because of everyone involved, he was the most prepared for something like this happening to Matt. Remember that he first found out Matt's secret identity by finding Matt bleeding half to death from his fight with Nobu and Fisk, and Foggy later dragged a concussed Matt home from getting shot by Frank. In fact, Foggy seems to have been half expecting the worst to happen since "Nelson v. Murdock," so by the time Matt “dies” here, it’s an awful thing and he’s clearly sad about it, but he’s also able to outwardly deal with it so he can focus on other things, like the job he has to do as far as helping to cover up for this entire mess, and being a support to a clearly more emotional Karen. Of course, on the same token, we don't have enough of a view into his day to day life to make any judgements on how he’s actually dealing with Matt’s death (not even in his cameo in ''Jessica Jones'' season 2), but if Karen's behavior in ''The Punisher'' is anything, Foggy is continually mourning in private but puts on a brave face during the day. The other people who met Matt pre-''Defenders'' have interesting contrasts with Foggy:

** Compared to Claire and Foggy, Karen is very emotional and torn up about Matt's "death", even in denial. Unlike Claire and Foggy, she hasn’t had all that much time to process and come to terms with Matt’s other identity, and possibly hadn’t even come to terms with it at all. Combine that with the fact that only a couple of days ago she was trying to make some moves to rebuild their friendship and relationship, and Matt's "death" is a big shock to her. The fact that Karen's last words with Matt weren’t positive ([[PartingWordsRegret no one wants their last words with a dead friend to be crappy ones]]) is another thing that would weigh heavily on her. And it's still affecting her even in ''The Punisher'', as Karen's grief over Matt colors all of her interactions with Frank. She's latching onto Frank and using him to work through her issues over losing Matt.

* Blue is Jessica's color. Symbolically, blue is the color of the sky and sea. It is often associated with depth and stability. It symbolizes trust, loyalty, wisdom, confidence, intelligence, faith, truth, and heaven. Even though not all of those adjectives apply to Jessica, the blue may symbolize her path to stability and confidence after her debacle with Kilgrave.

** Time and intensity of relationship plays a great deal into Foggy’s emotions after the outcome of Midland Circle. Foggy's resigned acceptance is because of everyone involved, he was the most prepared for something like this happening to Matt. Remember that he first found out Matt's secret identity by finding Matt bleeding half to death from his fight with Nobu and Fisk, and Foggy later dragged a concussed Matt home from getting shot by Frank. In fact, Foggy seems to have been half expecting the worst to happen since "Nelson v. Murdock," so by the time Matt “dies” here, it’s an awful thing and he’s clearly sad about it, but he’s also able to outwardly deal with it so he can focus on other things, like the job he has to do as far as helping to cover up for this entire mess, and being a support to a clearly more emotional Karen. Of course, on the same token, we don't have enough of a view into his day to day life to make any judgements on how he’s actually dealing with Matt’s death, but if Karen's behavior in ''The Punisher'' is anything, Foggy is continually mourning in private but puts on a brave face during the day. The other people who met Matt pre-''Defenders'' have interesting contrasts with Foggy:

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* By the end of ''Daredevil'' season 2, Matt's personal life was mostly in tatters, and he only just starts rebuilding things with Karen and Foggy by the time ''The Defenders'' rolls around. By "dying" in Midland Circle and getting reborn, he's basically now on the same page as Wilson Fisk for ''Daredevil'' season 3: an opponent who lost everything and is now trying to restore his personal life and professional reputation (which is easy for Matt, but going to be harder for Fisk given the public knows he's a cop killer).
** In fact, Matt has switched places with Fisk. Matt has lost everything over the span of season 2 and ''The Defenders'', concurrent with Fisk regaining power from prison.