History Recap / Daredevil2015S1E12TheOnesWeLeaveBehind

Karen is haunted by the death of Wesley, while Fisk seeks revenge against his friend's killer. Matt sets out to dismantle Madame Gao's heroin operation. Ben is forced to take his investigation in a new direction.

* AmbiguouslyHuman: Madame Gao not only floors Daredevil in one flat-palmed strike, but also states that she is returning "home," and to somewhere "a considerable distance further" than China -- which is about as far from New York as anything can get and still be on this planet. Later seasons of the MCU on Netflix will reveal that she's [[spoiler:from K'un-Lun, a mystical realm that only occasionally touches Earth. She's human, but has wildly powerful mystical training]].

* ThisIsUnforgivable: In his conversation with Ben, Fisk makes a point that he cannot forgive him for bringing his mother into this mess, and for that he has to die.
* TranquilFury: Wilson has a fairly long conversation with Ben at the end of the episode. He rather carefully digs for information about Ben's investigation, before finally doing what he came there to do: killing Ben with his bare hands, and finally letting his true level of rage show itself.
* TrespassingToTalk: Ben decides to spend the night writing up everything he knows on an internet blog. As he sits down at his computer, the camera pans over to show [[OhCrap Fisk quietly sitting in a chair behind him]].

* YouAreInCommandNow: Despite nearly killing Francis earlier, Fisk gives him Wesley's job as TheDragon. Owlsley questions Fisk's choice of logic.

* CallBack: Ben mentions that he knew a guy who knew Don Rigoletto back in the day. He's referring to Silvio Manfredi, the mobster he met back in "[[Recap/Daredevil2015S1E3RabbitInASnowstorm Rabbit In A Snowstorm]]".
* CardboardBoxOfUnemployment: After getting fired from the ''Bulletin'', Ben Urich is shown bringing home a Banker's box with all his office memorabilia including his framed front page articles, just in time for Wilson Fisk to choke him to death.

* FailedASpotCheck: Ben walks into his home office, sets down his CardboardBoxOfUnemployment, looks at one of his framed articles, pours and drinks a scotch, starts to write the article on Fisk... then Fisk clears his throat.

* FootFocus: The camera focuses on Urich's feet as Fisk chokes him to death, with the visual cue that he's dead being when his feet stop kicking.

* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: Fisk asks Ben if he was alone when he spoke to Marlene. Ben claims that he was, and since the only other person who knows that Ben was accompanied by Karen at the time is dead, it means that Fisk has no idea that someone else knows all about his secrets that he doesn't want the public to know about, [[Recap/Daredevil2015S3E8UpstairsDownstairs at least for now]].

* TheReveal: The episode reveals that Madame Gao and Owlsley were responsible for the benefit poisonings in "Nelson vs. Murdock", not to kill Fisk, but to kill ''Vanessa'', in an attempt to get his focus back on his criminal empire.

* YouAreInCommandNow: Despite nearly killing Francis earlier, Fisk gives him Wesley's job as TheDragon. When Leland questions this, he says the fact that Wesley trusted him is enough.
* YouAreNotAlone: Karen tells Matt this when he breaks down in tears after seeing Madame Gao's heroin operation and realising the scale of what he's up against.

* FatalFamilyPhoto: After killing Urich, we see Fisk step on a photo of Urich and his wife that got knocked off the table during the struggle as he leaves.

* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: Fisk asks Ben if he was alone when he spoke to Marlene. Ben claims that he was, and since the only other person who knows that Ben was accompanied by Karen at the time is dead, it means that Fisk has no idea that someone else knows all about his secrets that he doesn't want the public to know about.

* TrespassingToTalk: Ben decides to spend the night writing up everything he knows on an internet blog. As he sits down at his computer, the camera pans over to show [[OhCrap Fisk quietly sitting in the dark behind him]].

* GenreSavvy: Fisk asks Francis who Wesley was in touch with before he left the hospital. Francis doesn't remember. Fortunately, Wesley's smartphone is a Galaxy S4, which also records the call history, and it takes just a few seconds for Fisk to pull it up and find that the last call made from Wesley's phone was to Marlene.
* GoodVersusGood: When Matt escapes Madame Gao's warehouse, he manages to avoid the arriving cops and firefighters by taking a different route, only to be cornered by Brett. Matt disarms Brett, holds him in a headlock long enough to tell him that his precinct is crooked, then flees as two more officers arrive to aid Brett.
* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: Justified as Ben doesn't want Fisk going after Karen, so he pretends he was alone when he interviewed Fisk's mother. As per usual for this trope, he gets murdered forthwith.
* HeroicSacrifice: Ben Urich claims to have gone to Fisk's mother alone ... meaning Fisk has no one else to blame. And leaves Karen off the hook.

** Early on, Karen has a nightmare about Fisk tracking her down to kill her in her own apartment. The same thing happens at the end of the episode, when Fisk actually does do this....to Ben Urich.

* CondescendingCompassion: Ben's editor, when he fires him, states he's "done helping you." This, despite that most of what he had been doing was handing Ben fluff pieces and killing his attempts at doing anything more serious. [[note]] He offered Ben an editor job because it would have better benefits but Ben turned it down.[[/note]]
* DarkestHour: The episode is our heroes at their very lowest: Karen is still traumatized from killing Wesley and paranoid that Fisk will find her; Foggy still refuses to talk to Matt and is clearing out his office at ''Nelson and Murdock''; Ben gets fired from the Bulletin, ruining their chance of getting the truth about Fisk exposed; Matt sees the very darkest aspect of Fisk's empire in Madame Gao's ''willing'' heroin workers. Then just when the audience thinks it can't get any worse for our heroes, Fisk murders Ben for going to see his mother.

** During their argument, Ben tells his editor the Fisk story is "sexy," something his editor had insisted a story needed to be back in ''Rabbit in a Snowstorm''. His editor just brushes this off, saying it makes Ben sound "like a whore."

* TheMole: Ben accuses his editor of being in Fisk's pocket. Fisk confirms that he indeed has someone at the New York Bulletin since Ben broke the Union Allied story. He doesn't say it's the editor, but given that his mother was unable to tell him anything, yet he knows Ben was talking to her but not Karen (Ben would not have named her in an article) implies that the editor tipped Fisk off about the story Ben tried to get him to print. Later in the season, we learn [[spoiler:it was actually his secretary]].

* NeverMessWithGranny: Madame Gao lays out Daredevil with a single hit, after giving no indication for the entire season that she poses a physical threat.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Fisk tries to find out from his mother what the phone call to Wesley was about, but she's too senile to remember. However Karen--convinced it's only a matter of time before Fisk comes after her--pressures Ben into trying to get the story printed. Unfortunately someone at the Bulletin is on Fisk's payroll. Fisk personally goes to Ben's apartment to have a meaningful conversation, and then kill him.

** Urich gets subject to it three times: Matt first jumps off a dumpster while he's getting in his car, prompting Urich to say "[[LampshadeHanging You like making an entrance, don't you?]]". Then Karen, waiting in a doorway, surprises him as he's returning to his apartment, to which he says, "Everybody's got to be sneaking out, tonight?" Lastly, Fisk breaks into Urich's apartment, then sits in a chair in a dimly lit corner and waits for Ben to come home. He's unnoticed until the camera pans and Fisk begins talking.

** Madame Gao basically dissapear in the few seconds it takes Matt to recover from her hit.

--->'''Fisk:''' This world around us is preoccupied with celebrity weddings and videos of cats. But ... complicated issues, issues that matter ... they take too much focus. They take too much time away from texting and the thousands of channels on the satellite dish.

-->'''Karen:''' [[LampshadeHanging Well, that wasn't awkward]]...