Daredevil 2015 / Tropes F To H

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F

• Fake Guest Star: Despite Sgt. Brett Mahoney having a larger role than many of the main cast members in Season 2, Royce Johnson still doesn't get main credits billing.
• False Flag Operation:
  • In Season 3, Fisk pays Jasper Evans to shank him to manipulate the FBI into putting him up in the penthouse of one of his own properties.
  • Whereas Fisk merely used his contacts in the media to smear Matt's reputation in Season 1, he goes a step farther in Season 3 by having Dex attack people at the Bulletin dressed up in a red Daredevil costume to turn public opinion against Matt. In the process, Dex also ends up killing Jasper Evans, who Matt and Karen have tracked down and convinced to go on record.
• Family Business: Foggy's family is introduced in Season 3 and is revealed to run a butcher shop. Foggy's relationships with the rest of his family are strained owing to his decision to be a lawyer rather than help them run the shop. It doesn't help that Fisk has also managed to use the shop as leverage against Foggy by tricking his brother and parents into committing fraud.
• FBI Agent:
  • With large portions of the NYPD are in Fisk's pocket, Nelson & Murdock have Detective Hoffman strike a plea deal with the FBI in which he gives up Fisk and most of the key players in his organization. Fisk is arrested and put into the back of an armored truck guarded by an FBI SWAT team. Unfortunately, one of the agents in the truck is on Fisk's payroll, and kills the other agents riding with him when the convoy is ambushed by mercenaries working for Fisk, who also kill the other agents and NYPD cops escorting the truck to Riker's.
  • In Season 3, Fisk cuts a deal with the FBI to become an informant in exchange for Vanessa's protection. After an attempt on his life in jail, the FBI move him to a penthouse in one of his own hotels, putting him under 24 hour surveillance with an FBI team positioned in an adjoining room. Two of the agents involved in protecting Fisk comprise the new series regulars for the season. The first is Ray Nadeem, a down-on-his-luck agent with financial difficulties who starts the season as Fisk's handler. The other is Benjamin "Dex" Poindexter, who is corrupted over the course of the season into becoming the assassin better known as Bullseye.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas: There's quite a bit of attention drawn to the visually oriented gestures and sayings most people make without a second thought, causing them to feel quite awkward when they do it with Matt. The real estate agent tells him that he and Foggy can fight over the office with the better view. Karen nods in response to a "yes/no" question Matt asks her, then laughs in embarrassment when she realizes he didn't see that. Karen holds a newspaper to his face to show an article about Fisk. Ben Urich shrugs instead of verbally answering. Matt isn't bothered by it; in fact, in the "Nelson v. Murdock" flashbacks, he says to Foggy that he'd rather people engage in faux pas on him than treat him like he's made of glass.
• Fictional Counterpart: The New York Bulletin appears to be the equivalent of the New York Post.
• Flipping the Table:
  • When Madame Gao tells Wilson Fisk he will be removed if he does not reassert control over his criminal alliance, he ends up flipping his massive metal dining table in rage seconds after she leaves.
  • When Fisk goes public before Matt's group exposes him, Matt angrily knocks everything off his kitchen table.
  • In the last episode of Season 1, Matt flips over a table covered in playing cards when he finally gets to Hoffman, who he needs to take down Fisk's whole operation. Takes on extra symbolic significance given the Playing Card Motifs of Fisk's criminal empire.
• Foil:
  • Matt Murdock and Wilson Fisk. They're both defined by their past experience with their fathers, leading up to both deciding to do whatever it takes to make their city a better place. However, their methods of doing vary widely. Fisk's "Not So Different" Remark is all the more poignant.
  • Leland Owlsley and Foggy Nelson. The respective snarky, cynical sidekicks to Wilson Fisk and Matt Murdock. However, Leland is a cynical dick who's been laundering criminals' money for decades, while Foggy quit Landman & Zack after Matt pointed out they weren't going to change the world that way, and is a Jerk with a Heart of Gold.
  • Karen Page maps more onto Vanessa than to Wesley, what with their unflagging loyalty to the Devil of Hell's Kitchen and Wilson Fisk, despite what others may say and do.
  • As a trio, Matt, Foggy, and Karen; to Fisk, Wesley, and Vanessa respectively. The leader (Matt and Fisk), the right-hand man (Foggy and Wesley), and a woman who is brought into the conflict by Fisk (Karen through getting framed up by Fisk; Vanessa through Fisk asking her out on a date).
  • Stick and Madame Gao are this as well — they are both elderly, members of ancient societies at war with each other (the Chaste and the Hand) tenuously allied with Matt/Fisk, though they eventually betray them, and they both tell Matt/Fisk to focus on their respective missions and sever their ties with the ones they love.
• Foreshadowing:
  • A Punisher skull logo can be spotted on the wall of one of the access tunnels at the end of "Condemned".
  • In one of the motion posters, a glimpse of the red Daredevil costume can be seen in the muddy reflection of a puddle.
  • In Ben Urich's discussion with Silvio, the retired mobster, Silvio mentions that he's always had respect for Ben because he was the only reporter to never mention or go after his family (his kids in this case) in his articles. Fisk ends up killing Ben because he tried to use Fisk's mother in his expose.
  • A potentially unintentional example: when Karen opens the door to invite Wesley into Nelson & Murdock in "Rabbit in a Snowstorm", Wesley does what looks like a Finger Gun gesture with his left hand that's pointed at Karen. Several episodes later, it is Karen who ends up killing Wesley.
  • In "World on Fire," Foggy responds to Karen's frustration with the "new" (as in, "bought secondhand at auction") copier and fax machine by making some jokes about machines taking over the world.
  • In "Nelson v. Murdock," Foggy at one point says while berating Matt, "You're going to get yourself killed if you keep this up. You know that, right?"
  • "The Ones We Leave Behind" opens with Karen imagining Fisk appearing in her house killing her for killing Wesley. At the end of the episode, Ben goes home, and finds Fisk in his study, who kills him for involving his mother. For bonus points, Wesley got killed after he learned Karen and Ben went to talk to Fisk's mother and confronted her.
  • That Elektra is in alliance with Stick is more noticeable if you notice that one of the first things Elektra says - that Matt's German beer "tastes like piss" - was one of the first things Stick says in his first appearance.
  • A careful viewer will realize Fisk is pretending not to understand Japanese or Chinese long before Madame Gao calls him on it: when Nobu speaks angrily to him in Japanese early in "Shadows in the Glass," Fisk's facial expression darkens before Wesley even starts translating. And Wesley's remark once Nobu leaves ("Did you get that last part?") is him asking if Fisk got everything Nobu was saying without Wesley watering it down.
  • During "Dogs to a Gunfight," when Karen visits Matt to check in on him as he's recuperating from getting shot by the Punisher, she says "Okay, um, let's say this: when or if you ever feel like you can tell me what's going on with you, I promise that I'm here. Is that a deal?" to which Matt replies, "That is a deal." In the last scene of the Season 2 finale, we see that despite everything that's gone on, Matt holds up the end of that deal by revealing his secret identity to her, and Karen holds up her end by agreeing to meet with him despite her reservations about Matt.
  • In the newspaper that Foggy reads in "Kinbaku" about Frank Castle's arrest, there's an article to the side that reads "New Theories Shed Light on Lost City", possibly referring to K'un L'un.
  • Though it's only visible in production stills (and impossible to see in the actual show due to bad camera angles), the chemical truck that hit Matt and was responsible for giving him his superpowers was owned by Rand Enterprises.
  • The blueprints that Nobu and his men are looking over in the first episode of Season 1 are for Midland Circle Financial.
  • Atreus Plastics, the company whose logo is on one of the trucks that make up part of Fisk's attempted escape in the Season 1 finale, will be playing a big role in Mariah Dillard's story arc in Luke Cage Season 2.
  • At the start of Season 3, when Father Lantom brings a boxer over for Matt to spar with, Matt is wearing black gloves and his opponent is wearing red gloves, foreshadowing the nature of Matt's fights with Dex.
  • During Season 3, multiple hints exist that Tammy Hattley is working for Fisk well before it's revealed:
    • Dex showing up to attack the Bulletin and kill Jasper Evans, despite not being present when Nadeem learned from Foggy about Jasper, foreshadows the reveal of a mole in the FBI. The only person Nadeem ever tells about Jasper Evans is Hattley.
    • In her intro scene, Hattley finds Ray, who is under a mountain of debt, and tells him he can't get promoted because he'd be easy pickings to be corrupted. Just a few sentences later, she sends him to the most notorious corrupter of government officials in the city to make a deal.
    • When Ray meets with Hattley after the Albanian bust on Fisk's information, she tells him he's still being denied promotion because of that poor FICO score. She says, "I've got a boss too, and he's got a hard-on for agents in financial holes." We later learn that Fisk manipulated Nadeem's finances to make him desperate enough to want to make this informant deal work. And true to what Hattley tells him later, she's just trying to keep him out of the hands of Fisk's machinations, but Nadeem still charged right into that trap.
    • At the hospital in Episode 3, Nadeem speaks with Hattley, who tells him not to blame himself for the Albanians' attack, as she is the one who arranged the details of Fisk's transfer from Rikers to the Presidential Hotel.
    • In Episodes 6 and 7, just as the Jasper Evans lead comes out to suggest that Fisk is playing the FBI, Nadeem magically gets his promotion from Hattley. Meaning her offer to run the Fisk intel up the food chain is nothing more than a bluff to make Nadeem actively choose not to report it. She is more than likely setting Nadeem up to be a fall guy, so that if word gets out that Fisk is using them, Nadeem will take the fall, and the press will see him as an agent struggling with debt who made a deal to get Fisk out of prison and has been covering for his illegal activities.
    • In Episode 9, as Ray and OPR Agent Winn are being led into Hattley's house, you can see that the room they do the interview in is covered in plastics and saran wrap, just like the corridor in the previous episode where we saw Fisk's "painters" kill Julie. It's a kill room. And seconds later, Hattley kills Winn with Nadeem's gun.
  • When Matt is being led to the prison doctor as he's seeking out information about Fisk's shanking, he passes a row of criminals lined up against the wall, including some of the very inmates he's going to fight on his way out. As Matt's being led past the cells, the prisoners whisper and whistle at him. Anyone who knows prison culture knows that whispering is a big red flag because it can signify that you're a "stool pigeon," AKA a snitch. They're inmates loyal to Fisk, telling him they know why he's there and that he'll have to be killed.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: In the Season 1 climax, take a closer look at the FBI SWAT who guard Fisk in the van as he tells the Samaritan story. One clean-shaven cop has his gun pointed away from anything. The other one (with the stubble) has his gun pointed vaguely toward the first guy^note Visually. It's actually to Clean Cop's side., with his finger near the trigger. He also says the Clean Cop should let Fisk talk, and seems oddly calm as a firefight erupts outside, unlike the first guy. When Clean gets ready to fight and warns the enemies^note who don't seem concerned about the armed cops in the van at all outside to back off, he has his gun pointed at Stubble, ^note Visually. It's actually to Stubble's side. Then Stubble shoots Clean in the head. For bonus points, this is literally seconds after Clean says "I don't know who you are".
• Four Eyes, Zero Soul:
  • James Wesley, the textbook definition of a sociopath, uses his glasses and flat expressions to greatly unnerve many of those around him.
  • Leland Owlsley wears thick glasses that mask the eyes of a well-dressed white-collar crook.
  • Stewart Finney, a crooked accountant that Fisk meets in jail in Season 2, is a downplayed variant. He's soft-spoken, but not a sociopath. He comes off more like a criminal who just happened to get into some bad luck.
• Four Lines, All Waiting: Season 3 does this as it juggles the storylines for Matt, Karen, Foggy, Fisk, Dex, and Nadeem.
• Frame-Up:
  • The plot of Season 1 is kicked off when Wilson Fisk has Karen Page framed up for murder when she attempts to blow the whistle on corrupt activities at Union Allied.
  • After Wilson Fisk kills Anatoly Ranskahov, he has a piece of fabric planted on the body so that Anatoly's brother Vladimir will think Matt is responsible. This is to distract Vladimir while Fisk makes preparations to send bombers to wipe out Vladimir's entire operation. After the bombings themselves, Fisk runs a smear campaign with his connections in the Bulletin to paint Matt as responsible for them, and for the shooting of Detective Christian Blake.
  • In an effort to ruin Matt's life and get revenge on him for the events of Seasons 1 and 2, Fisk does this to both his personas — Matt Murdock and Daredevil — in Season 3:
    • He initially just tries to have Matt killed, but when this fails multiple times, he takes advantage of his status as an informant to the FBI to falsely "inform" them that Matt is a crooked lawyer who worked for him on various illegal schemes; the FBI agents take this at face value and start hunting for Matt, making his civilian identity a wanted fugitive.
    • Since Fisk has figured out by now that Matt is Daredevil, he has his Dragon, Ben "Dex" Poindexter, attack multiple respected institutions (namely, a newspaper office and a church) and kill or maim numerous civilians there while wearing a Daredevil costume in order to turn the press and the public against Matt's superhero identity as well.
• Friendly Enemy: Sgt. Brett Mahoney (a cop) and Foggy Nelson (a defense attorney).
  Sgt. Brett Mahoney: Officer of the law. Defense attorney. We're supposed to be enemies.
  Foggy Nelson: First off, we've been enemies since we were four, Brett. So let's not blame it on career choices. Secondly, I'm not a particularly good defense attorney! So helping me is like helping yourself! And finally, [hands Brett a paper bag of cigars] these are for Bess.
• Friend on the Force: Sgt. Brett Mahoney tips Matt and Foggy off on potential cases and is one of the few non-corrupt cops on the force, to the point that when Matt and Foggy need to have someone to turn Hoffman over to, Brett is the one they send him to. He also lets Matt go after his fight with Fisk. In Season 2, Brett becomes a reluctant ally to Matt-as-Daredevil. In Season 3, he offers Foggy the floor at a police union gathering so Foggy can give a speech rallying the NYPD behind his District Attorney campaign. Later in the season, he comes through for Foggy and Matt by "arresting" Karen so that she can be removed from the church and safely moved away from Dex.
• "Friends" Rent Control: Somewhat justified by lines in the first episode about property in Hell's Kitchen being cheaper due to the destruction caused by the Incident. However, the show still contains some examples:
  • Matt Murdock gets his large apartment much cheaper not only because of the above, but because, as he shows to Karen, there's an incredibly bright and gaudy electronic billboard right across the street. Pretty undesirable for anyone other than a blind tenant. A fake Craiglist ad put out for the apartment right before the release of Season 3 lists the rent as being around $2,000 a month, which ain't exactly cheap.
  • Karen's various apartments are all large for the job she currently has. In Season 1, working an entry-level job at Union Allied, her apartment is quite big, with a distinct bedroom. In Season 2, as a secretary for a struggling law firm, she's downgraded to living in a large studio apartment. In The Defenders and Season 3, she's living in a large, well-furnished apartment, even though she's a brand-new newspaper journalist (not a high-paying job) and somehow also starts paying Matt's rent on top of her own. They do suggest she's financially strained in Season 3 (she comments when having dinner with Ellison's family that this is her first home-cooked meal in months; while the first episode of Season 3 sees her asking Foggy to chip in a bit to help with the rent).
• Full-Circle Revolution: Nelson & Murdock's successful takedown of Wilson Fisk at the end of Season 1 leaves a vacuum for several new syndicates like the Kitchen Irish, Dogs of Hell, and at least one faction of the Hand, to move into Hell's Kitchen. All of these are wiped out over the course of Season 2 and The Defenders by a combination of Matt and Elektra's work against the Hand, and Frank Castle's crusade to avenge his family, leaving a new opening for Fisk to rebuild his criminal empire with minimal obstruction when he gets released at the start of Season 3. Fisk also is taking advantage of the vacuum left by the death of Mariah Dillard in Harlem in Luke Cage Season 2 as well as the Triad gangs that Davos caused damage to in Chinatown during Iron Fist Season 2.

G

• Genius Bruiser: Fisk. The man may be a mighty brawler, but Fisk's greatest strengths are his ability to control people through money, fear, and influence. In Season 3, he only has three action scenes (an attempted shanking on himself, an assassination attempt by the Albanians, and a three way fight with Matt and Dex at the end) yet still proves difficult to take down because of how much puppeteering he's been doing behind the scenes.
• Gibberish of Love:
  • Matt tends to act like a dorky puppy whenever he's around Karen, unable to resist flirting with her, and becoming unspeakably shy.
  • Fisk acts like a big shy dork while trying to ask Vanessa out.
• Gilligan Cut: At the beginning of "Rabbit in a Snowstorm," John Healy pulls a gun on a guy at a bowling alley and is about to fire. As he pulls the trigger, the show cuts back in time to 36 hours, when he's buying the weapon from Turk. Healy looks at the gun and says that he'd prefer a revolver as they don't jam.
  Turk Barrett: Man, look at this! [racks the slide] This is top of the line. I guarantee, this baby will not jam, or my name ain't Turk Barrett.
  [Cuts to Healy pulling the trigger in the bowling alley, and it jams on him. He has enough time to think "Oh, fuck!" before engaging his target in fisticuffs]
• Glad-to-Be-Alive Sex: Marci and Foggy have this after Marci is relieved to see Foggy alive following Dex's attack on the Bulletin.
• God Is Good:
  • In Seasons 1 and 2, it is God's call to justice that motivates Matt to save lives as Daredevil and the indestructible goodness he created man with that keeps Matt on his Thou Shalt Not Kill policy.
  • After losing so much just before Season 3, Matt renounces God just as he cuts himself off from his friends, contemplates committing murder, and generally acts self-destructively. Father Lantom and Sister Maggie insist Matt is wrong about God and wrong in general, a view the show ultimately confirms when Matt realizes men only see part of the tapestry God is making of their lives.
• Godzilla Threshold: Matt admits that his personal code is failing in locating the Blacksmith, deciding to put his morals aside and kill him; Frank manages to talk him out of it.
• Good Angel, Bad Angel: At his lowest points in Season 3, Matt imagines his father and Wilson Fisk lecturing him from over his shoulder. Both figments of the imagination are always in the background and almost always out of focus, letting the audience know they aren't as real as our characters in the foreground.
• Good Feels Good: Despite embracing her lifestyle as an Amoral Attorney, Marci Stahl helps Foggy with his investigation, and she's smiling as she watches the FBI arrest Parish Landman at his private parking space.
• Good-Guy Bar: Josie's is a pretty seedy dive, and Karen expresses her reservations about the place, but Foggy explains that the regulars are all decent people. He and Matt have even helped a few people out with their legal problems, so they're comfortable there. By Season 2, we see the trio play pool after work, and later watch news on Frank Castle's arrest there.
• Good Policing, Evil Policing: In the season 1 finale, it's the FBI who are responsible for bringing down Wilson Fisk's criminal empire, since the NYPD are in Fisk's pocket. Though the roles are reversed by season 3, where the FBI are the ones doing Fisk's dirty work for him and the NYPD are the ones who are clean.
• Good Shepherd: Father Lantom knows who Matt really is and regularly provides him with moral guidance in an attempt to keep him both alive and on the right side.
• Good Versus Good: Matt often finds himself at odds with the non-corrupt police officers in Hell's Kitchen. In Season 1, he's forced to overpower and subdue Brett when Brett corners him while he's escaping Madame Gao's drug lab. He and Brett make a somewhat uneasy truce during Season 2. In Season 3, Matt finds himself sometimes in conflict with Agent Nadeem as their investigations into Fisk cross paths.
• Gorn:
  • "Rabbit in a Snowstorm" opens with Prohaska getting his arm gruesomely broken by Healy with the bone sticking out, and then having his head smashed in with a bowling ball.
  • "In the Blood", Fisk kills Anatoly by beating him unconscious, then bashing his head in with a car door, so devastatingly that his brain is seen falling onto the ground afterwards. All for interrupting Fisk's date with Vanessa. In the next episode ("World on Fire"), we're treated to several shots of the headless body as Vladimir cleans it. When Fisk meets with Madame Gao, Nobu and Leland in an underground garage, Fisk's mechanics are shown washing blood from the door well with a fire hose.
  • The opening flashback in "In The Blood" has Vladimir pulling out a deceased prisoner's ribs in a Siberian gulag to use as an Improvised Weapon, in all its gory detail.
  • "Stick" begins with Stick slicing off a Yakuza associate's gun hand, and a quick shot of the stump (with the bone sticking out, no less), before decapitating him.
  • "Speak of the Devil" has Matt, already sliced open half a dozen times by Nobu, stabbed by his chained weapon, and then dragged across the room, leaving a big trail of blood.
  • Season 2 has plenty, thanks to The Punisher. Of special note is "Seven Minutes In Heaven" where Frank Castle kills his way through Dutton's cell block using a combination of shivs, pipes, his bare hands, and a hatchet, and ".380" where after defeating two of the Blacksmith's thugs in the diner (one by stabbing multiple times with a butcher knife), he shoots one in the head and then bashes another's face into a bloody pulp in an attempt to get him to talk.
• Gory Discretion Shot:
  • Wilson Fisk smashing off Anatoly's head with a car door is partially obscured by the car chassis proper.
  • Despite hardly any gore implied, they also avoid showing the effect of Matt dropping a fire extinguisher Patrick Bateman-style and nailing a fake cop on the way out in the second episode.
• Gosh Darn It to Heck!: Although the show is allowed to be profane as it was a Netflix streaming series, it is quite tame with its language. While "shit" used without restraint, there is occasional use of "freakin'" and even "motherfreakin'" instead of the F-bomb. The only F-bombs in the series are uttered briefly by Frank Castle/Punisher in the second season.
• Gratuitous Ninja: The Hand, including their local leader Nobu, are all ninja who fight with ancient weapons in the modern age.
• Greasy Spoon:
  • The Square Diner, an actual establishment in Tribeca, is used in "In the Blood" for several meetings between Ben Urich and Karen, and in Season 2 is where Matt rips into Elektra for invading his life.
  • When we see Karen's hometown of Fagan Corners in Season 3, her family owns a diner known as Penny's Place, named after her now-deceased mother Penelope. It's struggling to turn a profit, with Karen being incensed when her dad buys some new grills they can't afford.
• Greater-Scope Villain: Wilson Fisk is the biggest name in the show. Although there are some bigger and more dangerous ones.
  • The Hand, Nobu's employers. Only one of their agents is seen in Season 1 and the name of the organization isn't even mentioned, but their presence can be felt everywhere, as if they're always lurking just off-screen.
  • Madame Gao counts as well. She's the only crime boss Fisk answers to, since her heroin is the backbone of his criminal activities. She later implies that she isn't entirely of this world and is part of something much bigger than mere drug trade. Iron Fist reveals that she is also part of the Hand, and The Defenders reveals that Madame Gao is a subordinate to Alexandra.
• Grey-and-Gray Morality: Taken to its natural extreme with Season 2 revolving around the arrival of The Punisher. It goes so far as to recreate an infamous comic storyline^note Where the Punisher restrained Daredevil so that the only way to stop him from assassinating a mob boss was to shoot him, either allowing a death, or becoming a murderer himself between the two called "The Choice" which was all about their clashing morality. While both sides bring up valid points, Matt is clearly presented as A Lighter Shade of Grey.

H

• Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow:
  • Wilson Fisk had a full head of hair as a child.
  • While Foggy is clean-shaven in the present day, he had a scraggy goatee when he and Matt were in college and looked like a bit of a hippie.
  • In an inversion, flashbacks to Matt and Foggy's time in college in Season 1, and Matt's initial relationship with Elektra in Season 2, show that Matt didn't have his Perma-Stubble then.
• Hallway Fight:
  • In "Cut Man", Matt Murdock fights his way through a hallway full of Russian mobsters, which was The Oner, as well as an homage to Oldboy.
  • In "New York's Finest", after freeing himself from Frank Castle, Matt fights off Dogs of Hell bikers in the hallway of an apartment building, which eventually leads to a stairwell fight. This is an homage to The Raid.
  • In "Seven Minutes in Heaven", Wilson Fisk tricks Frank Castle into entering Dutton's cellblock. After Frank mortally wounds Dutton, Fisk locks him in, and releases all the prisoners who are quick to get revenge on him for killing their boss. He ends up having to go down a corridor, stabbing his way out with a shiv.
  • In Season 3, Matt has one where he's ambushed in a Riker's corridor by a bunch of inmates loyal to Fisk, and has to fight them off.
  • In Season 3, Dex has one when he's escaping his attack on the Bulletin and fights off a bunch of his own FBI colleagues responding to the 911 calls.
• Handicapped Badass:
  • Matt is blind, but he doesn't let that stop him from fighting crime. Nor his intelligence, as he graduated summa cum laude from Columbia Law School.
  • Stick is also a blind badass and he taught Matt how to be a blind badass.
  • Madame Gao walks with a cane (that, as Iron Fist reveals, conceals a sword) but, as a leader of the Hand, also sports Super-Strength and knocks Matt down in one blow.
• Handy Cuffs: When he's being escorted to an FBI safehouse after an attempt on his life in prison, Fisk is riding with his hands cuffed in front of him. The FBI agents riding with him are all armed with guns in case he tries to make a break for it, or defend him against any attacks.
• Happy Ending Override: Season 2 gradually undoes Matt, Karen and Foggy's triumphant takedown of Fisk in Season 1, showing Fisk just rebuilding his empire from prison. By Season 3, he's out and seeking revenge.
• Hated by All: Fisk's downfall, repeatedly, is that he works hard to maintain an image of a well meaning philanthropist falsely accused of horrible crimes, yet he invariably alienates those who actually work for or with him through his behavior (with the notable exception of Wesley, who dies early on anyway) to the point that some of his closest underlings are only there because he's bullied, blackmailed or manipulated them into working for him. This is especially notable in Season 3 where he gets his entire FBI detail in his pocket by digging up dirt on them and / or threatening their families, leading to them testifying against him once Nadeem's confession video goes public and he gets arrested anyway, and especially with Dex, who turns on him the moment he learns that Fisk killed Julie just to undermine his sanity further. The public at large alternates between loving him and loathing him depending on what they think about him is true, and at the end of the day he's just plain unable and unwilling to invest in genuine loyalty rather than mere obedience, basically giving members of his own organization every reason to want him to somehow fail.
• Hates My Secret Identity: Inverted. Foggy is best friends with Matt, but has great distaste for Daredevil. This is especially so when Matt's moonlighting affects their handling of the Frank Castle trial.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: How Karen is able to avoid getting killed after she manipulates Ben Urich into going with her to interview Wilson Fisk's mother.
  • First, Wesley kidnaps Karen, takes her to an abandoned warehouse, and tries to blackmail her into backing down. She asks him if he's told Fisk about her involvement in visiting Fisk's mother. Wesley says he hasn't. Then Wesley's phone rings, as Fisk is trying to call him from the hospital. Having been victimized by Fisk one time too many, Karen grabs the gun Wesley had placed on the table and shoots him to death, guaranteeing that this doesn't happen.
  • In the next episode, Fisk learns about Karen and Urich's visit from his mole at the Bulletin. Fisk breaks in to Urich's apartment, and asks Urich if there was anyone else there when he talked to Fisk's mother. Urich, knowing full well that Fisk has come to kill him, and will probably go after Karen if he mentions her, lies and says he was alone. Fisk then gets up, wrestles Urich to the floor, and chokes him to death with his bare hands. As a result, Karen is still alive, aware of Fisk's childhood actions, and forced to live with the guilt of having gotten Urich killed. That is, until Season 3, when she rubs the details of Wesley's death into Fisk's face in an attempt to provoke him into trying to kill her. Only for it to come back to bite her again when Fisk sends Bullseye after her and Father Lantom is killed defending her, leaving her with immense guilt once again.
• Head Crushing: After Anatoly the Russian gangster accidentally interrupts Fisk's date with Vanessa, he responded by savagely beating Anatoly and then repeatedly crushing his head in a car door for all intents and purposes decapitating Anatoly.
• Heartbeat Soundtrack: Thematically appropriate given Matt's super-hearing.
• The Heavy: Dex is this to Fisk in Season 3. Since Fisk is under house arrest, he's unable to directly go after his targets, and thus sends Dex after them instead. Both of the major character deaths in the season (Father Lantom and Ray Nadeem), as well as a large number of minor character or Red Shirt killings or hospitalizations (Ellison, Jasper Evans, etc), are committed by Dex. Someone did a body count: it's 30 people in all.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Elektra. To whit: she only got close to Matt in college to try and lure him back to Stick, then after she comes back into Matt's life tells Stick to take a hike so she can be with Matt, who then rejects her when she kills a Hand assassin in cold blood. Then Stick tries to have her killed, so she tries to kill him, then the Hand reveal that Elektra is Black Sky, and offer to serve her. Then, Matt convinces Elektra to go back to his side through The Power of Love. Finally, Elektra is killed, but her body taken by The Hand in preparation for resurrecting her as a ruthless assassin of Alexandra's.
• Heel–Face Turn:
  • Vladimir switches sides once he realizes that Matt wasn't responsible for his brother's death, although he tries to attack him once more anyway for "fun" before committing Suicide by Cop at the hands of Fisk's corrupt cops so that Matt can make his escape through the tunnels.
  • Marci Stahl rediscovers some of her old idealism when presented with solid evidence of Fisk's crimes, and helps take him down even though she's also burning most of her law firm in the process. She earns a job at Hogarth Chao & Benowitz in the process, hooks up with Foggy again when he joins her there at the end of Season 2, and then in Season 3 is the one to push him into running for District Attorney.
• Heel Realization: Fisk, when forced to choose between accepting legal punishment for his crimes or killing his way to safety, finally accepts that he's better at hurting people than helping them.
  Fisk: I used to think I was the Good Samaritan in that story... I am not the Samaritan. And I am not the priest, or the Levite. I am the ill intent, who set upon the traveler...
• He's Just Hiding: In-Universe, Season 3 opens with Karen still fervently believing that Matt's alive and in hiding after Midland Circle, and even taking care of his apartment so it's waiting for him when he comes back. Foggy on the other hand is resigned to Matt being gone and has moved on, which puts him and Karen on uneasy speaking terms.
• Hell: The first argument between Matt and the imaginary Wilson Fisk ends with Matt realizing that God wouldn't let the Kingpin go free out of love, but would do so to turn Daredevil's world into a personal Hell. Matt later articulates this point to Sister Maggie, but she dismisses the idea as narcissistic on Matt's part.
• Hell Is That Noise: Dex' psychotic episodes are accompanied by a frantic buzzing noise that can be best described as a mix of "Psycho" Strings and a swarm of angry hornets.
• Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Zigzagged. Matt usually wears his mask or helmet while out on heroics and the latter sometimes saves his life, but particularly in Season 2, and during interactions with Elektra, he tends to take it off for no real good reason, other than so that Matt can be expressive with his eyes in addition to his mouth. Elektra doesn't use an actual helmet, but does something similar with the scarf she wears on her face to protect her neck.
• Hero with Bad Publicity:
  • In Season 1, Fisk uses the media against Matt when he tries to pin the destruction of all of the Russian mob hideouts on 'the Man in the Mask'. Matt's vigilante identity is even referred to as a terrorist.
  • In Season 3, Fisk tries again, this time making his claims more credible by having Dex go out in a Daredevil suit to attack the Bulletin in an attempt to kill a witness who planned to go on record against him, and later having him wear the suit again while attacking the church in an effort to kill Karen.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In "Condemned", Vladimir holds a corrupt ESU team off so Matt can escape through the drainage tunnels underneath the abandoned building.
  • In "A Cold Day In Hell's Kitchen" Elektra throws herself in front of Nobu just as he's about to kill Matt, taking a fatal stab wound.
  • In "One Last Shot," after the grand jury is tampered with, Nadeem records a dying confession video on his phone confessing to all the things Fisk made him do, which will be exempt from the hearsay rule.
• High-Heel–Face Turn: Marci Stahl, the only female attorney we see at Landman & Zack, turns out to be Foggy's former girlfriend and proves instrumental at helping Nelson & Murdock take down Fisk. She later becomes Foggy's girlfriend and staunch ally.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Nobu, a major antagonist in the first season who was accidentally killed by Daredevil, is resurrected in Season 2 and returns as the main antagonist, once again leading The Hand's operations in New York City. The Defenders then reveals he's just a subordinate to Murakami.
• Hollywood Healing:
  • In "Cut Man," Claire gives Matt a needle chest decompression for the pneumothorax his three broken ribs gave him. He gets on pretty well with beating people up afterwards — in reality, he would need more hospital treatment before he could go back to bruising baddies.
  • After the beatdowns from Fisk and Nobu, Matt definitely would need a lot of surgery and blood transfusions for all his wounds instead of stitches and magic meditation. His meditation must be that magical. Matt should be recovering in a hospital rather than at his apartment.
  • Frank Castle averts it in Season 2. The injuries to his face sustained in prison are substantial enough that people don't recognize him in public. That said, he plays it straight: he gets drilled through his foot when Finn tortures him, and does spend time in the hospital, but even though the trial takes place less than two weeks after the torture scene, Frank never is shown wearing a cast on his injured foot or having a limp. It's further established in his own show that Frank just is that formidable at enduring injuries, though also averted as Frank also sports scars from injuries here in Daredevil.
• Hollywood Law:
  • Brett Mahoney ostensibly gets a promotion midway through Season 2 for capturing Frank Castle, supposedly going from "Sergeant" to "Detective sergeant," and transitioning from a uniform to plainclothes suit-and-tie. In the NYPD, that's not a promotion, but a lateral transfer — Brett's rank actually is still Sergeant, but he's now the supervisor to a squad of detectives in the Detective Bureau rather than a group of ten to twelve uniformed cops in the Patrol Bureau. This does slightly line up with the comics, where Brett is a Detective instead of a patrol officer. Also, the rank title isn't "Detective sergeant," but "Sergeant — Supervisor Detective Squad". In Season 3, he's officially ranked as a Detective with a Detective's shield, which would be a demotion as Sergeant is a supervisory rank while Detective is the same rank as Patrol Officer.
  • The trial of Fisk's assassin John Healy seems to happen within a week of the original crime, given that Ben Urich's subway line piece, discussed early in the episode when Healy has just been arrested, is visible in the issue of the Bulletin on his desk when Karen visits his office at the close of the trial. Murder cases, if not plea bargained, are seldom heard in less than a year after the event. However, it is clear that Fisk had bribed and/or intimidated a number of the jurors, and it is also heavily implied that he may have also bribed the district attorney and prosecutors to fast-track Healy's trial. Why neither Matt or Foggy thought the unusually fast turnaround time was suspicious is another question.
  • A justified example: in "World on Fire," Detectives Christian Blake and Carl Hoffman, two corrupt cops working for Fisk, shoot and kill a Russian thug in a precinct interrogation room for speaking Fisk's name. If it weren't for the fact that Fisk has the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau in his pocket, Blake and Hoffman would have been placed on modified assignment and administrative leave while an investigation was conducted into their actions. Because of Fisk's connections, Blake and Hoffman remain on active-duty, allowing them to participate with the other corrupt cops to kill the survivors of Fisk's bombings of the Russians' hideouts. It's lampshaded by Ben Urich when he sees Blake and Hoffman assuming command of the scene where Matt has holed up with Vladimir and a police officer who stumbled upon them, and comments "Detectives! I'd thought IAB would have you riding a desk after that thing with the Russians at the station", to which Blake says "You see what's going on here? No one's riding a desk tonight."
  • On a sidenote, Blake and Hoffman giving orders at the standoff. NYPD Detectives are at the same level in the chain of command as regular Patrol Officers, and technically can't give orders to anyone but junior detectives. Only those in the supervisory ranks (Sergeant and upward) can give orders to other cops. Then again, they and many of the other cops in their precinct are on Fisk's payroll, so they probably know that they're breaking protocol.
  • In Season 1, Marci Stahl could have faced disbarment for handing over confidential work product. However, lawyers have an obligation not to participate in crimes and to tell the police if they have reason to believe their client will commit a crime. Landman & Zack has failed in both obligations (by not reporting that they are doing legal business for Wilson Fisk and not reporting his crimes to the cops), and it's her responsibility, legally, ethically, and professionally, to hand over all the information she can to the proper authorities. That she handed that information over to the lawyers on the opposing counsel (one of whom she used to have a romantic relationship with) is very questionable, but the New York Bar Association probably gave her a free pass given how extensive Fisk's corruption of the legal system went.
  • Fisk is incarcerated at Riker's Island in Season 2. However, that is a state correctional facility. In real life, Fisk would probably be housed in a federal penitentiary, maybe even on death row, especially given that many of Fisk's crimes in Season 1 were federal offenses, such as the bombings of the Russians^note Since 9/11, the bombs would be considered as weapons of mass destruction; racketeering and money laundering (which fall under RICO statutes), and capital Felony Murder charges (for each of the FBI agents killed by Fisk's mercenaries during their ambush on the convoy).
  • Because the NYPD does not allow real-life precinct numbers to be used in works of fiction, the police station shown in this show and Jessica Jones is designated as the '15th precinct'. Hell's Kitchen is actually serviced by the Midtown North precinct.
  • The botched sting using Grotto as bait for the Punisher. Reyes appears to give orders to the ESU to shoot to kill when they open fire on the Punisher, while the Punisher is busy fighting with Matt. The goal of the ambush is to kill Frank Castle, not arrest him. This is a blatantly illegal attempted extrajudicial killing. The circumstances under which the police are allowed to use lethal force do not include "because he did some bad stuff before." While defense of others (Grotto) could be used as a justification, the police opened fire before that was established. Furthermore, the operation was overseen by Reyes. In real life, the police department and the prosecution are separate entities, explicitly for this reason.
  • The People of the State of New York v. Frank Castle is an exercise in this trope:
    • After Frank is arrested, Matt, Karen and Foggy discuss the case with Frank's public defender (who is taking Karen's statement on the hospital shooting), who considers the case open and shut: Frank will plead guilty and be sentenced to death for murders he committed in Delaware, which has the death penalty. In real life, in Delaware, and every other state that has the death penalty, the decision to impose the death penalty must be determined by a separate hearing. And that hearing normally includes a jury, even if the defendant pleads guilty. It is possible for both the State and the defendant to waive a hearing before a jury, but even then there will be a hearing before the judge. The defendant can't plead straight to the death penalty.
    • When Nelson & Murdock first attempt to approach Frank at the hospital, Reyes attempts to intervene, arguing that speaking to Frank without his attorney present would be a violation of ethical rules. This is simply not true. Ironically, it would be an ethical violation for Reyes to do the same thing because she represents an opposing party (i.e. the People), per N.Y. Rule 4.2(a). And indeed, Matt correctly tells her as much. At the same time, Reyes fails to note that Matt and Foggy's conversation with Frank might be an ethical breach for a different reason, namely that it's an inappropriate in-person solicitation under Rule 7.3(a)(1).
    • While negotiating over a plea deal with the District Attorney for Frank Castle, Foggy mentions that one thing Reyes didn't go for is having him in protective custody. However, it's the New York Department of Corrections who determine which prisoners get put in protective custody. Castle is suspected to have killed a bunch of gangsters from three different gangs, so he would almost certainly be placed in protective custody, since these gangs undoubtedly have incarcerated associates who would be itching to kill him in revenge for murdering their comrades.
    • The DA argues that Nelson & Murdock can't represent Frank because it would be a conflict of interest given their representation of Grotto. This is very wrong for several reasons. For one, Grotto isn't a current client, since a) he summarily fired the firm in no uncertain terms, and b) he is dead. This still makes Grotto a former client, which could cause conflicts under Rule 1.9, but those can be avoided in this case. The main concerns are 1.9(a)^note A lawyer who has formerly represented a client in a matter shall not thereafter represent another person in the same or a substantially related matter in which that person's interests are materially adverse to the interests of the former client unless the former client gives informed consent, confirmed in writing and 1.9(c)^note which limits the use or disclosure of the former client's confidential information. Representing Frank would not require doing anything materially adverse to Grotto's interests, especially given that he is dead and had no family or estate (remember that Matt, Karen and Foggy were the only attendees at his funeral). Neither would it require disclosing anything that Grotto told the firm in confidence. So Nelson & Murdock are clear to take Frank's case.
    • Nelson & Murdock are literally given one week of prep time before the trial. In real life, following the arraignment (i.e. when Frank pleaded "not guilty") and assuming Frank waived grand jury proceedings, a complex trial like this would be preceded by several weeks or even months of depositions, motions, and hearings, mostly to establish what kind of evidence could be presented to the jury. This is especially in important in cases like this one that rely heavily on expert testimony. Corrupt or not, Reyes wouldn't want to rush this, either. And even if they did, it would be extremely unusual (and likely appealable) for the judge not to grant the defense an extension of time before the trial started. ^note  For a real life comparison, Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes was arrested immediately after killing 12 people and injuring 58 more on July 20, 2012 and didn't even start discussing plea deals with the district attorney until March 27, 2013 — more than eight months later, and his actual trial didn't start until two years later, and just the process of jury selection took three months. From a narrative standpoint, this shortened prep time is somewhat justified, due to the necessity to keep the trial on pace with the Elektra storyline. On the other hand, it does help explain in part why Nelson & Murdock's defense of Frank Castle was essentially malpractice-level awful.
    • "Fast tracking" in most states means means getting it to trial in fewer than 12 months, not a week. It involves a shit ton of discovery (basically searching and sifting through all sorts of potential evidence, along with answering questions, producing documents, and depositions). That takes MONTHS if not over a year to go through.
    • At the start of the trial, the judge remarks about the difficulty of selecting jurors, because "everyone has an opinion" about the Punisher. Such a situation should have been handled with a change of venue, the process of moving a jury trial away from a location where a fair and impartial jury may not be possible due to widespread publicity about a crime and its defendant(s) to another community in order to obtain jurors who can be more objective in their duties. This change may be to different towns, and across the other sides of states or, in some extremely high-profile federal cases, to other states.
    • The seal behind the judge implies that the trial is in federal court. If it were in federal court, the prosecution would not be done by the District Attorney but by the United States Attorney. The seal also identifies this court as the "United States District Court for the District of New York City." There is no such court, the correct district in Manhattan would be the "Southern District of New York."
    • There's a long, dramatic sequence where Frank is brought into the courtroom in chains and a prison jumpsuit, which would never be done in real life because it could bias the jury. The Supreme Court has ruled that the State isn't allowed to make a defendant wear that in court. A prisoner may choose to appear that way, if for some reason they want to bias the jury or just don't know what they're doing. But preventing a defendant from appearing in the dehumanizing garb of a prisoner is so crucial that public defenders often hold clothing drives to make sure their clients can dress up.
    • More egregious is that what is shown of the trial on-camera isn't even about the crimes that Frank had committed. Everyone acts as if what had happened to Frank's family is far more relevant to the current case than it should have been. Having a trial about what kind of man he was when his character wasn't on trial was just weird. His sanity maybe, but the evidence against him was staggering.
    • When Frank takes the stand, spectators in the gallery are holding signs decrying him as a vicious murderer who should be burned at the stake. Such signs should not even be allowed in the courthouse, never mind an actual courtroom. At another point, a person in the gallery begins shouting that Castle killed his father. The judge orders the person removed, but Nelson & Murdock should have seized the opportunity to request a declaration of a mistrial. Even if they didn't get it, it would be yet another issue they could appeal if the trial went badly (which it does).
    • Matt and Foggy's defense of Frank centers around Extreme Emotional Disturbance, hoping that if they prevail they can get him the help he needs rather than sending him to prison. Per the New York State penal code, an EED defense merely mitigates a Second or First Degree Murder charge to First Degree Manslaughter, which would still mean Frank would go to prison rather than a mental hospital. Although manslaughter carries a shorter sentence than murder, the fact Frank is being charged with 37 counts of it would presumably keep him away for a long time especially if served consecutively — which may almost be the equivalent of a life sentence (not to mention the fact that Matt and Foggy wanted to keep him out of prison due to the fact that he'd be a walking target for other inmates).
    • A key part of Nelson & Murdock's defense strategy was convincing Dr. Gregory Tepper, the medical examiner, to come clean about being asked to falsify the records of the deaths of Frank's family. Initially hesitant, the medical examiner decides to change his story on the stand and tell the truth. The judge clears the courtroom (although in reality she almost certainly wouldn't just because a witness was testifying unexpectedly), and the medical examiner spills the beans and explains that he was forced to confess because Elektra had threatened him the night before. The judge strikes Tepper's testimony…and Matt and Foggy do nothing but have a fight in the courthouse bathroom, rather than appeal the judge's motion. This is a concept in civil and criminal procedure known as "preserving an issue for appeal."^note Basically, if the judge makes an error during the trial, if one side doesn't object during the trial, then it's much harder or even impossible to appeal the error to a higher court later. Doing nothing, not even giving a verbal objection, about an issue this important, which could have affected the outcome of the trial, is a colossal screwup.
    • There is the issue of whether Tepper altering the medical records is relevant to the case at hand. In federal courts and many states like New York, a witness' veracity for truthfulness is relevant. Even if Elektra hadn't threatened him, Dr. Tepper's altering medical records would discredit his testimony, which could be introduced on cross-examination. Confronting Dr. Tepper with evidence of falsifying medical records would be potentially devastating and extremely relevant to Frank's case. However, as the medical records would have been collateral, the Judge would have limited questioning to avoid confusing the jury with facts not material to Frank's case.
    • Expert witnesses, such as the doctor who testified regarding Frank's brain injuries, are allowed to give their expert opinion regarding facts (e.g. Frank suffered a brain injury that affects his judgement) but not legal conclusions (e.g "any infractions would be considered crimes of passion"). Drawing a legal conclusion from the facts (e.g. whether Frank was legally insane) is the job of the judge or jury, not the witness. Also, "crimes of passion" really only applies to converting murder to manslaughter, which is still a serious crime, and murder is not the only crime that Frank Castle has committed onscreen (false imprisonment, torture, etc).
    • It is generally a bad idea for criminal defendants to testify in their own case. It opens the door to uncomfortable questions from the prosecution, and there is rarely much the defendant can say that will help rather than hurt their case. This is true in Frank's case, yet Nelson & Murdock have Karen talk Frank into testifying. This is arguably a breach of ethics, because although Matt and Foggy treat Karen as if she is a partner with equal weight in decision-making, she is a secretary, not a lawyer. Per NY Rule 1.2(a), the decision of whether to testify in one's case is, ultimately, the client's decision, not the attorney's. And not only do the rules specifically contemplate that the client will consult with the lawyer, but it's implicit that this consultation is a core part of advising (though not deciding for) a client in a criminal case. Thus, what Karen did likely constitutes unauthorized practice of law. And it's a breach of ethics for Matt and Foggy to have someone else doing their dirty work.
    • Not only that, as Frank was so opposed to the PTSD defense, they should have had him removed from the court so he couldn't talk even if he wanted to. Lawyers are not allowed to let their clients sabotage their own cases; that's just super bad lawyering. There also may be an issue of perjury going on, since Matt, Foggy and Karen know their client is guilty of crimes, but has pleaded not guilty.
    • Matt's disastrous examination of Frank is worth pointing out. After a few questions, Matt asks the judge for permission to treat Frank as hostile, then launches into a long, rambling expository speech. In real life, permission to treat a witness as hostile means "treat the witness as though he or she had been called by the opposing party." This doesn't change much. Mainly it means that Matt can now ask Frank leading questions (i.e. questions that suggest a particular answer is desired). It definitely does not mean Matt can ask "questions" that are long speeches better suited for a closing statement. The only thing that saves Matt is Reyes failing to object to just about every sentence he utters...
    • ...and Reyes' only objections are to Matt's cross-examination questions, citing them as "leading." When the entire point of cross-examination is to ask leading questions to control the witness, which is allowed. It is equally wrong to object to cross-examination as argumentative, because cross-examination by its very nature is supposed to be argumentative to discredit the witness.
    • Somehow, Nelson & Murdock are able to get Colonel Schoonover as a character witness and not have his deposition. Reyes gets tripped up and embarrassed by the "actually I was there" trap. This doesn't happen in real life because there's a pretrial deposition of any and all witnesses so that neither defense nor prosecution are just playing a guessing game. It doesn't matter if Schoonover's name was redacted on classified mission reports. Deposition questions from Reyes would be like "what's the nature of your relationship to Castle?" "Why do you endorse his character?" "Were you there to personally witness the mission?" Etc etc. This is simple stuff that non-attorneys should think, "there's no way that this happens in real life." You can't just plop a witness on the stand who hasn't been deposed.
    • Matt and Karen going over strategy for the medical examiner. "Who doctored those certificates? And if he says 'no one' then we already got him admitting they were doctored!" Uh, Matt, Karen, that's gonna be shouted down by Reyes as "Objection. Assumes facts not entered into evidence," as in assuming the "fact" that the certificates were doctored at all. You have to lead to it, i.e. Establish and enter it as evidence by asking all sorts of boring questions leading to "were the reports in any way doctored?" You don't get to say "so, who doctored them?" That's assuming something not yet in evidence. It's like asking a murder suspect "so, when you killed the victim, did you do it with a candlestick or a bat?"
    • Sentencing for Frank after he got himself convicted would take several weeks of more hearings, although one could assume Fisk was pulling strings to get Frank to him before the sentencing could send him to another prison.
    • There are an insane number of conflicts of interest on hand for Nelson & Murdock:
    • 1) Karen was among those caught in the crossfire when Frank was shooting at Grotto in the hospital.
    • 2) As well as Foggy and Karen having been present for the attempted police ambush.
    • 3) Frank asks Foggy to leave the room so he can speak with Karen alone. While Karen works at a law firm, and Matt and Foggy do treat her as if she's a partner with equal footing in decisions, she is a secretary / office manager, not a lawyer. She doesn't have a law degree. Without a lawyer present, anything Frank says to Karen might not protected by attorney/client privilege, and she could be subpoenaed to testify under oath about what he said to her. In fact, her one-on-one conversations with Frank without Matt or Foggy being present may constitute Unauthorized Practice of Law. So unless Karen is a certified paralegal, it's unlikely she would be permitted to take statements as she did with Frank both at the hospital and in jail on her own, and it's very unlikely that she would be able to sit at the defense bench in a criminal trial.
    • 4) Matt personally witnessed Frank kill Grotto. So he knows the guy is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
    • 5) Frank was caught because Matt performed a citizen's arrest of him while in costume as Daredevil.
  • Several episodes feature police cars with forward-facing blue and red lights. New York state law prohibits forward-facing blue lights on police vehicles.
  • It's very unlikely in real life that a white-collar criminal like Stewart Finney would end up in the same prison as violent murderers like Wilson Fisk. Finney, however, explains when he introduces himself to Fisk that he got caught because he double-crossed the brother of a very influential Justice Department official, so it's possible the official in question pulled strings.
  • At the beginning of the Season 2 premiere, we see Matt and Foggy arrive at the office and Karen fills them in on the clients in their waiting room. While the scene is funny and is meant to convey the eccentricity of Nelson & Murdock's clientele, Karen is publicly disclosing each individual's legal problem in earshot of the other clients, potentially a violation of a New York attorney's duty of confidentiality to a prospective client.
  • In Season 3, when Fisk has the FBI go after Matt's friends, Karen asks Foggy to be her attorney as she fears that Nadeem will find out she killed Wesley and either send her to jail or have her killed. Foggy asks her to give him money as that will officially make him her lawyer. In real life, you do not have to give an attorney money for attorney-client privilege to be in effect.
  • At the end of Season 3, Foggy sketches a doodle for the trio's new firm on a napkin, calling it Nelson Murdock & Page. Thing is, Karen is not a lawyer, and in New York, it's actually a violation of ethics for a non-lawyer to have a partnership stake in a law firm.
  • The circumstances behind Wilson Fisk's release from prison in Season 3 are semi-plausible but there are some liberties.
    • The sort of deal Fisk makes (information on the Albanians in exchange for charges against Vanessa being dropped) would more likely be made with the DOJ or the U.S. Attorneys' office, not with the FBI. Decisions to charge or not to charge lie with prosecutors, not investigators.
    • The decision to put Fisk up in a penthouse at the Presidential Hotel, following two attempts on his life (one of which was a False Flag Operation). The Federal Bureau of Prisons has an established protocol for protecting prison informants and has special housing units available to keep them safe. Simply put, there should be no need and no reason to move Fisk to a hotel penthouse. A lot of this can be explained away as being because of Fisk's machinations (since Fisk had paid Jasper Evans to shank him, and the agent in charge of Fisk's protection detail is actively working for him), but not all of it.
    • Once Fisk gets his conviction overturned, the authorities suddenly act like they must get him on new charges. Unless the judges ruled that there was insufficient evidence against him for any reasonable jury to convict him though (quite unlikely) a retrial on the same charges could take place. He could also be tried on state charges in New York without regard to the outcome of his federal case.
• Hollywood Tactics: In the first season finale, the mercenaries rescuing Fisk are standing out in the open, unloading at the FBI agents while slowly advancing in a line. Despite this, the FBI agents get mowed down without giving the mercenaries much trouble. There's at least an attempt at realism, where one or two of the mercenaries do get hit and go down, but considering that they are exposed, and the FBI agents are mostly behind cover of some kind, means this should not have gone as easily for them as it did.
• Honor Before Reason: Ben Urich not taking the editor job despite the pay raise which would allow him to better take care of his wife because he wants to continue chasing stories with more value than puff pieces. He gets killed after he decides to start a blog and post his article about Fisk on the internet.
• Hospitality for Heroes: Played for Laughs when Foggy takes Karen to Josie's. He says that since he and Matt helped the owner with legal trouble, they drink for free. Then Josie herself comes by, as if on cue, and says they absolutely do not get to drink for free. However, Season 2 reveals that she allows them to rack up a gigantic tab with little indication that she expects them to pay it off. When Foggy closes it out and implies that he won't be coming back for a while, she seems disappointed. She's still warm and friendly when Matt and Foggy come by Josie's for drinks in The Defenders.
• Hypocrisy Nod: Matt acknowledges the hypocrisy of being a lawyer dedicated to the law who is also a vigilante.
• Hypocritical Humor: In Episode 5, Fisk tells the other crime lords that he killed Anatoly. He explains that they'll make Anatoly's brother Vladimir think the Devil of Hell's Kitchen was responsible, at least, until they are ready to make a move against him, saying "We all knew that we would need to eliminate the Russians one day. They were too unpredictable." This, as Leland points out, comes from a man who just decapitated Anatoly with a car door because the guy interrupted his date with Vanessa.
• Hypocrite:
  • A lot of attention is called to the fact that Matt enforces the law as a lawyer, while simultaneously breaking it with reckless abandon by acting as a superhero. Similarly, he and his priest struggle with the fact that he's a Catholic who may have to actively kill a man.
  • Even Foggy can sometimes get this. Yeah, in "Nelson v. Murdock" he's right to call Matt out for being Daredevil, but Foggy is guilty of doing the same thing (going out and putting a stop to crime) to a lesser extent, if his using a softball bat in "Stick" on a pair of thugs trying to jump Karen are any indication.
  • While Karen is one to call Matt and Foggy out for holding secrets, she's seemingly ignoring the fact that she's kept secret from them the fact that she killed James Wesley, as well as her secret past regarding her brother Kevin.
  • Leland Owlsley calls Fisk out on his relationship with Vanessa, thinking that she's distracting him from getting on with his criminal ventures. Fisk points out that Leland has a son, which means at some point he met a woman and fell in love.