"They keep coming back. And when they do, it's not just a crime, it's horror movie... murdery shit."
— Claire Temple on how dangerous the Hand is, "The Defenders".
Remember all the Nightmare Fuel the Hand brought in the previous series? Here, it gets taken up to eleven.
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"The H Word"
- The earthquake producing those shockwaves. Doubly so when we see it through Matt's POV, he's alone in his apartment when everything starts to shake, then he takes to cover as best as he can. We also see it through Luke's POV as he's walking down the street and the ground starts to shake, sending rows of parked cars bouncing up and down and knocking down streetlights, one of which nearly hits Cole's mother before Luke jumps in to hold it up.
"Mean Right Hook"
- Jessica returns to her apartment...to find John Raymond holding Malcolm at gunpoint because he's utterly afraid for his life and what the Hand will do to him. And then without any warning, Elektra suddenly breaks down the door and grabs Raymond, who quickly blows his brains out rather than let Elektra kill him. And Elektra then quickly overpowers Jessica before making her escape, all without saying a single word. The fact that Elektra doesn't say anything, and the way she breaks the lock, she might as well be the original Terminator.
- Jessica has a thick jacket in the NYPD files. As in, two bulging file folders. Like she said in her own series, it must be a crime to help people or making a living in the city.
"Worst Behavior"
- The danger the Hand pose is made clear when they have Cole killed in jail for talking to Luke.
- His mother's breakdown after she gets the news. Remember, Cole's sister was killed by Shades right around the same time Diamondback was defeated, and his brother was just recently killed by the Hand. Losing one of your children to criminal violence is horrible enough, but all three of them, only months apart, is unimaginable.
- Elektra's resurrection. She awakens in a coffin filled with blood! And she lets out a very feral scream when she wakes up.
- When Elektra shows up, she and Matt engage in a savage fight for several minutes. It's not until he's knocked down and takes a pause that Matt is able to tell who it is. Think about it; he can identify a person by heartbeat and smell yet he has no idea this is Elektra at first, meaning she truly has changed.
- Also notice how when Matt senses her coming, he says "There's someone else coming. Something else," meaning he can't even register Elektra as human at first. Probably because, on top of being presumed dead, Elektra likely smells different than she used to, and may seem different in other ways as well. This highlights a case of how his blindness handicaps him: if he had sight, he would have instantly recognized Elektra.
"Royal Dragon"
- The Reveal that the Hand has been around for centuries, possibly longer. Pompeii and Chernobyl are some of their more notable works.
- When Jessica learns that the Hand are watching John Raymond's family, she attacks the guy spying on them and tells him that the family knows nothing about what Raymond knew. Jessica gets confirmation that the Hand knows that the family is no threat, but when she asks if the assassin is going to leave them alone, he gives a Slasher Smile and spits at Jessica. The Hand aren't going to just kill John Raymond's family because they're a threat. They're going to do it because they feel like it.
"Take Shelter"
- How Sowande managed to escape the Chaste once. He convinced them all to not only let him go, but kill each other as well.Sowande: That army you used to fight alongside... The Chaste. They captured me once. This was years ago. Long before you were born. I had been captive three days when they heard my soldiers approach. The fortress fell silent. The gates remained locked. [chuckles] The Chaste couldn't comprehend it, but the soldiers outside, they were following my orders. They sealed the gates, allowed no one in or out.
On the third day, your soldiers turned on each other. By the fourth, they'd run out of water. By the sixth, no food. I believe it was the tenth day that they knelt before me. Begging me to make it stop.
Stick: Well... If I kneel before you right now, shithead, will you shut up?
Sowande: It won't be long before your plan comes apart. Before this chair I'm in becomes a throne.
"Ashes, Ashes"
- Danny is tied to a chair for his own safety to avoid being taken by the Hand. Then Stick decides it's a good idea to just kill him and with Jessica, Luke and Matt either unconscious or out of the building, there's not much he can do.
- By the very end of the episode, Elektra, having slowly pieced back her memories, chooses to kill Alexandra by stabbing her with her sai—while she is in the middle of a self-important, seemingly-victorious rant to the remaining Fingers. Then she decapitates her to make sure she can't come back. And then she declares she's taking over the Hand—blood-spattered face and clearly enjoying it. Whether it's still the "Black Sky" talking or the Elektra we came to know, it's pretty unsettling stuff.
"Fish in the Jailhouse"
- For the blind Matt when he wakes up in the precint, visibly confused and disoriented until Foggy comes to explain him the situation. He also looks briefly uneasy to learn his shirt was taken away, as it means someone undressed him while he was unconscious.
- Colleen's plan to stop the Hand once and for all: bring down Midland Circle on top of the leaders of the Hand, using the explosives John Raymond was going to use. Luke and Jessica are utterly horrified by what this could do to New York. The scary thing? Matt, the guy who spent his entire second season arguing with Frank Castle on not killing, is instantly on board.note
"The Defenders"
- Just the simple fact that Colleen and Matt managed to talk Luke, Jessica, and Claire into the plan of blowing up Midland Circle to kill the leaders of the Hand. Claire eventually agrees that when the Hand does their thing, it's not just killing, but "horror movie... murdery shit". Jessica finally agrees because they went after their friends and families. Luke ultimately agrees as long as no innocents are hurt, instead just those "Hand monsters". The Hand became such In-Universe Nightmare Fuel that the Defenders ultimately decided to subvert their no killing rule.
- When Karen and Trish are looking over the wall of crime scene photos, Trish says "They [the Hand] came after me, too. I thought Jessica was exaggerating, I didn't know it was this bad." To which Karen simply says, "Yeah, well it is" and even points out a photo from the hostage situation she was a part of. One can see just how much getting kidnapped by the Hand has impacted Karen, and she doesn't sound surprised, given all she's been through in her pursuits of Wilson Fisk and Frank Castle.
- After being teased when she got shot by Diamondback in the hostage situation at Harlem's Paradise, this time Misty really does lose her arm in quite disturbing fashion: Bakuto is about to decapitate Claire and Misty makes a desperate lunge for him, resulting in his swords slicing through her arm both ways, which doesn't even look intentional on his part.
