Recap / Daredevil S1 E12 "The Ones We Leave Behind"

"The Ones We Leave Behind" is the twelfth episode of Marvel's Daredevil and the penultimate episode of the first season.

In the immediate aftermath of murdering Wesley, Karen throws the gun in the water, returns to her apartment, and drinks every piece of liquor on hand. As she tries to sleep, she has a nightmare vision of Fisk appearing in her bedroom, taunting her that it'll get easier for her to kill, which ends with the imaginary Fisk trying to strangle her to death.

Unable to sleep, Karen decides to go to the office, only to find a somewhat agitated Foggy. Foggy still refuses to tell her what's happened between him and Matt, but does admit that Karen may be right about the Devil of Hell's Kitchen not being a terrorist, and leaves with some of Ben's files. As Foggy leaves, he awkwardly runs into Matt, who has shown up in the wake of his visit to Melvin Potter. Matt apologizes to Karen for the fallout with Foggy. Karen admits that she is starting to regret ever working for Nelson and Murdock, but she cannot quit as she has nowhere to go anymore. Matt notices Karen is distraught and tries to ask her if something happened, but Karen doesn't tell him about killing Wesley.

At Metro-General, Vanessa awakens, much to Fisk's relief. Fisk tells her that she was poisoned by enemies seeking to target him. He apologizes for putting her in the crosshairs, and tells her that he's making arrangements to get her out of the country, but Vanessa refuses to leave without him. Fisk's relief at Vanessa being alive is brought to a crashing halt when his security detail inform him about Wesley's murder.

Fisk's detail brings him to the warehouse, where Wesley's body is still sitting in the chair where Karen shot him. Francis admits that he loaned Wesley his gun and car keys, and that Wesley left after receiving a phone call, but has no idea who it was from. Enraged that Wesley was alone, Fisk begins beating up Francis, only being stopped when Owlsley brings him to his senses. Owlsley warns Fisk not to lose sight of his goal and not make any rash decisions. Composing himself, Fisk pulls Wesley's phone from his pocket, and notices that his mother called Wesley shortly before the murder.

Matt puts on his mask and meets up with Ben, wanting his help finding a lead on the heroin packet he found on the junkie Fisk used to kill Elena Cardenas. Recalling how Vladimir told him about Fisk's dealings with the Triads, he plans to disrupt that partnership to throw Fisk off-balance. Ben has a lead, as he recalls seeing blind couriers like the one who was in the cab of the goon that Detectives Blake and Hoffman murdered in custody in a few places around Hell's Kitchen. He provides Matt the addresses he remembers seeing them at.

Foggy meets with Marci at Josie's to hand her correspondence regarding the tenement case and Fisk's other criminal ventures. Marci is shocked by the damning information in the files that Foggy attributes to the Devil of Hell's Kitchen, but is nervous about the prospect of moving against Fisk since he's one of Landman & Zack's top clients. Foggy assures Marci that Fisk will be brought to justice, and urges her to do the right thing.

Still worrying that others might know about her and Ben visiting Fisk's mother, Karen meets with Ben to warn him. Ben updates Karen on his investigation, noting that he's trying to get some information from one of his former mafia contacts to corroborate Marlene's claims about Fisk's dad being in debt to Don Rigoletto. Karen insists they should do something immediately before Fisk comes for them. Noticing Karen's anxiety, Ben suggests that she start a blog of her own to post her findings, but Karen shoots that down on the notion that no one would take her seriously if they looked at her past. Ben hesitates, but assures Karen that he'll shake his other sources to get something done soon.

Fisk checks his mom out of Saint Bénézet. Worried that she'll be targeted next in the wake of what's happened to Vanessa and Wesley, he arranges for her to be moved to Italy. As they drive, Fisk asks Marlene what she said to Wesley on the phone, but she struggles to remember.

At the Bulletin, Ben tries to submit his article on Fisk to Ellison. Ellison, however, flat-out refuses to publish Ben's work, as it's based on the word of a very unreliable source with nothing to back her up. Frustrated with Ellison refusing to run any of his recent articles, Ben outright accuses him in the middle of the office of being on Fisk's payroll. This is the final straw for Ellison, who decides to fire Ben on the spot.

That evening, Fisk meets with Owlsley, who tells him that he could not find any evidence of Nobu's associates being were involved in Vanessa's poisoning or Wesley's murder. Owlsley tries to suggest that the Devil of Hell's Kitchen was involved, but Fisk shoots that theory down, seeing as he's seen firsthand that the masked vigilante isn't the kind to poison or shoot people. However, he then receives a call on Wesley's phone and abruptly leaves, visibly alarmed.

Following Ben's lead on the couriers, Matt manages to locate one of them, and tracks him to the warehouse where the heroin is packaged for distribution. Entering the warehouse that evening, he finds dozens of blind laborers handling the heroin. As he searches the place, Madame Gao spots him coming and alerts her guards. Matt gets the drop on the guards and attacks them. The first guard goes down without a hitch. The second guard opens fire on Matt with his assault rifle, but Matt dodges the bullets and takes him out too. Some of the guard's bullets rupture several nearby barrels of ethyl, which burst into flames. Now alone, Matt confronts Gao about the laborers. Gao admits that she didn't blind them; they blinded themselves out of their faith in something that he took away from them.

Matt tries to ask Gao for information about Fisk, but she takes him down with a single palm strike to the chest. By the time Matt is back on his feet, she's fled. Realizing that the workers in the lab are in danger of burning alive, he picks up one of the fallen guards' rifles and fires a volley into the ceiling, then presses the guard to evacuate the workers. The workers manage to escape the building just as the police and fire department arrive. Matt tries to slip out via an alternate route, only to get caught by Brett Mahoney. As Brett advances on Matt and prepares to cuff him, he blanches as he realizes he's face to face with the man he believes killed Blake while he was standing guard outside his hospital room. With no time to waste, Matt disarms Brett of his gun, knocks him to the ground, and warns him that Blake, Hoffman and dozens of other cops in the precinct are in Fisk's pocket. He's unable to provide Brett with more information, as another patrol car pulls into the alley at that moment, forcing Matt to flee.

On a rooftop, Owlsley meets with Gao. She's leaving the country, and not concerned about the loss of her heroin because it's not her primary goal. The subsequent conversation they have reveals that in fact the two of them were behind Vanessa's poisoning, as they felt that she was keeping Fisk distracted from his criminal business dealings. Owlsley asks Gao if she had Wesley killed as well, but she denies it and simply says that she needs to return to her homeland and consider her next move.

Ben visits Doris at the hospital, and mentions Ellison firing him. Doris assures him that he can forget about Ellison or the Bulletin; he doesn't need them. She suggests that he start a blog to publish his findings on Fisk. Ben is skeptical, but Doris convinces him to consider it. He calls Karen, who is working late at the office again, to let her know about it as he leaves the hospital. It may be risky, given that Fisk has powerful lawyers on retainer who could sue him for libel, but Ben believes that Nelson & Murdock can help him counter any such potential suits. He tells Karen that he'll send her a link to the blog when he posts the story, and then hangs up.

As Karen pours herself a cup of coffee and sits down at her desk, she's startled by Matt trying to get in. She hastily unlocks the door to let him in. He's visibly shaken by what he witnessed at Gao's lab, and confides as much to Karen without telling her the specifics. Karen hugs him, and assures him that he isn't alone in this.

Ben returns to his apartment with a cardboard box containing his possessions from the Bulletin and a bottle of scotch. He takes the scotch into his home study, fires up his laptop, takes a glance at a photo of himself and Doris from before she got sick, and begins typing his story. As he does so, he doesn't notice that Fisk has broken into the apartment and is quietly sitting in an armchair in a darkened corner of the study...until Fisk opens his mouth. Ben barely suppresses his terror as Fisk confirms that yes, he does have someone at the Bulletin on his payroll, a precaution he took after Ben's article on Union Allied to avoid being surprised by further bombshells. He then gets down to business and reveals that the phone call he received earlier was his mole informing him about Ben visiting Marlene, and asks Ben if anyone else was with him. Ben realizes at this moment that he's probably a dead man, and lies that he was alone, not admitting that Karen was with him. Having gotten the information he needs, Fisk suddenly lunges forward and grabs Ben by the neck. He wrestles Ben to the ground and proceeds to choke him to death. Composing himself, Fisk gets to his feet and leaves, stepping on the photo of Ben and Doris in the process.

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Tropes

• All for Nothing: Vanessa not only survives, she recovers from her coma and refuses to allow Fisk to send her away, defeating the entire purpose of trying to poison her.
• Alone with the Psycho: Ben puts on a brave face when confronting Fisk in his home, but he's clearly terrified. He knows he's moments from death.
• Ambiguously Human: Madame Gao not only floors Matt 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 from K'un-Lun, a mystical realm that only occasionally touches Earth. She's human, but has wildly powerful mystical training.
• Blatant Lies: Marci agrees to read Foggy's file on Fisk after he appeals to the idealism she used to espouse, but claims it's only because of how good he was in bed the other night.
• Breaking the Fellowship: Even more than in "Nelson vs. Murdock", now that Karen too has a dark secret she won't reveal to her friends. She asks if their partnership is now just three people who won't speak to each other.
• Call-Back: Ben mentions that he knew a guy who knew Don Rigoletto back in the day.
• Cardboard Box of Unemployment: After getting fired from the Bulletin, Ben is shown bringing home a Banker's box with all his office memorabilia including his framed front page articles, just in time for Fisk to choke him to death.
• Catapult Nightmare: Karen has one of these when she dreams of Fisk coming to kill her.
• Condescending Compassion: Ellison, when he fires Ben, states he's "done helping you." This, despite that most of what Ellison 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.
• Darkest Hour: 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.
• Drowning My Sorrows: After returning to her apartment after killing Wesley, Karen grabs a bottle and swigs directly from it. Waking up the next day, the bottle is empty and Foggy notes she smells like a distillery.
• Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Fisk tells Ben that the reason he's killing him is because he dragged his mother into the issue, which is one of his Berserk Buttons.
• Eye Scream: Matt accuses Madame Gao of blinding her workers, but she claims that they did it to themselves as an act of "faith".
• Failed a Spot Check: Ben walks into his home office, sets down his box, looks at one of his framed articles, pours and drinks a scotch, starts to write the article on Fisk... then Fisk clears his throat.
• Fatal Family Photo: Ben looks at a framed photo of himself and Doris on his desk as he sits down to start typing his article. The photo gets knocked off the table as he's trying to fight back against Fisk. After finishing Ben off, Fisk steps on the photo as he walks away.
• Foot Focus: The camera focuses on Ben's feet as Fisk chokes him to death, with the visual cue that he's dead being when his feet stop kicking.
• Genre Savvy: Fisk asks Francis who Wesley was in touch with before he left the hospital. Francis doesn't remember. Fortunately, Wesley's phone 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.
• Good Versus Good: 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 Mahoney. 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.
• Have You Told Anyone Else?: 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, Fisk has no idea that someone else knows things about him that he doesn't want the public to know, at least for now.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Ben claims to have gone to Fisk's mother alone ... meaning Fisk has no one else to blame. And leaves Karen off the hook.
• Hidden in Plain Sight: Ben says that the reason blind people are being used as drug mules is that no-one suspects a blind person. Matt can only give a wry smile.
• Innocently Insensitive: Foggy tells Karen that his infighting with Matt shouldn't take away from their efforts to stop Fisk, and says, "You can't just run around killing people, and call yourself a human being." Though she doesn't say anything, it's pretty clear that Karen doesn't take that line well, having just killed Wesley.
• It Gets Easier: In Karen's nightmare, she imagines Fisk telling her this, which is the manifestation of Karen's fear that after having killed Wesley, killing will get easier and she'll turn into someone like Fisk.
• I Was Just Passing Through: When Marci refuses to read his file on Fisk because there's a clear conflict of interest, Foggy tries to guilt-trip Marci via her previous idealism. She agrees to read it...but only because Foggy was good in bed last night.
• I Work Alone: Averted. Despite what Stick told him about cutting yourself off, Matt is not happy at how his friends have been driven away from him. He breaks down crying in Karen's presence, admitting that he can't do this alone.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: Madame Gao decides to pack up and leave New York before Matt causes any more trouble.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • Early on, Karen has a nightmare where Fisk appears in her apartment, talks to her for a bit, and then tries to strangle her to death. At the end of the episode, Fisk breaks into Ben's apartment, and actually strangles him to death.
  • During their argument, Ben tries to tell Ellison that the Fisk story is "sexy," something that Ellison had insisted a story needed to be. Ellison just brushes this off, saying it makes Ben sound "like a whore."
• Mentor Occupational Hazard: Ben, who has been guiding Karen on being an investigative journalist, is brutally murdered by Fisk because Karen uncovered Fisk's mother and tricked Ben into visiting her.
• The Mole: Ben accuses Ellison of being in Fisk's pocket. Fisk confirms that he indeed has someone at the ''Bulletin' in his pocket since Ben broke the Union Allied story. He doesn't say who it is, 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 it was actually his secretary.
• Mythology Gag: When Foggy notes Karen's more-than-usual leaning on alcohol, she dryly jokes she's thinking of upgrading to hard drugs. This may be a sly reference to Born Again, the 1986 arc where Karen infamously fell into heroin abuse, eventually selling Matt's secret identity for a score when she was destitute.
• Never Mess with Granny: Madame Gao lays out Matt with a single hit, after giving no indication for the entire season that she poses a physical threat.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: 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.
• Oblivious Guilt Slinging: Foggy tells Karen he intends to keep chasing Fisk, saying "You can't go around killing people and call yourself a human being", unaware that she's just a few hours away from having killed Wesley.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Ben when he finds Fisk hiding in his apartment.
  • While escaping the warehouse, Matt gets cornered by Brett Mahoney at gunpoint. Brett immediately seems to go pale seeing the man who (he thinks) killed Detective Blake in front of him and shot the cops at the standoff with Vladimir.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Leland stops Fisk from beating Francis to death because he wasn't there to back Wesley up, pointing out he was loyally following orders.
• Pet the Dog: Despite nearly killing Francis earlier, Fisk gives him Wesley's job as The Dragon. When Leland lampshaded this, Fisk says that Wesley trusted him. That and the fact that even Fisk is aware that Francis was just following orders, as the latter explains to him that Wesley orders him to keep as many men as possible protecting Fisk.
• The Reveal: Madame Gao and Owlsley were responsible for the benefit poisonings, not to kill Fisk, but to kill Vanessa, in an attempt to get his focus back on his criminal empire.
• Roof Hopping: Matt does some Parkour when following the car that picked up the blind mule.
• Shower of Angst: Karen has one at the beginning of the episode right after she killed Wesley in the previous episode.
• Stealth Hi/Bye:
  • Ben Urich gets subject to it three times: Matt first jumps off a dumpster while he's getting in his car, prompting Ben to tell him, "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 Ben'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.
  • Karen gets a start from Foggy as well, even though he points out he was just in the next office and not creeping around.
  • Madame Gao basically disappears in the few seconds it takes Matt to recover from her hit.
• Take That!:
  • In his conversation with Ben Urich, Fisk makes bitter comments on current society and what its people prioritize in world events and on the internet.
    Wilson 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.
  • Foggy remarks (in response to Karen jokingly saying she's thinking of graduating to hard drugs) about how he once smoked pot in college. Karen counters by pointing that Colorado and Washington State don't consider marijuana a "hard" drug anymore.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Fisk views Ben bringing his mother into this mess as something worth killing him over.
  Wilson Fisk: You're a man of principle, of conviction. I understand that, I even admire it. But you went after my mother. That's not something that I can forgive.
  Ben Urich: I wrote a lot of stories in my years pushing ink. You know how many times people have threatened me, to get me to keep my mouth shut?
  Wilson Fisk: [growing more agitated and angrier] But that's my mother that you brought into this, Mr. Urich! My mother! So I am not here to threaten you. I am here to KILL you!
• Tranquil Fury: Fisk is furious about the fact that Ben spoke to his mother and decides to murder him. So he breaks into Ben's apartment to ambush him when he comes home. He spends the next few minutes carefully digging for information about Ben's investigation to find out if there are any other people he needs to eliminate, and once he has what he needs, he lets his true level of rage show itself.
• Trespassing to Talk: 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 Fisk quietly sitting in an armchair in the corner.
  Wilson Fisk: I've made mistakes, in the years since I was a boy. I try to learn from them, but it isn't always enough.
  Ben Urich: Get out of my house.
  Wilson Fisk: I'll leave. But first, I'd....I'd like to have a conversation with you. Off the record, of course.
  Ben Urich: You think I believe anything you have to say?
  Wilson Fisk: Well, I...I promise that I'll be honest with you, Mr. Urich. Whether you choose to believe, that's up to you.
• The Unreveal: Madame Gao's true intentions in Hell's Kitchen are never revealed. She only says that the heroin smuggling is irrelevant to her true purpose.
• Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Foggy, still not speaking to Matt, leaves the office, only to find Matt at the door. After a long, uncomfortable stare, Matt steps aside to let Foggy go.
  Karen Page: Well, that wasn't awkward...
• Villain Respect: Before murdering Ben, Fisk engages him in polite conversation during which he sincerely apologizes for underestimating him.
• You Are in Command Now: Despite nearly killing Francis earlier, Fisk gives him Wesley's job as The Dragon. Owlsley questions Fisk's choice of replacement.
  Leland Owlsley: You trust him after that beating you laid on?
  Wilson Fisk: Wesley trusted him. That's all that matters now.
• You Are Not Alone: Karen tells Matt this when he breaks down in tears after seeing Madame Gao's heroin operation and realizing the scale of what he's up against.
• Your Door Was Open: Averted; Karen has taken to locking the door at the office, to Matt's irritation when he turns up to work.

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