Shattered physically and spiritually, Matt rethinks his purpose and place in Hell's Kitchen. Meanwhile, Fisk puts a plan in motion from behind bars.
- Ask a Stupid Question...: When Maggie finds Matt on the floor and asks what he's been doing, he dryly responds falling.
- Broken Ace: Matt, understandably. While he is recovering quicker than one would expect, his senses are still impaired, to the point where he gets nearly beaten to death by two random robbers after putting up a halfway-decent fight.
- Call-Back:
- In Karen's flashback to after Matt revealed his Secret Identity at the end of last season, she notes sardonically that Matt knows she nodded without being told, in a Call-Back to the pilot episode when she has to tell him she'd nodded because she thought he was blind.
- Maggie reminds Matt that Battlin' Jack Murdock always got back up, and, in the fight with the robbers later, he gets back up and gives the goon back his weapon... so he can let the man kill him.
- Cruel to Be Kind: SAC Tammy Hattley has been refusing Agent Nadeem a promotion because of his bad financial situation. With his horrible FICO score, it would just get him under scrutiny.
- Death Seeker:
- After being beaten up by the two robbers, Matt tries to goad them into finishing him off, even begging god for forgiveness.
- Hinted at with Agent Nadeem. The way he hesitates before taking his sidearm out of the gun safe, the framing as the camera looks at him from behind, slumped in defeat, with plenty of room on the right for him to pull his arm up and put the gun to his head... Smash Cut to him getting out of his car at work.
- Double Speak: In the flashback to Matt's reveal scene with Karen, Karen says when Matt is putting her hand on his heart, "I'm not so sure Daredevil is the problem." From the way Matt reacts, he thinks she's talking about him, when in actuality Karen is referring to Wesley's death as well as demons from her own past that she hasn't told him about, as Deborah Ann Woll later revealed in a podcast interview.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?:
- In the flashbacks, Karen finds herself conflicted. She's furious with Matt for lying to her, but she knows she should be grateful to him for having saved her life on two separate occasions.
- Ray Nadeem goes to SAC Hattley's office, and demands that his performance review get moved up, noting that Hattley's been repeatedly deferring them, denying him promotion opportunities. Hattley admits that she's been doing this deliberately, to protect Ray, because his credit rating is garbage due to funding his sister-in-law's cancer treatments, making him a potential target for recruitment by criminals.
- Flashback:
- Karen has a flashback in Matt's apartment as she reminisces about the night Matt revealed his secret to her.
- Matt has a few brief flashbacks to his time with Elektra as he recuperates.
- Foreshadowing:
- Sister Maggie is fairly judgmental of Matthew's career as the Devil of Hell's Kitchen. "I never thought it would be one of our own out there." This is understandable, as he was an orphan under her care, but it goes deeper than that, as he's also the son she lost due to post-partum depression.
- Ray Nadeem has a big house, wants a swimming pool, he's throwing a lavish party for his recently cancer-free sister-in-law (whose treatment he underwrote because of the insurance companies not wanting to cover her), and his wife notes that the credit card got declined at the deli. As SAC Hattley notes when Ray goes to her office to ask for his performance review to be moved up, financial troubles are one of the traits sought by criminals looking to subvert police or intelligence agents. And then Hattley tells Ray it's his turn to talk to Wilson Fisk, a crime boss who was known for bribing NYPD officers to do his dirty work for him.
- When told by Hattley that it's his turn to talk to Fisk, Ray protests that it's futile because "we talk to this guy every month, and every month he gives us nothing." Yet when Fisk sits down with Ray, he's immediately willing to play ball and cooperate within seconds of Ray identifying himself.
- He's Back!: Subverted. After Matt recovers much of his power and physical strength, he suits up and goes after some robbers but it's quickly proven that he isn't at his full potential yet as he nearly gets killed.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Fisk imagines preparing an omelet in his luxury apartment while in his sparse prison cell with the few amenities his power allows him. Meanwhile Matt finds himself deprived of his Super-Senses and wallows in self pity.
- Immediate Sequel: To The Defenders (2017), as during the first few scenes, we see how Matt survived the explosion of Midland Circle.
- Is That a Threat?: Nadeem takes it the wrong way when Fisk asks if he loves his family. However Fisk is just trying to show that Even Evil Has Loved Ones.
- Love Is a Weakness: After months of turning them down, Fisk finally agrees to make a deal with the FBI to ensure Vanessa's safety from prosecution. Ultimately subverted, because it turns out this is just a ploy he's been setting up for some time, triggered when the feds decided to go after Vanessa.
- Mythology Gag: Matt losing most of his powers after an injury is similar to his situation in Daredevil #176.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Matt spent two seasons being a devout Catholic and very respectful of Father Lantom and actively seeking his advice on spiritual matters. After he wakes up, he turns away from Father Lantom's advice and offer of Catholic rites like confession and communion.
- Scylla and Charybdis: Agent Nadeem can't get promoted until he pulls himself out of debt, but that's impossible without the pay raise he would get from a promotion.
- Shoot the Messenger: Lampshaded when Donovan and Lee walk in to deliver the bad news that the feds have decided to charge Vanessa, meaning she can never return to the US, Donovan asks Fisk to remember that they're just the bearers of bad news. Given Vanessa is Fisk's Berserk Button and he has murdered people or brutally beaten them over this, this is a very reasonable fear on Donovan's part.
- Snark-to-Snark Combat: Maggie and Matt constantly engage in this throughout the episode. Now we know where he got it from.
- So Proud of You: She doesn't say it in the moment, but when Maggie walks in on Matt punching bags of fertilizer and see's him finally in a positive mood, ready to really mend, bragging about being able to hear all the subway lines running under the church, her face screams it. Then he identifies what fast food she brought him and she rolls her eyes and says he's "just showing off". After Father Lantom brings in a sparring partner for him, she even says it out loud.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: For the aftermath of a Never Found the Body, anyway. Matt is severely injured, to the point that he barely survives and his Super-Senses barely function even after months of recovery.
- Took A Level In Cynicism: Matt, to the point where the once devout Catholic now has a burning hatred for his God. He also admits that he'd rather die as Daredevil than live as Matt Murdock.
- Tough Love: Maggie gives Matt a lot of this throughout the episode, especially telling him that he shouldn't wallow in self-pity.
- Training Montage: While Matt is slowly recovering, he is shown undertaking physical exercise.
- Tranquil Fury: Fisk is clearly trembling with rage, but remains calm when his pair of lawyers inform him of the FBI's plan of prosecuting Vanessa if they catch her.
- Wham Shot: Nadeem is told by Hattley that it's his turn to talk to a prisoner the FBI's been trying to turn into an informant for several months. Despite Nadeem's protests that it's pointless because the guy won't cooperate, he agrees to do it. Cut to Nadeem sitting in a visitor's room at the prison. Moments later, Wilson Fisk is escorted into the room.Ray Nadeem: Mr. Fisk, I'm Special Agent Ray Nadeem with the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI would like your assistance with...[sighs] Let's just cut to the part where you tell me to eat shit, so we can stop wasting each other's time, huh?
Wilson Fisk: Tell me, Special Agent Nadeem, do you have anyone in your life who you love so much, you'd do anything to protect them?
Ray Nadeem: Are you threatening me?
Wilson Fisk: I have made many mistakes. But I accept the debt I'm paying because of them. But what I will not accept... is that the woman that I love should have to pay for them, too. I would do anything to protect her. Anything.
Ray Nadeem: I'm sorry. What is it you're saying?
Wilson Fisk: I want to make a deal. - Worst Aid: Neti pots are of dubious value generally (the little genie's lantern thing Matt uses to clear his sinuses just before he regains his Super-Senses), due to the fact that they don't treat the underlying cause of congestion and might encourage the body to overproduce even more in response, but Matt makes it worse when he fills his with straight tap-water. When you flood a cavity with water that isn't intended to be filled with water, you need to go above and beyond even what modern water treatment standards demand in terms of cleanliness.
- You Need to Get Laid: Matt mentions how his instructor Stick told him to avoid emotional attachments as they made him weak, Sister Maggie snidely remarks that he should have gotten laid. Given that it's a nun saying this, Matt finds the comment Actually Pretty Funny.
