Summer TV Rewind: Marvel's Daredevil 1.12: "The Ones We Leave Behind"

“But this is my mother that you brought into this, Mr. Urich. My mother. So I am not here to threaten you. I’m here to kill you.”
-Fisk

This was quite a memorable episode of “Daredevil.” For much of the episode, not a lot happens. The characters are still all trying to deal with the fallout of many of the reveals of the past couple episodes. Kind of like the pervious episode, however, it ended with a bang. Or more precisely, a strangling. By the end of this episode, the stakes have definitely been raised for our heroes, and it is going to be interesting to see how the consequences all play out in the season finale. I’d really love to get back to a status quo where Foggy, Matt, and Karen are working together and kicking ass, but I doubt that is happening any time soon. It really hasn’t happened much over the course of the season, to be honest. Many episodes have had Matt off on separate adventures while Foggy and Karen try to hold town the fort. Ah well – I can still dream!

This episode begins not long after the last one ended, and we immediately have to deal with the consequences of Karen killing Wesley. She’s completely freaking out (understandably), and we see her shaking as she throws the gun into the water. She gets a shower and drinks heavily before trying to get some sleep, and when she does sleep, she has a nightmare about Fisk showing up to talk to her about how awesome it feels to kill people. Later, Karen and Foggy happen to both be at the office at the same time. Foggy is trying to clean out more of his stuff, and Karen just needs to get out of the house. Foggy apologizes for leaving Karen high and dry, and he asks her for their file of information about Fisk. He leaves the office, but he tells Karen she can call him any time. Foggy can clearly tell something is wrong with Karen, but Karen refuses to talk about it, and Foggy doesn’t press the issue.

Meanwhile, Fisk is still at the hospital, watching over Vanessa at her bedside. Fisk has a really sweet (if you can get past what a horrible, sadistic person he is) sweet monologue about what Vanessa means to him, but then he’s called away. He sees Wesley’s body in the warehouse, exactly where Karen left it, and he is enraged. He takes that rage out on the bodyguard who was supposed to be protecting Wesley, beating him unconscious before Owlsley gets him to calm down a bit. The two men speculate whether or not the Japanese or the Triad are responsible for Wesley’s death, and maybe Vanessa’s poisoning, too. Owlsley leaves to go investigate, and Fisk checks Wesley’s phone, since he knows a phone call resulted in Wesley rushing off to take care of something just before his death. He is shocked to see his mother’s phone number in the call log.

As Ben heads to his car, presumably after a day of work, he is stopped by Matt in vigilante garb. The two exchange theories about the interactions and connections between all the criminal organizations that have been battling it out in Hell’s Kitchen recently. Matt seems most interested in going after Madame Gao and the Triad. Ben says he has a story in mind to write about Fisk and company in general, but Matt says to lay low for now for his own safety, and he (Matt) will take care of everything. Meanwhile, Foggy meets up with Marcie at Josie’s. Foggy gives Marcie the file on Fisk and begs her to read it. She’s appalled by what she’s reading, but she’s reluctant to do anything since Fisk is one of her clients, and if she makes a wrong move, she could be disbarred. Foggy begs her to take a stand and get her soul back.

Karen continues to be creepy and annoying, and she appears, stalker-style, in Ben’s apartment. She tells him that she thinks Fisk’s people are on to them, and he needs to print a take-down story about Fisk ASAP. She won’t say exactly why she suspects this and just chalks it up to instinct. Ben is reluctant because he doesn’t have all the confirmations he needs to meet the paper’s standards yet, but Karen pushes him, and he promises to run it by his editor. Unsurprisingly, his editor hates it, and he tells Ben there is no way the story is going to print. After a heated confrontation, Ben accuses his editor of taking bribes from Fisk, and this results in Ben getting fired.

Deciding to move forward with his plans for Madame Gao and her crew, Matt spots a blind Asian woman who gets into a mysterious unmarked vehicle. Matt parkours over rooftops like a badass to follow the vehicle all the way to Gao’s warehouse. He manages to infiltrate the warehouse rather easily, and when he arrives at the production floor, the workers of course don’t notice his presence. Madame Gao notices, though, and she yells a warning to the workers. They start swarming Matt. Matt manages to get free, and he has a confrontation with Gao and a few of her security guards. When Matt gets too close, Gao pushes him and escapes. We later see her and Owsley watching the warehouse burn as they wonder whether or not Fisk knows they were behind the plot to kill Vanessa. Gao says she’s going to go back to her homeland to think things through. It’s not China, though – apparently Gao is from somewhere even farther away. I’m not exactly sure what that means – is she supposed to be an alien or something? Matt helps many of the workers get out of the burning building, and he has a confrontation with a police officer before finally making his escape.

We see Fisk and his mother in the back of Fisk’s car. Fisk tells his mother that he’s sending her to Italy. She doesn’t seem thrilled by it – she was quite comfortable in her life at the nursing home. He also tries to get her to say what she told Wesley before he died, but she doesn’t remember. Later, Fisk and Owlsley have a conversation that ends with Fisk getting called away for something urgent. Meanwhile, Ben has a conversation at the hospital with his wife. When she finds out he has been fired, she encourages him to get his story out there in any way he can. He immediately calls Karen and says he’s going to put together a blog, and he’ll give her the link when it’s done. Back at his apartment, he is about to sit down and start writing when Fisk appears sitting in a living room chair. They have a reasonable conversation, where Fisk expresses displeasure with Ben’s writing while Ben implies he’s going to keep writing. All of that changes, however, when the topic moves to Fisk’s mother. Fisk can’t abide people using his mother to get to him, so after he confirms (Ben lies) that Ben was the only person who visited the nursing home, he strangles Ben to death.