Season 1, Episode 1:

Into the Ring

"Into the Ring" is the first episode of Marvel's Daredevil.

In the early 1990s, boxer "Battlin' Jack" Murdock races to the scene of a car accident, to find his nine-year-old son Matt amidst an overturned truck carrying chemical waste. Matt saved an old man from being hit by the truck by pushing him out of the way, but in the process his eyes were splashed with chemicals that blind him, and Jack is left to comfort his now-disabled son.

In 2014, Matt Murdock (Charlie Cox) visits Clinton Church and takes confession. He tells the priest, Father Paul Lantom, about his father's record as a "tough as oak" boxer, and how sometimes Jack would "let the devil out" on his opponents. Matt didn't understand what that meant at the time, but he does now. When Father Lantom asks what Matt has done that he wants to confess, Matt admits that he doesn't want forgiveness for what he's done, but rather what he's going to do.

That night, at the docks, a gang of human traffickers, lead by Turk Barrett, are loading captive young women into a shipping container. Matt intervenes in a black suit and a mask that hides his identity, using heightened senses and advanced martial arts to dispatch the traffickers and free their captives.

The next morning, Matt meets up with Foggy Nelson (Elden Henson), his best friend and law partner, to tour a potential office space for their new practice. The space they're scouting out (a suite with two offices, a reception area, and a conference room) is available at a steep discount due to the general damage and reconstruction going on in Hell's Kitchen after "the Incident". Matt eagerly decides that the space is perfect for them. Now they only need clients, but that's been difficult due to Matt's insistence they only defend the innocent, which is in conflict with Foggy's desire for the firm to turn a profit; at this point, he'd settle for a single client.

They get one that evening in the form of Karen Page (Deborah Ann Woll), a young woman found in her apartment by police, standing over a dead body and holding a bloody knife, and arrested despite her tearful pleas of innocence. Matt and Foggy are tipped off to the potential client by Sgt. Brett Mahoney (Royce Johnson), a police officer at the 15th Precinct and childhood friend of Foggy's (Foggy regularly bribes Brett with cigars for his mother Bess in exchange for information). In tears, Karen explains to Matt and Foggy that she and the victim, Daniel Fisher, worked for Union Allied Construction, a firm that's overseeing a bunch of construction projects in Hell's Kitchen, and after meeting up for drinks the night before, she blacked out and woke up a moment before the police arrived. Foggy initially tries to turn down Karen as a client when she admits she has no money to pay them, but Matt can tell from her heartbeat that she's innocent, and decides to take her case.

The following afternoon, James Wesley (Toby Leonard Moore) walks up to middle-aged corrections officer Clyde Farnum as he's eating lunch in Abe Lebewohl Park. Wesley explains that his employer's organization has assumed responsibility for the $28,957 debt that Farnum owes to Rigoletto, a mafioso who has recently "retired"; and shows him a live tablet feed of Clyde's daughter Tracy on a campus quad, with an assassin stationed not ten yards away from her who is going to receive an order to kill her if Clyde doesn't use his position to perform a service for them.

At Nelson & Murdock, Matt is convinced that something's amiss about Karen's case: if the case against Karen is so open-and-shut, why are the police dragging their feet on filing charges and why haven't they issued a statement to the media? Foggy suspects Matt's reluctance is because Karen is just his type (a beautiful woman of "questionable character"), but he agrees to dig deeper into the matter. He suggests that it's possible Karen is innocent of murder...but she isn't telling them the whole truth either, and might be withholding information that could lead the police to the actual responsible party.

In the middle of the night, Farnum sneaks into Karen's cell and attacks her as she's sleeping. Karen fights back as Farnum proceeds to fashion her bedsheet into an improvised noose, intending to stage her death as a suicide. After struggling for a few moments, Karen manages to reach behind her with one hand and claws at Farnum's face, drawing blood from his right eye. As Farnum clutches his bloody eye, Karen frees herself and screams for help. The next morning, Matt and Foggy meet with the investigators handling the case, Detectives Christian Blake and Carl Hoffman, and demand Karen's immediate release from custody, since she's not been charged and she now has grounds for a civil suit against them. They begrudgingly acquiesce, though not before Blake threatens physical violence against Matt. In private, Matt suspects the attempted murder was part of an attempt to cover up evidence that would exonerate Karen.

At the office, Karen admits to knowing why someone would want to frame and kill her. Union Allied has been making millions off government contracts to rebuild much of Hell's Kitchen. Karen, who was the secretary to the chief accountant, was accidentally emailed a "pension file" that was actually a ledger for what she presumes was criminal activity. Her boss, Mr. McClintock, laughed off her concerns, so Karen asked Daniel Fisher from the legal department to advise her on what to do next. When they met up at the bar to discuss it, someone drugged their drinks and staged the murder. Blaming herself for Daniel's death, Karen tearfully insists on leaving, not wanting Matt or Foggy to suffer because of her, but the pair resolve to keep her safe, and Matt offers to let her stay at his apartment.

Matt's lofty apartment is sparse and cheap, partially because of a bright and gaudy electronic billboard on the building across the street. After Karen changes into one of Matt's dress shirts, they talk about his blindness, and Matt admits that he misses his eyesight. Their talk turns to the Union Allied business, and Matt's theory that Karen was framed – rather than killed outright – because she knows too much. And more importantly, she has something that the conspirators want: a copy of the pension file. Karen denies it, but Matt senses the lie.

A disparate group of organized criminals meet on the upper floors of a high-rise being constructed by Union Allied: elderly financial expert Leland Owlsley (Bob Gunton), Russian mobsters Anatoly and Vladimir Ranskahov (Gideon Emery and Nikolai Nikoleff), Yakuza enforcer Nobu Yoshioka (Peter Shinkoda), and elderly Chinese drug manufacturer Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho). Wesley is the last to arrive, representing the interests of his employer, whose name he refuses to allow be spoken aloud. When Wesley asks why the Russians are short on their payments, they explain the recent problems with the masked vigilante. Owlsley is dismissive, but Wesley shows more interest in this vigilante and demands details. The Russians get defensive when the others seem skeptical of their story, and when it's mentioned that Wesley's employer will be displeased with them, and they fire back by asking about the situation with one of their rivals, Prohazska, which they're just as displeased about. Wesley insists that his employer is handling Prohazska, but the Russians don't seem to have been placated.

As it begins to rain, Karen sneaks out to her apartment to retrieve a flash drive containing a copy of the pension file, which she's stashed inside the air vent in her bathroom. Unbeknownst to her, Rance—the assassin that Wesley had used to threaten Farnum's daughter—is lying in wait. He attacks Karen as she leaves the bathroom, and prepares to stab her with a switchblade. As he's about to do so, Matt kicks down the front door and engages him. After fighting it out in the living room, they end up crashing through a window and into the alley outside. Bolstered by memories of his father, Matt defeats Rance by wrapping a chain from some scaffolding around his neck and hitting him several times in the head. As Matt gets back up and retrieves the flash drive from Rance, he registers that Karen has made it downstairs and is watching him, though she doesn't recognize him. He promises to get the drive into the right hands, bypassing the cops, and telling the public, by delivering Rance and the flash drive to the front steps of the New York Bulletin.

A few days later, the Union Allied story is front page news in the Bulletin. Over the phone, Wesley assures his employer that the scandal won't be linked to their operation. Owlsley has cleared out the dirty money, and the key people with evidence are being attended to as they speak. Farnum is shot in his basement and his death staged to look like he ate his gun, Rance is hanged in his cell with a bedsheet, and McClintock is force fed a lethal dosage of pills. His employer is curious about how Rance was subdued, but tells Wesley to leave Karen alone, since she doesn't know anything beyond what has already been exposed, and to keep an eye on Nelson & Murdock in case they'll be useful in the future.

Karen cooks Matt and Foggy some lasagna to celebrate her acquittal, and offers to work at Nelson & Murdock as their secretary. However, despite the firm's victory, the criminal enterprise is continuing unabated. That night, Matt waits on the rooftops of Hell's Kitchen in his vigilante suit and listens for trouble; hearing the sound of Vladimir and Anatoly ambushing and abducting a child from his father, Matt pulls on his mask and goes to work.

Tropes:

• Action Prologue: After the first confessional scene, we are shown a taste of Matt's fighting abilities as he beats up some Russian gangsters trafficking women into New York City, establishing what type of show this series is going to be.
• Anachronism Stew: In the opening shot of Jack racing to the scene of Matt's accident, there's one car that clearly has a modern 2010 New York license plate◊^note Embossed dark blue numbers on gold plate, with small blue bar at bottom with thin blue stripe above and curved larger blue bar at top with thin blue stripe below, with orange "NEW YORK" in serifed block letters curving to edges of top bar, in a scene that is supposed to take place in the 1990s. Such a car would actually have plates that look more like this◊, as accurately depicted on several of the other cars. Modern MTA buses from the 2000s and 2010s can also be seen in the background when Jack is running to the scene.
• And Your Little Dog, Too!: Wesley shows Farnum a live feed of his daughter on a campus quad with Rance reading a book on a nearby park bench, to coerce him into killing Karen.
• Apologetic Attacker: Farnum, who's only trying to kill Karen because his daughter's life is being threatened, is almost sobbing when he apologizes to Karen while strangling her.
• Bail Equals Freedom:
  • Averted with Karen. She thanks Matt and Foggy for getting her out of jail in light of Farnum's attempt, but they counter that just because she's been released doesn't mean the district attorney won't seek charges at a later date.
    Matt Murdock: How are you holding up?
    Karen Page: Better. Thanks for getting me out.
    Foggy Nelson: Don't thank us yet. Just because they released you doesn't mean they won't eventually bring charges.
    Matt Murdock: Which means it's crucial you don't speak to anyone other than the two of us about what happened.
  • Played with for Farnum. Fisk's people arrange for him to be bailed out, just so that he can then be killed off more discreetly.
• Battle in the Rain: The fight between Matt and Rance outside of Karen's apartment happens in a driving rainstorm.
• Blatant Lies: Foggy claims the realtor is homely and is prejudiced against blind people.
• Bookends: The episode begins and ends with a child in danger, and a helpless father.
• …But He Sounds Handsome: Matt can't help smiling when Karen is praising her Mysterious Protector, though cuts her off when she goes on to say he's a weirdo.
• Can't Stop the Signal: Faced with a possible widespread criminal conspiracy with police involvement, Matt decides to just deliver Rance and the thumbdrive with the dirt on Union Allied to the Bulletin.
• Chekhov's Gun:
  • When Farnum calls his daughter, she says she's coming around over the weekend to use the laundry machines in his building. At the end of the episode, she does...and discovers her father's body.
  • Matt hearing the child being abducted by the Russians sets up the events of the next episode.
• Confessional: Used for exposition into Matt's character (although Matt is ostensibly talking about his father).
• Continuity Nod: Matt and Foggy's new office is one of the few places in Hell's Kitchen to have largely escaped damage during the Chitauri invasion, which the locals are now just calling "the Incident."
• Cop Killer: Clyde Farnum, a guard who owes money to the mafia, is threatened by Wesley into attempting to hang Karen in her jail cell in exchange for his debts being forgiven and his daughter not being killed. When the attempt fails due to Karen clawing out one of his eyes, Fisk has Farnum bailed out, and then killed by a hitman who stages his death to look like a suicide.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Seemed to be in effect at the beginning at first, but subverted when Matt begins to take hits too.
• Death by Irony: The first attempt on Karen's life involves Farnum trying to make it look like she hanged herself with a noose made from the bedsheets in her cell. Rance, the assassin who carries out the second failed attempt, gets subjected to this very fate.
• Description Cut: Matt says he'd settle for one innocent client. Cut to Karen freaking out over a bloodstained corpse.
• The Dulcinea Effect: Foggy is not impressed by Matt getting them involved with a client with no money and a hopeless case, which he thinks is not entirely unrelated to the fact that she's a good-looking Damsel in Distress. Even Matt admits he has a point, though points out he (supposedly) has no way of telling she's beautiful.
  Foggy Nelson: All right, I'm just gonna say this once, and we can move on: you don't necessarily show the best judgment when beautiful women are involved, Matt.
  Matt Murdock: How would I even know if she's a beautiful woman?
  Foggy Nelson: I don't know. It's kinda spooky, actually! But if there's a stunning woman with questionable character in the room, Matt Murdock's gonna find her and Foggy Nelson is gonna suffer.
  Matt Murdock: [chuckling] All right, I don't disagree with anything you're saying.
  Foggy Nelson: [relieved] Thank you.
  Matt Murdock: But I need you to back me, anyway.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: After Turk Barrett's later appearances as a comic relief Harmless Villain across the MCU Netflix shows, it's pretty weird to see him doing something as despicable as human trafficking in his first appearance.
• Every Proper Lady Should Curtsy: The realtor settles for curtsying when Matt shows up at the office and introduces himself.
  Foggy Nelson: She just curtsied. It was adorable.
  Matt Murdock: Well it's nice to know that chivalry isn't dead.
• Eye Scream:
  • Karen claws at Farnum's eyes when he tries to strangle her in her cell, hard enough to draw blood from his right eye. He's still wearing a bandage patch over it when he's killed.
  • Not to mention Matt getting chemicals splashed in his eyes when he was younger.
  • Madame Gao's workers are also chemically blinded.
• Fanservice:
  • Karen gives us the MCU's first female nudity. There's a brief glimpse of Sideboob from behind as she puts on the shirt Matt gives her, then when the camera perspective changes, a blink-and-you'll-miss-it but fully visible shot of her bared right breast before she pulls the lapels closed.
  • The female audience gets Matt's Shirtless Scene.
• Fee Fi Faux Pas:
  • Susan Harris, the realtor showing Matt and Foggy around their future office space, manages to commit this three times with Matt in the span of 30 seconds. Luckily, both Matt and Foggy take it in good stride and humor, and proceed with the tour of the office without issue.
  • When talking with Matt in his apartment, Karen nods in response to a question Matt asks...and then awkwardly laughs in embarrassment at her slip-up for forgetting that Matt is blind.
• Foreshadowing:
  • Despite the fact that they seemingly need translators, Nobu and Madame Gao react at several points to the exchanges Vladimir, Anatoly, Wesley and Owlsley say in English. Both of them give Owlsley dirty looks when Owlsley asks Nobu to translate for Gao, both turn to stare intently when Vladimir and Anatoly throw the Union Allied affair into Owlsley and Wesley's faces, and at one point Wesley translates a question Gao asks...in response to something that had only been discussed in English.
  • Vladimir and Anatoly bring up the whole matter with Prohaszka, a rival of theirs who will come into play in later episodes.
  • Some of the divisions and tensions among Fisk's allies is plain to see from their conference, especially between the Russians and Fisk's faction.
  • When Vladimir notes that the cold temperature Leland is complaining about would be considered a "balmy day" in most parts of Russia, Leland snarks, "Yes, it's perfect 'Chechnyans kidnap a preschool' weather, Vladimir." At the end of the episode, Vladimir and Anatoly kidnap a boy off the streets.
  • A poster in the gym is for one of Matt's father's fights, "Murdock vs. Creel".
  • While pressing Detectives Blake and Hoffman to get Karen released from lockup, the two detectives get noticeably more hostile the second Matt all but suggests that he and Foggy think they are corrupt.
  • In the montage at the end of the episode, Nobu and his men are looking over the blueprints for what will become Midland Circle Financial.
  • Although Wesley dismisses Matt and Foggy as just ambulance chasers, his employer tells Wesley to open a file on them in case they prove useful in the future.
  • Foggy says that Matt has a history of being attracted to hot women of dubious morality.
• "Friends" Rent Control: The huge electronic billboard shining through Matt's window all night is used to explain why the rent is so low on his large corner apartment.
• The Ghost: Fisk is only referenced throughout the episode as Wesley's unseen "employer", whose name is even allowed to be spoken.
• Hands-On Approach: Matt gets the hot realtor to guide him around the office space. From the exasperated look on Foggy's face, he's clearly done this before.
• Heroic Second Wind: It takes a flashback of Matt's father giving words of encouragement to get Matt back on his feet and finish the fight.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Matt and Foggy are divided over whether they should defend the innocent, or more pragmatically defend anyone who is charged with a crime and has money to pay them, given that such people are legally innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
  • Matt insists on defending Karen even though they don't appear to have a case and she doesn't have any money to pay them. However Matt does have reasons—they've only just opened and have no clients, so need to build up their reputation. And the fact that the DA has an Orgy of Evidence yet haven't charged Karen is suspicious in itself.
• Interchangeable Asian Cultures: Owlsley asks the Japanese Nobu if he can translate Madame Gao's Mandarin; Gao, Nobu, and even the Russians are annoyed by his insensitivity.
  Anatoly Ranskahov: [incredulous] ...The man is Japanese.
  Leland Owlsley: I know, I know! I just thought that... [sighs] Forget it.
• Kick the Dog: Detective Blake doesn't take kindly to Matt and Foggy pressing him and Hoffman to secure Karen's release.
  Christian Blake: I'll call the ADA. But you take that tone with me again, I don't care if you're blind, I'll kick the shit out of you.
• Living Lie Detector: Matt listens to Karen's heartbeat, first when she asserts her innocence (true) and later when she denies she copied the pension file (lie).
• Love at First Sight: Karen is instantly smitten with Matt. Their conversation on the couch after she changes into the dress shirt he gives her comes off more like two lovers having post-coital pillow talk. Later, her body language while serving Matt and Foggy her homemade lasagna is very telling, as she makes a point of serving Matt first while saying that her grandmother made her promise "only to serve it to my future husband". She also doesn't take her eyes off Matt unless replying to a remark from Foggy, and her chair is positioned much closer to Matt's chair than it is to Foggy's.
• Made of Iron: Averted. Matt's fight in the rain with Rance leaves him bloody and bruised all around. The final kick that wins the fight for him probably hurts him almost as much as it hurts Rance.
• Mouth of Sauron: Wesley acts in this function for Fisk at the meeting of the crime bosses. Nobody is happy about this and the Russians in particular threaten to leave as soon as they find out Fisk isn't coming, cursing both Fisk and Wesley and stating that they "don't deal with lapdogs."
• Mythology Gag:
  • Don Rigoletto is mentioned as the mobster that Farnum was in debt to until he "retired" and Wesley's employer assumed responsibility for his debts. In the comics, Rigoletto employed Wilson Fisk as his bodyguard, before Fisk killed him and took over his business. We learn from Ben Urich's informant in a later episode that Rigoletto got chopped into pieces.
  • Karen asks Matt, as he's showing her into his apartment, "Do you have a shirt I can borrow? This one's a little wet and I'm a...Hellions fan." The Hellions were rivals of various teams of younger mutant heroes in the X-Men franchise, initially as actual villains and later on a team that was more of a school rival than actual enemies of the X-Men.
• Never Suicide: The Union Allied plotters have their deaths all staged as suicides. McClintock (Karen's boss) is staged as an overdose on pills, Farnum is shot in his basement, and Rance is hanged in his cell with his bedsheets.
• No Sense of Personal Space: Wesley walks up to Farnum while he's eating lunch in the park and sits down right next to him, so that he can then use the man's debts as leverage, combined with threatening his daughter's life, to get him to kill Karen.
  Clyde Farnum: There's plenty of room over there. Do you mind?
  James Wesley: $28,957.
  Clyde Farnum: ...Tell Rigoletto he'll get his money.
  James Wesley: Mr. Rigoletto has retired. His books have been acquired by my employer.
  Clyde Farnum: Ah. Well you tell him the same thing. [gets up to leave]
  James Wesley: I'd like to show you something. If you have a moment?
• Not so Dire: Foggy says he's going to bribe a cop. Brett Mahoney turns out to be a childhood friend (or maybe frenemy) and he's just bringing cigars for his mom, in exchange for letting them know of any interesting cases that come across his desk.
• Orgy of Evidence: A variation—it's not the evidence that makes Matt suspicious, it's the fact that Karen has not been charged immediately despite overwhelming evidence of her guilt. After the attempt to have her killed in jail fails, he comes to the conclusion that that was a backup plan the conspirators resorted to because of Karen securing her own legal counsel before they could get to her, and the original frame job was about trying to pressure Karen into turning over her copy of the Union Allied pension file.
  Matt Murdock: Okay. Here's what I don't understand. I'm the man in charge of the pension funds, and I find out one of my secretaries has discovered my illicit activity. To make matters worse, she's now telling people about said activity. Which, obviously, I can't have. So I decide to take action. But why don't I kill you?
  Karen Page: They tried.
  Matt Murdock: Yeah, the second time. In the jail. But the first time, they left you alive. Why? What were they trying to do? Frame you? Now, the second time, maybe that's a change of plan. Something doesn't go their way, something sloppy at the crime scene. Two lawyers show up out of the blue before their people can get to you. So they figure, "Okay, maybe Karen hangs herself in her cell, and this thing gets swept under the rug." But the first time...the first time, they're not trying to kill you. They're trying to discredit you. They're trying to scare you. And the only reason that they would do that is if you have something that they want. So, I've been trying to think about what that could be, and the only thing I've come up with... is the Union Allied pension file. [Matt hears Karen's heart beating rapidly, and realizes he's on the right track] Did you keep the file, Karen?
  Karen Page: [after a long pause] No. As soon as I asked my boss about it, he took it away from me. The IT guys, they came and they wiped the computers. Believe me, a part of me wishes I'd made a copy for myself, but I guess I'm just not that smart.
  Matt Murdock: Ah, well, it was just a thought.
• Pragmatic Villainy: Wesley's employer sees no point in arranging for Karen to be killed after the news breaks, because everything she knows is now public knowledge.
• Properly Paranoid: Given that Karen was drugged the moment she started telling someone else, and then woke up next to their dead body, she is understandably wary about trusting these two white knights who came out of the blue to help her, suspecting they are either part of the conspiracy or more innocents she could put in harm's way.
• Pull the Thread: Foggy's absolutely correct that Karen's case is open and shut, and that there's a good reason she hasn't been charged yet (it's the weekend). However, Matt is correct that Karen's case is so open and shut and so violent that it should be a sensational case splashed across all the media outlets, not a silent nothing being dealt with as quietly as possible.
• Revealing Cover-Up: The attempt to murder Karen only proves to Matt and Foggy that there really is a conspiracy, as well as giving them the leverage to get her released from jail. It's a... not a subversion, but there's something, because the cover-up only reveals because it fails.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: Karen puts on one of Matt's buttoned dress shirts because the T-shirt Foggy has loaned her got wet, and we get a moment of her topless as she pulls off the t-shirt.
• Scenery Censor: Matt's right shoulder is used to obscure Karen's breasts as she pulls off her T-shirt, and she is then shown topless from behind until she can get her replacement shirt buttoned up.
• The Scottish Trope:
  • The alien invasion of 2012 is now being referred to by a rather nondescript term, "The Incident".
    Susan Harris: As I was telling your associate, this office was barely touched by the Incident, which is why it's on the market already. The neighbors weren't so lucky.
    Matt Murdock: "The Incident"? Is that what we're calling it now?
    Susan Harris: Well, it sounds so much better than "death and destruction raining from the sky, nearly wiping Hell's Kitchen off the map".
    Matt Murdock: Shorter, too.
  • Wesley refuses to let others say his employer's name out loud.
    James Wesley: We don't...say his name.
• Shout-Out: After defeating Rance outside Karen's apartment, Matt deposits him on the front steps of the Bulletin with the flashdrive still attached to him, very reminiscent of the scene from The Dark Knight where James Gordon finds an unconscious Lau outside the police station with a note reading "Please Deliver to Lt. Gordon" attached to him.
• Signature Move: While down at the docks, Matt does his familiar reflecting baton toss with one of the slave ring guard's stun stick. It's hard to say what's more impressive: that he could give Cap a run for his money, or that he did it without any vibranium.
• Tastes Like Friendship: In this case used to seal a friendship rather than establish it, when Karen serves the lasagna her grandmother told her only to serve to her future husband, and offers to work at Nelson and Murdock given that she has no money to pay them.
• Toplessness from the Back: When Karen changes shirts in front of Matt, the camera uses Matt's right shoulder to obscure her breasts from in front, then shoots her from behind.
• Unkempt Beauty: Karen looks terrible when Matt and Foggy see her, but Foggy still describes her as a knock-out.
• Villain Decay: Arguably played for the better. We first meet Turk Barrett here. Later, he'll become one of the biggest butt-monkeys of the MCU, but here he's trafficking slaves for $1000 a head.
  Turk Barrett: Now, if you keep quiet, I'll let you have a bucket. If not... [sparks up cattle prod]
• The Voice: Wilson Fisk is only heard from a speakerphone in Wesley's car. It will be another two episodes before we finally see him in person.
• Those Two Guys: This episode establishes Matt and Foggy as this to everyone else.
• Who Are You?:
  • Karen's initial reaction to Matt and Foggy showing up to represent her, as she has no idea who they are and whether they might be part of the plot to frame her.
    Karen Page: Who the hell are you guys?
    Matt Murdock: I'm Matt. He's Foggy. [Foggy smiles and nods]
    Karen Page: Who sent you?
    Matt Murdock: No one sent us.
    Karen Page: So, what? You're just a couple of Good Samaritans? Today's just my lucky day?
  • And later when a masked Matt appears out of nowhere to save her from Rance, Karen can only gasp out an incredulous "Who...what the hell?!"
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Matt works out that the only reason the people who've set Karen up haven't killed her is because she copied the pension file and they're hoping to pressure her into giving it up. They only changed their plan after Matt and Foggy turn up out of nowhere to take her case.
• You Have to Believe Me!: Karen passes out after having a drink with a colleague, then wakes up in her apartment next to his corpse, clutching the knife that killed him, just as the police burst into the room. She uses this trope to Matt and Foggy, knowing full well how screwed she is.