Warning: Spoiler Alert
Karen walks outside of wherever Wesley took her. She stands at the water’s edge. With a gaze that seems to say, “I’ve been here before” she tosses the gun into the river. Back in her apartment she chugs what looks like Scotch or Whiskey before jumping in the shower to was the guilt off. She passes out in her bed but then wakes from a dream only to find Wilson Fisk in her apartment. He monologues to her about the weight of taking a life. Then he tells her, it gets easier. Then she woke up. For real this time.
Karen still has the jumps when Foggy returns to the office for the first time in days. He can sense something’s off, but Karen keeps it to herself. They jokingly talk about drinking vs something harder and eventually agreeing to do neither. Foggy rejects addressing the issue at hand but assures her that it will get better. And they will take down Fisk. Then Matt arrives and there is an awkward moment where both men say nothing.
Vanessa wakes up. In her groggy state, Fisk informs her of what happened and apologizes for it. He then moves into his plans to have her taken out of the country for her own protection. When she discovers that Fisk will not be joining her, she refuses. She knew the risks going in and will continue to stay by his side. This is the transition from interested romantic endeavor to ‘Mrs. Bad Guy’.
Vanessa: I’ll be right here.
Fisk: I’ll make them pay for what they’ve done.
Vanessa: I expect nothing less.
Fisk gets the news from one of his men that they have ‘located’ Wesley. Another of his men explains as much as he knew, then Fisk viciously assaulted him. Fisk takes a seat next to Wesley while he speaks to Leland. Leland tries to keep him focused but Fisk needs to know who did this.
Matt as the man in the mask pops in on Urich asking about Madame Gao’s little packets of heroine. Following the heroin leads to a money trail which may not take Fisk down, but might upset him enough to make a mistake. Gao’s delivery men now become the focus. Matt will have to travel during business hours.
Urich: You might stick out.
Matt: I’ll dress down. Its cold out, you should get a better coat.
Urich: You should get a better outfit, if you’re going to keep running around.
Matt: I’m working on it.
Foggy meets with Marcy at Josie’s bar, which she is not thrilled about. The second Foggy mentions Fisk by name, Marcy tries to leave. Conflict of interest as Landman and Zack represent Fisk. At first, Marcy toes the company line. Then Foggy asks if she’s noticed anything strange. That seems to change her tune, slightly.
Karen finds Urich at home and tells him she thinks they know. Fisk and his people may have the information that they went to visit Fisk’s mother. Karen desperately wants the story out before they can move on her or Ben. Then Karen references the information Ben found when he did digging on her. Fisk’s people will find that just as easy.
Matt stands on a street corner listening. Then as anticipated, a blind delivery person walks by. Blind walking stick and all. He gets into a car and rides away. Matt turns down an alley slowly, then tosses his stick and begins running, jumping and scaling buildings. I’ve been wondering how many of those walking stick Matt goes through. He seems to discard them regularly. At an undisclosed location Matt hears their secret knock and hears the delivery person enter.
Fisk picks his mother up from her nice residence to relocate her to Italy. She’s not all there. She’s falls in and out of the topic at hand. What she and Wesley spoke of on the phone the day before.
Urich brings the story to Ellison (editor) and he is met with the same resistance we’ve come to expect from Ellison. Ellison takes a jab by calling Ben a whore, which is ironic because Ellison essentially told him to do just that earlier in the season. Ellison suspends Ben and tries to walk away.
Ellison: Fisk is spending millions trying to rebuild this city, maybe you should write about that.
Erich: How much is he paying you? Ever since Union Allied, I can’t get a story about what’s really going on in the city to print. So how much is he paying you to keep it that way?
Ellison: You know what forget the suspension. Clean out your desk. I’m done trying to help you.
Matt drops in on Madame Gao’s operation. Lurking in the shadows, he takes out the sighted people on duty. It takes a while, but Matt figures out they are all blind right about the time Gao recognizes the man in the mask. She yells out something in Chinese, then all the blind workers turn on him. Somehow he eludes them and chases after Gao and her two security men. He takes them out and is left facing Gao.
Gao informs Matt that all the workers blinded themselves out of faith for something beyond “your world”. Matt slowly approaches Gao’s personal space demanding to hear what she knows about Fisk when the decrepit old lady de-cleated Matt with minimal effort. Inside the facility is burning down. Matt grabs one of the sighted staff and orders him get the blind out of there.
Upon his escape, Sgt. Mahoney walks up behind Matt and demands he freeze. When the opportunity presented itself, Matt takes it. Distracting Mahoney with a flying piece of wood. With him down, Matt explains that he did not kill Blake or any other cops. Blake and Hoffman were dirty and working for Fisk. By the time Mahoney looks over his shoulder, Matt is gone.
Gao meets with Leland. They are in cahoots with the poisoning of Vanessa. Removing the distraction was the primary goal. Not to take out Fisk. Gao is completely oblivious to the Wesley issue. Gao decides to take her leave to her ‘homeland’. Leland assumes she means China.
Gao: It is a considerable distance further.
Ben Urich visits his wife in the hospital. He is slightly distraught over the recent events of losing his job, but Doris redirects his attention. He’s a reporter and needs to report.
Matt arrives at the office worn down to find the door locked and Karen on the other side of it. She is visibly upset. Then she asks the question.
Karen: Is this what we are now? Three people who won’t even speak to each other?
Matt: I was close with this guy once. He told me I would have to push the people I love away, if I want to be good at what I do.
Karen: Seems like you listened.
Matt: I thought I didn’t. This guy, he has a way of getting in your head. Now here’s the thing, I had a really s***y night. The kind where you think you’ve seen the bottom of humanity. And the pit keeps getting deeper. You know? I-I…I can’t…I can’t do this alone. I can’t. I can’t take…another step.
Karen: You’re not alone. You never were.
Ben comes home with every intention of writing his story and posting it to a blog when the camera pans to reveal Fisk sitting in the room. He’s calm and reserve. Fisk even apologizes for underestimating him. Fisk admits to having people at the paper in his pocket. Then the table turns when Fisk asks about meeting his mother. After accepting that Urich was not behind Wesley’s death, he moves on to the unforgivable act of going after his mother.
Fisk: That was my mother you brought into this, so ….I’m not here to threaten you. I’M HERE TO KILL YOU.
Fisk lunges at Urich and in only a few moments has strangled the life out of Ben Urich. Urich lies there lifeless as Fisk walks past him stepping on and breaking a picture from of Ben and Doris.
