Karen's traumatic history comes to light as Fisk sends Dex to the church to get revenge on her for killing Wesley.
We go back to Karen's college days, where she is a wild party animal who sells drugs, and is struggling to the point she took a gap year.
One night she faces a violent customer who tries to stiff her, but her boyfriend Todd Neiman (Will Stout) steps in, and she returns safely to their trailer for the night. The next day she wakes up late for work at her family's diner, Penny's Place, and after trying to hide that she's high, she and her brother Kevin (Jack DiFalco) come up with a story for her irritated dad (Lee Tergesen) about her lateness. After taking the rude sheriff's order, Karen learns her dad is bringing in an expensive grill, and despite her complaints, he buys it, sure she'll find a way to make things okay. Back inside, the sheriff makes a comment about her taking a while, then requests new eggs; she realizes her nose is bleeding, and a drop got in them. She lies that the air is just too dry for her, then tells Kevin she dropped the eggs; he retorts that hand-eye coordination improves when you're sober. Annoyed, Karen storms outside, and while taking the trash out, Kevin asks about their ordering system, joking that he's trying to steal her position of power. She admits in a rant that she's on drugs, and he reveals he got her enrolled in school again, which she isn't happy about, but he says she's gotta get out.
She vents about it that night shooting figurines with Todd, and the two joke about whether she'd miss him too much to go or if she'd find a new boyfriend.
He asks seriously and she says she's not going anywhere. He points out nothing is permanent, and she expresses a hatred for their town and being stuck at the diner. After joking about burning it down, she brings up the grill, and Todd says she shouldn't have to take care of everything because of her mom's death. She wants to let the diner go under like Todd suggests, but knows it's all her dad has left of her mom; he says she's trapping herself with guilt. He offers her to work with him full-time, claiming they could make enough she could care for her family and he could care for her. As she's considering it, her dad calls and says she needs to get back to the diner. There, she is annoyed to realize he wants them to have a dinner celebrating her return to college; she stays firm that she's not going. He points out how bored she is and starts insulting Todd, which angers her, and she proclaims that she can't go like she wants, as the diner would quickly go under. He claims they'll be fine but she points out the grill and rants about how she does everything like her mom used to, while Kevin tries to calm them down. Karen rants about how he's holding onto the diner hoping her mom will come back one day, and rants that she hated the town. Her dad becomes upset as she continues this, and he demands she take back her following claim that her mom felt like she was dying long before getting cancer. Pausing momentarily, she stomps over to a framed lottery ticket, saying her mom got tickets hoping to get them out of town if she recovered. Her dad warns her not to do anything, then begs after she smashes the frame, but she quickly scratches off the film and finds the ticket to be another loss for them.
Drinking later, Karen starts leaving with Todd, who chastises Kevin as he tries to get her to stay, and the boy threatens to let Sheriff Bernie know Todd sells drugs.
Karen breaks them up and reminds him that she'd go to jail too if he were caught, then leaves with Todd. Todd has to remind her to take it easy as she does a line and drinks, and the two return to the trailer to find it on fire. Kevin steps out of his own vehicle to demand Todd stay away from Karen; Todd responds by pummeling the boy, shoving Karen away when she tries to stop him. He then retrieves a tire iron from his truck and again hits Karen away as he brutalizes her brother, so she retrieves his gun and fires a warning shot. When he doesn't stop, she shoots his arm, then leaves with Kevin in their truck. She berates him for ruining things as she tried to fix their problems, and he sobs that he doesn't want to lose her like he lost their mom. Too busy looking at him, she doesn't react in time when he yells about a coming crash barrier, and the truck flips; she wakes later trapped with his mangled corpse. Bernie and her father arrive later, and she can only watch and cover her ears as he father belts out a grief-stricken scream upon seeing his son's body. At the diner later, he breaks the silence explaining Bernie is going to omit that she was in the crash, as she would go to prison if the full story came out. Glad her mom wasn't alive to see this happen, he turns down her offer to handle the funeral arrangements, wanting her instead to leave. In the present, Lantom talks to her about the situation with Fisk and suggests she come to Mass, and with the Kingpin sending Dex to take her out, Matt has to decide if he wants to take his shot at Fisk or rush to the church to defend her.
This episode was perfectly placed int he season to expand on what we learned about Karen's life a few episodes prior.
Honestly when I watched it, I wasn't thinking about her earlier story about her brother's death, but it clicked for me when I realized he was there and we would likely be seeing how he really died. In the past few episodes, Karen has made numerous decisions that she now regrets and have sent her into hiding trying to escape Fisk. Karen has taken many risks before, but now she's tried to directly take on Fisk twice, with the first resulting in a massacre and the second only allowing Fisk to know what she did to Wesley. In the second moment, she also feels Fisk was able to confirm Matt's secret identity, so she's feeling guilty about the losses of people around here. Therefore it makes sense that she would be reminded of this point in her past, when she was making poor decisions that hurt those around her and led to Kevin's death. This is also a good way of allowing her to understand Matt and why he made the choices he did, as now she feels like she's all alone. Even though Foggy and Maggie both offered help she finally accepted, I wouldn't be surprised if she'd started thinking that all she does is hurt those she gets close to. I was glad with this episode that Karen didn't have the kind of stereotypical past I tend to see with more energetic characters. When she was shown at her old party and then walked off with a dark-themed guy, I at first thought they were at first going for her to be a goth girl who was starting to get out of her "phase," assuming the guy was her boyfriend. It's quickly revealed, however, that she was actually a girl who had been on a good path and was spiraling down at a dangerous pace. It hasn't been said when exactly her mom died, but judging by how emotional she got at times about it, it seems to have been relatively recent. Her mom's death, coupled with the difficult life that followed, seem to have put Karen into a deep depression at the time that was exacerbated with her home boredom. Stuck in a small town, all Karen is able to do is struggle to support the diner, and while it's difficult, it seems like it might be similar for her as it is for her dad, being the only thing she really has left of her mom. Typical warning signs of depression are risky behavior and taking controlled substances, which can go together, and we see that happen here. For Karen, it could be she feels there's no point going on with things as they are, because she's pinned down under debt, so even if drugs are bad for you, what would it matter to her? She clearly also doesn't have the best relationship with her dad, and it seems like they don't talk, since she was trying to keep her relationship a secret. Lacking communication is already a bad thing for relationships, and can be especially damaging for a family, with rage building up as a result. This causes Karen's explosion at dinner as she's finally mad enough she spills everything about her hatred for their current condition. Deborah Ann Woll's performance in this episode is fantastic and delivers the exact kind of raw emotion needed for the character. Throughout the episode you can see signs of the anger she's holding back, such as the annoyed faces she makes when she's dealing with Bernie and turns her head away from him. Later during the scene where she rants at her father, you can see her begin to get offended when he comments on her work ethic, then this becomes anger, which turns into rage mixed with intense pain and sadness. She keeps this pain later after the accident, which is aided by a lack of much music, and she is left stone-faced talking to her dad at the diner. The end result of this flashback expands on the phone call she made to her dad a few episodes ago as well. Back then, her dad came off as just a callous man, and here we see the exact reason he didn't want Karen to come home. While it's definitely understandable, especially if they haven't kept in touch much, it's still a cruel thing to do, especially since he knew the reason she called. One thing I'm wondering after this episode is the exact relationship Karen has with Dex that she isn't aware of since she doesn't know he's "Daredevil." During the attack on the Bulletin and again this episode, he walks in and greets her by name, and while Fisk directly told him to go for Karen this time and could've mentioned her before, he said "it's nice to see you again." We don't know for sure that Fisk did name her specifically last time anyway, and even if he had, saying "again" could mean he knows her from somewhere. At the same time, it could be he merely knows she's encountered Daredevil before and was working more to discredit the hero. Whatever the case may be, this episode gave us a lot of insight into Karen with great performances, and now the attacks from Fisk have been amped up.
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