Marvel's Daredevil S02E12 "The Dark at the End of the Tunnel" Recap

In a flashback we see a young Elektra being trained by Stick at a school of sorts where kids are trained to be assassins. She is a quick study and full of fury. During a training session, Stick must stop the young Elektra from killing one of her older training partners. She is reprimanded for nearly killing someone that is on their unified side. Stick is trying to tame her propensity for killing and have it be channeled as a weapon to be used in the coming war.

In the present, Elektra has reached Stick and the two fight with full intent that it will be to death. Elektra is furious that Stick sent an assassin to kill her. It seems as if she'll win the fight but then Matt arrives and stops her. Stick laments not being able to "tame" Elektra, who is more determined than ever to stop "just another old man jealous" of his disciples. The fight is broken up by the arrival of the Hand, as they kidnap Stick and disappear into the night. Elektra is still angry at Matt for stopping her from killing Stick and he implores her to think of the bigger picture and how they need to figure out what the Hand are up to and why they didn't just kill Stick. Elektra doesn't want to fight a war she doesn't see herself apart of and doesn't understand why Matt wants to save a man that abandoned him. Now Matt and Elektra will both be on quests to find Stick but Elektra warns Matt that if he gets in her way again of killing Stick, she will kill him too.

Karen is advised by police to head home. They've sent the police that were supposed to protect her to work traffic, which Karen feels guilty about since she was the one that snuck out to meet Frank. The police believe that he is finally dead and Karen seems to believe this to be true.

Matt and Foggy meet at their office. They're still set to part ways professionally but Matt decides to tell Foggy about his search for The Hand, though he leaves a lot of the details about. Matt thinks they might be using the subway tunnels but Foggy advises him to look for the abandoned railway tunnels instead. Foggy's grandfather was a bootlegger that used them for smuggling and the city had abandoned these tunnels due to it being to costly and risky to try to deal with them more directly. Matt is thankful to Foggy for this useful help and the two are able to be cordial with one another despite being about to separate.

Karen considers dropping her investigative piece into Frank Castle but her editor pushes her to see everything through. She had originally planned on writing an expose but she decides to shift her angle by making it a profile piece instead to show the world that Frank Castle was more than just the Punisher. The next step is speaking to someone that knew him outside of that world so she decides to reach to his former Marine commander Ray Schoonover, who had testified on his behalf during the trial.

Matt dons his Daredevil suit and goes on the hunt in the abandoned railway tunnels. He gets into a scuffle with a member of the Hand and is able to follow the assailant using his enhanced abilities.

Karen pays a visit to Schoonover, who is happy to help her with her piece. He shares tidbits about Frank, such as a song he sang from a kid's TV show that his daughter loved and his knack for impressions. Karen opens up about how Frank is suspected to be dead in the explosion the previous night but stops talking when she spots a particular photo on the wall. In it, Schoonover and Frank are posing with an injured comrade that Karen recognises as one of the dead bodies pulled out of the explosion. The man was one of the Blacksmith's henchmen. Karen tries to leave, having realised that Schoonover is the Blacksmith but he forces her to stay at gunpoint.

Matt tracks down the Hand to their lair where they have Stick captive and are torturing him. Stick knows Matt is there and talks to him from where he's being beat, since Matt has enhanced hearing. Stick advises him to track the men he is fighting using their breaths instead of their heartbeats, which allows him to more effectively defeat them. Matt finally reaches Stick who is badly injured from the torture but still tells Matt he's proud of him. Just as Matt is prepared to escort stick out, Elektra emerges, more ready than ever to kill Stick. The argument is interrupted by Nobu emerging from the shadows.

In another flashback, we see young Elektra confronted by the older boy she almost killed in training. She tries to apologise but he attacks her with a knife so she beats him again and slits his throat. The boy's trainer wants Stick to kill Elektra for being too dangerous and out of control but Stick kills the man instead.

Nobu asks Elektra if she knows who the Hand serves and she responds that they serve the Black Sky. Nobu then reveals that Elektra is the Black Sky. She is horrified by this revelation, as Stick knew all along and lied to her about it. Matt implores her to understand that she still has a choice and doesn't have to go down this dark path. Elektra is shaken by the men in the Hand kneeling before her and swearing to serve her. Elektra orders Matt to leave her to embrace her destiny. He refuses to leave her and wants her to make her own destiny. Stick then attacks members of the Hand and Elektra fights her way out and escapes with Stick, leaving Matt to fight the rest of them off.

Schoonover forces Karen to drive into the woods and orders her to pull over but before she can do, a truck crashes into them, with the brunt of the damage being on Schoonover's side of the car. Karen wakes after being knocked out from the accident. She gets out of the car and observes the damage and realises that Frank is alive and has forced Schoonover deeper into the woods. Schoonover is chiding Frank for not joining him when he had the chance. Karen catches up to them and implores Frank he doesn't have to kill him. She offers to help Frank get the answers he is after and says that if he kills Schoonover she will be done with him. He pulls Schoonover into a cabin and shuts the door behind him, leaving Karen outside. Frank shoots him in the head and Karen is devastated. Frank finds a back room in the cabin filled with an artillery of military-grade weaponry with all sorts of guns and some tactical body armor too. The implication is clear that this will be his starting supply as the Punisher best known to comic fans.

Elektra stops with Stick in a corridor, where he says that Matt knew that killing him would be the point of no return for her and that Matt still believes she's worth saving. He advises her to earn that, which is probably just a ploy to keep himself alive but sound advice regardless.  Matt continues to fight off more members of the Hand and must finally fight Nobu once again which ends with Nobu being thrown over a high ledge but he is still alive and tells the remaining Hand members that Daredevil must die.

Marvel's Daredevil is available for streaming on Netflix.