It’s been a while since we last
talk about Punisher, hasn’t it? Last time, Frank Castle reached out to his old pal
Billy Russo, whom offered to get him out of the country. Frank blew off the rendezvous,
which is good because Russo and Agent Orange were plotting together to kill
him. So good call, Frank. Meanwhile, Lewis, the PTSD solider kid, was arrested,
got out on bail and ended up murdering his buddy O’Connor. The old vet lied
about his military service, claiming to be a Vietnam vet, when he didn’t join
the Army until after that particular conflict was nearly over.
We open to Lewis cleaning himself
off of blood. He rips down O’Connor’s shower curtain, to cover the body.
Afterwards, he returns home. Shirtless with his gun in his pants. Nothing
suspicious about that. His father is in the den, he’s rightly concerned about
his son’s current mental state. He offers to give him some pills to help him
sleep, believing his son is only suffering from some severe case of insomnia.
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| Think these guys miss being able to go out and not plot to killing people? |
Back with the dysfunctional duo,
Frank and David are planning to hit a military base. They’re after Colonel
Bennett, a liason between the Army and Cerberus. They’re planning on breaking
into the base and grabbing Bennett, in the hopes he can lead them to Agent
Orange. Or at least give them a name. They go over the details of the plan,
David is pretty sure of their time table, as Bennett has dinner a private
dinner with someone every Saturday night. He also wants to clarify that killing
Bennett will be a deterrent to their goals, which kind of irks Frank. But he
agrees anyway.
Back with Homeland, Madani gets a visit
from Russo. Russo lies about reaching out to some old contacts about Frank, and
them all coming back negative. Madani thanks him for his help, and he leaves.
Stein comes in and is pretty pissed off to find out that Madani brought Russo in
on their clandestine investigation without consulting him. Madani claims to
trust him, based on instinct. And I’m sure the fact they were ‘romantically’
involved recently hasn’t colored her judgement even slightly. Ow, been a while
since Sarcasm hurt like that. A short time later, Madani has a bit of an epiphany,
and goes to talk with Stein again. Realizing the sheer impossible level of coincidence
that Gunner Henderson, an off the grid living former special forces operative,
was killed within hours of them going to speak with him, she concludes that her
office must be bugged. Stein is slightly skeptical, but sees her line of
reasoning.
Russo and Agent Orange, aka William
Rawlins meet up at a CIA safe house. Well, they call it a safe house, it’s more
like a safe mansion. They discuss the necessity of taking down Castle. “It’s
for the greater good” blah blah “For the country” blah blah “if I go down so do
you” blah. Russo has an interesting thought about Rawlins desire to kill Castle.
He noticed back when they worked together in Cerberus that Rawlins really ‘enjoyed’
the moment when a captive realized their goose was cooked. And, that he saw
that same “I am going to die” look on Rawlins when Castle flipped out, nearly
beat him to death and permanently damaged one of his eyes. He thinks Rawlins wants Castle dead as a means
of erasing that moment from his mind. Rawlins just tells him to get to work. They
know that he’s going to go after Col. Bennett, and that Bennett’s personality
makes the ‘wait and see’ approach their best option.
In Bennett’s office, he seems to be
having a nice dinner with a younger woman. Then said woman ends up pouring the
wine on the floor and Bennett goes to lick it up. Yeah, turns out these Saturday
night dinners are actually his weekly appointment with a dominatrix. It’s about
as uncomfortable as it sounds. While that is going on, Frank and a drone
piloted by David, break into the facility. Using David’s drone, Frank has a
pretty uneventful trip to Bennett’s office. He arrives just before they do
something involving clamps. It’s about as uncomfortable as it sounds. Frank
grabs Bennett as the dominatrix runs off and starts wailing on him and demanding
answers. This is in fact not the real plan, but a distraction to allow David to
hack Bennett’s phone. Russo and company start storming in, having been warned
by the Dominatrix screaming “he’s here.”
David warns Frank, and Frank drops
some smoke grenades. He tells Bennett to stay still, stay quiet, and he might
live through this. Woo. Frank easily dispatches the strike team, non-fatally I
might add, and David finishes the hack. Frank makes a break for it, literally,
by defenestrating himself. He makes it back to David, but is forced to injure a
young soldier to make his escape. Back in Bennett’s office, Russo collects his
guys and gives Bennett a script to say when people start asking questions.
Back with Lewis, he and his father watch
a classic boxing match together. Muhammad Ali vs. George Foremen, I believe.
Lewis’ Dad tries to use the fight as a metaphor for his son’s life, as Ali
turned a supposedly impossible fight on its head and believes that Lewis can do
the same. Lewis isn’t so sure but does accept his Dad’s words. Afterwards, Lewis
goes to the hardware store and picks up a few things. And uses those things to
whip up a bomb, to dispose of O’Connor and cover up the murder. Not good.
Frank is pretty upset about not
killing Bennett, as he really really hates the corrupt officers that seem to
fill the upper echelon of the US Military. David reiterates that this was the
smart pay, as now they can track Bennett to his bosses. And, low and behold,
Bennett starts moving.
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| Damn, how many times is Frank going to make this guy's life flash before his... eye? |
Bennett, once brought before Russo
and Rawlins, starts screaming about how he almost died. He yells at them, Russo
makes cracks about Bennett’s kink, and Rawlins looks like wants to shoot them
both. They decide that Bennett should go to ground, they’ll give him a new id
and enough money to live well. Russo takes him to a cheap motel, to hide out
for a few days he says. Bennett seems to believe it, right up until he sees the
dead Dominatrix in the bed. Russo kills him and sets it up to as a murder
suicide. Creepy bastard.
Madani and Stein meanwhile search
for the bug in her office after hours. They find it on the bookcases. The two
have a victory drink, and Madani tells Stein that he really doesn’t have the
personality to be in Homeland. Stein counters by saying she’s a lot like
Castle.
Frank gets set up at the CIA safe
house. He sets sup his sniper rifle and prepares to take the shot. When Rawlins
gets in sight, Frank recites the rhyme his daughter used to love and fires.
Unfortunately, the CIA Safehouse uses bulletproof glass. Crap.
Damn, Frank came so close and is still so far
from his goal. Seriously, only an extra thick bit of glass kept him from
finally getting vengeance. Sucks for him. Especially since he and David had
recently bonded about the thought of David finally being able to go back to his
family. It’s also interesting to see Russo take a complete 180 in terms of
personality. The kind confident business man turns into an emotionless killer
pretty damn quickly. It’ll be interesting to see what Castle does to him when
he finds out that his buddy is as dirty as they come. The wrath of Castle has a
habit of spreading blood and guts everywhere. Looking forward to it.
Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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