Viewer Log: The Punisher ep 10

This is a very bloody walk down memory lane.

For this one, we open up on Lewis doing more deplorable things. Namely, murdering a random dude and breaking into his apartment, assumedly to use as his new base of operations. He tries to free the dead man’s birds, for some reason, but they stay put.

FYI, this is one of those “Shooter” type stories. Over the course of the episode, we’re shown different perspectives of what transpired before begin given the full picture. Not my favorite framing device, but hey, got to work with what you’re given. The framing device is that everyone is giving Sgt. Brett Mahoney their testimony on what happened when Lewis busted in to murder Senator Ori. He’s an anti-gun senator introduced in the last episode. Fun fact, Brett Mahoney is an officer that has been a recurring character in the Marvel Netflix shows. He’s the cop that Foggy Nelson would bribe with cigars for his mother and he had a few run ins with Jessica Jones as her kidnapping case got more and more screwy.

Mahoney is clearly thinking "Oh great, another crazy one."

We start with Russo’s perspective. After informing his new client on the best ways to avoid getting murdered, he gets a call from Frank. Castle knows that Lewis is going after Ori, and that he’ll help Russo take him down. Russo pretends to agree, but I think we all know he’s planning on killing Castle along with Lewis. Lewis, meanwhile, sneaks in and up to the room Ori is staying at in a stolen ANVIL uniform. He also two guards on the way.

Senator Ori and Karen Page are interviewed back to back. They tell basically the same story, they were chatting about Ori’s gun control legislation when the door was blown open. Lewis busts in and starts shooting. Castle follows and does his best to stop said shooting. The main difference in their remembrances is that Ori remembers firing on Lewis himself before running for help, while Karen remembers him sniveling cowardly before Castle literally dives in to take a bullet for them, and shoves Karen into Lewis as he runs away. Classy. Lewis uses a bomb vest to keep Castle from doing what he does best and makes a break for it.

Madani has some info too. She’d just come off leave and informed her boss about what she knows about Castle, Cerberus, Kandahar, and Rawlins. She also uses the hidden bug in her office as proof. Her boss, Rafael, gives her the files on the goons that jumped her sting, and she notes that all of them work for ANVIL. She was at the hotel to confront her casual partner about what he knew. Russo plays dumb, claiming that guys like these are true mercenaries, jumping between agencies and causes based on who’s paying best. They’re interrupted by Lewis’ explosion.

While Lewis was escaping Frank, Madani was tracking down Frank. She corners him in a stairwell, and reveals she knows he knows about Kandahar and Zubair’s death. Frank pulls the “if you’re going to shoot me, then shoot me,” bit and puts his head to her gun. They’re pulled out of their standoff by Castle getting shot in the head. Well, not quite, he just got winged, but he’s bleeding badly. Russo claims that he thought Castle was going to kill her. Both Castle and Madani realize that Russo is evil, just as a bunch of cops bust in to end the standoff. Madani and Russo are pulled out, but Frank makes a break for it. He uses a firehose to bungie down to the bottom floor.

In the present, Madani meets with Karen. She tells Karen that she knows Castle is a… not-bad-guy and wants to work with him. The plot thickens.

Considering this latest GSW, I'm starting to think Frank has the
ability to simply ignore bullets.

Back in the past, Lewis makes it to the kitchen, still keeping Karen on a short leash. Karen tries to talk him down, but the kid is obviously barely holding it together. Frank busts in, Lewis grabs Karen and the standoff begins anew. In a bit of brilliance, Frank distracts Lewis by talking to him, while feeding Karen the info she needs to free herself. He mentions that Lewis is a CREATURE OF HABIT, that he did the right thing by telling Castle to PULL THE WHITE WIRE to save Curt, that Karen is also a CREATURE OF HABIT, and that EVERYTHING she has is IN HER PURSE. Karen, taking the hint, yanks the wire out, and then uses the gun she had hidden in her purse to blow a hole in Lewis’ foot.

Lewis falls back into the freezer. Frank tries to talk him down again, but Lewis just rewires his detonator and kills himself. Frank pretends to hold Karen hostage to get to an elevator. Once inside he escapes out the emergency roof exit and ziplines away. Cover in blood, arm and possibly leg broken. Not good. But, terrorist handled and now Castle knows that Russo is against him. Better.

Again, not a fan of the disjointed narrative. If you’re going to show me something, at least keep it in sequence, all I’m asking. This isn’t an epic Greek poem. But, I did like seeing Castle take on Lewis, and the way that Frank was able to outwit the kid. It’s a shame that the kid ended up choosing to end it all rather then face the consequences of his actions, but seeing Frank show off some tactical brilliance was almost worth it. I don’t know if I’d consider Karen Page to be either incredibly brave over the last few episodes, or if she’s suffering from a death wish. She seems to have a bad habit of pissing off very dangerous people of late. Maybe the apparent death of Matt Murdock has left her with an adrenaline itch to scratch or something.  Russo making it clear to both Castle and Madani that he’s part of whatever conspiracy that’s going on was a little odd, but hey, now they both know that the guy is a psycho. Maybe now they can make some headway against Rawlins. Fingers crossed.

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Viewer Log: The Punisher ep 9

Forces collide.

There's nothing suspicious about a couple guys in dark clothing
staring at an apartment complex with a high powered compact
telescope in the middle of the day, right?

We open up to Agent Dinah Madani still recovering from the shock of Stein’s death during the botched mission. She’d been asked by Stein’s mother to give the eulogy at the funeral, further adding to the maelstrom of issues she’s dealing with. At the same time, Frank and David are spying of Madani atop the neighboring building. David has gotten Frank to consider teaming with Madani, but Frank wants to be absolutely sure that she’s on the up and up before meeting with her. Their observations are interrupted by a bomb going off down the block.

Turns out, this is one of three bombs that went off at government buildings around New York City. Turns out, Lewis had decided to ‘take matters into his own hands’ and attacked government institutions. He rights a letter to the one person he feels will understand him, Karen Page, and sends it in. Upon receiving said note, Karen and her editor call in the Feds, despite Karen’s desire to call this terrorist out in an article. You think after being stalked by criminal Kingpins and literal Ninja, Karen’s self-preservation instincts would have improved.

Back at the lair, Frank and David watch the video. Frank’s very pissed, as he feels that Bombs are a coward’s weapon. Probably why he didn’t use one during his various massacres. Pot, this is Kettle, you are Black. Can’t take credit for that one, I took it from Yugioh Abridged by LittleKuribo. Frank tells David that they’re putting the meet up with Madani on hold until this bomber business is handled.

Karen responds to the Bomber via an article, which annoys Frank, and then calls him out on live radio. Damn it, Page. But, thankfully, Lewis calling in reminds Frank that he’d seen Lewis before at Curt’s VA support group. David is able to track him down, and gives Frank the kid’s home address. On the way there, Frank calls and yells at Karen for being an idiot. Such a supportive relationship they’ve got.

Menawhile, Curt goes to O’Connor’s house to find out what the fake war hero knows about Lewis’ whereabouts. He find’s O’Connor’s body, and get’s attacked by Lewis. The two brawl, but Lewis ends up getting the upper hand and knocks’ Curt out using his prosthetic leg. Damn it.

There's a face that says, "God, I never thought I'd be nostalgic
for a war zone."

Frank makes it to Lewis’ house, just in time to get a call that David tracked his phone. Frank rushes over when he’s told Curt’s phone is pinging at the same location. Frank bursts into O’Connor’s house, to find his old warbuddy strapped to several claymore anti-personal mines, and a trigger device. Frank does his best to remain calm and disarm the bomb. Lewis, who’s watching across the street with a sniper rifle calls Frank. The two yell at each other about Ethics. Frank REALLY hates using bombs. Why? Well, it has to do with how Curt lost his leg. Frank explained that Curt was helping some civilians after a suicide bomb. Frank, who was on point, saw another bomber coming in, but couldn’t bring himself to shoot her as the woman was very pregnant. She still pulled the trigger, killing dozens more and costing Curt his leg. Messed up. He’s able to convince Lewis to let Curt go, but he’d called the cops earlier.

Frank makes a break for it, running across town, but ends up having to steal a cop car. At a bar, David approaches Madani. Special Agent Madani had been planning on revealing everything she’d learned about Castle and the mole in Homeland at Stein’s funeral. David offers to give her everything he knows about the incident in Kandahar, and that Frank was an eye witness. He’s able to name drop Rawlins before the news show’s Frank evading the cops and stealing a car via dashboard cam. Well crap.

Reasonably certain that Frank had hope to never see his face
on TV again.

I’m usually not a big fan of the ‘battle of ethics’ episode. You know, when a superhero has to explain why his vigilante justice is more acceptable then someone else’s vigilante justice. I didn’t care for it so much back in Daredevil season 2 and also not a huge fan of it here. I DO think Frank is in the right, as he has done everything in his power to decrease or eliminate civilian casualties, where as Lewis seems to only be targeting civilians, but it does feel like a pot/kettle situation. I did like the explanation about how Curt lost his leg. I could see why that might… color Frank’s opinions on bombs. I also like how Curt doesn’t even blame Frank for a second when he finds out Frank saw the bomber and didn’t pull the trigger. The man is a saint. Which is kind of ironic given that his close friend is a major sinner. I also like the idea that Madani was going to use her friend’s sacrifice to come clean. It’s clear that Stein’s death messed her up bad, but at the same time she doesn’t want her issues to possibly derail a major case. So yeah, not a fan of the overarching plot of this one, but I like the smaller things that occurred in it.

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Viewer Log: The Punisher ep 8

Frank's now got a bullet with a name on it. A bullet with a name.

Crazy and Crazier going after Craziest.
Love ya Frank!

This episode opens rather creepily with Billy Russo doing some primping. Okay, so I guess we’ll cover Frank’s escape from the CIA safe house in the next scene. Anyway, Billy get’s cleaned up and goes to visit his mother in the hospital. Through some really creepy monologue, we learn that Billy’s mom was a drug addict, and possibly a prostitute, that put him up for adoption at a young age. He seems to hate her with a passion but can’t bring himself to do anything about it. So, he keeps her locked up in a medical hospital in a drug induced delirium. Kay.

We then cut to Frank and David at the Lair. Okay, I guess we’re not going to cover Frank’s harrowing escape from the CIA safe house. Fine, it’s not like I wanted to see that or anything. Anyway, using a camera in Frank’s digital scope, they were able to get an image of “Agent Orange.” They ran his face through CIA records and discovered he is indeed William “Bill” Rawlins III. David is freaking out a little bit, worried the CIA is going to rain down on them now, but Frank is (and I’m shocked to right this) optimist about their chances. He figures that if Rawlins was going to tap CIA resources, they’d have been hit hard a while back. But, since their actions on Gunner’s mountain or the Army base weren’t reported, they know Rawlins is probably play this close to the vest. The have him scared, Yeah!

The excitement of the moment is ruined by the camera feed at the Lieberman house cutting out. Frank goes over to check things out. Turns out, Sarah just unplugged their router to punish her son Zach for being a twat. I guess Micro’s cameras work on WIFI, who knew? Frank does his best to once again give her support as best he can. He plugs the router back in, mere moments after David broke a mug in frustration. Classic. The two chat, take in some wine, and Sarah ends up kissing Frank. While David watches over the cameras. Well. Crap.

With Homeland, Madani was able to track down an arms dealer whom Frank had made contact with. Frank needs about 10,000 rounds for the many many many weapons he stole earlier. Their plan is to lay low for a while and wait for Castle to set up the buy.

Russo and Rawlins meet up. They agree they need to take Castle out now. The plan is to take steal Homelands tactical plan and use it to take out Frank. Russo goes and recruits some former military friends to help him out on this black op deal for the low low price of 500 grand each. What could possibly go wrong? Well, unbeknownst to them, Madani learned about the bug in her office last episode. So, she gives her team a hard copy version of the plan and ends up putting a decoy plan online. I’m sure this’ll turn out fine.

Back at the Lair, Frank and David are getting sloshed. Self-medication, dangerous but can be fun. The two discuss how they met the women in their lives, Frank met Maria through playing guitar badly in a park, David met Sarah in college when they were both socially awkward, when David has a drunken epiphany. They want to take out Rawlins, and MADANI wants to take out Rawlins. They could go to her and get Homelands help taking Rawlins. Frank is completely against it, as he wants to murder the hell out of Rawlins and knocks David out when he objects to the objection. The next day, after recovering a little from the hangover, and Frank reiterating his firm NO on getting Madani, Sarah calls. There’s an oddly… beautiful moment when Frank explains something about his relationship with his wife. Turns out, he and Maria had only been together 3 months when they had the (as my parents put it) the Oops Baby that was their daughter Lisa. Maria said she was keeping it, and that she wouldn’t force Frank to stay. He did, and even now, some 17 years later, he still says he’d never want another woman. In sort, he tells David that he will NOT seduce Sarah. Hooray?

Frank Castle: War Hero, Sharpshooter, Superhero, Vigilante,
and... Step-Dad. Kay.

Sarah leaves a voice mail, she sounds scared and says that she’s worried Zach is going to hurt somebody, Frank goes to fix it. Frank has a sit down with Zach, admitting that he and the kid were a lot alike. He pulls out the weapon Sarah found, a Ka-Bar utility knife. He get’s Zach into a headlock and tries to scare the kid into not being a little asshole any more. And it works, shockingly. Zach breaks down, releases a bunch of pent up emotion and seems to feel better afterwards. Later on, the two males bond while playing catch. Hooray! For reals.

At the same time, Russo’s team goes to the sting to try and get the drop on Castle. They instead get stung by Madani, Stein and Homeland. A massive shootout unfolds, with most of both teams getting killed. Russo makes a run for it, but Stein catches up and corners him. He disarms and unmasks Russo, but the slippery bugger had a hidden knife up his sleeve. He repeatedly stabs Stein in the gut and runs off. Madani finds Stein and stays with him until he bleeds out. Wow, that’s a downer. Later on, back at her place, RUSSO helps clean off STEIN’S blood, from the emotionally damaged Madani. That. Is. Messed. Up. And totally against police procedure. Or so I’ve been led to believe.

I’ll start off by saying, yes, I was annoyed that they didn’t show Castle getting away. I get that he was far enough back from the house, and David was parked close enough that it wouldn’t have been an intense chase. But, on the other hand, I spent five minutes trying to figure out if I skipped an episode or closed out early. The heck? But, otherwise I liked this one. It was a good character episode. Another one of those that highlighted the interpersonal relationship of Frank and David. The two have hit the point where they seem closer to friends then work associates. And, nothing rocks a friendship like kissing a said friend significant other, regardless of circumstance. But, rather then turn this into a pointless “I can’t believe you did that” episode, it became something of a tribute to the relationships that both Frank and David lost. Frank, forever, David, not necessarily forever but it’ll never be what it used to. It was nice. And it was kind of interesting to see one of the things that drives Russo. There’s a moment, when he’s caring for his addled mother where he mentions that he would have “given her the world, if you’d only wanted me.” How sad is that? Russo doing all of this, the mercenary work, the betrayals, all of it, just to prove to himself that he was worth more then what his mother though he’d be. I’m a sucker for ‘human’ villains. 

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