Liam Hoofe reviews the seventh episode of Marvel’s The Punisher…
For a brief moment towards the end of ‘Crosshairs’, the seventh episode of The Punisher, I was worried that the show was going to pull the usual Marvel trick and bump off one of the main villains halfway through the season. Once again, though, The Punisher proved me wrong, and in a brilliant twist, Frank’s perfect shot at Agent Orange simply cracked the antagonist’s window.
In fact, Crosshairs, despite its title, was the one episode of the series where Frank has successfully managed to complete a mission without killing a single person. An earlier sequence in the episode saw Frank interrogating Agent Bennett, one of the men who betrayed him, only to be interrupted by Billy Russo and his minions. Frank dropped a smoke grenade, and the show gave us one of its most fun action sequences yet. We were, in this episode, also granted more insight into Billy Russo as a character, what motivates him and the reason why he has turned on his friend. Ben Barnes has been excellent so far this season and he is really beginning to excel as the twisted villain playing a double life.
There was much discussion before The Punisher was released about it being a show that glorified violence, but seven episodes in, and I’m yet to sign any sign of that, in fact, I’ve seen quite the opposite. Frank is a man who uses violence as a means to end, but he doesn’t revel in it, he struggles to deal with his own actions and is a complex, and fascinating character because of it.
The key focus of the season has not been violence, but rather, the aftermath of it. The episode opened with an excellent sequence where Lewis, the marine struggling to adapt to civilian life, toyed with the idea of killing himself. Lewis’ storyline has been one of the best things about the show in recent episodes, and this episode really brought it front and centre. The scenes with his dad were heart-wrenching to watch, and judging from his actions at the end of the episode, it looks as though things are only going to get worse for him.
Madini and her partner Sam were left with little to do again this episode, aside from realising that they had been bugged. Madini has easily been the show’s biggest inconsistency – her motives may be the clearest but the show has yet to develop her into anything interesting, apart from her one interaction with Frank earlier in the season while Sam, basically just serves as a sidekick and will no doubt be disposable later in the season.
Crosshairs was yet another great outing for The Punisher, bringing the key villains front and centre and also offering us a heartbreaking insight into the effects war can have on young people.
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