Liam Hoofe reviews the eleventh episode of Marvel’s The Punisher…
After ten episodes of waiting, ‘Danger Close’ the eleventh episode of Marvel’s The Punisher, finally give a lot of us what we’d come to see – Frank Castle in full-blown Punisher mode.
Following on from the violent events of the last episode, Frank returned to base a beaten and bloodied man. The hotel incident, and the reveal that Billy is, in fact, against him, have clearly taken their toll on Frank both physically and mentally, and he spends the first ten minutes here grunting at Micro.
The episode jumps to Madani who, like Frank, has been rocked by the revelation that Billy is not who she thought he was. While watching the news, Madani flips and decides to bring Russo in to question him. Of course, she gets nowhere. I like Madini’s character but she is so inconsistent – it makes little to no sense that she would drag Billy in after finding out about all his lies. He has been leading a double life for years, he killed her best friend and then slept with her after it, and he is now on a mission to put a bullet in his best friend, why does she think he would just sit there and confess? The scene felt as though it was there to kill a little time, and it wasn’t the only one this episode.
Next, we see Micro’s family, aside from his daughter, being kidnapped from his home by ‘police’, which is no doubt going to play into the season’s grand finale in the coming two episodes. This sequence of events did lead to one of the episode’s nicest moments, though, with Micro finally reuniting with his daughter after a year of being away from her. Micro has been the beating heart of this show and it was nice to finally see him get a moment of happiness. I just hope he gets reunited with his family and the show doesn’t stick the knife in by killing one of them, or even Micro himself.
The big moment of the episode, though, was seeing Frank suit up as The Punisher and take down an army of goons John Wick style. The sequence was everything we’ve come to expect from the show – wonderfully choreographed and explicitly violent with Jon Bernthal coming across like an absolute bad-ass throughout. The aftermath of the scene saw Frank agree with Billy to trade himself for Micro’s family. The whole show has been building towards a showdown between Frank and Billy, and I’m still on the fence as to whether or not we are going to get it.
One of the reasons for that is the fact that Rawlins is still alive. The character has lost any sort of momentum heading into the final straight and it looks as though he is just going to be cannon fodder for Frank at this point. He was involved in several scenes in this episode but none of them are worthy of any particular attention. His continued existence, though, suggests to me that we may see Frank take him out at the end, while Billy lives to fight for another season.
‘Danger Close’ was a good episode of The Punisher, though it certainly felt like it was wasting some time as the show builds towards its climax. The action sequences, once again, were great, and Micro’s reunion with his daughter was a nice moment.
Are you enjoying The Punisher? Let us know in the comments below, and let Liam know on Twitter, here- @liamhoofe
