The Punisher S01E03 Review: Trust Issues

The Punisher, Season 1, Episode 3: Kandahar

A lot of episode 3 is just retreading the backstory we're told in episode 2, but the actual showing of these flashbacks, as well as relating to how Billy Russo (the Anvil dude that talked to Madani last episode) and past antagonist Ray Schoonover are part of Frank's unit and the disastrous mission they went through is definitely far more illuminating and exciting to watch. Sure, it boils down to 'war is hell, the higher-ups are unfeeling douchefucks, soldiers are not treated as proper humans' but it illuminates a lot of how Frank, Billy and the mystery of Ahmed Zubair all tie into each other. 

We also get to actually see a lot of the backstory for Micro himself, his argument with his wife Sarah before the posting of the video that ended up costing the assassination attempt on his life, as well as his interaction with his family prior to his 'death'. Definitely a far more effective series of flashbacks compared to the scenes of Micro staring wistfully at his video feeds or trying to tell Frank that, no, he's a good guy trying to get back to his family. 

A good chunk of the hour this time around is just Frank and Micro playing a game of paranoid vigilantes as they take turns one-upping each other. Frank strips Micro and puts him into a chair, and Micro later outsmarts Frank with pulling Frank's own 'routine' shtick against him, only to prove that he doesn't mean Frank harm by not actually doing anything much. It's a bit irritating when you know Micro's in this show to be a supporting character yet the season spends an entire hour dilly-dallying about actually kick-starting the plot of the present-day Punisher series, yet it's also necessary considering what we know of both Frank and Micro at this point. And most of all, it's done well, so I don't actually mind that we're getting a very slow burn to getting the season started. 

The flashbacks also give us extra material to not just keep the entire episode a torture-fest, which I definitely appreciate. It does make last episode feel somewhat weaker, and again, I kind of wonder if episode 2 couldn't have been shunted into this one instead... but oh well.

Perhaps some of the more outright American portions of the story fall flat to my ears, but I definitely appreciate how Frank and Billy and the rest of Operation: Cerberus feel like they're being used as nothing but pawns in a game played by the sinisterly nonchalant Agent Orange who doesn't give a shit about his men, doesn't give a shit about Frank's input, and nearly got all his unit killed, and when they barely return with their life after a badass 'RAWR BRUTAL SOLDIER RAMPAGE' moment from Frank, only cares about the result. 

Oh, can I just say I really like that brutal soldier rampage in that it's so...  visceral and horrifying? Yes, the mournful rock music does detract from it somewhat, but it's not heroic the way that Luke Cage or Daredevil whacking their way through a room-full of gangsters or terrorists are. It's just brutal and Frank Castle is barely more than a rabid animal shooting and covered in the blood of the other fighters, with the single-minded determination of 'them or us'. Again, like most of the stuff in Punisher's backstory, it's nothing particularly new (and perhaps would land harder for Americans?), but it's well-executed. 

Add that to the revelation that Frank's responsible for killing Ahmed Zubair, an operative who insists -- and the audience knows -- that he's innocent (and also a cop) or at least digging out the bullet that has the evidence of his death, present-day Frank's insistence that he's only following orders, only for Micro to reveal that Operation: Cerberus isn't even legal or sanctioned, is definitely well done.

Comparing the broken Frank who doesn't give a shit about digging out bullets out of an innocent he shot in the head with the happy Frank who's all "I LOVE MY WIFEEE" several scenes earlier when he and Billy Russo jokes around about Frank reading poems and getting Bruce Springsteen tickets from his wife humanizes the pre-breakdown Frank so much. 

Perhaps the best part of it is the B-plot starring Curtis, Frank's one-legged support-group leading buddy. Curtis gets some great scenes drinking next to Frank's grave with Billy Russo (who's a prop last episode, but an actual character this time around both in flashback and in present day), but I also liked how his support group involves this dude Lewis, who talks about the horrors of war and honour and stuff (he's haunted not by the killings he does, but by how easily the media spins things like friendly fire into 'being killed by ambush', which dishonours the dead), while at the same time still gripped with PTSD and nearly shot his own father in the head. Oh, and the douchebag pro-guns dude from episode 1 is trying to recruit Lewis into a pro-guns rally. Not sure why Curtis hasn't chased that guy off yet, considering he adds absolutely nothing to the support group, but eh. 

Less interesting is Madani's subplot, where she ends up being promoted into ranking agent after Wolf's death, and is on a tsundere bit with Sam Stein. Again, Madani feels like she's going to be a antagonistic hero type figure to Frank, but I just can't really bring myself to care about her because, well, she's not terribly interesting. Madani's best moments is in her meetings with her psychiatrist mother, and they way they keep analyzing each other is definitely the highlight of Madani's scenes in this episode. 

But at the end of the episode, at least, Frank and Micro make an alliance. They're not 'blood brothers', because they're both shell-shocked paranoid fuck-ups, but they sure as hell have a common enemy, and Frank gives Micro a condition for being the gun he points -- everyone in their path dies. No matter what. Which, of course, is the whole point of the Punisher as an anti-hero. The episode wasn't that impressive when I watched it, but sitting down and actually thinking about it, I really ended up liking episode 3 of the Punisher so much more than I did before. It highlights the similarities and differences between Frank and David's backstories and personalities so well, while filling in the holes that previous episodes have seeded, and makes me excited for Frank's rampage in subsequent episodes.