Episode Title: Memento Mori
Originally Aired: November 17th 2017
We have reached the conclusion, the final battle in Frank Castle’s war on the men who murdered his family and left him for dead. The only one left standing is William “Billy” Russo, former Cerberus team member, former best friend and the series’ one true villain. Most of the bad guys up to this point did it for the money or for a twisted sense of justice, Billy did it out of a sense of entitlement and enjoyment. He is the first bad guy to attack innocent people, making him the one we want put down the hardest.
This episode was excellent and a great way to cap of the series. It had a strong emotional core that was surrounded by intense violence. It as beautifully shot and extremely well-acted from everyone involved. Jon Bernthal is Frank Castle, the broken man who has kindness, loyalty and love waging an internal war against grief, survivor’s guilt and PTSD. Will he ever be the man he was before war changed him and his family was taken, no, but can he be a happy member of society, maybe. Bernthal only has one weakness in his portrayal of Frank, he doesn’t do a great job of acting like someone who has been beaten and bruised almost beyond recognition. He is great at playing someone who is suffering immense pain and knocking on deaths door. After his character makes the turn and you know they will survive Bernthal plays Frank as he would if he was in perfect health. No grimaces, constant limp or wheezing, it isn’t a major distraction and the emotional moments or action quickly make you forget something so trivial but it is something I hope he works on for season 2. Other than that one nit, he is amazing in every other instance and scene no matter what it calls for him to do.
For those like me, you probably didn’t know that 13 episodes of season one of The Punisher was actually an origin story for the villain Jigsaw. It is a name more synonymous with the Saw franchise but long before those films came the Marvel Comics villain that frequently opposed Spider-Man and The Punisher. I don’t know if he will be the villain for all of season 2 or if he will even make an appearance. He may be the big bad if and when we get a season 3 using the time jump to heal and plot his own war of revenge.
Season 2 has been announced but as of now there are no details about when or who will be involved. All we know for now is that things are going to change for Frank because as he said, “First time, as long as I can remember, I don’t have a war to fight. And I guess, if I’m gonna be honest, I’m just… I’m scared.” I don’t know what will happen but we know that Frank will find a new enemy to wage war against and I for one cant wait for him to don the skull and punish.
Channel: Superhero 