Take Three: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 3 “Kandahar” (B+)

There’s a lot about Frank that we don’t know, and this episode was helpful in chronicling his transformation from patriotic military man to someone hypnotized by the violence around him and capable of being swallowed up into it. I immediately recognized the two commanders who were barking orders at them, Paul Schulze from “24” and “Nurse Jackie” as William Rawlins and Clancy Brown from “The Shawshank Redemption” and “Carnivale” as Major Schoonover. It seems that Rawlins will play a bigger part, and his reaction was even more intense than Frank punching him in the eye with his bloody fist. Frank seemed ready to led David’s bunker blow up rather than cut him free every time his alarm sounded, but then the talkative analyst turned the tables on him by using that pen he was hitting the computer keys with to sedate him. David’s story seems believable, presented with flashbacks to suggest that it’s meant to be taken as fact, and we know that he’s on the right side of things since the late Carson Wolf shot him when he was surrendering. He’s managed to convince Frank to join him as long as he lets him kill all of them, so it will be good to see Frank working actively with a partner rather than just flying solo. The requisite Marvel subplot of an honest cop trying to catch a misunderstood criminal is taking up more and more of each episode, delving into Dinah’s home life with her mother, played by the incomparable Shohreh Aghdashloo, factoring in and showing that she’s layered with complications too.