What I’m Watching: The Punisher

The Punisher: Season 1, Episode 12 “Home” (B+)

Well, this was certainly a penultimate installment. I’m starting to see casting announcements about the second season of this show and making sure not to read anything since I’ve gotten this far without having anything spoiled for me about what happens. I thought it was so devastating when Sarah and Zach finally saw that David was alive only to see him get killed as the prisoner exchange was happening, but fortunately that was just a stunt on Dinah’s part that he had himself arranged to make sure that no one would come after him. Having the cameras on in his hideout so that everything that Billy and Rawlins did would be recorded was brilliant, but it probably would have helped if they had tuned in a bit earlier so that they wouldn’t have to show up to save the day at exactly the right moment after Billy cut Frank loose so that he could kill Rawlins right before Billy took care of him. It was intense to watch Frank go in and out of consciousness, remembering romance with his wife while Rawlins was beating him to a bloody pulp. The conversation between Billy and Frank about what Billy knew about his family was a good, sincere one, and now he’s going to be the last piece of the puzzle for Frank to track down in the finale. Having Frank admit on camera what happened and that he and not Billy was the executioner makes it clear that even releasing these videos publicly won’t make for an easy transition to normal life, not that we would ever expect that for someone like Frank, who isn’t exactly cut out (bad pun for the cringeworthy scene towards the end of this episode) for a normal day job with a dress code.