Since season 2 of Daredevil has started, it’s been going pretty damn hard on its Punisher themed story and now that we’ve reached only the fourth episode of its thirteen episode run, it seems like this major arc is about to come to a close after hitting with intensive thrills and spills. I personally have loved this season so far for various reasons that include giving us some prime fully formed, suited, Daredevil action (billy club throwing and everything), Jon Bernthal playing a version of the Punisher that makes perfect sense in this gritty side pocket of the MCU and managing to adapt some famous moments from the comics wholesale, but I’ve been wondering exactly how long the show can keep this “punishing” pace up for.
Still, until then we have a wrap up of the Punisher mystery, an important choice for Daredevil, a slightly updated suit and a last second introduction of yet another vital face from the Man Without Fear’s checkered history.
You can’t just open fire on a meeting of the Irish mob and expect no repercussions whatsoever, so during the mass funeral being held for those killed during the Punisher’s ambush, the father of one of the dead, Finn Cooley arrives from the motherland in order to set a few things straight. After taking out his frustrations on one of the surviving bosses with a pencil (nice), he marshals together the remaining men and heads out to not only avenge husband son, but to recover a rather large sum of money that the Punisher stole after his assault. And as for the Punisher himself, he’s still in the wind after another physically and emotionally bruising battle with Daredevil, but soon he finds that with the Irish closing in on him, he’s running out of places to hide.
Meanwhile, Matt Murdock is having something of a crisis of faith as a conversation with Sergeant Brett Mahoney reveals that with all this vigilante hullabaloo going on, people have utterly lost faith in the police to take care of matters. This, combined with his feelings about failing to save Grotto from a gunshot, means that Matt’s Catholic guilt is working overtime, but it’s Karen Page who finally might have cracked the secrets of the Punisher. After being sneaked a mysterious x-ray by the DA’s assistant, Karen not only discovers evidence of some kind of cover up concerning the origins of the vigilante, but she discovers his name: United States Marine Frank Castle.
Meanwhile, the Irish mob finally catch up with the Punisher at the place where his own personal tragedy happened and manage to take him in for a good old session of brutal torture. However, unable to let anyone suffer needlessly, Murdock heads out into the night I an improved costume to save a man that’s not only shot him in the head, but seemingly stands for everything that Daredevil doesn’t.
But even if Murdock wins out and ensures that the law is upheld, there’s an attractive face from his past waiting for him after he gets home.
If season 2 of Daredevil was only four episodes long, we still not only would have gotten one of the best renditions of the Punisher ever seen on the screen, but we would have had a pretty mean Daredevil adventure too that moved like lightning and managed to contain both searing drama and a good amount of savage costumed hijinks that both scored high. But with Penny And Dime, it seems like this particular party is over and that this particular season is hoping to tell multiple arc throughout its run – but we’ll get to that later.
While you were going to be hard pressed to get an episode to best the superlative, previous installment, Penny And Dime brings everything full circle despite bringing in an entirely new player at the last minute to take over villain duties now that Frank Castle is due for some sympathetic treatment and after racking up such other minor comic book roles as a vampire in Blade II and Odin’s dad in Thor: The Dark World, Tony Curran steps in to play the nefarious Finn Cooley. While he’s noticably diffrent looking from his comic book counterpart (he’s originally a former IRA soldier who had blown his own face off by one of his own bombs), he’s certainly mean enough and even though the random insertion of a totally new antagonist who only survives a single episode before he receives a shotgun facial may sound a bit like some lazy story telling, both Curran’s nastiness and what it actually brings to the episode results in hugely satisfying end (temporarily, I hope) to this explosive mini arc.
However, while Charlie Cox has a lot to play with here with yet another outpouring of guilt to Father Lantom or hearing how his very presence is undermining the overworked police, the episode truly belongs to Jon Bernthal as he’s now given the space and opportunity to make Frank Castle as layered and three dimensional character as he’s ever been. Of course, to get there, Frank has to go through some fucked up shit, either laying down some serious pain or receiving some in the form of some truly recoil inducing torture (a drill in the foot is nothing to be sneezed at), but you can tell that the show is now working overtime to pull back from the brutish killer and add some relatable humanity post haste when he isn’t pulping skulls with a 12 gauge. Not only has Castle picked up an affinity for pets after adopting a fighting mutt after massacring it’s owners, but we get his origin story after he tells Daredevil about the heartbreaking death of his daughter after his family got caught between a shootout between the Irish and the Dogs Of Hell biker gang. It’s quite a remarkable showcase for Bernthal, an actor quite familiar with playing emotionally raw men in a constant state of rage, where he’s literally bellowing in defiance while a mobster inserts a drill into his body one minute and then openly sharing his pain and loss with a former foe as blood leaks from multiple wounds, but even if you tend to prefer one of the more cartoonish, live action versions of the character, you can deny that his is the one with the most range.
Not everything about the episode scans. Daredevil and Punisher’s sudden team up seems awfully fast tracked considering the bad blood that’s built up over the past three episodes, but their blunt buddy movie banter manages to paper over some cracks (“I guess I was wrong.”, “About what?”, “About you being a pussy.”). Similarly, Karen Page’s latest bout of makeshift detective work may be a way for her to counter her personal demons, but the fact that that she’s moved on so quickly from Grotto (who didn’t even truly deserve her attention in the first place) probably means that she’s move on to Frank as the next wounded bird she wishes to protect.
I guess it would make sense after her and Matt finally admit their feelings for one another, but whenever the comic book adaptation senses that a superhero is actually happy, expect the worst thing to happen at the worst possible time and so it’s time to meet Matt’s old flame Elektra Natchios played by Elodie Yung who shows up in the final shot.
It seems that the spotlight is now moving from an arrested Punisher over to Murdock’s problematic ex, but Elektra’s going to have to work hard to top the first four episodes if she’s going to have an impact.
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