I knew we’d get there eventually, it just took a little more patience than I was expecting…
Surely one of the more interesting aspects about the Punisher is weighing up the moral implications of what he does against the type of man he is and trying to find a balance between condemning him while also casting Frank Castle as the hero. He is undoubtedly a man who is breaking the law and if there were more like him the world would descend in chaos; but alternatively, all we have to do is turn on the news to see that sometimes the law just doesn’t seem to be enough. To take full advantage of those murky greys he operates in, we have to find him adventures that have him teeter on the tightrope between bloody wish fulfilment and imposing some moral complexity so Castle’s misadventures don’t become a vapid wet dream for trenchcoat wearing edge lords.
Up until now, Netflix’s show has seemingly been scared to let Frank get his hands dirty without someone like Daredevil around to keep telling him he’s wrong; however, with Front Toward Enemy, the season has another episode that’s nailed a balance just as well as the pilot.
After finally bending to Micro’s pleas, Frank has decided to call off his self-imposed hit on Rawlins and instead turn all their data on the Kandahar mission over to a grieving Agent Madani who is wallowing in a funk after Stein was stabbed to death during her sting mission. However, before the pair can determine if she’s clean, their attention is drawn away when multiple bombs go off, tearing into the offices of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Guns. The perpetrator is, obviously, the frazzled Lewis Wilson who has now turned his mental issues outward and has waged a one-man war to protect his right to bear arms.
To draw a line under his shocking act of domestic terrorism, Lewis sends a letter to the Globe addressed to Karen Page who is repulsed that the bomber would think to contact her. In a spirited attempt to decry Lewis’ actions, she appears on a talk radio station and calls out Wilson on the air which make Frank pay attention. Not only does Castle have a hefty dislike of bombers whom he considers cowards, you don’t threaten Karen Page when he’s in town without hearing about it from him. Snapping back into his old vigilante mode, he gets Micro to ferret out who the bomber might be and gets a location after remembering Wilson from one of Curtis’ help groups.
However, Curtis has also figured things out and soon finds himself beaten unconscious with his own prosthetic leg only to wake up connected to an explosive device made up of numerous claymores. As Frank goes after Wilson and discovers his old war buddy in quite a serious fix, he might have to sacrifice his anonymity if he wants to stop his friend becoming the consistency of strawberry jam. But he soon realises that a hopelessly gone Wilson believes that he’s just doing what Castle himself does – punishing those he feels are guilty.
It’s probably telling that the one character who has managed to finally aim the show in the direction it should have always been pointing is one who has virtually no connection with the main plot whatsoever. In fact, having Castle square up to someone who is a twisted (or should that be more twisted) version of himself is probably one of the more classic comic book scenarios the character has found himself in. With Daniel Webber’s uber-twitchy Wilson, we have something of a perfect, broken mirror to hold up to Frank to show just how easily his vendetta could have fallen into a murderous disaster if he wasn’t the man he was. Because Frank had “honorable” reasons to do what he did after the death of his family and he isn’t so far gone that paranoia hasn’t skewed his view of who his true target really is, he’s our somewhat comforting, movie example of what a “safe” vigilante is. However, Lewis is a man who has fully succumbed to his demons and is blame throwing wildly rather than taking responsibility for his actions. Has he been abandoned by society? Well, sort of, but if that was completely true, why was Curtis trying so hard to get through to him for so long? In fact, it’s sadly fitting that it’s Curtis who bears the brunt of Wilson’s misplaced rage because its perfectly on point for the traumatised vet to end up hurting the ones where actually trying to help.
There’s almost a palpable sense of relief that the military cover-up plot has taken a slight hiatus in favour of a side story that feels way more comic accurate than what we’ve been getting.
I mean, there’s no skull shirt yet and Frank and Micro still aren’t entirely on the same page, but scenes of Castle witnessing the bombs, demanding Micro get him a name and acting on that urge to punish a man causing pain to innocent people is about as bang on as the show has been and the fact that it draws in almost all the supporting cast not affiliated with Rawlins and Madani just makes things even better. However, the icing on the cake is that of all the people Wilson could have reached out to, it’s Karen Page who finds herself going out of her way to challenge Wilson and call him out on his cowardly acts.
While the plot line isn’t resolved here, you can’t help but wonder what the show might have been like if it was simply Frank dealing with a rotation of various criminals that spread out to two or three episodes while the script set up the next one. The tension levels instantly improve by a sizable margin, we get to witness more of Frank as a person as he consoles a threatened Curtis and vehemently shoots down Wilson’s world beliefs in a way that only Jon Bernthal can. While I could go on about how long it’s taken for the show to actually start feeling like the Punisher, or thst it took the sidelining of the main plot to do it, I’m just happy that it’s managing to turn around and a final twist that involves the world discovering that reports of Castle’s death have been greatly exaggerated just seals that deal even more.
Of course, the Rawlins/Madani/Russo plot hasn’t gone anywhere just yet, and a further twist that sees Micro go behind Castle’s back and finally approaching Madani just as he’s outed on TV proves it. But if the Lewis Wilson plot keeps going the way it is, there’s a good chance that when it kicks back in, Frank will be in a more classic frame of mind.
After endless episodes of political intrigue, undercover shenanigans and a lot of sitting down that hasn’t quite fit the bill, Front Toward Enemy finally finds the show in rude health as it starts to fully embrace what a Punisher show could be. But now the race us on; can this subplot manage to allow Bernthal to go full Punisher once again before the main plot regains control?
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