Coming in I could hardly make heads or tails out of what this season was to be about, but I had a bit of an idea. Of course there's the Russo/Jigsaw storyline left over from season one and I saw in the trailer there was a kid involved this season. Also read an article saying that the main antagonist this season would be politically tied to the alt-right or religious right. Not sure if I'm remembering incorrectly or the article was conflating the two.
As it turned out the story was
actually about a Russian oligarch that obtained compromising information on a potential presidential candidate that has ties to the alt-right(where would they ever get some kind of mess like that from?
). More broadly, Frank/Punisher crosses paths with a teenage girl that some how obtained photos of a U.S. Senator making out with some dude and the Senator's parents are apparently some Pat Robertson/Heritage Foundation types that are so corporately and politically connected that are doing all they can to get those photos back. Ostensibly to keep their son, the Senator's reputation clean. Truth be told, if any of this is sounding any parts confusing is probably because it kinda seemed all over the place. First, we hardly got a good introduction of the kid. Even the little bit of the background we did get I honestly wasn't sure what was what due to her backstory constantly changing. The Heritage Foundation types "hired" a reformed white supremacist that found religion to find the girl. He too had a background that was rather cloudy and not well defined. I don't even think I heard his name until like 9-10 episodes in so I started thinking of him as "The Holy"(low-level Punisher villain from a run 20 years ago). I mean, none of this story was really fully defined for like the first 4-5 episodes or so. All we pretty much knew that he was a religious guy that had a squad of trained mercenaries working for him that wanted to capture the kid, a kid they found by torturing some Russian guy. Frank, who was trying to live a quiet life decided to get involve and because he's not someone to run from a fight, he turned the fight on them.
As all of this was happening, Dinah Madani still hadn't got over what Russo did to her and wanted him to pay. Russo's been hospitalized for the last 18 months(???) with his face
scratched up and suffering from amnesia. The last thing he remembers his being in Afghanistan with Curtis and Frank. The first mentions of "Jigsaw" was his psychiatrist saying putting his mind back together was like building a jigsaw puzzle. And through his storyline Russo, who had no memory of anything he did, but found out that Madani was mad with him and eventually finding Frank wanted to kill him. Of course he eventually escaped and pretty much just started robbing banks and drug dealers.
Overall, the two storylines hardly mixed. The times they did was when "The Holy"(okay, eventually learned his name was John Pilgrim) tracked Madani or Curtis down to find Frank to find the girl, Amy. But for the bulk of the middle episodes had Frank/Amy/Curtis/Madani agreeing put aside going after The Holy until they kill Russo(they all pretty much wanted him dead).
And that's the plot. Like I said, the first 4-5 episodes were not only pretty slow, but hardly anything was being explained well at all. There were some good scenes with Frank taking on the mercenaries in the bar and when he got arrested by the small-town sheriff's department and they came after him there. But after that the latter part of the middle episodes I suppose many could consider fairly uninteresting. There was little(or actually no) killing, nothing of the Punisher doing Punisher things. They eventually revealed the two main plot points, Russo robbing folks building an army and The Holy doing what the Shultz's wanted him to do(they were "watching" his sons while he was on his mission).
But the second half of the season is when things really revved up. The first firefight with
The Punisher, Russo, Curtis and Mahoney(who was probably in this season more than he's been in all the other shows combined) was
really intense! It was almost Heat-level good! The fight scenes were also well done! Frank in the bar. Frank in the forest. Frank in the warehouse! Frank's shootout with the Holy. They were all pretty fun, especially in the warehouse.
Eventually, Madani found Russo through his psychiatrist, tossed her through a window and shot Russo. Frank confronted the Senator(who was really a small part in it all) and found out about his parents. He found the Holy, they had a couple of fights, but eventually Frank let him lived because he was practically doing the same thing Frank was doing, which was "anything for the kids". Frank then found and finished off Russo and killed the Mr. and Mrs. Shultz. Both storylines wrapped itself up pretty well. Well, not so much. The Holy got his kids back, which was good, and Frank got to the Shultzs, but I wasn't exactly sure what he wanted from them in regards to their son, the senator?
However, for me, the ending was pretty much the cherry on top! The epilogue saw Madani joining the CIA and Frank staying in New York being
EXACTLY what he was made to be...
THE PUNISHER!
And I thank them for that. He had to figure out through the season, though it seemed convenient, that he isn't not like regular people and both Madani and Mahoney came to terms with the fact that he exclusively targets criminals. And they
finally let Frank be Frank and end with him
being who he is. Skull-wearing, machine gun carrying, body-dropping and quite-frankly thoroughly
psychotic PUNISHER! And I loved every bit of it! Especially when it got going when he was in his element.
