'The Punisher' Recap: 'Cold Steel'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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It seemed as though that The Punisher was settling into quite the nice pattern when it comes to its style of storytelling. In that, it would offer us an intense episode and then immediately follow that up with something far more intimate when it comes to the characters, and I truly thought that pattern was going to continue with ‘Cold Steel’ since the prior episode was packed to the gills with action and adventure. But wouldn’t you know it? Once again, this show found a way surprise all of us.
 
Because this episode ended up being quite the beautiful hybrid, one that gave us the intimacy with its characters that we’ve come to crave and plenty of action and powerful moments as well, but before we get too deep into the action portion of this hybrid tale, let’s talk about the softer side of this episode which oddly enough came by way of Frank. Who in this story, spent a lot of time facing his past head on by way of the Liberman family, which at this point has sunk into crisis since Sarah is still shattered over the loss of her husband and because Zach is seemingly ready to cause harm to others since Sarah discovers a knife in his room.
 
This crisis forces Frank to unearth the fatherly instincts he buried ages ago and step in to help Zach, who as it turns out isn’t planning to hurt anyone outside of himself because he’s equally as shattered as his mother over his dad’s ‘death’ and really this entire sequence was both heartbreaking and beautiful and it was wonderful to finally see the best parts of Frank on display and of the many memorable moments that came about in this segment, the one that sticks out to me the most, is the fact that David was able to rattle Frank through and through when he called out the war and the darkness residing in Frank’s heart and all Castle could do was sit there, stunned. 

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​That moment matters because it, and everything Frank did in this episode truly gave us insight into the man he has become and it was fascinating to learn that Frank has in essence reverted back to what his life was like before he became a husband and a father, and it’s devastating to know that the only happiness he’s ever known came from his wife and children and I love the fact that this episode was willing to take the time to show us the two sides of Frank Castle that are battling it out within his soul, and that it was handled in subtle fashion so that it fits the story and doesn’t feel forced and seriously, kudos to Jon Bernthal for making all of this work by delivering such a powerful performance.
 
But while this impromptu character study was fascinating to watch, I did make mention of action in this tale and all of that came about by way of a look into Billy Russo’s life and if anything, we learned just how evil this man really is. I mean come on, he loves to torture his invalid mother, and he’s not above killing anyone and everyone that might out his secret dealings, a discovery that cost Agent Stein his life when Madani sprung her trap to capture Billy and well…when one considers just how evil this dude really is, you have to wonder as to whether or not he’s going to become the big bad by the end of season one since he even took the time to threaten Rawlins in this tale.
 
In the end however, this was just a wonderful episode through and through. One filled to the brim with important moments for its characters and I love the fact that a saga such as this, one grounded in the notion of revenge, took the time to slow everything down to make each and every character more human. It just goes to show that this really is the finest visual telling of The Punisher’s story to date, and at this point, I’m really starting to hope that Frank finds some kind of peace in his heart by the end of this season because my goodness, David was right. He’s carrying a war inside him and it has to come to an end before it sends Frank to an early grave. Until next time.  

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