‘The Punisher’ Recap: ‘Collision Course’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

​While season two of The Punisher has featured some powerful character development and outright poignant moments when it comes to Frank Castle and his friends and enemies, one can never forget that his stories always end in epic and violent fashion. Because that’s just how life goes for this titular character, he has to resolve his problems with his fists or a few nine-millimeter slugs and that’s why I really wasn’t too surprised to see action and adventure and violence take the center stage of the next episode of this series, ‘Collision Course’, since we have basically reached the end of Frank’s television-based journey and well…it’s definitely time for the bullets and the blood to fly.
 
Which is something this episode wasted no time in presenting to us since this story picked up immediately after the last one, with Frank in the back of an ambulance with Mahoney at the wheel and unfortunately for Mahoney, the Pilgrim came calling. And his arrival led to a thrilling sequence of events that saw a breathtaking ambulance crash, a daring escape and rescue from said ambulance and a powerhouse shootout between Madani and the Pilgrim that ended with John swiping Madani’s car and the action…didn’t end there. For shortly after swiping the car, John was able to figure out the location of Frank’s base of operations and he paid Curtis a surprise visit.
 
Thankfully, Curtis didn’t say a word about what he knew, but Amy’s overzealous entrance, led to a harrowing shootout in the trailer, one that badly wounded the Pilgrim and thankfully saw Amy’s escape. However, while all of this was thrilling and nerve-wracking to watch, this story did have more to offer than gunshots and explosions, because there are some loose ends that still need to be tied up in this tale and this chapter started that process. Take for example Frank’s journey after the ambulance crash, for he finally decided to make use of every ounce of information he has at this point, prompting him to pay a visit to Senator Schultz’s home and offer him an uncomfortable ride back to the trailer in order to do a little digging on the Pilgrim and how to put an end to his pursuit of Frank and Amy.
 
But truly, the centerpiece of this episode, storytelling wise, involved Agent Madani, who, after receiving an odd call from Krista, finally started to put the pieces together when it comes to the good doctor’s involvement with Billy and that led to quite the confrontation in Krista’s apartment. For Madani put her cards onto the table in epic fashion, backing Krista into a corner and unfortunately that led to the conflict in question. For the doc knew where this was headed, and rather than give Billy up or be taken in, she went right after Madani and while she enjoyed the upper hand a for a brief moment, the talented Homeland Agent let her training do the talking and in a stunning moment, Krista’s greatest fear came back to life as Madani tossed her out of the window, right as Billy came home…
 
So, yeah. This one was just brutal to say the least, since everyone took their lumps in literal fashion and the intensity of this tale quite frankly took my breath away because this was one hell of a setup for the series finale. For now, Frank has the most important Schultz of all in his trailer, giving him all kinds of leverage at last. But more importantly, Madani is in serious trouble at the moment since Billy saw her standing in the window of Krista’s place and well, the title of this episode could not have been more perfect, because every single story is on a collision course right now and well, it would be silly of me to not see how it ends right away, so if you’ll excuse me, it is off to Netflix land to see how Frank Castle’s journey comes to an end…

---