'The Punisher' Recap: 'Crosshairs'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

​Despite the fact that the last episode of The Punisher managed to surprise us all with its grand flirtation at becoming a feel-good story, I think we knew it was only a matter of time before Frank was healthy enough to resume his quest for revenge against the men that have done him wrong and well, that’s precisely where the next episode of the series decided to go. Because ‘Crosshairs’ featured a return to the plan, one where Frank and David were able to figure out their next move, and their next target.
 
That target in question? Morty Bennett, a United States Colonel that was also involved in the Kandahar drug ring and unfortunately for Frank and David, they weren’t the only ones who realized that Morty would be the next man up. Because Rawlins and Billy were making plans of their own to use the Colonel as bait to finally get their hands-on Frank and if anything, watching Rawlins and Russo work together was one of several bone chilling moments in this episode since this really gave us a taste of what both of these men are really about and it’s inherently clear now they don’t care about anyone or anything, outside of themselves. 
 
Of course, their twisted idea goes off without a hitch and Frank does indeed show up to deal with Bennett and while it seems as though Billy and his boys from Anvil are able to drive Castle away and spoil his chances to punish Morty and extract information from him, that was all part of Frank and David’s plan. Because David saw a grand opportunity for the Punisher to do things differently for a change and get right to their man without having to fire off a shot by installing a tracker onto the Colonel’s phone and wouldn’t you know it? The plan goes off without a hitch. 
 
It allows for Frank and David to find out where Rawlins lives when Morty visits, and as they head that way to deal with Agent Orange, Billy takes Bennett to a safe house, to demonstrate just how far he’s willing to go to keep his illegal activities a secret since he kills Morty in cold blood. But while that was also chilling to witness, none of it compared to the biggest moment in this story, wherein Frank finally came to face to face with Agent Orange through a scope, only to find that the paranoid spook knows better than to leave something as simple as glancing out of his window to chance, since he had top grade bulletproof glass installed in his home, ruining Frank’s chance at revenge.
 
However, on the plus side, Frank now knows Agent Orange’s true identity and it should be interesting to see what this information does to him on a psychological level since the last time these two men were face to face, Castle was beating the tar out of Rawlins for nearly getting Frank’s unit killed in Kandahar. Either way, this is another episode that featured little in the way of deeper meaning, since Frank was all business in this particular tale and I love the fact that this series is so damn good at balancing intimate storytelling and action and with all of that in mind, it’s time to hit play on another episode of this incredible show to see what Frank does next now that he knows Rawlins is the man responsible for his darkest hour. Until next time.

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