'The Punisher' Recap: 'Front Toward Enemy'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

I have to admit, that I spent quite a fair amount of time, starting at my television screen in silence after watching the next episode of The Punisher. There were, in that moment, no words to describe what I had just seen, because what played out on my television screen, was nothing short of brilliant. So brilliant in fact that I think I can hands down declare ‘Front Toward Enemy’ to be the best episode in this series to date, because not only did it neatly gel together all the plot threads that have been slowly brewing in the background all season long, it did something that you rarely see in comic book themed stories…it fired off some serious social commentary on our world, all while questioning the purpose of our lead character.
 
But before we get too deep into all of that, let’s take a moment and talk about Madani’s storyline in this episode, because of the fact that her journey once again added to the incredible realism of this show, since she was struggling badly with Stein’s death. She hid in her bedroom, she barely slept, she reached out in desperate fashion to remotely feel good and this was so refreshing to see. Normally in crime themed television shows, if an officer loses their partner, their death is either avenged, or used as a plot device to make the character stronger. But here, it shattered Madani through and through as it would in real life and I truly appreciated that the series chose to give us a frank and powerful look at how death can impact a law enforcement official, and that it had other surprises in store for us as well.
 
Because in a stunning turn of events, this story scaled back the hunt for William ‘Agent Orange’ Rawlins to deal with a plot line that quite frankly, I’ve neglected speaking of simply because, I needed to see where it was going, and the storyline in question, is the one involving Lewis. As it turns out, his journey escalated into some dangerous territory when Lewis’ murderous machinations went to the next level when he opted to detonate homemade explosive devices all around New York in the name of fighting back against a corrupt system before reaching out to Karen Page, in the hopes of having her view him as a hero, much like she did the Punisher and that’s when the story truly dipped into the social commentary pool by generating its own brief discussion on the gun control debate. 

---

​Of course, the story offered no easy answers on the matter, nor did it push either side’s particular agenda; it merely pointed out that we’re a long way off from finding common ground on the matter, but I thought it was incredibly fascinating for a series that features the heavy use of guns to even weigh in on the issue in the slightest. But the show wasn’t quite done posing interesting questions since I made mention of the fact that this episode questioned the purpose of Frank’s fight and it oddly enough accomplished that by way of the same storyline since The Punisher in essence created and inspired Lewis and if this is what he engenders, then what does Frank Castle really stand for? Is he a true vigilante? One that will dispense justice because of a flawed system, or is he a hero, fighting from the shadows to handle matters that are best left shrouded in darkness?
 
These are all valid questions because to date, Frank has only stood for himself and the war raging inside him has yet to produce anything worthwhile outside of satisfying his vendetta. But, for a brief moment in this tale, Frank was able to make something good come out of his bravado since he quite literally put his life on the line to save Curtis, who found himself strapped to a chair and rigged to claymores as punishment for his own attempt to stop Lewis from hurting more people and well, this really is the first time we’ve seen Frank play the hero through and through in this story and he even stood up to Lewis in bold and powerful fashion by questioning the young man’s motives as well and while it’s wonderful to know that Curtis is going to live and that Frank is the reason as to why, all of the good in this episode became a pyrrhic victory as best. Because Lewis called the cops and it would seem he let them know that the Punisher was responsible for the bombings and to top it all off, a dashboard camera captured images of Frank’s existence and now everyone knows that Frank Castle is alive and well…
 
So yeah, this was quite the massive left turn for the plot to take and my goodness, the more I write about this episode, the more I like it and the wonder of this tale starts with the script quite frankly. Writer Angela LaManna did an amazing job of blending together a deeply layered screenplay and her fine work made for an incredibly compelling episode where not a minute or a moment is wasted and it’s another script that is in essence, a game changer for the series. Because now Frank is faced with a serious roadblock when it comes to finding internal peace, since being back in the public light makes his quest to take down Agent Orange all the more difficult and to make matters worse, he appears to be the bad guy now thanks to Lewis and at this point, there’s a good chance it’s going to take an active choice on Frank’s part to play the hero for a change in order to clear his name and keep Lewis from hurting anymore people. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to know how this little mess gets resolved, so it’s time to press play once again…     

---