'The Punisher' Recap: 'Gunner'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

When we last left Frank Castle on The Punisher, it truly seemed as though this shattered man was in a heap of trouble. After all, he had revealed himself to Special Agent Madani, and with her fully aware of the fact that Castle was alive and well after all, it seemed as though she would be coming after him with every single resource she could approve. But as it turns out, she had other plans in mind.
 
Because instead of going after Frank in relentless fashion, Madani viewed Frank’s ‘resurrection’ as a wonderful gift. After all, every single lead she has when it comes to the Zubair case has dried up, but having the Punisher return into the fold…well, there’s a chance that Frank can lead her to some kind of clue and oddly enough, his return gives her the idea to take a closer look at that tape because if Frank is still alive, others from his unit may also still be around and one name stood out to her when it came to the other survivors in Frank’s unit, ‘Gunner’.
 
In fact, Gunner Henderson is on everyone’s radar in this particular tale because as Madani begins to question those that Frank knows to see if there’s an easy way to get to the men in Frank’s unit, Micro and Frank ponder upon who might have been the cameraman on that all important tape and they too come to the conclusion that Gunner would be the only man with the conviction to do something as dangerous as that, and that if Gunner was bold enough and angry enough to shoot that tape, what else did he know? Which means it’s time for a road trip to see if by chance, ol’ Gunner knows the true identity of Agent Orange.

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​As the road trip comes together, the audience comes to learn that Agent Orange’s real name is William Rawlins and it would seem that Will has returned to full time work at the CIA after recovering from his own injuries sustained overseas and well, it doesn’t take long for him to reveal that he’s going to cause plenty of trouble for Madani and Frank since he’s spying on Madani and dispatching his own black ops group as necessary to deal with any loose ends, including Gunner, and while Rawlins’ order to assassinate another former member of Operation Cerberus doesn’t go as smoothly as planned, he is successful in the end and he’s even able to critically wound The Punisher in the process.
 
So, that’s where this episode ends, with Frank’s existence revealed to his target, and with Micro doing his best to save Frank’s life and it would seem that this series is starting to gather some serious steam. Because now we’ve officially met our big bad in Rawlins, and the Punisher is hot on his trail, and heck he even has an ally in the government for a change and once he gets patched up…because there’s no way in hell Frank Castle is going down THAT easy, I’m sure he will do everything and anything to get his hands on Agent Orange. 
 
But it’s clear now that this task won’t be simple in the slightest. Because Rawlins is quickly becoming quite the powerful man at the CIA and he clearly has endless, off the books resources at his fingertips and I’m quite curious to see how exactly Frank will come face to face with the man that truly hurt his family. Either way, this was another intense episode, I love the fact that everything is coming together at a steady pace and once again, I need to excuse myself so I can see how Frank gets out of this medical pickle to resume his quest for vengeance. Until next time.

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