'The Punisher' Recap: 'Kandahar'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

I am always extremely appreciative of television shows, and stories in general for that matter, that bring forth a concept or notion that we deal with in our own lives and take the time to explore them and their impact upon us in detail rather than simply gloss over them and move on. It signals that the people telling the story, care about it and the audience greatly and that kind of respect is precisely why I am continuing to thoroughly enjoy The Punisher.
 
Because, when you take a moment and think about it, this series has already had every single opportunity to abandon the deeper meaning it provided us in the series premiere. It could have just acknowledged the fact that Frank is haunted by his past, moved on, and narrowed its focus to his skills as a one man wrecking crew. But instead it continues to bring the power of anger and revenge into the forefront of its storytelling, and the dangers that come with it and oddly enough, the next episode, ‘Kandahar’, took this kind of exploration to a new level by examining further, what exactly helped make Frank the way he is today, by taking us deep into his past.
 
In fact, the past was a big focus for just about every single character in this episode, since this story also took the time to dig into prior events when it comes to David Lieberman as well, taking us back to the titular moment where that all-important video fell into his lap and the deep moral conflict that swirled in his soul when it came to doing something about said video. Obviously, David made the call to do the right thing and revealed the contents of that video before paying the price dearly for his crisis of conscience.  

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​Yet while David was able in many ways to get off easy and go underground for his righteous decision, we know that Frank’s luck was far worse, something that made him into the blunt instrument of vengeance we know today. But his anger and fire go far deeper than mere revenge, in order to become an agent of fury, one has to learn how to let go of their emotions and their humanity and sadly, it turns out that Frank was able to accomplish all of that while in the service, specifically in the place that shares a namesake with this episode, Kandahar.
 
It was here that while working to extract high value targets under the guise of Operation Cerberus that of course the ugly mission where his commanding officer lost an arm took place, but his unit’s escape from that awful situation is what sticks with me more. Simply because of the fact that my goodness, the anger and brutality we’ve come to know from Frank was born in that moment as he singlehandedly put down one Tango after another and that matters simply because…by helping to strip this man of his humanity, those who did him harm helped their own cause.
 
After all, we’ve seen the end result of letting all of this darkness consume Frank. He’s been left a paranoid and shattered shell of his former self, one trapped within his emotions, unable to find internal peace. But it would seem that Micro has given Frank his proverbial way out. Because now that The Punisher is aware of the fact that everything ties together when it comes to how he lost his family, he’s ready to settle the score once and for all. When all is said and done however, serious credit is in order when it comes to this episode, simply due to the fact that despite being transitional in nature, and filled to the brim with backstory, it was downright intense. Plus, it was just incredible to see the true origins of The Punisher and explore what it means for a character like Frank to simply let go and let the darkness consume him. Just goes to show how wonderful the writing is, and now that Frank has a purpose again, I’m dying to know if getting revenge once again will finally provide him with the peace he so desperately seeks. Until next time. 

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