‘The Punisher’ Recap: ‘Nakazat’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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​I’m quickly starting to realize that season two of Netflix’s The Punisher, is working hard to provide us with a different kind of story when it comes to this iconic character. After all, the prior episode took the time to explore the personal demons haunting Frank Castle and all of his friends and it turns out that such a move was merely a sampling of things to come. For the next episode in Frank’s angry and pained journey, ‘Nakazat’, took the time to ask an important series of questions when it comes to The Punisher, in that, is it possible for him to find a balance when it comes to his fury? Or will he forever be a slave to revenge and the power of murder?
 
This was all explored by way of Amy and Frank’s mission to deal with the Russian that Amy once worked for because in order to get close to the man known as Poloznev, they had to do some serious reconnaissance and that meant spending a lot of quality time together, the kind were Amy tried to get to know Frank, with mixed results. Because Amy sees life far differently than Frank, and she looks ahead toward just about everything, and tries to find the beauty in just about everything and well…what’s amazing about this segment of the story, is that she was able to get Frank to open up in his own special way, putting on display his pain and his hopes and his dreams for the family he lost and her efforts brought Frank to the brink of appreciating life as a whole.
 
Because there were several opportunities for Frank to do what he does best, but he held back and let people live for a change, including Poloznev, in the hopes of giving the man an opportunity to properly raise his daughter and it was just fascinating to see Frank exercise mercy and restraint and it was equally as fascinating to learn what we learned during his interrogation of the Russian as well. For we came to discover that the photos in question, are of David Schultz, the son of Anderson and Eliza Schultz, who hired the Pilgrim to seize the photos at any cost and the problem with said photographs are that they expose their son as a homosexual, which they firmly believe will hurt his chances at becoming a puppet President of the United States and while that seems out of place to hear and see in the far more liberal 21st Century, it speaks more to the vile nature of dear mother and father.
 
For they seem to be the only ones who clearly believe that there is something wrong with their son, since Frank aptly pointed out that no one will likely care about his sexual orientation, and the fact that they are willing to kill to keep his ‘secret’ a secret, just goes to show how ultra-right-wing they are and that makes them sad and tragic villains to say the least. But, despite learning all of this and seeing Frank evolve, there is still an ugly matter to deal with in this story…Billy. Because he’s starting to realize that he’s a man with nothing to lose, and he’s beginning to cause trouble and test his boundaries and that means danger for anyone that gets in his way and a final showdown with Billy is beginning to loom on the horizon, and that may test Frank’s newfound sense of benevolence.
 
If anything, I’m really digging this bold new direction that the show is heading in. Because this slow burn style of storytelling is doing a phenomenal job of building up an incredible showdown between the Pilgrim and Billy and the Punisher, and every single tidbit when it comes to character development is an utter delight because we really are seeing Frank Castle in a new light with the emotional elements he’s being presented with by way of Amy and I’m also a big fan of how the questions this episode posed, weren’t answered in the slightest, since it means there will be more time to explore this down the line. Either way, something big is brewing, and I am dying to know what Billy is going to do next now that he feels free and empowered and with that in mind, it’s time to settle in and see where this wild tale is headed next, so if you’ll excuse me, it’s Netflix time…

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