The Punisher 1.06: “The Judas Goat”
Micro enlists Curtis to perform surgery on Frank which appears to help. Micro struggles to keep his lunch down while Curtis extracts a huge piece of metal from Frank and it’s not the easiest scene to watch.
Billy accuses Agent Madani of using him to get close to Frank Castle, which puts a damper on their relationship. While this is the most nudity we’ve seen in a Marvel Netflix show, it’s interesting they’re switching the gender dynamics focusing on Madani getting what she wants out of Billy.
After he realizes Lewis is missing, Curtis also finally loses his cool. He tells the story of a goat named Cassius that he was given to learn field medicine on and uses it as a lesson for the cruelty and repetitive cycle of war. That if you stay in it long enough you’ll get injured and injured and injured until you die. His worry is founded since Lewis shows up later getting into a fight with a cop over his rights and has to be bust out of jail. And after Curtis reveals the Vietnam vet Lewis has been hanging out with is a fraud, Lewis loses it completely and goes to the man’s house to murder him in a fit of rage. Despite his attempts, Curtis can’t seem to save him.
The same seems to go for Billy Russo looking for Frank Castle.
Billy Russo uses the radio to try to reach out to Frank, now not convinced he’s dead given Madani’s investigations. Meanwhile, someone tipped the police about Gunner’s body leading Madani to dig further. A blood test confirms her suspicion that Castle was at the crime scene.
Frank and Micro bond over a discussion about Thanksgiving dinner and it’s nice to see them not fighting for once. Through surveillance we see that Micro’s family is struggling, especially his son, and Frank can’t help but notice his partner’s pain. Frank later promises Sarah things will get better, which is a promise to Micro as well.
Micro thinks it’s worth looking into Billy and how he knows Frank might be alive. Madani later asks Billy for his help to find him so they can crack the Kandahar case. To be fair, Madani believes bringing Frank in could help both of them, it’s not purely self-interest.
Billy tells Curtis he can help Frank get out of this, but Curtis doesn’t reveal Frank’s wherabouts. Despite being Army brothers, it appears there are still trust issues. Frank later goes to see Billy who offers him a way to escape for good. However Frank doesn’t show up at their scheduled meeting time and Billy goes to his car to leave. That’s not the end though, there’s one more big twist: Rawlins aka Agent Orange is waiting in the car for Billy.
Other Thoughts:
- The best line of the episode comes not from Micro, but Madani’s partner Sam. About finding Frank: “He’s not on Facebook or Tinder, I checked.”
- Of course Billy is a villain. Slick guy in a suit = villain, in the Marvel Netflix universe.
- I’m glad Frank is starting to bond with Micro a little more. Their partnership, if you can call it that, got off to a poor start but now their interests are starting to align.
The Punisher is streaming now on Netflix.
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