WiC Watches: The Punisher season 2
By Corey Smith
Episode 205: “One-Eyed Jacks”
Oh, boy. If you’ve ever had a testy exchange with someone hogging a machine at the gym “One-Eyed Jacks” will be the stuff of nightmares for you. But before we get to the season’s best brawl, the episode also features a great scene between the two characters who are supposed to be driving the plot: Frank and Amy. While the pair are hanging out at Madani’s insanely clean apartment, Amy attempts to teach Frank the time-honored hustle of three-card Monte.
Three-card Monte is a scam, and as a con artist, Amy argues the only way to win is not to play. But Frank, being Frank, argues that no situation is unwinnable and that you simply need to change the rules. It’s a nice bonding moment between the two that illustrates their differing views on life. Without getting too much into the chicken or the egg of the argument, these characters believe what they believe because it’s helped them survive in their worlds, Amy as a con artist and Frank as a soldier. Heavy stuff for a Marvel Netflix show.
Anyway, the conversation inspires Frank to enlist the help of frequent Marvel Netflix character Turk Barrett. Like Detective Mahoney standing in for the police, Turk appears whenever a Marvel character needs help from the criminal underworld, and here Frank convinces Turk to connect him with the Russians who are after Amy. Naturally, the Russians attempt to set up an ambush for Frank, who simply waits for most of the goons to leave their gym headquarters before waltzing in to talk to the head Russian, kicking off an epic brawl that utilizes pieces of gym equipment in a way that is almost certainly against regulations.
From kettle bells to iron plates, Frank employs anything and everything in an attempt to win. Sure, the thugs, led by UFC veteran Keith Jardine, conveniently come at Frank one by one, but we’re gonna be generous and say that getting smacked in the face with a 45 pound iron plate stuns you for a second. Either way, Frank escapes after knocking Jardine’s eye out of his head.
But all this violence has an upside, as Frank learns that the Russians were acting on the behalf of a shady Russian billionaire for still unknown reasons. When Frank returns to the apartment and Amy asks how it went, Frank turns and gives a bloody thumbs up, and it’s hilarious.
Elsewhere, Preacher guy whips himself in a locked closet, because apparently he’s a masochist, before the Schultzs show up and send him to New York to murder all the Russians. We get more time with the Preacher’s sick wife, who is apparently an angel on Earth. Madani and Curtis keep on keeping on, handling their trauma with guns under pillows and group therapy sessions.
If there’s anything on par with Frank’s gym brawl, it’s Russo’s continued ordeal, and his new budding relationship with Dr. Dumont. Clearly, the pair are attracted to one another, and we learn that Dumont has a past history of cutting and may also be a masochist, as she purposely peers over the edge of the window to her high-rise apartment even though it frightens her. Meanwhile, Billy is making new friends everywhere. He befriends an angry veteran at the local bar who mentions that there are plenty more disenfranchised former soldiers like himself. Okay.
This is easily the best episode of season 2 thus far, if for no other reason than the sheer simple oy of Frank’s gym session. I feel like the overall plot should have progressed further than this point, but I’m still having fun, so it’s okay. Marvel’s Netflix series tend to get bogged down around the middle, though.