‘The Punisher’ Season 2 Episode 9 Recap: Past Tense

Though its adorable title, “Flustercluck,” might lead you to believe things are getting worse than ever in The Punisher Season 2 Episode 9, the reality isn’t as grim. Sure, things are bad. Bad people are on Frank Castle’s trail. Bad people sell out his youthful ward Amy. Bad people team up with Billy Russo to steal other bad people’s money. Bad people come after taciturn Christian hitman John Pilgrim, who is backed by bad people himself. Unsurprisingly, lots of bad people die. But it’s not like you’re watching The Great British Baking Show, right? Bad people meeting bad ends is The Punisher‘s whole thing. Even without the scenes about Corbin Bernsen’s billionaire character hanging out at the driving range, this episode is par for the course.

Which is, for the most part, a good thing. You want shots of Frank Castle looking soulful and handsome? Here you go.

You want sex weirdness between Billy Russo and his therapist turned folie à deux partner Krista Dumont? Got you covered.

Brutal murders of vaguely drug- or gang-connected unarmed people by ex-military stormtroopers in creepy masks? 10-4, good buddy.

A whole wall of creepy masks, the better to drive home the common superhero-fiction metaphor about the relationship between our real and secret faces? You betcha.

Black comedy involving the body parts Castle has removed from his victims to get what he needs and, just as importantly, freak out the squares? Bada bing.

On a somewhat less entertaining level, the storytelling flaws that keep The Punisher from being even better than it is still linger. With the exception of a very strong cold open in which Frank admits to his small circle of friends that “This is always who I was” and says his wife knew and loved him for it, so said friends should just “Let me be what I’m meant to be,” pretty much every conversation happens in the exact same way. Two people stand or sit together, usually after one of them arrives where the other has been waiting. After that there are two options: Either one character demands to know something and the other character tells them, or one character spills their guts and the other character does so in turn. Billy and Dumont, Anderson Schultz and John Pilgrim, Anderson Schultz and his closeted son David, Pilgrim and some guy who knows a crew of hitters, Curtis and Amy, Frank and a bartender who knows Billy’s location, Madani and Billy, Amy and her old friend and future betrayer Sean, Frank and Amy over the phone, Billy and Dumont again, Madani and Dumont after the latter lures the former to her place, Pilgrim (formerly known as “Robbie, apparently) and his old boss in whatever Nazi gang he used to run with, Amy and Frank after she shoots a person for the first time…you get the picture. You can tweak it around the margins a bit—Curtis and Amy are both in the same place when they start their little chat, Dumont and Billy are in bed during one of theirs, at one point Curtis talks to multiple veterans instead of just one—but virtually every human interaction on this show could be staged like My Dinner with Andre.

There’s more to the show than just dialogue, of course. (What, do you read The Punisher for the articles?) Anderson puts a $5 million price on Frank and Amy’s heads via Pilgrim, leading to a lot of crews of random guys in bulky jackets trying their luck and getting popped for it. Pilgrim—excuse me, Robbie—discovers his white-supremacist gang leader is now classy and besuited, able to pass for any older white-ethnic Noo Yawk ward-heeler or kingmaker; that’s a trenchant bit of criticism for how the big difference between skinheads and Reasonable Conservatives is just the suit that covers up the 14/88 Iron Cross tattoos.

But while lack of imagination and innovation in how dialogue scenes are handled can rankle, it makes certain threads that connect these disparate conversations easier to follow. Pilgrim, Billy, and Amy all meet up with people connected to their past and wind up worse off for it. Pilgrim, Billy, and Frank all are made to confront the people the used to be. Pilgrim, Amy, and Madani all get hoodwinked by people with whom they used to be close. Pilgrim, Billy, and David Schultz all meet up with old authority figures who tell them things they’d rather not hear. Faulkner said “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.” The Punisher is a long way from Yoknapatawhpha County, but in that sense it would fit right in to the Faulkner Universe.

Sean T. Collins (@theseantcollins) writes about TV for Rolling Stone, Vulture, The New York Times, and anyplace that will have him, really. He and his family live on Long Island.

Stream The Punisher Season 2 Episode 9 ("Flustercluck") on Netflix