The Punisher may have made his debut over on Daredevil, and both shows share the character
Karen Page, but Marvel's long-awaited Punisher series is all Castle.
The Punisher finds himself in the middle of a government conspiracy that ties back to
his time running black ops overseas.
Now, Castle has a chance for vengeance.
Bloody, bone-breaking vengeance.
But when the screen finally fades to black, what actually happened?
Here's a recap of the ending of The Punisher and what it all means.
Warning: spoilers and grunting ahead.
(heavy grunting)
Quest for vengeance
The series opens with Castle tracking down the rest of the folks he thought were involved
with his family's murder, only to eventually learn the web of betrayal goes even higher
than he'd suspected.
He starts working with David Lieberman a.k.a. Micro, to unravel the conspiracy, and the
mission eventually sees them cross paths with Homeland Security agent Dinah Madani, who's
investigating an operation from Castle's tenure on the illegal black ops squad.
Through a very tenuous alliance, they finally realize shady intelligence official William
Rawlins is really pulling the strings.
Rawlins managed Castle's black ops team, and is trying to clean up the mess—and any lingering
evidence—by any means necessary.
With a new target for revenge, Castle spends much of the series tracking Rawlins, finally
breaking free after being captured and beating him to a bloody pulp.
This is the man who pulled the strings to have Frank's family shot…so let's just say
Rawlins' comeuppance is as brutal as it is richly deserved.
A new life
For a show that spends so much time with flying bullets and bloodied fists, it ends on a surprisingly
quiet moment.
After spending the past few years on the run in hiding, Frank can finally live a life in
public if he chooses.
He seems to be coming to grips with that realization in the show's final scene, as Frank attends
one of the veteran support group meetings led by his pal Curtis.
Castle talks about what it's like being a soldier without a mission.
Though that obviously works in a broad sense—he's talking to a room of veterans, after all—Castle
is also referring to the fact that his quest for vengeance is over.
He's free—and not knowing what comes next is the scariest thing of all.
Jigsaw?
The big surprise in the show's final episode was the Punisher's decision to actually let
Billy Russo live following their fight at the carousel.
Instead of finishing him off, Castle decided to drag his face across a broken mirror, taking
away Russo's own identity—his looks and his charm.
"God made me this way for a reason.
I'm just trying to share the wealth."
For comics fans, this didn't come as a surprise—they already know Russo as the Punisher villain
Jigsaw.
He was a mob hitman in the comics, disfigured after the Punisher tosses him through a window.
While they don't have as much of a connected backstory in the comics, making them soldiers
in the same unit served as a way to make a tangible connection between their origins
on TV.
Series showrunner Steve Lightfoot has teased they're "only halfway through" with Russo's
story, and if he returns he'll be a "totally different guy."
The Punisher works best when the mission is personal, and this could certainly fit the
bill.
Micro's happy ending
Castle's partner Lieberman spent the better part of a year hiding out in an industrial
basement after faking his death, only able to see his family via the surveillance cameras
he planted before he left.
He's been forced to watch his loved ones move on without him, but as Micro and Punisher's
mission draws closer to its end, Lieberman is able to reconnect with his family and finally
reveal himself.
It's an awkward, but heartfelt, reunion.
By the time the series wraps, they seem to be headed for some form of protective custody
in the wake of the epic conspiracy that unraveled in Season 1.
If nothing else, at least somebody got a happy ending.
Madani survives
Though Castle metes out justice as well as anyone, he did require a bit of help from
the other side—specifically through an uneasy alliance with Homeland Security agent Madani,
who initially needed Castle to testify to bring down the black ops conspiracy.
She protected Castle when Russo shot him in the stairwell, and once again saved his life
by taking Castle to her parents' house for medical care—as opposed to a hospital, where
he would've been arrested, or worse.
Madani tracked Castle and Russo to their final showdown at the carousel, and though she was
shot by Russo, she gave Castle the opportunity to get the drop on Russo and win the fight.
Castle got Madani medical attention, and she repaid his kindness by helping cut the deal
for him to get a new identity and go free.
As the season ends, she still has her job—and looks to likely move up the Homeland Security
ranks after exposing the conspiracy.
What's next?
More than any other Marvel show on Netflix, the first season of Punisher truly felt self-contained,
using its 13 episodes to pick up the final threads of Castle's quest for revenge and
put a period at the end of that story.
It even ended with Castle unsure of what comes next.
He doesn't have a mission, but that doesn't mean he can't find one if Netflix wants a
second season.
As of the making of this video, Lightfoot says he hasn't heard anything about a potential
second season, but considering every other Marvel show has scored a renewal, the odds
are decent we'll see Bernthal sport his trademark skull armor again, and Billy Russo may be
back as well.
Lightfoot told Entertainment Weekly: "I felt like we gave Billy a great trajectory of his
own, which we’re now only halfway through.
If we come back to him, he’s gonna be totally different guy."
If and when that renewal order comes, viewers should brace themselves for the formal introduction
of Jigsaw.
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