Re: MCU Megathread
Posted: Tue Jul 07, 2020 4:23 am
The dang *director* of Black Widow just leaked some plot info, so be careful for spoilers out there.
Part 52 stars a man who moonlights as a Marvel sniper....
The Punisher season 2:
#2.01 "Roadhouse Blues":
--Why are you already bloody, Frank? Oh, this is in medias res. Let's flashback.
--Shooter Jennings as himself.
--Choking to death is not peaceful, sir.
--Well, dang. Frank's finally trying to move on. That closure actually worked.
--Where do people get this idea that drummers are wild animals anyway?
--My wife: "Is that a cat or an owl?" I'm pretty sure it's a fox.
--Rex is cute.
--A belt isn't quite muay thai ropes, but it's still pretty good for blocking knives. This bathroom fight as a whole is great. The barroom fight, on the other hand, shows a lot of sloppiness from these allegedly professional assassins.
--RIP Cool Bouncer Guy. You did good, man.
--Madani does not look healthy right now.
#2.02 "Fight or Flight":
--Don't drive drunk...or half-dead.
--"It's yesterday." I was with you until that part, Debbie; that's kinda douchey.
--Now that we finally know Mystery Girl's name is Rachel, I can say this: Amy is played by Giorgia Whigham, daughter of Shea Whigham, who played SSR Chief Dooley back in the day.
--"I'm a girl, so I know how to sew?" No, you're the ONLY PERSON HERE, so it doesn't matter whether you know how to sew; you're doing it.
--Amy's fear is understandable, but you'd think she'd catch on when Frank finally went to sleep.
--Billy's gotta be lying about at least some of his memory loss; we literally just saw inside his mind. (Heh, he said "jigsaw".)
--"You owe this man nothing." She doesn't owe you anything either, hospital-bed-threatening jerk.
--Ah, the old tunnel-between-adjoining-motel-rooms trick; I knew it all along!
--The police medic is awesome.
--Pilgrim & Daredevil could have a very interesting conversation about faith.
#2.03 "Trouble the Water":
--This is the whitest performance of "Wade in the Water" I've ever heard, & that includes my own parish choir of elderly white people.
--Henry Spencer is in this show, as an analog of the Kochs.
--Don't use the "secret alms" verse to justify not telling your sick wife where the hell you're going.
--Even Larkville, Ohio, has a Turk.
--Love that the sheriff is seeing straight through everybody's crap.
--Doctor, gently pulling on a spiderweb just gets you stuck to it.
--I thought for a second that Russo beating the guards was gonna be a fantasy sequence.
--Brett, thank you for stopping Madani from doing something stupid. Madani, thank you for finally calling Frank back.
--Sheriff, you could end this right now by shooting Pilgrim in the back.
--The drunk in the tank is the cop's brother; I love it!
--The merc seemed oddly surprised that the jail cell door didn't open when he shot it.
--Pilgrim's lucky none of the other mercs saw him kill Marlena. (Then again, she can't even count; there's 6 of them left plus the kid, not just 4.)
--Actually, all of these mercs are pretty dumb; 2 of them actually CAME RUNNING when 1 screamed for help as if their position wouldn't be obvious.
--Madani's helicopter arriving at the station. (2002, colorized)
#2.04 "Scar Tissue":
--Russo's scars aren't that bad (without extreme lighting to exaggerate the texture via shadows), & this prick on the bus is probably the only person we will ever see on this show who will even think to bug him about it. This is a recurring thing in stories about people who get disfigured--this, Deadpool, the awful Airbender movie--the scarring really isn't very bad.
--Madani really isn't good at her job, but I wouldn't trust Rafi at this point either if I was her.
--Billy's & Amy's flashbacks are revelatory.
--Amy sleeping under the bed to feel safe kinda tugs at the heartstrings.
--Why is Curtis's coatrack outside the front door?
--Not like Russo's scumbag Little League coach deserves mercy, but this won't be his last kill.
--Dang, Frank's arm. Wow.
--Ok, Amy finally knows she's been rolling with the Punisher.
--Should a DHS agent's body armor say "Police" on it? And shouldn't an NYPD detective's body armor say "Police" on it?
--"Sometimes" is a very fair answer, Frank.
--Dumont's gonna turn into Harley Quinn.
#2.05 "One-Eyed Jacks":
--Three-Card Monte is not a follow-the-card game; it's a sleight-of-hand game.
--Madani, are you sleepwalking with a gun? Oh, wait, it's a dream.
--What the crap is Pilgrim beating himself for?
--Amy dressing up as Madani is kind of adorable.
--Why would they blame Turk for this?
--I feel like Curtis's support group would be good for Madani; too bad she's never gonna come back again.
--Oof, Russo's gonna recruit a bunch of disaffected, alienated guys like Lewis.
--Oof, Turk's shop is gonna get wrecked.
--A gym is an incredibly dangerous place for a fight, especially if you intend for those involved to survive. (I did not need the closeup on the bruiser's weight-battered face.)
--This is Turk's last appearance; let's hear it for Rob Morgan.
--I have acrophobia too, but it doesn't manifest anywhere near as badly as Dumont's; as long as I know a sturdy barrier is present, I'm fine.
--Oof, poor Russian gym guys.
#2.06 "Nakazat":
--Frank cannot kick down this steel door, just like a bunch of unarmed civilians can't fold a wrought-iron gate in half.
--We get here a little glimpse of what Frank did to the kiddie porn dealer in season 1.
--The walking-away-from-the-fire music blended perfectly into the theme song.
--Well, dang. Good on you, Curtis.
--Did Billy's scars magically get worse since the last episode?
--JackieFrank teaches CarterAmy how to disarm a foe.
--Amy's quick-change routine is pretty brilliant.
--This scene of Pilgrim & Madani has no tension whatsoever, because they aren't really connected at all. And his line about repentance doesn't work, because she's not the one who did something wrong. She actually does her job correctly afterwards.
--David Schulz being gay isn't a deal-breaker in American politics (at least not anymore; it's 2018, after all), but it'd be an embarrassment to his alt-right, fake-news-peddling, evangelical parents, & that's why they covered it up.
--Ugh, Billy screws over Jimbo, & Dumont screws over Mahoney, & Billy screws Dumont.
--"You can't fight a war on two fronts." If only the showrunner realized that.
#2.07 "One Bad Day":
--Ok, Madani's debriefing was 1 year ago. Some of these questions are both embarrassing & irrelevant, & sliding a active recorder across a table will render the recording dangerous to listen to on headphones.
--Well, dang. "Psycho sex." ~my wife
--This medical examiner is precious.
--Madani is the first woman I've ever seen who can't recall being catcalled.
--Wait, that's how to pronounce chutzpah?
--Ok, are we done with Jake now?
--Madani is just stuck in a loop at this point.
--Lillian had things completely under control until her idiot employee ruined it.
#2.08 "My Brother's Keeper":
--That gun magazine looks like a film reel.
--Dang, if the cops hadn't distracted Billy, Curtis could've ended this plotline right now.
--Seriously, it's like he took a marker to his scars.
--Quality usage of classic White Stripes.
--Whigham was 20 at time of filming & looks it, but the show is taking great pains to make Amy seem *much* younger: her minced oaths, these overalls, & a general refusal to sexualize her, even as we still flashback to Madani's S1 sex scenes. Even in the scene with the creepy photographer, Amy was never anything less than modestly clothed. It's actually rather refreshing, though a bit of a surprising contrast to how Runaways treats Karolina (Gardner was 21-24, but explicitly playing 16).
--Oof, Curtis's girl dumped him for keeping her safe from Jigsaw.
--Brett, you're justified in your anger with Madani, but you know full well that the Punisher does have a code.
--Luke made a hole in the drywall like that when he was holding back.
--A nice quiet moment of Frank at the graves.
#2.09 "Flustercluck" [sic]:
--Well, dang. "More crazy psycho sex." ~my wife
--Papa Schulz is a real piece of work, passive-aggressively stringing Pilgrim along & aggressive-aggressively browbeating his son, all while preaching the prosperity gospel heresy.
--Russo is calling his hangout "Valhalla"? Oh, Thor is NOT gonna be happy if he hears about this.
--Shantel is not a good actress, but I can't tell if it's the character or the actress who isn't good at acting.
--Glad that most of Curt's group is smart enough not to fall for Billy's crap.
--"No, you just shot him. See that? I killed him." That is the sweetest thing Frank Castle has ever done.
--The tats pretty much gave it away already, but Pilgrim used to be in a white supremacist gang, & they have a very different definition of "sin" than he uses now. (Hard to believe somebody in *Georgia* of all places would've taken issue with him on that 12 years ago, though.)
--"I'm not the one who dies, kid; I'm the one who does the killing" is no "I'm the guy who kills Gordon."
#2.10 "The Dark Hearts of Men":
--So, Marines have fight clubs just like prisoners do?
--John, Schulz expected you to die. You have to understand that.
--Dumont's assumption that no one ever does anything based on logic, but only based on emotion, is inherently flawed; it falsely assumes that everyone feels emotion the same way, or that no one has ever acted against their own self-interest. Her thesis that nobody is ever happy is wrong too. But then again, Dumont is even worse at her job than Madani is.
--John, having to kill a bunch of people (especially when you have already been killing a bunch of people) doesn't mean you suddenly have to commit every other sin as well.
--Despite losing his memory of running Anvil, Billy is basically starting a new Anvil, with more than a touch of Project Mayhem.
--Gotta admit, Billy's trap was actually pretty clever, both the physical part (the lights & music) & the psychological part (the planted corpses).
#2.11 "The Abyss":
--Ok, well, Frank getting arrested is an instant-loss condition for Pilgrim & Schulz, right?
--Rebecca's dead, but Eliza is too chicken to tell John that over the phone.
--Focusing on the victims being women doesn't make sense; Frank had no trouble killing the female mercs at the start of the season. We should be focusing on them being *civilians*.
--"Special Agent in Charge" is a very cumbersome title of address.
--They like milking that footage of Maria.
--If Frank learns anything from this, hopefully it's that sometimes people get framed.
--I feel like Ed was gonna be Maury, but they couldn't get the actor back.
--Eliza is not as good at this as Anderson is; Pilgrim came VERY close to shooting her dead.
--If Karen & Amy weren't gonna get that guard fired, the dirty guard definitely will.
--Frank knows that Matt Murdock is active again & that Karen is working with him again; this must be after DD3.
--As ever, Karen & Frank's bizarre friendship is very engaging to watch.
--Pilgrim storms a hospital just like Frank himself did back in the day...& finds a clown.
#2.12 "Collision Course":
--Yet another recycled episode title.
--The entire ambulance sequence with Brett & Frank is wonderful.
--"You weren't gonna tell me Frank escaped?" She literally JUST found out, Billy.
--Dumont showed her hand. Madani didn't.
--"Like Peter, you deny this man." No, Peter was trying to protect himself, not Jesus.
--If Pilgrim wasn't already wearing the brass, Curtis would've won that fight.
--Amy's plan is brilliant because it's so stupid.
--David Schulz finally knows what his parents are.
--The Madani-vs-Dumont cat fight is downright embarrassing. Madani, you were within arms reach of a block of knives & a hot teakettle, & you instead strained to reach for a book!? Dumont, you had a block of knives on the counter, & you instead took the time to pull one from the drawer!? Madani, you're a trained agent, & you can't fend off this idiot who's never been in a fight before!?
--That fall just looks terrible.
#2.13 "The Whirlwind":
--"You had to make it about her!" "No, actually, she tried to kill me, & I defended myself."
--Well, bang. Madani made up for her incompetence in the last fight by putting up a hell of a struggle against Russo.
--The Schulzes are sitting here planning to steal Pilgrim's kids while Frank has already stolen their kid, so they threaten to kill Pilgrim's kids.
--"You're very much out of your depth, Mr. Castle." Tell that to William Rawlins.
--Ah, the old door-between-adjoining-hotel-rooms trick; that's the 2nd time I've fallen for that this week.
--The elevator door opening with the cops was just brilliant.
--Billy, at least use a *local* anesthetic. Even this shady underground doctor knows "this is stupid!"
--"He's the Punisher; he's gonna, like, righteously pull your spine out of your throat." Amy has been a joy this season.
--Curtis may've saved several lives with his gambit, not just David's.
--The Punisher vs the Mennonite. A brutal slugfest between two unrelenting forces. It's simple, but it's effective.
--Dumont was wrong again. Bye, Billy.
--Anderson & Eliza's demise is simply beautiful as Frank details the exact depth of their sinful pride, & that of so many real-world people just like them.
--This ending scene of The Punisher is kinda cool, but also kinda weird. Madani is suddenly with the CIA, & the massacre of these gangs is really jarring to cut into a memorial title for Stan.
Executive summary: Either the Russo plot or the Pilgrim plot could've made an excellent 10-episode season, like IF2. Combining them in a single 13-episode season, however, does not work; since both issues require Castle's full attention, each plotline just gets put on pause repeatedly as he switches between them. They did nail what it takes to make the Punisher sympathetic though; having him either avenging his family or protecting a kid.
And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"
Part 52 stars a man who moonlights as a Marvel sniper....
The Punisher season 2:
#2.01 "Roadhouse Blues":
--Why are you already bloody, Frank? Oh, this is in medias res. Let's flashback.
--Shooter Jennings as himself.
--Choking to death is not peaceful, sir.
--Well, dang. Frank's finally trying to move on. That closure actually worked.
--Where do people get this idea that drummers are wild animals anyway?
--My wife: "Is that a cat or an owl?" I'm pretty sure it's a fox.
--Rex is cute.
--A belt isn't quite muay thai ropes, but it's still pretty good for blocking knives. This bathroom fight as a whole is great. The barroom fight, on the other hand, shows a lot of sloppiness from these allegedly professional assassins.
--RIP Cool Bouncer Guy. You did good, man.
--Madani does not look healthy right now.
#2.02 "Fight or Flight":
--Don't drive drunk...or half-dead.
--"It's yesterday." I was with you until that part, Debbie; that's kinda douchey.
--Now that we finally know Mystery Girl's name is Rachel, I can say this: Amy is played by Giorgia Whigham, daughter of Shea Whigham, who played SSR Chief Dooley back in the day.
--"I'm a girl, so I know how to sew?" No, you're the ONLY PERSON HERE, so it doesn't matter whether you know how to sew; you're doing it.
--Amy's fear is understandable, but you'd think she'd catch on when Frank finally went to sleep.
--Billy's gotta be lying about at least some of his memory loss; we literally just saw inside his mind. (Heh, he said "jigsaw".)
--"You owe this man nothing." She doesn't owe you anything either, hospital-bed-threatening jerk.
--Ah, the old tunnel-between-adjoining-motel-rooms trick; I knew it all along!
--The police medic is awesome.
--Pilgrim & Daredevil could have a very interesting conversation about faith.
#2.03 "Trouble the Water":
--This is the whitest performance of "Wade in the Water" I've ever heard, & that includes my own parish choir of elderly white people.
--Henry Spencer is in this show, as an analog of the Kochs.
--Don't use the "secret alms" verse to justify not telling your sick wife where the hell you're going.
--Even Larkville, Ohio, has a Turk.
--Love that the sheriff is seeing straight through everybody's crap.
--Doctor, gently pulling on a spiderweb just gets you stuck to it.
--I thought for a second that Russo beating the guards was gonna be a fantasy sequence.
--Brett, thank you for stopping Madani from doing something stupid. Madani, thank you for finally calling Frank back.
--Sheriff, you could end this right now by shooting Pilgrim in the back.
--The drunk in the tank is the cop's brother; I love it!
--The merc seemed oddly surprised that the jail cell door didn't open when he shot it.
--Pilgrim's lucky none of the other mercs saw him kill Marlena. (Then again, she can't even count; there's 6 of them left plus the kid, not just 4.)
--Actually, all of these mercs are pretty dumb; 2 of them actually CAME RUNNING when 1 screamed for help as if their position wouldn't be obvious.
--Madani's helicopter arriving at the station. (2002, colorized)
#2.04 "Scar Tissue":
--Russo's scars aren't that bad (without extreme lighting to exaggerate the texture via shadows), & this prick on the bus is probably the only person we will ever see on this show who will even think to bug him about it. This is a recurring thing in stories about people who get disfigured--this, Deadpool, the awful Airbender movie--the scarring really isn't very bad.
--Madani really isn't good at her job, but I wouldn't trust Rafi at this point either if I was her.
--Billy's & Amy's flashbacks are revelatory.
--Amy sleeping under the bed to feel safe kinda tugs at the heartstrings.
--Why is Curtis's coatrack outside the front door?
--Not like Russo's scumbag Little League coach deserves mercy, but this won't be his last kill.
--Dang, Frank's arm. Wow.
--Ok, Amy finally knows she's been rolling with the Punisher.
--Should a DHS agent's body armor say "Police" on it? And shouldn't an NYPD detective's body armor say "Police" on it?
--"Sometimes" is a very fair answer, Frank.
--Dumont's gonna turn into Harley Quinn.
#2.05 "One-Eyed Jacks":
--Three-Card Monte is not a follow-the-card game; it's a sleight-of-hand game.
--Madani, are you sleepwalking with a gun? Oh, wait, it's a dream.
--What the crap is Pilgrim beating himself for?
--Amy dressing up as Madani is kind of adorable.
--Why would they blame Turk for this?
--I feel like Curtis's support group would be good for Madani; too bad she's never gonna come back again.
--Oof, Russo's gonna recruit a bunch of disaffected, alienated guys like Lewis.
--Oof, Turk's shop is gonna get wrecked.
--A gym is an incredibly dangerous place for a fight, especially if you intend for those involved to survive. (I did not need the closeup on the bruiser's weight-battered face.)
--This is Turk's last appearance; let's hear it for Rob Morgan.
--I have acrophobia too, but it doesn't manifest anywhere near as badly as Dumont's; as long as I know a sturdy barrier is present, I'm fine.
--Oof, poor Russian gym guys.
#2.06 "Nakazat":
--Frank cannot kick down this steel door, just like a bunch of unarmed civilians can't fold a wrought-iron gate in half.
--We get here a little glimpse of what Frank did to the kiddie porn dealer in season 1.
--The walking-away-from-the-fire music blended perfectly into the theme song.
--Well, dang. Good on you, Curtis.
--Did Billy's scars magically get worse since the last episode?
--JackieFrank teaches CarterAmy how to disarm a foe.
--Amy's quick-change routine is pretty brilliant.
--This scene of Pilgrim & Madani has no tension whatsoever, because they aren't really connected at all. And his line about repentance doesn't work, because she's not the one who did something wrong. She actually does her job correctly afterwards.
--David Schulz being gay isn't a deal-breaker in American politics (at least not anymore; it's 2018, after all), but it'd be an embarrassment to his alt-right, fake-news-peddling, evangelical parents, & that's why they covered it up.
--Ugh, Billy screws over Jimbo, & Dumont screws over Mahoney, & Billy screws Dumont.
--"You can't fight a war on two fronts." If only the showrunner realized that.
#2.07 "One Bad Day":
--Ok, Madani's debriefing was 1 year ago. Some of these questions are both embarrassing & irrelevant, & sliding a active recorder across a table will render the recording dangerous to listen to on headphones.
--Well, dang. "Psycho sex." ~my wife
--This medical examiner is precious.
--Madani is the first woman I've ever seen who can't recall being catcalled.
--Wait, that's how to pronounce chutzpah?
--Ok, are we done with Jake now?
--Madani is just stuck in a loop at this point.
--Lillian had things completely under control until her idiot employee ruined it.
#2.08 "My Brother's Keeper":
--That gun magazine looks like a film reel.
--Dang, if the cops hadn't distracted Billy, Curtis could've ended this plotline right now.
--Seriously, it's like he took a marker to his scars.
--Quality usage of classic White Stripes.
--Whigham was 20 at time of filming & looks it, but the show is taking great pains to make Amy seem *much* younger: her minced oaths, these overalls, & a general refusal to sexualize her, even as we still flashback to Madani's S1 sex scenes. Even in the scene with the creepy photographer, Amy was never anything less than modestly clothed. It's actually rather refreshing, though a bit of a surprising contrast to how Runaways treats Karolina (Gardner was 21-24, but explicitly playing 16).
--Oof, Curtis's girl dumped him for keeping her safe from Jigsaw.
--Brett, you're justified in your anger with Madani, but you know full well that the Punisher does have a code.
--Luke made a hole in the drywall like that when he was holding back.
--A nice quiet moment of Frank at the graves.
#2.09 "Flustercluck" [sic]:
--Well, dang. "More crazy psycho sex." ~my wife
--Papa Schulz is a real piece of work, passive-aggressively stringing Pilgrim along & aggressive-aggressively browbeating his son, all while preaching the prosperity gospel heresy.
--Russo is calling his hangout "Valhalla"? Oh, Thor is NOT gonna be happy if he hears about this.
--Shantel is not a good actress, but I can't tell if it's the character or the actress who isn't good at acting.
--Glad that most of Curt's group is smart enough not to fall for Billy's crap.
--"No, you just shot him. See that? I killed him." That is the sweetest thing Frank Castle has ever done.
--The tats pretty much gave it away already, but Pilgrim used to be in a white supremacist gang, & they have a very different definition of "sin" than he uses now. (Hard to believe somebody in *Georgia* of all places would've taken issue with him on that 12 years ago, though.)
--"I'm not the one who dies, kid; I'm the one who does the killing" is no "I'm the guy who kills Gordon."
#2.10 "The Dark Hearts of Men":
--So, Marines have fight clubs just like prisoners do?
--John, Schulz expected you to die. You have to understand that.
--Dumont's assumption that no one ever does anything based on logic, but only based on emotion, is inherently flawed; it falsely assumes that everyone feels emotion the same way, or that no one has ever acted against their own self-interest. Her thesis that nobody is ever happy is wrong too. But then again, Dumont is even worse at her job than Madani is.
--John, having to kill a bunch of people (especially when you have already been killing a bunch of people) doesn't mean you suddenly have to commit every other sin as well.
--Despite losing his memory of running Anvil, Billy is basically starting a new Anvil, with more than a touch of Project Mayhem.
--Gotta admit, Billy's trap was actually pretty clever, both the physical part (the lights & music) & the psychological part (the planted corpses).
#2.11 "The Abyss":
--Ok, well, Frank getting arrested is an instant-loss condition for Pilgrim & Schulz, right?
--Rebecca's dead, but Eliza is too chicken to tell John that over the phone.
--Focusing on the victims being women doesn't make sense; Frank had no trouble killing the female mercs at the start of the season. We should be focusing on them being *civilians*.
--"Special Agent in Charge" is a very cumbersome title of address.
--They like milking that footage of Maria.
--If Frank learns anything from this, hopefully it's that sometimes people get framed.
--I feel like Ed was gonna be Maury, but they couldn't get the actor back.
--Eliza is not as good at this as Anderson is; Pilgrim came VERY close to shooting her dead.
--If Karen & Amy weren't gonna get that guard fired, the dirty guard definitely will.
--Frank knows that Matt Murdock is active again & that Karen is working with him again; this must be after DD3.
--As ever, Karen & Frank's bizarre friendship is very engaging to watch.
--Pilgrim storms a hospital just like Frank himself did back in the day...& finds a clown.
#2.12 "Collision Course":
--Yet another recycled episode title.
--The entire ambulance sequence with Brett & Frank is wonderful.
--"You weren't gonna tell me Frank escaped?" She literally JUST found out, Billy.
--Dumont showed her hand. Madani didn't.
--"Like Peter, you deny this man." No, Peter was trying to protect himself, not Jesus.
--If Pilgrim wasn't already wearing the brass, Curtis would've won that fight.
--Amy's plan is brilliant because it's so stupid.
--David Schulz finally knows what his parents are.
--The Madani-vs-Dumont cat fight is downright embarrassing. Madani, you were within arms reach of a block of knives & a hot teakettle, & you instead strained to reach for a book!? Dumont, you had a block of knives on the counter, & you instead took the time to pull one from the drawer!? Madani, you're a trained agent, & you can't fend off this idiot who's never been in a fight before!?
--That fall just looks terrible.
#2.13 "The Whirlwind":
--"You had to make it about her!" "No, actually, she tried to kill me, & I defended myself."
--Well, bang. Madani made up for her incompetence in the last fight by putting up a hell of a struggle against Russo.
--The Schulzes are sitting here planning to steal Pilgrim's kids while Frank has already stolen their kid, so they threaten to kill Pilgrim's kids.
--"You're very much out of your depth, Mr. Castle." Tell that to William Rawlins.
--Ah, the old door-between-adjoining-hotel-rooms trick; that's the 2nd time I've fallen for that this week.
--The elevator door opening with the cops was just brilliant.
--Billy, at least use a *local* anesthetic. Even this shady underground doctor knows "this is stupid!"
--"He's the Punisher; he's gonna, like, righteously pull your spine out of your throat." Amy has been a joy this season.
--Curtis may've saved several lives with his gambit, not just David's.
--The Punisher vs the Mennonite. A brutal slugfest between two unrelenting forces. It's simple, but it's effective.
--Dumont was wrong again. Bye, Billy.
--Anderson & Eliza's demise is simply beautiful as Frank details the exact depth of their sinful pride, & that of so many real-world people just like them.
--This ending scene of The Punisher is kinda cool, but also kinda weird. Madani is suddenly with the CIA, & the massacre of these gangs is really jarring to cut into a memorial title for Stan.
Executive summary: Either the Russo plot or the Pilgrim plot could've made an excellent 10-episode season, like IF2. Combining them in a single 13-episode season, however, does not work; since both issues require Castle's full attention, each plotline just gets put on pause repeatedly as he switches between them. They did nail what it takes to make the Punisher sympathetic though; having him either avenging his family or protecting a kid.
And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"