The Punisher episode 7 review: Crosshairs

Reviewing the latast episode of The Punisher.

Following the episode, “The Judas Goat”, Frank Castle/The Punisher and David Lieberman/Micro are closer to finding out who is Agent Orange.

Lewis Wilson, a young veteran of the United States Army, suffering from PTSD has been completely driven over the edge as he regrettably murdered fellow vet O’Connor, who falsely claimed to have served in the Vietnam War. The seventh episode, “Crosshairs”, opens with Lewis washing the blood of O’Connor from his body. He strips himself half-naked as he grimaces at his own reflection in the mirror (guilty as hell). He gazes at the stomach wound O’Connor gave to him then strips the shower curtain bare that he drags with him.

Lewis returns to his household, bare-chested, with a pistol stuffed at the back of his denim jeans pocket. As he enters, Lewis bumps into Clay Wilson, his father (bearing in mind Lewis stole a taxi. God knows what he did to the owner). Clay catches Lewis just before he is about to head to work. He clearly admits to having deep concern for his son and the way Lewis has been acting as of late. Clay offers Lewis sleeping pills to get past the nightmares Lewis has been afflicted with. Clay tries to encourage his son exclaiming, “You’re a damn hero as far as I’m concerned.” Clay does not realize how long gone Lewis is at this moment, noticing the pistol behind Lewis’ back.

All this time, Lewis has been trying to hide the sins he just committed with his bare hands, whereas his father believes Lewis is merely a day or two from being delirious and sleep will solve the problem like what happened to him. Unbeknownst to Clay, his son is deeply psychologically scarred and the death of O’Connor is the ‘breaking point’. Lewis shuts the door behind him in his bedroom and contemplates using his pistol; he shoves the gun straight inside his mouth to commit suicide but relents.

A brief transition of a title sequence after the ‘cold open’ and Castle does some pull-ups with a cinderblock tied to his waist and feet. Micro is serving pasta while they go over a map of an army base where they plan to intercept Colonel Morty Bennett and uncover the identity of Agent Orange.

Meanwhile, Billy Russo meets up with Agent Dinah Madani of the Department of Homeland Security to discuss the whereabouts and status of Castle. She informs Russo that not only he is alive (which he already knows but is playing his cards right) but Castle was involved in a fire fight involving Gunner Henderson another member of the death squad for Operation Cerberus. Russo lets Madani know he will find his best friend Frank before flirting as he leaves. Madani’s partner, Sam Stein, is not in the slightest pleased Madani is giving out security detail, which can compromise the investigation.

Back to the secret hideout, Micro and Castle discuss the mission – Castle and his consequential viewpoint might be a problem in getting around. Micro tries to keep Castle focused on the plan: infiltrate the military base to collect the data and Intel they need plus discover the identity and whereabouts of Agent Orange from Colonel Bennett without killing him.

Elsewhere, Madani suspects there is a bug in her office and the investigation may have been compromised from the start by the higher echelons of government and intelligence agencies. This is what possibly led to the ambush of Castle and what certified Gunner’s death.

The Good:

As the plot thickens, there is a lot going on in this episode, but everything seems to run smoothly in place. There is murder, a cover-up, espionage and deception all the right ingredients to reach the midway point of this series.

While this is the less action-based of the series, the strongest parts were of course the writing from Bruce Marshall Romans. Andy Goddard (no relation to Drew Goddard), who directed this episode, managed to incorporate a sense of intrigue, misdirection and escalation.

“Crosshairs” has a lot to do with the targets being within plain sight and that individuals are not without a target on their back. This had a lot of touching character moments, including the messages it carries about men who return home from war and their prerogatives in life change.

The Bad:

For those versed in the comics, Russo siding with Agent Orange may not be as surprising, but diminishes the mystery of the dealings that led to Castle’s family being killed and Micro forced to be a ‘ghost’ so to speak.

Aside from Lewis’ storyline, the supporting cast from Homeland Security – Madani and Stein – were the least compelling and felt like stock characters who lacked a purpose other than to fill or breakdown plot-dumps.

Highlights: 

• Lewis is about to go down a sinkhole that he cannot dig himself out from and is misguided.
• Frank Castle and Micro have a misstep, but they are steps closer to the whole truth about Agent Orange.
• Billy Russo shows his ugly side when he removes his guest, for good, out of the picture.
• Madani and Stein are not fully left in the dark in their investigation, but they need a plan and to trust themselves.

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Stay tuned for more episodes of The Punisher.